Fat Geeks Healthier Than You Thought 454
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."
Studies (Score:2, Interesting)
But, from the article: 'People shouldn't think that this study gives them a free trip to the pork rind buffet.'
Yeah, because people really listen to stuff that they don't want to hear.
"The best predictor of obesity is being overweight," said Charles Clark, professor of medicine and pharmacology at Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis. "The younger you are when you become overweight the more likely that you will become obese."
Anyone gone to their local middle school recently and looked at the weight of the kdis there. I deal with them almost every day, and I can tell you, the younger they are, the fatter they seem to be getting. Even the anorexic ones.
lifestyle and activity? (Score:3, Interesting)
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!
I think it depends (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
Bingo. (Score:5, Interesting)
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").
Re:Excellent news. (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Ha (Score:2, Interesting)
My theory is that the federal government could get tremendous bang/buck if they simply regulated non-diet soft drinks. There are many people who drink one or more cans of soda a day, and each one has 150 or more calories. That's 1050 extra calories per week, translating into 18 pounds gained per year if nothing is done to burn those excess calories.
Even a twinkie has more nutritive value than a soft drink. Sad, but true.
Re:DNA (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Excellent news. (Score:3, Interesting)
Look up "hormesis".
Or see this:
http://www.mccall-id.com/pages/discover/hormesis_
Keep in mind the signs of a CRT radiation overdose.
One of them is flaming someone for reverse engineering a source control product, when your OS is itself a clone of another and uses something he reverse engineered in order to interoperate with fileservers from yet another OS. Not that anything in the news lately would be remotely like that.
P.S. Very few things are all toxic or all good.
Too much water is toxic. A little bit of cyanide can be used to fight cancer.
The dose, the time and the place usually determines good vs bad.
There are some exceptions, dioxin is only bad, but most poisons are useful and many many poisons save more lives than they take - when they are used as drugs.
Re:Wait a minute (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Re:I dont know... (Score:5, Interesting)
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.).
Re:I dont know... (Score:4, Interesting)
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!
Re:Ha (Score:2, Interesting)
That said... I very much disagree with your idea to regulate or tax soda. I personally don't drink a sip of soda myself, but government regulation isn't going to solve anything. It's the responsibility of parents to teach their children what is good for them. It's true that a lot of them suck, but where I went to school we had weekly 'health' class where we learned about the food pyramid and how everything we like is in that little triangle on the top that we should avoid. When I heard about the guy suing McDonalds for making him obese I laughed like crazy at the idea that somebody could be so stupid. Then when I heard that some state was trying to pass legislation that would require an 18+ id to buy oreos I got a bit worried. Americans are overweight, but it's not the government's fault. Having the government figuratively hold a twinkie over our heads and say "Bad hacker, not until you do one situp!" isn't going to help. I'm in the shape I'm in as a direct result of what I've eaten and how much I've exersized. If I am in shape it's because I want to be. If I am overweight, likewise. I want to be free to be fat, free to be uneducated, free to be lazy, free to smoke, free to drink, and free to do whatever else I want to my body without the government regulating, taxing, or even knowing about it.
Re:Ha (Score:3, Interesting)
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
Re:Wait a minute (Score:5, Interesting)
Example:
Shaquille O'Neal
height: 2,17m
weight: 147,4 kg
=> BMI: 31.3
Yeah, that sounds like using BMI is a good idea.
Heh (Score:3, Interesting)
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.
Re:"normal" is not normal! (Score:3, Interesting)
I like plump. I guess I have normal "abnormal" image.
No you don't. The pressure on women to be skinny is huge, but it doesn't usually come from men. Yep - there are bastards who'll take the piss out a woman for being overweight, but the majority of men prefer a girl who has a little padding. This is shown again and again in surveys and anecdotally, but the fashion mags and the who's-shagging-who magazines are always full of article on weight-loss and which celebrity has (oh the Horror!) a bit of fat on some part of their body.
My belief is that it's just competitiveness. If average people could be considered sexy then where's the scope for women to put each other down? Once, pale was sexy, because if you weren't a spoilt rich woman, it was hard to avoid going out and getting a tan. Now tanned is sexy because it shows you can holiday somewhere sunny. And fat itself was sexy in leaner times. And through all these cultural shifts, men have still wanted exactly what they always want from women just the same. Best thing you can do is pay it no attention and be happy with your body. That's sexy, whining or worrying about it isn't.
BMI is bullshit (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:"normal" is not normal! (Score:3, Interesting)
Note to both the women that read this site: This is true. Why? Because we're attracted to curves. Guys find attraction in more subtle ways than stereotypes portray.
While I'm more or less on the topic: Ladies, porn doesn't actually desensitize a guy's tastes to exclude you. I'm not cracking jokes here, I'm dead serious. Guys do not have the same sexual desires as women. Even though this is well documented (especially on TV shows BOTH genders watch), assumptions are made on both sides that often do not come to pass. As a result, one finds the other to be crazy. For example: A guy will think a woman would actually be interested in seeing naked photos of himself, whereas a woman will think that she should be so sexually satisfying that he wouldn't feel the need to look at porn. The result? Well, often it's quite amusing to a third party. Suddenly, all men are dogs and all women are bitches.
BMI denial (Score:2, Interesting)
1. Bodybuilders (e.g. Arnie).
2. Sub 5'7 men (Tom Cruise, Mel Gibson)
3. Really tall guys.
4. Fat stars that cinema goers think are thinner than they are (Russel Crowe, Mike Tyson).
1-3 ARE UNUSUAL CASES (4 is just laughable): If you fall into these categories, the BMI will be unrelable, but for 90% of men (I have never looked at the figures for women) if your BMI is over 25 you are overweight. Or maybe its all rubbish, but don't trust silly examples like the parent post.
Re:Cool (Score:1, Interesting)
It's not just about fat (Score:3, Interesting)
Pizza and Coke is common components, along with not being very physically active... That's stuff that can be really unhealthy, for the cholesterol levels etc.
Often, obesity is a consequence of these things too, so I don't really get why they're saying it's not an unhealthy sign.
Re:I dont know... (Score:3, Interesting)
What he said.
I never really started getting in shape until a couple years ago (age 29). I was out of shape in a scrawny way rather than a fat way though.
The reason people give up on exercise and hate doing it is that for the first week or two, it SUCKS-- if you haven't been in the habit of exercising. The first time I went running I got half a mile before I nearly collapsed, and then I could barely walk 2 days later. So I can see why so many people avoid it.
Same thing with weightlifting-- delayed onset muscle soreness is a bitch and you literally won't be able to move a couple days after you first start with weights.
Once you push yourself through the initial struggle, that's when you start feeling the benefits of the endorphine release, and you learn to feel the "good" kind of muscle soreness. You start to crave exercise. (This is why some people actually get addicted to exercise, which can also be unhealthy)
It's probably harder to get through the dietary changes. You pretty much NEED to give up soft drinks. Soft drinks are 100% pure crap for your system. Even beer is better for you (and I still have beer on the weekends). Just eliminating soft drinks, drinking lots of water instead, and avoiding the deep fried stuff makes a huge difference, you don't even necessarily have to count calories.
Re:Cool (Score:1, Interesting)
My brother was diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrom, and had it for months. But when he quit his job with the insane rotating shifts, it "magically" went away. And he was MUCH happier and in a much better mood about his life.
But you have to decide to do something about your own life. Your parents are not responsible for it anymore. You are. And you can live a happy and fulfilling life. And yes, Junior, there is life, and even enjoyable sex, after 40.
If you want a quick technique to change how you feel, try www. emofree.com