Our Absurd Fear of Fat

[Warren DeMontague]

4. It's not simply weight, so those height-weight charts don't tell the whole story.

But the simple truth is, fat is not good for people. It's not, and no amount of rationalizing will make it so. To say "we don't know" if being "very obese" is bad for peoples' health; I'm sorry, Paul Campos law professor, but I'm really not sure you're qualified to be giving that sort of medical advice. And to assert that "social stigma" is what's killing very obese people.. Really?

I'm slightly above average height for a man, but broad shouldered. Relatively big. I had a period of time when I was younger when I was heavy. Probably 30 lbs over where I should be, for a couple years. Took shit care of myself- bad diet, no exercise, not good lifestyle choices.

I made a conscious decision to do something about it, first by radically changing my diet, to the point of eliminating all dairy, meat and any animal fat for a couple years (which made a big difference) and eventually adding religious regular exercise to the mix. Then weights to add muscle mass.

I am not at the "ideal" weight for my height, but I'm within 10 or so lbs close. Like I said, I'm bigger, with more muscle weight, than the "average". But I know I'm in pretty good shape since I made these changes. I look better, my mood is better, I eat better, sleep better, etc. And I damn well feel a hell of a lot better than I did when I was in crap shape.

I'd be more interested in seeing if there's a mortality difference between the men who are 5'10" and 175 lbs and those who are 243 lbs, when both those are counted as the "same" category in the times piece. I'm willing to bet the people at 243 lbs have more health issues.