Reply #76: Don't confuse the look of health with fashion-mag beauty aesthetics.

[El Pinko]

By "look good" I mean as in Bette Midler or Oprah Winfrey good. Neither of them are skinny minnies but they look healthy and good for their body makeup.

I don't totally buy into the BMI as a standard measurement - it's just a rough guideline. People have to take a subjective and honest look at themselves, and decide for themselves if the weight they are at is healthy.

I think a lot of somewhat heavy people look great, healthy even sexy, but at some point, burly or zaftig turns to seriously obese, and that never looks healthy.

Personally, I committed myself to get to a weight that puts me at about 21 BMI and plant to maintain that permanently with a lower-calorie, high-nutrient diet - reason being primarily longevity and health.

But I see no reason why someone who is a few ticks outside of "healthy" BMI should be too worried about their weight.

People whose doctors have raised concerns about high BMI should get their body fat measured and confirm whether it's really a problem or not.

Nobody here has said that BMI is some hard-and-fast rule to follow. It's just an "early warning light" that may or may not indicate that there is a problem.



I agree that discrimination against fat people should stop, but I'm afraid it's going to be a long time before it does. Unlike race, etc., a lot of people still see overweight as some sort of moral failure or evidence of a character flaw.

I just recently got a new job with higher pay, and I'm almost CERTAIN that if I had interviewed for it the way I looked 3 years ago, I wouldn't have gotten it. People don't want to be around fat people - like they're afraid they'll catch it or something.

It's a complex issue. There is nothing I want more than for every overweight person to be able to feel as trim and healthy and mobile as I do now - to escape from that nightmare of discomfort, GERD, ill-fitting clothes, sweating when it's not hot, ankle pain, shortness of breath from minor exertion, and being looked at as a THING. But at the same time, I think the discrimination people are subjected to for being overweight is disgusting and wrong. I consider obesity to be a health condition - often the symptom of an eating disorder. Something that needs to be treated, not judged or condemned as a character flaw.