(Read comments) - (Post a new comment)

Re: Might get some negative feedback on this, but...

risha
2009-08-04 09:34 pm UTC (link)

Now, take someone like me, who has at least a third of their body weight as fat. I really don't think at that point you can discount the overall effects on your body. Your heart has to handle a lot more blood. Your lungs have to work harder. Risks for conditions like Type II diabetes go up (No, eating sugar doesn't cause it, but it can overload your pancreas' capacity to handle it). The strain on your back, hips, knees and ankles is much higher than they were built to handle. And the effects of this aren't likely to show up in your twenties, but carry it around a few decades and believe me, you feel it.

Unfortunately, you can't make broad, sweeping generalizations like that. Maybe your fat is too much for your damaged heart to handle long term - I'm not a heart expert. But my and many other people's perfectly normal hearts are doing just fine at the same fat percentages as yours. (I do have high blood pressure, but so does everyone else in my family, including all of the skinny people, and my heart has continually tested out as perfectly fine.) Same with my pancreas, and believe me, my doctor is near obsessive about testing my sugar twice a year, and I'm not anywhere close to pre-diabetes either. My right knee is fucked up right now because I fell hard on it again after tearing the ligaments in a fall a couple of years ago, but my left knee has carried me around with nary a twinge just fine for decades now.

Still, it sounds like you have a tough row to hoe, healthwise. I hope things improve soon. :(

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

Re: Might get some negative feedback on this, but...

silrana
2009-08-04 10:27 pm UTC (link)

Hmm, true, it probably was overly broad. But I'm sure you can agree that it isn't *good* for you. Still, if you have regular checkups and your doctor says you are doing just fine, then I certainly think that if you are happy just the way you are, great.

Looking over some of my posts, I haven't been as clear as I should have been that I'm not trying to tell people that they should lose weight if they are doing fine. If you're happy, who am I to tell you to do anything differently? I just got upset because some of the posts in this thread were acting as though nobody has a *real* reason to need to lose weight, and that is was useless to try.

Bad diets? Been there, still have the bad memories. I would never advocate them to anyone. Insane exercise regimens? Okay, I'm too lazy for one of those, but I knew a girl in college who nearly screwed herself up badly doing that. Again, not a fan, no way I would tell someone to do something like that. A stick thin figure being somehow essential to life? One word. Mom. Grrrrr.

So when I said, "If I do this, it could do something positive for my health, and I don't think people should be saying it's bad to try it," I didn't mean for anyone to translate it as "You should do everything humanly possible, no matter how stupid, to become a Twiggy lookalike or you're an awful, terrible person." Sorry I let my emotions and temper make me upset enough that I didn't pick my words more carefully.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

Re: Might get some negative feedback on this, but...

risha
2009-08-04 11:36 pm UTC (link)

Well, it's not like I was absolutely clear with everything I said, either.

I just worry about people, because sometimes (almost always!) it really is impossible for that person to permanently lose weight, and it becomes a gigantic trap of trying, failing, and then feeling bad about themselves. And then society tries to tell them that it's a death sentence (usually false) that they've given themselves (usually false).

From there, it becomes very easy from this side for that concern about the damage that people can, and do, do to themselves in this endless quest, to come across as poo-pooing the idea that you're one of the tiny minority of people can lose some and the even tinier number who are healthier if they can.

(Reply to this)(Parent)

(Read comments) -