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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."
Great. Now I can live a long, sexless life!
First Rule Of Fat Club Is You Don't Talk About Fat Club.
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.'
First off, there seems to be some number-shuffling here. This is a very politicized and personal topic for a lot of people, and different motivations are behind the different studies. This particular study has been trumpeted by the main-stream media (it's been out for a few days now) because it is different and will attract reader's interest. The scientists that told us that having a BMI over 25 will most likely still stick to their guns and say that we should be healthy. The danger of this study is the attitude that we even saw in the original post:
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.
Come now, you may not be at as high a risk as previous studies had indicated - and may be even better off than an unhealthy skinflint, but there is no rational way that binging on the Twinkies aisle will benefit your health whatsoever. I know it was flippant and humorous, but it's still a dangerous idea to think that you can eat Joe Lois, maintain a BMI of 29 and be healthy. Indeed, it's not the BMI - it's the food you eat, the nutrition, etc.
"There's no success like failure, and failure's no success at all."
- Bob Dylan
Great! Now they just need to account for prolonged monitor radiation and celibacy.
NOPE!
I suggest you read Slashdot
reduced from 100% ?
Tharkban (It is a signature after all)
However, fat geeks will always have another thing to consider. Darwinian death. Eat those twinkies, my pretties... just means more pussy for me!
"You know why you do not see me styling wit my homies? Because I have no homies!!" -Mojo Jojo
It's losers, here this might help...
You: loser
Your mom: loose
DoubleWhopper writes...
Heh.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
my risk is 95%, there is a 5% chance that i am god
Snowden and Manning are heroes.
Sure, this is great news for a good portion of the American population, a country with a ridiculously high rate of obesity and overweight individuals. However, one has to question its objectivity and scientific basis. As one poster already pointed out, the story merely suggests that somewhat fat people are more "healthy" than obese people. I for one am not the skinniest geek, but I don't really think this is the right kind of motivation for me to read in wanting to shed a few 'extra' pounds. :)
I maintain a reasonbly healthy diet, try to balance my nutrition and exercize when I can.. but in this fast-paced go-go-go environment of urban America it's very difficult to stay ahead physically, financially and maintain one's sanity. While I don't doubt that I'm relatively healthy, I also think that I could be more healthy.
We geeks tend to sit down for the majority of the day and feel our asses grow as we're emmersed in various technological endeavors. This is all fine and dandy, but as my doctor pointed out recently, it's best to shed those extra pounds while we're still young as the older we get the harder it gets to rid ourselves of them as our metabolic rate slows down. So I would suggest to my fellow geeks to do what you can when you can and take articles such as these with no more than a grain of salt. In two weeks there may be another study that says otherwise. Besides, who can believe any story about how much food we should eat that's posted on a site whose founder is some random taco!
shop.envescent.com - Computer hardware and more.
I'm a skinny geek you insensitive clod!
Dear aunt, let's set so double the killer delete select all
Douglas Adams died exercising in the gym. I think that says something important to us all ... ;-)
Try weightlifting. Years ago, I was barely eating anything and I wasn't exercising (at my worst point I was eating a Reser's burrito a day (I know, that's pretty bad, but I just wasn't hungry!)), and getting dizzy occasionally. Weightlifting, through stimulating my body for growth, made me HUNGRY. Now I eat frequently, have huge amounts of energy that keeps me going all day long, and am happier.
If you weightlift, you will start getting into the habit of eating more. Just remember to drink plenty of water throughout the day (sometimes dizziness can be brought on by lack of fluids), and hopefully take vitamins.
People, the concept everyone ought to grasp is that it's EXERCISE that actually avoids obesity, not just eating right. You can eat a whole box of twinkies, yes, but it's way worse if you also don't ever exercise. The most straightforward way to do this is to just walk, jog, or bike places that you might otherwise drive to. If it's within a mile or so, and you don't really have any cargo, and you aren't late, then do the environment AND yourself a favour and get there on your own power.
Take off every sig. For great justice.
It doesn't really matter if you're skinny, plump, or fat until you actually reach the "obese" limit. But even if you aren't obese, that doesn't mean you're living healthy. Everyone remembers that kid who ate nothing but fries, ho-hos, and mountain dew but still weighed 140 pounds at 6' tall all through high school and college (perhaps some of you were that kid). The damage done to that body is way beyong someone who eats fresh fruits, vegetables, and whole foods but weighs in at 220 pounds and 6' tall. Just watch your diet and do some exercise during the week. If your metabolism is a little slow and you hold onto a little more weight, it's fine.
Hardly a 100% mortality rate, actually. Given the exponential nature of human population growth, some have proposed that perhaps as many as 10% of all homo sapiens who have ever lived are still alive today. This means, of course, that being born is currently only about 90% fatal, and that rate is slowly but surely dropping.
It's possible. The longer you live, the more likely you'll survive till:
:)
1. The Rapture
2. We find a way to stop/reverse aging
3. The aliens find a way to stop/reverse aging.
4. We find a way to travel back in time, duplicate our bodies, and implant our souls in the new body.
5. see #4, but change souls to neural pathways, quantuum states, and data.
6, see #4, but the aliens invent it, not us.
7. see #5, but the aliens invent it, not us
8. God decides death is now deprecated/obsolete.
9. The Grim Reaper takes himself out.
10. Entropy reverses or stops, possibly due to dark matter/anti-matter/quasi-matter/doesn't matter/the universe compressing instead of expanding/aliens/God/Cmdr Taco.
11. The bugs in the universe responsible for death and other bad things are fixed.
12. God ports the universe from Windows to Linux.
13. The Grim Reaper revokes the license for death because Andrew Tridgell reverse engineered it.
Just because it CAN be done, doesn't mean it should!
Problem is, you people in the States are fucked when it comes to walking. Your cities have been designed around driving for so long that in most places, walking to nearby stores isn't even possible.
Sidewalks are uncommon. Freeways with no pedestrian crossing are common. Parking lots with steep edges and no entrance for pedestrians are common.
If you live right in the urban or student center of any large city, you're ok, and if you live in a small town you're fine, but most of the population lives in the enormous suburbs, where you haven't got a hope.
Biking's nice, but it takes a lot of maintenance to do safely. Vests, lights, frequent tune ups, riding only at the right hours, balancing any loads, carrying non biking clothes with you if you need to go somewhere a little more formal, finding a place to lock it safely, removing the seat to carry with you, locking both wheels...
The exercise lifestyle is no longer a reasonable suggestion for most Americans. That means exercise really is going take either deliberate concentrated effort or addictiveness. Thank god for DDR... it's not perfect, but it shows the way forward.
Oh, and as others have said, once you're already fat the kind of moderate exercise that walking errands provide won't do you any good. It's only a maintenance technique, which is hardly useful for the two thirds of Americans who already have the problem.