[ChristmasNeeve]

Originally Posted by Toy Soldier

As for her comments, a bit daft in that people of all sizes have to buy clothes SOMEWHERE, but I do completely get her point in theory. Being overweight / obese in the western world is becoming "normalised" to the point that people who are, to be blunt, quite fat are seen as a normal / healthy weight. If it was only about aesthetics that wouldn't be a problem: people are free to have whatever body type they want if they are happy with it.

But when people have a distorted view of "normal weight", they are likely to think that their weight is "perfectly healthy" when they are, in fact, overweight... and then they're surprised / horrified when they start developing wider health issues related to their weight. Or rather, how much fat they're carrying... "weight" is meaningless in terms of health, only body fat percentage really matters.

But yeah... putting it simply, being an *unhealthy* weight shouldn't be normalised, congratulated or applauded. People shouldn't be shamed either, of course, and at the end of the day it's their own business if they want to have painful health complications and die younger... but, being healthy should always at least be strongly encouraged. It's NOT really "fine to be fat".

[edit] Edited to add: I say this as someone who has gained 2st (and lost muscle mass, so realistically gained more than 2st of fat) in the last 8 months so I'm not preaching from any soapbox. I'm currently not being healthy at all (went from cycling 15 miles a day for work to catching the bus like a lazy arsehole) and need to sort it out.

I absolutely agree with all that TS. It is a huge issue, I was watching the Irish Voice actually and I noticed that so many of the contestants (noticeably more so the girls for some reason) were over weight, it really is a worrying thing. I myself, gained a stone and a half in the last few years (which thankfully I'm halfway there to getting rid of now) but I was thinking to my myself, I'm sure I don't eat that much how have I actually put on all this weight? It wasn't until i actually started keeping note of how many calories are in everything I was eating did I realise that you don't actually even need to eat a horrendous amount to pile up your calories, if you're eating the wrong things. The one I was most shocked by actually was just how bad McDonalds was, 1100 calories in a medium meal That's almost your whole days allowance for a woman and you're hungry again like an hour later