Slashdot Mirror
Fat Geeks Healthier Than You Thought
DoubleWhopper writes "Sound the trumpets! Being a fat geek may not increase your risk of death after all. According to this ABC News article, a re-examination of the available data suggests obesity is still a health risk, but the 'pleasantly plump' among us 'do not have the same health risks as obese individuals.' But, from the article: 'People shouldn't think that this study gives them a free trip to the pork rind buffet.' Believe what you want, but you'd better hope I don't get to the Twinkies aisle before you."
My thought is it relates more to lifestyle and fitness level than anything. For example, my mother is overweight and has been all her life. Yet she is the most active person I know. She has tremendous energy and gets an incredible amount done every day. So yes, she is quite overweight, but she's very fit.
Same goes for her father, who was a big heavy Wisconsin farmer. He used to laugh about doctors telling him to lose weight for better health and a longer life. My grandfather just shrugged and said "I've buried all my skinny friends." He was overweight all his life too, but being a farmer he was very fit.
Of course these are individual cases and anecdotal evidence is pretty worthless. I just want to say that being overweight and being out of shapeare two different things. Some fat people are in better shape and more fit than some skinny people. Not all, obviously. It must come down to genetics to some degree, but also how fit they are and how much exercise they get.
This research probably doesn't mean you can stock up on twinkies and mountain dew. It just means you can be fit and healthy even if you are fat. But being fat certainly doesn't mean you're healthy!
There are different ways of being overweight. You know those guys with the hard round gut? That's bad. You know those soft flabby guys (but not too flabby), well that's not quite as bad (IIRC).
What really bothers me is I'm starting to see teenagers who have the physique of a 45 year old man with the stereotypical beer gut. That's not just bad, it's really really sad. Their parents should know better.
-- Microsoft is the most expensive commodity operating system and office suite vendor in the marketplace.
Show me the death stats for people based upon exercise and nutrition INSTEAD of focusing on the weight of their corpse.
I'm betting that doing it that way would show a more understandable progression (ie. the healthier you keep yourself, the longer you will live).
But that kind of research won't get the headlines.
And the average person who reads that will only remember and believe what he wants to ("being fat means I'll live longer").
I suppose another factor is they go off BMI in the study, which is a weight/height ratio. Well muscled people can have a high BMI and still have low body fat. A 6 foot tall person weighing in at 225 would have a BMI in the "obese" range. It is feasable for this to be a very ripped bodybuilder with a body fat of less than 10% (although being that muscled could lead to its own cardiovascular problems.)
However, I suppose a lot of very athletic people would fall in the "overweight" range even if they do not have a high body fat content. To be overweight according to BMI at 6'0" is only 185 pounds, which isn't all that much for an active person who does a moderate amount of weightlifting.
I'll never make that mistake again, reading the experts' opinions. - Feynman
It turns out vegetable shortening is bad for us, but eggs and meat are not. (trans fat and cholesterol ratios)
It turns out Scotch is bad for us, but Vodka is not. (urethanes)
Just recently, they're starting to question the safety of Triclosan, a very common ingrediant in soap and toothpaste (chloroform inhalation)
Recently, people are starting to recognize that not all carbohydrates are created equally (e.g. the glycemic index).
The only conclusion is that science is really a long way from catching upto reality. It would be interesting to see how much of the current heart disease "epidemic" was caused by the refined-food revolution of the 20th century (sliced white bread, shortening, etc.).
-- Microsoft is the most expensive commodity operating system and office suite vendor in the marketplace.
I can't stress how much truth there is in this statement. I was starting to get really fat, and my grades, productivity, and personal opinion dropped like crazy. Since then, I started eating healthy, lifting weights, and running as often as I can (ideally daily). In about a month I lost five pounds! :-)
I took a scientific approach. I attempted to running (~2.5-3mi) as often as I could - forcing myself to do the exercises rather than do something else (e.g. gotta do this homework assignment or research paper). Furthermore, I made sure my heart rate was within my target range so as not to tire myself out. I also lifted weights and joined the wrestling club. (Even though I wrestled in high school, I was horribly out of practice and shape by now.)
Each time I ran I would record estimates of my time, distance, calories burned, and average heart rate. However, I made it a point not to measure my weight since that depressed me in the past. The numbers recorded would probably not be accurate or precise; however, the trend would be after enough data was collected. (For the geeky, the error of an average of measurements is proportional to the rms of each individual measurement's error.)
With the exception of a small breakfast, I never ate until after running. I also attempted to balance my energy burned from running with the calories consumed during lunch after the exercise (I went to Subway). With the addition of wrestling (two times/week) and weight lifting (three times/week), I lost lots of weight without thinking about it. Furthermore, I believe that I didn't lose muscle mass since I kept lifting weights (at 80% max).
More importantly, my self confidence rose and I found I was ten times more productive than before. I programmed much more in the last month than the previous quarter year. My grades improved as well. I can hardly believe how good this exercise makes me feel too. It is so much better than alcohol (which really doesn't do much to me), food, or wasting time playing computer games to releave stress. It is great!
It is impossible to enjoy idling thoroughly unless one has plenty of work to do.
- Jerome Klapka Jerome
Strange... I drink two to four sodas a day, and we're talking bottles, not cans, so it's generally a minimum of 250 or more calories per soda. My normal lunch/dinner is a sub sandwich or burgers, fries, and more soda.
Sure, I walk to work every day, but it's less then five blocks. Other then that, I get almost no exercise.
I have gained maybe 15 pounds in the last five years. So either I've tapped into the secret weight-loss plan through playing MMORPGs and watching movies, cartoons and pro-wrestling on TV, and reading sci-fi novels, or there is something wrong with your calculations.
Kierthos
Mr. Hu is not a ninja.
The fundamental Problem is that they are taking the Body Mass Index as a measure for overweight. This is ridicoulous and will seriously skew the results to "slightly overweight" people - because more athletic people doing sports which are not only aerobic/endurance dominated tend to get a relativly high BMI.
Example:
Shaquille O'Neal
height: 2,17m
weight: 147,4 kg
=> BMI: 31.3
Yeah, that sounds like using BMI is a good idea.
What a load of rubbish, but I expect no less from ABC:
1) Health risk is proportional to obesity
2) Less obese people have less of a health risk than very obese people (which follows from 1)
3) Less obese people have (virtually) no health risk???
Can anyone say "non sequitur"?
The vast majority of the population in the western hemisphere is overweight, including myself. We should not try to justify our poor health habits, however, by pretending that they don't exist.
You can be whatever weight you want - after all, who really gives a damn apart from you? But kidding yourself into thinking that there will be no consequences attached to this choice will bite you in the ass in the long run.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.