Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you:
No adverts like this in the forums anymore.
Times and dates in your local timezone.
Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance.
Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely.
Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net.
If you are already a member then feel free to login now.
An MPs' report on body image has advocated the use of "weight-neutral language". So should we stop calling people "overweight"?
There are many people who would agree that using the term "fat" to somebody's face is neither helpful or pleasant.
But there's a growing movement to get doctors and other public health professionals to stop using words such as "overweight" and "obese" as well.
MPs think the terms have a negative impact on body image and self-esteem, and want doctors to promote broader health and lifestyle messages instead.
The idea has been gaining momentum for a while. A study by the University of Pennsylvania in January found the word "obesity" offensive, while Liverpool City Council considered banning the word in its literature aimed at children in 2010.
And in March, draft guidance issued by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence said those who were obese should merely be encouraged to get down to a "healthier weight".
But not everyone agrees. In 2010, the Public Health Minister for England, Anne Milton, said GPs should tell people they were fat rather than obese as it was more likely to motivate them into losing weight.
So does weight terminology need a rethink?
Dr Sarah Jarvis, a presenter on the BBC's One Show, says when it comes to a medical context, the words "overweight" and "obese" are necessary, largely because they are the framework for the body mass index (BMI).
"I don't want to make people feel bad, and appreciate some people may have problems with self-esteem, but when it comes to it, as a doctor, if you are too careful, you run the risk of people not understanding the health implications.
"The fact is BMI is the best indicator of likelihood of surviving to a later date - and if you get into the obese range, the chances are you are going to die from a condition related to obesity like heart disease. If you are overweight rather than obese, you are more likely to die early and have medical conditions," she says.
The facts are when I started training in 1993, 10% of the UK was obese and now 25% are. We are absolutely not moving the goalposts - we are getting fatter," she says.
Nigel Mercer, the president of the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons, agrees that when it comes to someone who is seriously overweight, and it is a medical issue, "there is no pussyfooting around the issue".
But he says the key is "appropriate use of terminology for appropriate use".
"It depends on who comments are being levelled at - to a class of children, where there will be a distribution of body sizes, it is important to know being overweight can lead to diabetes, but it is more of a psychological issue than a health issue - and children can be extremely cruel," he says.
Mercer says for adults, part of the problem is people no longer filter what they say, and society should really keep more of its opinions to itself.
"I am a big bloke, and I would have no problem if a professional told me I was obese, but it would be entirely different if someone told me that in the street," he says.
So.. Im sure you can guess Mattys face upon reading this. Nothing brings forth the rage more than this PC drivel. I really hope the fething MPs "report" didnt cost too much.
What say you?
Its a simple one for me.
I fething love cakes, I love meat pies, I love ice cream. And I proper love pints of beer.
I think most humans do, a long evolution when food was scarce forced us to seek out high value foods such as sugar and fat. Monkeys wage war over honey.
So, if I, as much as I love ice cream and pints, force myself with effort to eat them only two days a week, whilst I spend the rest of the time forcing myself through 10,000 meters on the rowing machine, or gritting my teeth and running 6 miles when I hugely cannot be arsed... why on earth should you, be able to claim its not your fault? Its the food companies/government's/societies fault instead?
Do you agree or disagree with the premise of the story? Do you actually find the very idea somewhat offensive like me? Do you think that this type of debate is exactly what is wrong with things in the first place? The idea that nobody can take their medicine, or deal with a hard truth?
Or do you think there is a balance to be struck? Is the term "obese" too harsh?
If so, what steps do you recommend? What alternatives could we employ?
And most importantly, does anyone on here weigh more than 200lbs and REALLY "eat like a sparrow"?
I look forward to reading your input.
We are arming Syrian rebels who support ISIS, who is fighting Iran, who is fighting Iraq who we also support against ISIS, while fighting Kurds who we support while they are fighting Syrian rebels.
I just found out I weigh 200, yet I was 185 a couple months ago and my waist line has been shrinking. I'll admit to being overweight, but not full on fat-being 5'11" with a 33" waist isn't bad, but I typically hate PC stuff too. I recommend adding 'oh gak' as a weight size-it doesn't call them fat or super thin, but it certainly draws attention to their weight. 'what have you been eating?!' is another appropriate weight description, as long as the exclamation point is added.
Reality is a nice place to visit, but I'd hate to live there.
Manchu wrote:I'm a Catholic. We eat our God.
Due to work, I can usually only ship any sales or trades out on Saturday morning. Please trade/purchase with this in mind.
Could always rate degrees of unhealthy weight by using the internationally recognised 'You'll be dead in X months, unless you lay off the pies' system. Does no good for the unhealthily skinny though...
It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and erase all doubt. 4000pts Steel Talons
Saw this on The Wright Stuff this morning.
As someone who is overweight, and used to be very fat, it's bs.
You will only change yourself when you hate yourself, and the best way of doing that is by being ridiculed. Nothing wrong with a bit of tough love.
Ever thought 40k would be a lot better with bears?
Codex: Bears.
NOW WITH MR BIGGLES AND HIS AMAZING FLYING CONTRAPTION
I calls em hows I sees em. Fat, Morbidly Obese, Grossly Overweight. These are the terms doctors should use, if their patients cry that's progress; it's water weight.
Avatar 720 wrote: You see, to Auston, everyone is a Death Star; there's only one way you can take it and that's through a small gap at the back.
Powder Burns wrote:what they need to make is a fullsize leatherman, like 14" long folded, with a bone saw, notches for bowstring, signaling flare, electrical hand crank generator, bolt cutters..
I will admit quite honestly that i'm bigger than i should be at 210lbs. But, unlike many (especially americans), me being a soldier has me doing more... i ride my bicycle around 40 miles each saturday, plus other regular strenuous stuff elsewhere in the week...
I work out quite a bit... but like Matty, I love beer, whisky, and food, abit too much at times, but i do try to at meast maintain and lose weight...i don't eat like a supermodel, thats for sure.
My problem with many people is that they just do not car, or just will not try..plus we have a society that now prefers to place blame elsehwere rather than accept fault.
AustonT wrote:I calls em hows I sees em. Fat, Morbidly Obese, Grossly Overweight. These are the terms doctors should use, if their patients cry that's progress; it's water weight.
Haha, that's a good one.
"Bawl your eyes out for an hour fat stuff, that's 3lbs burned off right there"
We are arming Syrian rebels who support ISIS, who is fighting Iran, who is fighting Iraq who we also support against ISIS, while fighting Kurds who we support while they are fighting Syrian rebels.
Georgia Davis weighed 60 stone, or 840 pounds, when emergency workers cut her out of her UK home, using scaffolding to lower her to the ground floor to go to the doctor.
LONDON -- Emergency workers who needed to take an obese teenager from her home to a hospital in Wales had to break through a wall of the residence to get her out and into an ambulance, officials said Friday.
The rescue on the second floor of the small house on Thursday used scaffolding as a ramp to lower the woman to the ground level, the local Rhondda Cynon Taf council said.
The unidentified 19-year-old remained hospitalized Friday and her medical condition was not released.
Neighbors said her weight had risen as high as 380 kilos (835 pounds).
The U.K. has one of Europe's fattest populations: more than 60 percent of adults and one third of children aged 10-11 are overweight or obese, roughly similar to U.S. statistics.
treadhead1944 wrote:Being 250 pounds I am not one to cast the first stone. As on the first of the year I was 296...
I'm 117 pounds. I would cast the first stone if I could lift it
If its a question of sensibility, I don't care, people should be honest enough with themselves that terms like 'fat' and 'obese' shouldn't be banned. But that's just a question of how people react to what other people say ; it's healthier to build up a tough shell than it is to ban words that have meanings. As far as the healthy weight scale, that can go to hell, according to mine, I've been a few pounds away from hospitalization for my entire life, and I've always been into sports, always ate my 3 meals a day, and simply never took weight.
[...] for conflict is the great teacher, and pain, the perfect educator.
treadhead1944 wrote:Being 250 pounds I am not one to cast the first stone. As on the first of the year I was 296...
I'm 117 pounds. I would cast the first stone if I could lift it
If its a question of sensibility, I don't care, people should be honest enough with themselves that terms like 'fat' and 'obese' shouldn't be banned. But that's just a question of how people react to what other people say ; it's healthier to build up a tough shell than it is to ban words that have meanings. As far as the healthy weight scale, that can go to hell, according to mine, I've been a few pounds away from hospitalization for my entire life, and I've always been into sports, always ate my 3 meals a day, and simply never took weight.
That may change once you hit a certian age. Have no idea what that age is, but suddenly (usually in their mid 30's) men's metabolisms come to a screeching halt, and suddenly you gain weight watching commercials for food. Until that point, my prescription for you is more Poutine, and cook everything you eat confit.
If there is one thing, and it is only one thing, that I am grateful for from my current job, it is that since I started I have shed about 50lbs. I'm not free of the belly yet, but I'm a damned sight leaner than 15 years of days in offices and nights in pubs had made me. I'm physically stronger now than I've ever been. Carrying table saws, lumber and bricks around has done wonders.
I will never be fat again. I realise now how much pain and discomfort I was in carrying that weight.
But I do understand the difficulty in getting rid of weight, the inertia and embarrassment and depression that robs you of energy. It is breaking that cycle that is key and you must endure a good amount of pain to get there.
Dieting is pointless btw, it is exercise that will take off the fat.
I dont think anyone thinks its an American problem TH, indeed, I certainly didnt mention it!
Frankly, all of the west, and especially the English speaking West, seems to become more and more like one big, gak, whiny country each year that passes. I must have visited all of them over the years, and there really are no sizeable differences.
In a nutshell, we are all fat, lazy, entitled whingers. And nobody wants to say what needs saying.
Man the feth up, and sort your own life out for a change.
We are arming Syrian rebels who support ISIS, who is fighting Iran, who is fighting Iraq who we also support against ISIS, while fighting Kurds who we support while they are fighting Syrian rebels.
If you're fat (exceping a valid medical reason) and being called fat hurts your feelings thats just tough, and if it will make people get off their flabby rear ends and lose weight then that can only be a good thing. Yet more PC nonsense.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2012/05/30 18:32:48
Hey hey, if I can draw a parallel from my parents, my father's 63 and 135 pounds and my mom is 58 at 125 pounds.
Basically I was cursed with being laughed at for being really short my whole life, but I'll get to keep my tight butt until the day I die. And at 27 people still think I'm underage. Fair enough.
[...] for conflict is the great teacher, and pain, the perfect educator.
mattyrm wrote:I dont think anyone thinks its an American problem TH, indeed, I certainly didnt mention it!
Frankly, all of the west, and especially the English speaking West, seems to become more and more like one big, gak, whiny country each year that passes. I must have visited all of them over the years, and there really are no sizeable differences.
In a nutshell, we are all fat, lazy, entitled whingers. And nobody wants to say what needs saying.
Man the feth up, and sort your own life out for a change.
I was being preemptive. And you are 100% right. Last night I watched a Sean Bean film, where he got beat up (surprise I know). The story was based on events that happened in 1991 involving an SAS team in Iraq. Read Bravo Two-Zero if you want the whole story. I was in the Gulf at the time, and remember hearing rumors (we spent some time attached to Royal Aviation) about some of what had happened. Today does the Western world make people who could do that? In the 20 years since we (the West) have softened incredibly, and I sometimes doubt that we still turn out the hard men (and women) that can do the spec-ops stuff. For clarification I am referring to following generations, not the current group of operators.
If someone is fat, call them fat. This sort of thing gives Political Correctness a bad name.
Nigel Mercer, the president of the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons, agrees that when it comes to someone who is seriously overweight, and it is a medical issue, "there is no pussyfooting around the issue"
I found this funny though, someone who profits on low self esteem calling for people to be told of their failings and get low self esteem
mattyrm wrote:I dont think anyone thinks its an American problem TH, indeed, I certainly didnt mention it!
Frankly, all of the west, and especially the English speaking West, seems to become more and more like one big, gak, whiny country each year that passes. I must have visited all of them over the years, and there really are no sizeable differences.
In a nutshell, we are all fat, lazy, entitled whingers. And nobody wants to say what needs saying.
Man the feth up, and sort your own life out for a change.
/too lazy to go to gym
/brought the gym home.
What you can't see is that my beer fridge is 3 steps away. Typical American laziness.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2012/05/30 19:23:21
Avatar 720 wrote: You see, to Auston, everyone is a Death Star; there's only one way you can take it and that's through a small gap at the back.
Powder Burns wrote:what they need to make is a fullsize leatherman, like 14" long folded, with a bone saw, notches for bowstring, signaling flare, electrical hand crank generator, bolt cutters..
I'll stop saying fat, overweight, or obese when I'm allowed to say fatty fatty boom boom...
Dakka Bingo! By Ouze "You are the best at flying things"-Kanluwen
"Further proof that Purple is a fething brilliant super villain " -KingCracker
"Purp.. Im pretty sure I have a gun than can reach you...."-Nicorex
"That's not really an apocalypse. That's just Europe."-Grakmar
"almost as good as winning free cake at the tea drinking contest for an Englishman." -Reds8n
Seal up your lips and give no words but mum.
Equip, Reload. Do violence.
Watch for Gerry.
MeanGreenStompa wrote: Dieting is pointless btw, it is exercise that will take off the fat.
If by dieting you mean fad diets or crash diets, I agree 100%. However, your diet, or day to day eating habits, are just as important as exercising.
Dropping sodas was worth 15 pounds to me. Cooking my own food and having soup or a tuna sandwhich for lunch everyday instead of fast food was worth another 10-15 lbs. I'm not maintaining my weight and getting fit with only exercise. You need both.
On topic: I called myself chubby because I was at 199 lbs and 5'9". I'm a much healthier and physically fit 170 lbs now because I didn't want to be chubby for my own sake and for the ladies. It's all about the ladies...
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2012/05/30 19:40:35
Waiting for my shill money from Spiral Arm Studios
If someone is fat, they should be told about it.
Just like smoking, drinking, or any other bad habit/condition. If you don't want to change, you won't.
Self-proclaimed evil Cat-person. Dues Ex Felines
Cato Sicarius, after force feeding Captain Ventris a copy of the Codex Astartes for having the audacity to play Deathwatch, chokes to death on his own D-baggery after finding Calgar assembling his new Eldar army.
Joey brings up a point, I will continue ridiculing the fat.
They will only change if they hate themselves, the one time where this doesn't work is when people eat when they're down.
Calling the fat makes them more down and makes them get even fatter. That's the only time PC rubbish should be used.
For the skinny it's diffirent. The people who throw up should be helped as do people who hate being "fat" so starve themselves. Or just people who don't understand what to eat to stay healthy.
People with high metabolism are the unlucky (Or lucky) ones. They can't help it other than eating more but that can still clog up their heart. Tough times.
I knew I was chubby and no longer wanted to be. That was on me. If your friend asks if you think they're over-weight let them know, but I don't think calling strangers you meet in a pub Fatty McFatfat is a good idea...
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2012/05/30 20:01:33
Grey Templar wrote:If someone is fat, they should be told about it.
Most fat people know they are fat. Having someone (excluding medical professionals) just point it out isn't really necessary.
Grey Templar wrote:Just like smoking, drinking, or any other bad habit/condition. If you don't want to change, you won't.
Indeed. Though I would add an amendment that it can be difficult to know what stage a person is in when they are overweight. If a smoker quits you know they aren't smoking because you see them not having a cigarette, but if someone is trying to lose weight they will still look fat. One of the biggest obstacles for fat people exercising is dealing with shame and/or guilt. It seems like everyone is staring at them incredulously, and they aren't always wrong. It has been my experience that there are three general reactions. One is of apathy where the person doesn't care if an overweight person is there, the second type tries to be encouraging and helpful, and the third just doesn't want anyone overweight anywhere near them. The problem of course is that the people that don't like overweight people make the environment that much more difficult for overweight people to get into a better place by creating a subtly hostile environment; they don't want fat people but they don't want them to be in their gym.
Losing significant wieght takes years and is very difficult.
Amidst the mists and coldest frosts he thrusts his fists against the posts and still insists he sees the ghosts.
Southampton, Hampshire, England, British Isles, Europe, Earth, Sol, Sector 001
I try not to say any thing (but my diplomacy dike can only hold so much back ) as nigh on all my LR friends (I know i have "some" real life friends ) are on the large size , the two brothers are (give or take 16st each, where as another is clocking up 17st, then there is the one we do worry about, he is close to if not 26st!
26 fracking stone! He knows he is shall we say large and even bosts about it. We do take the piss out of him but we also tell him (insist on or nag the hell) that he needs to lose most of it asap as he gets whezzy just from climing the stairs and geting out of a chair! A chair! Now I know this is quite a macarb thing to do (and I yes I know we really shouldn't but we each have our own page ) but we are running a book as to when he gets diabetes, the type, when a heart attack will happen and the level, when a stroke will hit him and how bad it will be, and, when he finaly clocks off this mortal coil. I've got him being dead by the time he hits 40 and thats if he is lucky.
(I my self am expected to die by the age of 38 under the wheels of an articulated lorry or bus, or as one freind has writen "either by his own hands or a bridge"., quite comforting lo.l)
I my self am (looks for a converter...) 170lb, just another 20lb to go before i hit the sweet spot. Also I still have the same waist line now as I did 13 years ago (which is kind of cool for dressing up for 90s theamed partys nights ), all thanks to eating properly, bike riding and an odd need to still fit in a size 14 dress
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2012/05/30 20:24:52
4000pts Steel Talons 
Mordian Iron Guard - Major Overhaul in Progress 
