To think that fat people get unfairly bullied?

[Reallytired]

There are those who think that the NHS should not fund essential medical treatment.

It is OK to publically humilate children by weighing them in front of their class mates.

There is a total lack of decent clothes for fat adults and children. Believe that its particularly hard to find nice clothes for overweight children. Surely larger people deserve nice clothes?

And before you ask. I am 5 ft 6in and weight 9 st. I am lucky in that I don't put on weight easy. My slim figure is down to genetics and nothing to do with life choices.

We should accept everyone for who they are and not badger people into starving themselves make them miserable. The press seems to worthship the bodies of those who are so skinny that they are unhealthy. Its abnormal to be size 0.

People with fuller figures should be proud of their bodies and pressurised into attempting to be a totally unrealisic weight.

Well done, Misdee, can't have been easy. What is the best thing about being 2 sizes smaller?

so far, apart from more energy and sleeping better, not much. i am still stuck with finding nice clothes in most shops, and havent darent venture out of evans and newlook plus size section. once i hit a size 16 i might feel brave and go into 'normal sized people' shops.

i do need a new swimming costume, as have had a few near misses in the swimming pool during aquafit and flashing lifeguards.

Has anyone tried that Hoddia stuff? I read about it years ago (it's used by african bushmen I think or it may be Aborigines) -they eat it and it stops them feeling hungry for hours afterwards. I think it's available in Holland and Barret, but I havent' tried it.

If you don't look after yourself, exercise and eat saturated fat and refined processed foods, then I don't think that the NHS (tax payers) should pick up the bill. It's about personal responsibility. It's not about weight it's about a healthy diet and lifestyle. It annoys me that they call it obesity epidemic and that obesity is the problem it's poor diet and lack of exercise that's the problem. For some people it's more psychological and that needs to be dealt with. But the Gov are talking about giving cash payouts to parents whose children exercise and eat healthily as an incentive which I think is quite frankly ridiculous.

rebelmum, sorry but i totally disagree with your post. DH and I are overweight just lately for all of the reasons you outline - we eat a lousy diet and for one reason or another dont exercise as much as we should (although he has a physical job so he should get plenty but there we are). We are now addressing that and are going to eat more healthily - this is more about feeling better in ourselves than anything else. So yes, you are right to a certain degree, it is very easy to eat rubbish and slob about. But to say that everyone is obese because of this is a little unfair, and your post does imply that. I am the sort of person that, if i over eat etc, then i pile on the pounds, so i should watch what i eat all the time i guess - i refuse to "diet" as such but we are going to make some positive changes to our diet, starting, well, yesterday Anyway, i have friends who eat total shite, have lovely figures, really healthy, dont do ANY exercise apart from elbow exercises in the pub. Then there are the people who, despite eating a restricted diet still have problems with their weight and it is not their fault, for one reason or another.

My SIL has two children, who have always been obese, worryingly so - they were both big babies and when DD came along she was a whopper too - to be fair she seems to be taking after me and is fairly slight (i was when i was younger, then i was visited by the breat fairy). Admittedly, i used to get so frustrated with MIL about the amount of absolute SHIT those children would eat, she was almost IMO killing them with kindness. My BILs children clearly have a different metabolism as they spend just as much time with gran and eat the same volume of shite, just dont put on weight, at all.

There IS a genetic link with obesity, you only have to look in families and it has been medically proven. However i do think that the modern lifestyle exacerbates the problem.

The problem with this promotion of the healthy image as the personal holy grail, it is going to make the children, like my neice and nephew who are genetically obese imo, feel really bad about themselves through no fault of their own. The lad is now 21 and started going to the gym, he is now just a BIG man with a bit of a tummy, the girlies luuurve him

But anyway, all the while macdonalds and haribo are advertising on CITV we are fighting a losing battle.

And yeah, this post doesnt really make much sense does it

I think the same is absolutely true for skinny people. My point is it's not about obesity it's about diet and lifestyle. You don't have to diet if you eat healthily, it becomes a natural choice, the problem is seeing healthy choices as 'dieting'. It doesn't matter if you eat more and are a bit larger as long as you eat healthy food.

For me, i find healthy choices, less satisfying iyswim. I have just sat and ate an apple (im really crap about eating enough fruit) and yeah it was nice, but im not hungry, just craving something more!

I'm afraid I don't get that at all. I eat three meals a day and then just have the odd snack which is usually fruit. I don't think you really need more than 3 meals a day. I have porridge for breakfast, maybe home made soup and a tuna rice salad and then a casserole for dinner. if you have slow releasing carbs you get less hungry and it regulates your blood sugar.

The problem with the NHS is that people lose all sense of personal responsibility towards their health. If you eat an unhealthy diet of saturated fat and sugar you are going to be ill and have health related problems. You need to have consequencies for actions, likewise if you smoke and binge drink. I advocate personal responsibility.

what are the benefits of eating sat fat and refined sugar and processed foods and not exercising? I fail to see them I'm afraid.

No one said that anyone is lovely or not lovely, just healthy or unhealthy.

"I don't think that the NHS (tax payers) should pick up the bill" - fat people obviously being too stupid and/or lazy to have a job which pays tax.

I pay more tax than most people earn, thanks very much - would happily keep it to pay for health related issues and schooling for me and mine. I don't see why I should pay for schooling for someone if they ahve more kids than me - I mean thats their choice.

I shouldn't be expected to pay for anything smoking related, or alochol related or skiing accidents or people who fall over and sprain their ankles or....

How is taking responsibility for yourself odious?

That's right we should just increase tax.

What you eat is directly related to your health can't you see that? I think there is a cognitive disconnect here.

I read this last week. Although I am rather at the headline put on it, I found these comments from the researcher interesting:

"We looked at identical pairs of twins who share all their genes and compared their measurements with non-identical pairs of twins who only share half their genes,? Professor Wardle said.

?Contrary to the widespread assumption that family environment is the key factor in determining weight gain, we found that this was not the case.

?These results do not mean that a child with a high complement of ?susceptibility genes? will inevitably become overweight, but that their genetic endowment gives them a stronger predisposition [to being overweight].

?In today?s environment ? which provides unprecedented opportunities for all children to overeat and be sedentary ? it is not surprising that these tendencies result in weight gain.?

So yes, of course eating properly and not too much, and exercising enough are key. But some people are more strongly predisposed to being overweight. And I suppose if you are not one of those people, it seems simpler to you than it does to those who are...

Sorry to bound in and post ....

It really is very hard to make 'nice' clothes for larger people. All depends on your definition of nice but if larger people want clothes which make them look like thinner people it ain't going to happen!

Most people are overweight because they eat too many calories and don't do enough excercise.

I read that, FallenMadonna. As did India Knight who "doesn't believe a word of it" according to this which must be one of the most ill-informed and arrogant articles ever written.

I know it's already been posted but it deserves reposting for its breathtakingly arrogant assertions. Luckily she's a trained epidemiologist and all that or people would think she was just talking out of her arse.

Well, I think she may have read only the highly dodgy headline and not the actual article. In fact, the article itself is pretty too IMO. But it seems for some people there can be no subtlety.

I buy 'nice' clothes in the States for my porky body. And if anyone bullies me I sit on them or stand on their foot very heavily with my nice pointy stiletto. I have an extremely healthy diet. I'm still fat. I'm reasonably fit. I weighed the same for years and years, then got very ill and was on antibiotics for about a year. My weight ballooned and I've never been able to lose it (or figure out why I got so fat).

But health problems are not brought on by being fat they are brought on by eating foods that are bad for you. If I ate healthily and regularly exercised I wouldn't be concerned about being larger. It's not about being large it's about eating too much crap.

I would agree with you rebelmum that that is a point that has been lost in all the brouhaha about childhood obesity. Many children think it is perfectly healthy to eat an appalling diet as long as they aren't fat. It's very difficult to get across a healthy eating when there is that attitude.

The media and gov don't help either they always say that obesity is the problem when size isn't the issue perse it's what has been consumed. The obese measurements are off as well, slightly large but quite normal sized people get labelled obese. They should be talking about diet and lifestyle.