The fat v thin battles rages on

Dudess

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article2889435.ece

Good article. Full of the usual bitter and jealous "thin people are so horrible", "I'm proud to be big" crap.

445279.ie

A thin friend of mine was recently told she deserved to be fat for all she ate!! She can eat what she likes and is lucky enough to not put on weight.
This other "friend" is obviously jealous.

Thin friend was upset and made a good point - do people think that the fatter you are the more feelings you have?

HAPPYGIRL

i struggle to keep my weight up to seven stone. i eat everything i want when i want, i even drink build up and those high calorie bodybuilding drinks. i dont excercise, its strange, but my older sister has had four children and she's the same size as me.

Society now is all about losing weight, magazines, tv, the internet, even work the other women spend their time discussing diets, and keep telling me they would give anything to have my 'problem'.

I think it is much harder to gain weight then to lose weight. Why would anyone want to look like nicole richie, i'm constantly conscience of looking miserable and i hate it. What i wouldn't give for curves!!

biko

It rages in Britain

shay_562

Eh. The whole size zero thing is pretty self-perpetuating; if it weren't for all the articles telling us that we're obsessed with dieting, I'm not sure most of us would know we're obsessed with dieting. Every new book about how to shed weight unnaturally fast by only eating cabbage or whatever random other bollocks they come up with leads to more people seeing the book, thinking "Crap! Everyone expects me to be thin, just look at all the diet books on the shelves!", so they buy more, so more are written...it's all just madness.

And, slight aside: isn't the ultimate conclusion that all these articles seem to come to that you're best off being somewhere in the middle? I mean, you're killing yourself slowly at either end of the spectrum, so just get somewhere near the middle of the BMI index and be happy with it. [/logic]

Terry

For most people, three square meals a day and half an hour of exercise per day is enough to keep them at a healthy weight.
Mind you, according to the BMI scale, I'm just over the obese mark, so do as I say, not as I do.

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

Blush_01

DCC160 - whoever said that to your friend is a complete idiot. Just because your "thin" friend is either lucky enough or works hard enough to be as slim as she is doesn't mean someone who is jealous should be allowed to belittle her like her "fat" acquaintence did. (I say this as a card-carrying "fattie", by the way.)

I couldn't care less what dress size someone wears, just like I don't care how tall or short someone is, or how big their feet are etc. It is disgusting to see people wearing clothes that are too small for them, but that has nothing to do with their size, rather their inability to shop for clothes that fit.

Dudess, I didn't really see how the article was full of the

usual bitter and jealous "thin people are so horrible", "I'm proud to be big" crap.

. It didn't laud being overweight, just as it didn't praise being severely underweight. As far as I could gather from reading it, it seemed to encourage people to be slim without taking it to an extreme, surely that's generally the healthiest way to be? Have I missed something? Even the angry rant they chose as the "fattie" story didn't rail against normal thin people, rather it attacked hyper-thin celebrities, even if the points made would have been more effective given some moderation and less penchant for the theatrical.

(Also, having seen Hairspray! 3 times, I always thought it was more about race than waist, but generally about acceptance overall. If Nikki Blonsky had been unable to dance in the same manner as the rest of the cast due to her incomparable fitness level, then it would really have been about weight, but she was just as able to keep up, and in my eyes that makes her large but physically fit. It doesn't make it ok to be a slob who sits on the sofa eating box after box of chocolates, but it does make it ok for you not to be a size 8 or 10 if that's not who you are, as long as you're active and copped on. I doubt anyone has decided after watching Hairspray that they'll become overweight and move back to the 60s, but it might have encouraged more people with Blonsky's physical stature to move around a bit more - hardly a negative thing. Ah sh!t, I'm babbling.)

Call Me Jimmy

And according to the dove ads, ye have to be at least slightly chunky to be a real woman. They seem to assume that all people that aren't as fat as them are fake evil people, maybe they just eat right and exercise, or maybe, shock horror they are naturally thin.

Naikon

shay_562 wrote:

Every new book about how to shed weight unnaturally fast by only eating cabbage or whatever random other bollocks they come up with leads to more people seeing the book, thinking "Crap! Everyone expects me to be thin, just look at all the diet books on the shelves!", so they buy more, so more are written...it's all just madness.

Yeah, that **** really annoys me with people.
While I am no super role model, it must be stated that less calories consumed and more activity leads to weight loss!.
I had to laugh at those new "no need to exercise" Diet book's, anyone following such crap deserves what they get.

Losing weight is somewhat hard, and requires determination which these Diets don't reveal at the expense of the consumer.
When will people just use common sense and logic over such marketing money spinners?[/end rant]

Naikon

Blush_01 wrote:

If Nikki Blonsky had been unable to dance in the same manner as the rest of the cast due to her incomparable fitness level, then it would really have been about weight, but she was just as able to keep up, and in my eyes that makes her large but physically fit. It doesn't make it ok to be a slob who sits on the sofa eating box after box of chocolates, but it does make it ok for you not to be a size 8 or 10 if that's not who you are, as long as you're active and copped on.

I have to agree with this...to an extent.

One of My grandparent's was just slightly over the "obese" range about a year ago, when I look through old pictures, he has maintained
this weight from mid age stage(relatively) up until around an age of 90.
He was a farmer his whole life and exercised regularly from farm work, ate what the **** he felt like/had, fry's, steak, veil ,red meat...you name it pretty much daily.(to the horrer of the food Nazi's no doubt:D)
The overall health checkup last year was actually better than most people for his age despite his "Obese" rating.

Sorry, I am rambling on a bit here too, but what I said above, would I be correct to say that the BMI scale is not the be all and end all as a weight analysis tool?, but more effective as a tool for the compilation of large scale statistical Data?

SimpleSam06

Blush_01 wrote:

(Also, having seen Hairspray! 3 times, I always thought it was more about race than waist, but generally about acceptance overall.

Hairspray, which I have seen, was a sorry attempt to link a "fat acceptance" movement to the civil rights movement in the US in the 50s and 60s, which not only demeans those who struggled for equal rights, but attempts to put fatties on a pedestal. The only way that movie ever got produced was because the producers realised how many lard arsed butterballs there are in the US, and their money spends as well as anyone elses.

Blush_01 wrote:

If Nikki Blonsky had been unable to dance in the same manner as the rest of the cast due to her incomparable fitness level, then it would really have been about weight, but she was just as able to keep up, and in my eyes that makes her large but physically fit.

Nikki Blonsky is 19 years old. Talk to me when she's 25. As it is, shes a hop and a skip away from morbid obesity.

Blush_01 wrote:

it might have encouraged more people with Blonsky's physical stature to move around a bit more - hardly a negative thing.

I can only agree with that. Now if we can only get them to stop stuffing their enormous faces...

HAPPYGIRL wrote:

i struggle to keep my weight up to seven stone. i eat everything i want when i want, i even drink build up and those high calorie bodybuilding drinks. i dont excercise, its strange, but my older sister has had four children and she's the same size as me.

I've met a few of these "thin fat people", as some call them (both men and women), and upon closer inspection, you discover that they eat f*ck all. Its a bit like a student that says they never study and then ace the test - something just doesn't jive, baby.

I mean laws of physics, here. If you pump in X amount of energy into your body in the form of food, that energy is going to go somewhere. Your body either processes it and turns it into direct energy, or stores it as fat. If its not doing that, you should be on dialysis machine. You certainly couldn't move around or live a normal life.

Wibbs

SimpleSam06 wrote:

Hairspray, which I have seen, was a sorry attempt to link a "fat acceptance" movement to the civil rights movement in the US in the 50s and 60s, which not only demeans those who struggled for equal rights, but attempts to put fatties on a pedestal. The only way that movie ever got produced was because the producers realised how many lard arsed butterballs there are in the US, and their money spends as well as anyone elses.

So I wasn't the only one who felt a little dubious at the connection then?

I've met a few of these "thin fat people", as some call them (both men and women), and upon closer inspection, you discover that they eat f*ck all. Its a bit like a student that says they never study and then ace the test - something just doesn't jive, baby.

While metabolic rate naturally varies from person to person, I would have to agree with you 100% on that one. I'm skinny, simply because I eat sweet F all, compared to others. I could go a day without eating at all. Wouldn't really trouble me tbh.

A female friend of mine is in possession of an enviable figure in her heavier friends eyes and they trot out that chestnut of "she can eat what she likes" on a regular basis. Now I know how she eats and it's not much and it's different kinds of foods to her friends. She would tend to a more old fashioned meat and two veg type of thing. I've never seen her knock back a maccie dees, she rarely eats pastas and the like and her portions are smaller. The thing that may throw her friends perception is that when she does sit down to eat she'll have a normal size dinner. What they don't see is that she's had nothing since breakfast, while they've been snacking all day. She also walks a lot, doesn't have a car and I don't think I've ever seen her eat late at night.

I've also see people, mainly blokes, who can eat a fair bit when they're younger and more active and keep the same intake as they get older and then wonder why they're piling on the fat.

Basically people have different appetites and exercise/metabolic levels and that's what makes people fat or thin. The appetite/food intake and exercise are the biggies.

That said, once you put on the weight it does seem to be bloody hard to shift it. Even if people drop their food intake and up their exercise. I've seen that with mates of mine. A few years of dodgy diet and no exercise and it can be hard to go back. They drop a little, but shifting the rest needs a lot of work.

It boils down to this, the western world is getting fatter. Previous generations weren't nearly as fat as we are today, they ate smaller portions and exercised far more, by walking or doing more manual work. It's not genetics, or at least very little to do with that. Look at early photographs of people in the US as an example. Now look at their descendants. Big difference. You also don't see too many hunter gatherer types who are fat. Though they would have pretty much the best, most varied diets of any humans on the planet. Diabetes, arthritis, heart disease etc are very very rare among those populations. Lesson to be learned there somewhere.

zuutroy

Not something I've hand any dealings with. It's weird. I've been the same weight almost to the pound since I was 18. I can eat as much or as little as I like and it never changes. I do agree now that its getting to the stage reverse discrimination where the skinny people are berated. That thing on Channel 4 with the oriental english bloke is a real witch hunt for the skinny folk!

Dragan

The whole "fat vs thin" thing bores the **** out of me.

Just like with anything in life you are happy or you are not. If you are truly happy you don't need to go around telling everyone how happy you are, if you are not you just need to make the small but important changes that will bring you happiness.

It's not complicated.

AlmightyCushion

Wibbs wrote:

She would tend to a more old fashioned meat and two veg type of thing.

Wibbs

AlmightyCushion wrote:

Well funny enough...... Maybe that's the real diet that men should be promoting in the womenfolk. Exercise and a good source of zinc.:D

EdgarAllenPoo

I'm not sure were I'd fall into this debate. I'm overweight but I wouldn't care less what I weighed as long as I didn't look overweight.

layke

Which are you dudess? Pictures please

AlmightyCushion

layke wrote:

Which are you dudess? Pictures please

We're back to this again.

layke

Because the people demand it.


-LaYkE, man of the people.

Duggy747

Ah, I enjoy the fruits of being one of those thin people who can eat all the food in the world and not gain a gram in weight!! Hell, I'd probably drop a few pounds after a 9-course meal for no apparent reason!

EdgarAllenPoo

You may not gain weight but if you eat half a cow and chips I'm sure your heart/arteries take a pounding.

Donald-Duck

Duggy747 wrote:

Ah, I enjoy the fruits of being one of those thin people who can eat all the food in the world and not gain a gram in weight!! Hell, I'd probably drop a few pounds after a 9-course meal for no apparent reason!

I'm the same but I put it down to I walk pretty much everywhere, play football for a few hours at least once a week and don't eat much "junk" food.

Crumble Froo

awww... i miss the days when my thyroid was fúcked up and i could eat as much as i wanted, or eat nothing,and run around all day, or sit around, and no matter what i did, id drop fúckloads of weight.

ive since come to accept that im curvy. im not overweight, im within a healthy BMI, but i do still carry more belly than im entirely happy with. the hard part is trying to get the balance of accepting what i look like and trying to reach my ideal without spiralling into an eating disorder or something.

Cuddlesworth

SimpleSam06 wrote:

I've met a few of these "thin fat people", as some call them (both men and women), and upon closer inspection, you discover that they eat f*ck all. Its a bit like a student that says they never study and then ace the test - something just doesn't jive, baby.

I mean laws of physics, here. If you pump in X amount of energy into your body in the form of food, that energy is going to go somewhere. Your body either processes it and turns it into direct energy, or stores it as fat. If its not doing that, you should be on dialysis machine. You certainly couldn't move around or live a normal life.

I'm one of those people. I eat take aways every night, 4 full meals a day(breakfast, lunch, dinner and supper). People always remark to me that I should be fat with all the food I eat. And up to a year or two ago I would have agreed.

But I noticed certain things. I don't snack, apart from fizzy drinks I tend to stay away from sugar. I take the stairs when somebody else would take the elevator, I move more then other people. I walk faster, find myself shifting constantly in my seat when I work, taking quick strolls around to talk to people. In short, all the energy I take in I expend. The overweight people around me don't.

Vegeta

for all the people who say they eat loads and never gain any wait please post what you have had to eat in the last 24 hours and how much you weigh.

Veg

Terry

Vegeta wrote:

for all the people who say they eat loads and never gain any wait please post what you have had to eat in the last 24 hours and how much you weigh.

Boiled rice, beans on toast, a couple of burgers.

Veg

Rice and beans qualify, don't they?

Cuddlesworth

Vegeta wrote:

for all the people who say they eat loads and never gain any wait please post what you have had to eat in the last 24 hours and how much you weigh.

Veg

2 pieces of toast with jam at 10, a plate of spicy wedges with chicken and a triple decker sandwich at 1:30. I'm going to be having a chipper on the way home, and a toasty or something similar around a hour or two after.

phasers

live and let live I say, I'm sick of these journalists taking a side and changing it as often as their knickers

Spyral

meh Im a big guy I always have been I always will be. Im overweight definatly but also tall enough that I look decent enough. However I can put my feet behind my head (hello ladies :cool: ) and do the splits...

I dont give a crap what people think of me in realtion to my size/weight. (size is wrong as a kick-boxer friend is 'obese' due to muscle weighing more than fat :eek: ) I've also found that most people who tease other people generally do it to make up for personal inadequacies - otherwise they would feel no need to make fun of said person.

Terry

Spyral wrote:

I've also found that most people who tease other people generally do it to make up for personal inadequacies - otherwise they would feel no need to make fun of said person.

I'll have to disagree with that one.
Sometimes people do it because it's really funny.

Sangre

This is the problem with society. The lack of education on diets, exercise and healthy body maintaince is outstanding. Even the title of the thread says it all.

It should read 'healthy vs unhealthy'. Something which bodyfat can be related to be its hardly exclusive.

Also people who eat loads, dont exercise and are still skinny usually have the worst bodies of all. Skinny yet pudgy, no definition and as soft as a babys arse. Weak as kittens as well and struggle on stairs. Yeah, I really envy that.

seamus

I don't think there's any real debate here. 99% of people will accept that the most attractive people range from slightly underweight to slightly overweight. Anyone who thinks super-skinny or super-heavy is "the best" is obviously a moron.

curiousxxx1

Fortunately i am a size 14, at some stage in my life i was a 10 and i looked really sick.... I am African and with that the hips, butts and boobs are a MUST!!!! I hate buying jeans that fit on the hips but too big at the waist.. Life is a bi***
I have stopped complaining..... i reckon we should all STOP too
Don't forget for these celebs we keep comparing ourselves to, it is their career at stake... They are selling a package...If only we could all pay a personal trainer then i bet we would be HOTTER than Brad Pitt or Jessica Simpson

Duggy747

Obviously I don't eat like a monster, as much as I'd love to with all the delicious foods out there, yum yum.................eh, anyways every weekend I'm a sirlone steak (Fridays), lamb chops (Saturdays), bacon (Sundays) and potato guy. During the week my usual intake consists of Pasta, Rice (egg-fried or bits of veggie with that), beans (can never have too much beans!), chicken, and fancy sandwiches I make. Then there's also the usual gobbling of some Goodfellas pizzas too which, honestly, I'm eating too much of. The only sweets I'll eat is the occasional Moro

I'm thin but not pudgy or out of ratio sort-of-thing. I'm just (I'm stressing the just here!) above average tone and I've pretty big, tight biceps for my physique though that can go down to weights I did during school and work.

Dudess

layke wrote:

Which are you dudess? Pictures please

Unbalanced. Size 10 below the waist, 12 above the hips. Slim with curves on the upper body. Apple-shaped. That's good because it means an ample rack, bad because it means a tendency towards a bit of sticky-out stomach.

Wibbs wrote:

Well funny enough...... Maybe that's the real diet that men should be promoting in the womenfolk. Exercise and a good source of zinc.

With a marketing pitch like that, I'd do it!

Blush_01 wrote:

Dudess, I didn't really see how the article was full of the "usual bitter and jealous "thin people are so horrible", "I'm proud to be big" crap". It didn't laud being overweight, just as it didn't praise being severely underweight.

Sorry Blush, I was half asleep when I wrote that opening post. What I mean is, there are individuals featured in the article who are blowing on about how proud they are to be heavy, and how slim women are nasty. I'm not saying it's the sentiment of the journalist, just that people saying those things are interviewed in it.

Niamho!

woah! hahaha. you just practically described me there Dudess when you were describing yourself. my stomach is not too big though thank god. plus im workin on makin it Flatter!
im not happy though. i never am. thankfully i dont gain weight really and if i do its a couple of lbs and doesnt take much to get rid. but im still ALWAYS trying to lose weight. im a tad obsessed i think. im not overweight either im pretty much in my Healthy weight range, closer to the minimum infact. but never happy. i think most girls aren't ever happy with what they've got.

SimpleSam06

krazy_8s wrote:

2 pieces of toast with jam at 10, a plate of spicy wedges with chicken and a triple decker sandwich at 1:30. I'm going to be having a chipper on the way home, and a toasty or something similar around a hour or two after.

I wouldn't call that an excessively fattening daily diet, although you will gain weight on it, so long as you are fairly active in your daily routine, which you say you are. A lot has to do with age as well; people in their teens are still growing, so the energy is diverted towards physical (upwards) growth, to a certain extent. Depending on how much exercise you partake in, it can take years for a debilitating diet to make its effects known. This may have lent itself to the myth of the "thin fat people", and myth it is.

As they say, "Nature gives you the face you have at twenty. Life shapes the face you have at thirty. But at fifty you get the face you deserve."

I eat a very varied diet myself, rarely if ever junk food or sodas, and although heavily built, I could in no way be described as overweight (it's mostly muscle). Again, you can pin that on exercise. If I start munching on heavy stuff or indulging in tasty fry-ups every morning, however, the weight piles on in a hurry.

Crumble Froo

im with dudess and niamho mostly there.

Niamho!

narco wrote:

im with dudess and niamho mostly there.

are you happy enough with your Bod?

Crumble Froo

nope, but recovering from eating disorders, so reminding myself how much worse it could be, how sick trying too hard to change it will make me, and how much more worthwhile life is when im not worrying about that kinda shít.

Attol

Call Me Jimmy wrote:

And according to the dove ads, ye have to be at least slightly chunky to be a real woman. They seem to assume that all people that aren't as fat as them are fake evil people, maybe they just eat right and exercise, or maybe, shock horror they are naturally thin.

Eh, that's not true. They've ads with all shapes in them. You seen the new Deodorant ads? They're all skinny in that.

Dudess

Yeah, but Dove has that "Campaign for Real Beauty" thing going on - using bigger-than-average models, also women in their 50s and 60s (the "Pro-Age" campaign). How noble of them. I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact that this makes Dove stand out from the rest of the cosmetic companies, and therefore it will help increase sales of Dove products.
I'm all for being positive about age and the non-perfect body, but not for some cynical marketing campaign.

One thing I don't understand though: why the unbelievable thinness of catwalk models? I'm not talking slim, I'm talking starved-looking, on a par with a concentration camp survivor in some pictures (I'm not exaggerating). Why do designers want half-dead people advertising their product? Surely it will look better on slim yet curvy girls? (Heidi Klum and Naomi Campbell are the only examples of such models that I can think of).

seamus

Dudess wrote:

Yeah, but Dove has that "Campaign for Real Beauty" thing going on - using bigger-than-average models, also women in their 50s and 60s (the "Pro-Age" campaign). How noble of them. I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact that this makes Dove stand out from the rest of the cosmetic companies, and therefore it will help increase sales of Dove products.

Well, maybe. Maybe not. I've heard girls say that if a company isn't using a hot (female) model in their ads, then it turns them off the product - like that ad for Veet wax with that woman with the horrific bowl haircut. Something to do with appealing to the inner, "I want to be like her" that many women suffer from. If you use an ugly model, nobody wants to be like her.

That said, Dove still doesn't use ugly women. The normal-sized women are hot, and the 50 and 60 year old are respectable.

justsomebloke

I have to say I'd hit most of the girls in the real women dove ad's before most of the skinny women

Floppybits

This is an interesting debate. My own two cents is that diets are a waste of time, in my humble opinion to be healthy you have to keep a balance. My rule is you can eat what you want but you have to be prepared to put in the time to exercise so that you can eat what you want.

The best diet is a balanced one, make sure you have your breakfast firstly and not a fry up, then a light lunch and good dinner making sure you get in your veggies. Then at the weekend you can have the chippers and the take aways but then go for a walk.

I myself prefer someone who is neither fat nor skinny but somewhere in between. I once went out with a skinny girl despite warning from my mates that I was making a mistake, then came the night we were going to get down to some hanky panky and she removed her clothes and thats when the little fella wouldn't come out to play. Was so embarrassing but I learned my lesson.

Niamho!

will a spark yet another debate by saying i think men are more Fussy about Womens bodies than women are about Mens Bodies?? well i think they are. men can be fookers when it comes to that. skinny model-like figures and all but most girls i know dont go for that Buff man look.....

Dragan

Dudess wrote:

One thing I don't understand though: why the unbelievable thinness of catwalk models? I'm not talking slim, I'm talking starved-looking, on a par with a concentration camp survivor in some pictures (I'm not exaggerating). Why do designers want half-dead people advertising their product?

It kicked off in the 80's , when nearly every major fashion designer in the world was a gay man.....and as such they were designing clothers for a thin man's body, that would just happen to be modelled by a woman.

Hence you have the whole adrogenous look that goes on now. It's all ****ed up in my opinion.

As for people who think they eat a lot, you kind don't, this is eating a lot.

08:00 6 egg whites, two whole eggs, tomatoes, mushrooms, onions, bowl of porridge, piece of fruit.
10:00 Whey Protein Shake
12:00 Chicken/Beef with assorted veg like brocolli, sprouts, caluliflower, spinach, sweetcorn, carrots etc.
14:30 , same as above.
16:00 , chicken and beef with veg and rice
19:30 , shake with protein and carbs
20:30 , fish/chicken/beef with veg and rice
23:00 , shake with milk, whey protein and cottage cheese.

Thats eating a lot.

Dragan

Niamho! wrote:

will a spark yet another debate by saying i think men are more Fussy about Womens bodies than women are about Mens Bodies?? well i think they are. men can be fookers when it comes to that. skinny model-like figures and all but most girls i know dont go for that Buff man look.....

You go for what you want to go for, as an individual i would have thought?

Niamho!

Dragan wrote:

You go for what you want to go for, as an individual i would have thought?

Yeah but in my Experience i think Generally men are fussier. seems to be the way its always been. in my opinion....