Overweight is the new norm?

Polytheist-Witch: The great thing about being fat is the people that will judge you for being fat don't want to be friends with you so you have a better class of friends.

Well, I believe most plus-size models at least still work out.

No one praises being an absolute junk hunk, but what we praise I think is that we should be able to exercise regardless of weight.

Polytheist-Witch: There's another good reason to be a fat ass if you're fat, you're stupid and if you're stupid people know your theist and then they don't even have to ask

 If you're not actively hating 

@the witch

 If you're not actively hating 

You are the only single person on this whole forum that spends her demented time hating everyone.

I honestly believe you that are ill , Witch. Are there no wings of bat or toes of newt healing potions that you can take?

Obesity causes diabetes and many other illnesses.  It will raise the cost of health care, both privately and publicly.  Not to mention quality of life.

Correlation =/= causation.

There are few illnesses that obesity causes. The rest are not necessarily caused by obesity, but tend to be with obese people due to there being similarities in diet, living conditions, etc.

Quality of life is subjective. Some people are completely content watching TV all day. You can be 600 pounds and your quality of life not affected at all if all you do is watch TV.

Also, one other thing to consider is the BMI is being grossly misapplied by the medical complex. It was invented to gauge population obesity, not individual health. But, it particularly is for white people. Nobody realizes this. [1]

Africans, for instance, have a higher bone density than most white ethnicities. [2] Moreover, Asians tend to have a higher body fat percentage than white people of the same BMI measurement. [3] The BMI was based on European ethnicity, so it gets these other ethnic groups completely wrong.

The only way to properly gauge a person's proper weight is based on body fat percentage as derived from objective measures, such as DEXA scans and CT or MRI scans. [4] 

Or, for those who don't have the money for these things, looking in the mirror and seeing if they have two chins or a sizeable pot belly or cottage cheese where skin used to be.

Obesity causes diabetes and many other illnesses.  It will raise the cost of health care, both privately and publicly.  Not to mention quality of life.

Correlation =/= causation.

There are few illnesses that obesity causes. The rest are not necessarily caused by obesity, but tend to be with obese people due to there being similarities in diet, living conditions, etc.

Quality of life is subjective. Some people are completely content watching TV all day. You can be 600 pounds and your quality of life not affected at all if all you do is watch TV.

Also, one other thing to consider is the BMI is being grossly misapplied by the medical complex. It was invented to gauge population obesity, not individual health. But, it particularly is for white people. Nobody realizes this. [1]

Africans, for instance, have a higher bone density than most white ethnicities. [2] Moreover, Asians tend to have a higher body fat percentage than white people of the same BMI measurement. [3] The BMI was based on European ethnicity, so it gets these other ethnic groups completely wrong.

The only way to properly gauge a person's proper weight is based on body fat percentage as derived from objective measures, such as DEXA scans and CT or MRI scans. [4] 

Or, for those who don't have the money for these things, looking in the mirror and seeing if they have two chins or a sizeable pot belly or cottage cheese where skin used to be.

SOURCES:

[1] https://elemental.medium.com/the-bizarre-and-racist-history-of-the-bmi-7d8dc2aa33bb

[2] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9024231/

[3] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8017333/

[4] https://www.goodrx.com/health-topic/weight/measure-body-fat

In the developed world, people's perceptions have changed.  Most people are 30-40 lbs overweight.  So if you put someone who is 30-40 lbs overweight that crowd, people wouldn't consider them overweight.  They'd consider that average.

The goalpost has moved.  A person with a 23-24 BMI, for example, would've been considered average a few decades ago, but now many people consider that "skinny".  And someone who is 21 BMI, while still in a healthy weight range, would be called anorexic.  People are generally not seen as overweight unless they're morbidly obese.

The % of Americans who consider themselves overweight is the same now as 20 years ago.  Yet the % of Americans who are overweight or obese has gone up significantly.   This means people consider their weight relative to the population rather than in absolute.  Only 25% of Americans have a normal BMI.  3 in 4 Americans are overweight.

Some will argue that BMI overestimates how fat people are because it doesn't take muscle into account.  This is true for a small portion of the population that actively bodybuild.  But for most people, it may overestimate it.  If you're a 180 lb athlete at age 25, but you become sedentary.  When you're 35 or 45, you may still be the same 180 lbs, but with a higher bodyfat percentage. 

This is a pretty great post, but I don't agree on two things:

(1) Quality of life isn't that subjective and is arguably pretty objective. Sure, people enjoy different things. However, people are going to be miserable being 600 lbs and watching tv all day. Being that helpless and immobile is soul-destroying. Your health is also going to decline substantially, along with your mood as a result.

There's research on others who get one/multiple limbs destroyed (usually due to a motor accident), and whilst they recover after the initial shock, they never reach the general public's average life happiness again.

(2) BMI doesn't get any ethnic group but White's "completely wrong". They might be off more than the Whites, but they're within the ballpark

However, people are going to be miserable being 600 lbs and watching tv all day. Being that helpless and immobile is soul-destroying.

BMI doesn't get any ethnic group but White's "completely wrong".

--> @Avery

However, people are going to be miserable being 600 lbs and watching tv all day. Being that helpless and immobile is soul-destroying.

There are people out there who love being waited on hand and foot. To them being immobile isn't soul crushing but the best luxury in life.

There are also people for whom it WOULD be soul crushing for. I am not saying everyone should be 600 pounds. I am just saying that something like "quality" varies from person to person. So their quality of life can change significantly.

For some, a wife, kids, and picket fenced house is the dream come true. For others, it is being a billionaire with a private jet. Comparative to each other, the quality of life is drastically different. However, they are both a good quality of life.

Some people love food. So eating a lot of it is their ideal quality of life. While others enjoy having an impracticably "swol" body. Others enjoy running marathons and doing Iron Man challenges.

All of these have extreme negatives to them. Bodybuilders can't really use their muscles for anything because they might make a strain by accident. They also need to eat 3,500+ calories a day and maintain 3% body fat, meaning they basically live off of protein shakes and steaks and maybe chicken. Goodbye pizza, carbs, burgers, desserts, and even vegetables to a degree. Most people would call that a horrible quality of life. Body builders are also prone to knee and back injuries.

Marathon runners can have knee and other physiological problems later in life due to the shear volume of running. They might need knee replacements, meniscus operations, and more. These are problems that will affect them the rest of their lives.

And the guy who is 600 pounds can't be mobile. Which h most people would hate. 

But we aren't going to say they all have terrible quality of life. It is subjective to what each person wants. To those people, they might be able to live with the consequences for their lifestyles. 

This is why it is subjective.