Forum menu
Set up spin farms.
Everyone has to spin for 30 mins a day - if you're unemployed you spin for longer.
All the energy generated is fed into the national grid and we all benefit from having cheaper fuel and everyones fitter to boot.
Radical I know, Feasible probably not, have I been staring at my hamster for too long - probably.
[i]he Spanish are mad on sport, and have basically caught up with the UK on the obesity front. [/i]
I thought they were like us, mad on watching sport rather than doing it.
I thought they were like us, mad on watching sport rather than doing it.
Don't know about that, certainly the women (generally) don't do much sport, but a fair number of the guys here at work run / play in footie leagues / swim / basketball etc.
Still, my post was more aimed at the assertion of "We no longer value sporting excellence" as if that would greatly influence obesity.
Still not sure why I should care, apart from being squashed on public transport - the obese are doing us all a favour, they die off earlier and end up costing a lot less to the state. (Healthly living means you die of an equally expensive disease later, after having drawn pensions etc. for a lot longer.)
The problem is, we've got very good at keeping unhealthy people alive for longer, but they cost a fortune in the process. Far more than someone healthy.
The only problem with the 'theory' that all fat people are fat due to the crap they eat and the lack of exercise is that its probably not actually true.
There will be a group of people for whom obesity is caused by a medical condition. But that group won't be any bigger now than it was then the obesity rate was 2%.
If we're now at 12 times that rate, at most only 1 in 12 of the obese are obese because of a medical condition.
Fat people squash you on public transport, make them pay for 2 seats?
I take my hat off to anyone who manages to lose the weight and turn their lives around, I doubt if I could do it.
We have to think outside the box here people.
As obesity is on the rise at the same time as global warming is posing a threat to our lifestyles, why don't we put the fatties to good use? We could use them as big squishy pink sandbags and pile them up by the coast to combat rising sea levels
I'm with BruceWee on this. Too many jobs are sedentary whereas once upon a time a lot of society kept fit just by going to work. Sure, there are many people who eat badly and don't exercise, but if they were at least moving a few muscles to earn a wage they might be healthier.
There is a part of me that thinks this is just nature's way of *ahem* controlling population. Either that or we'll all end up morphing into immovable fatties like in Wall-E.
I wonder why those of you are fit and healthy are obsessed with the lifestyle of those who are not?
If we're now at 12 times that rate, at most only 1 in 12 of the obese are obese because of a medical condition.
What medical condition, can you give an example?
I wonder why those of you are fit and healthy are obsessed with the lifestyle of those who are not?
We're all part of the same society so the actions of others can and do affect the rest of us. Of course we should be concerned. Obsessed is perhaps a strong word though.
Not obsessed ohnohesback, but you can't help being interested or concerned by what you see. There were only a few fat kids when I was at school, it seems there are only a few slim kids now.
Ultimately we all have to take responsibility for ourselves, at work I only ever move when it's my turn to make the coffee or go to the loo, hence I usually choose to cycle in.
I wonder why those of you are fit and healthy are obsessed with the lifestyle of those who are not?
Because we're paying for the healthcare of a group of people who have chosen an unhealthy lifestyle.
They pay taxes as well.
This thread is like an episode of Black Mirror
They pay taxes as well.
And?
Binners, guess what i have just eaten for my breakfast........you would be proud. 😀
nine people in my office this morning
only three are not obese/fat, three do not consider their weight to be an issue, three know they are fat
Ton - Was it some kind of breakfast pie? For years I've been trying to work out how to combine the ingredients of a full English into a pie?
bacon egg sausage spam black pudding beans toms mushroom fried bread.
Ton - Was it some kind of breakfast pie? For years I've been trying to work out how to combine the ingredients of a full English into a pie?
[url= http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/1486/bacon+and+egg+pie ]The mighty bacon and egg pie[/url] is what you need. (Ok, it's missing some of the ingredients, but a clever chap like you should be able to adjust the recipe accordingly...)
There was a similar(ish) thread about cheap booze & alcohol-related issues on here last week, i.e. some people choose to get drunk & it's nobody's business but their own (despite the wider social impact).
It's the same with lifestyles leadig to obesity.
Some people are 'happy' (?) being an unhealthy weight and living a lifestyle that is very likely to result in reduced quality ogf life, health problems and in extreme cases early death.
These people might say "leave me alone, it's my choice", regardless of any advice and education about what they're doing to themselves ... at which point the decision needs to be made: do we leave them to it and just deal with the consequences, or do we try and help them by forcing a lifestyle change through legislation?
As an aside, I think it's unhelpful to reduce 'people' issues down to how much tax it costs. I don't think putting a price tag on people makes them feel valued as a person.
For years I've been trying to work out how to combine the ingredients of a full English into a pie?
This is my next project - thank you sir - I will feedback when complete....
I really buy the fact that we're still, essentially, cavemen. We crave high calorie foods as a)we [i]think[/i] they're a rarity and b)we [i]think[/i] we'll have to expend a lot of energy and take high risks to get said food (such as chasing down a T-rex...)
Unfortunately, we [b]don't[/b] expend any energy in sourcing our food (drive to shops/waddle to the cupboard etc), yet still have the same basic desire.
It would be nice if we could fit ourselves with a biological meter that somethinged our BMR (Basal metabolic rate) and our current energy expenditure, and gave it as a figure of what "could be eaten that day".
You could argue that this would be our 'hunger', but unfortunately people seem to confuse [b]appetite[/b] (the [u]desire[/u] for food) with [b]hunger[/b] (the actual [u]need[/u] to refuel).
This, coupled with my first statement of this reply, leads to "Tubby-ville, population growing....."
DrP
What we need is a good war !
I like the tax people on their BMI as well, every 6 months do a check up.
I propose that all tv's should be pedal powered.
Ton - I doff my cap to you in an incredibly envious manner. The inclusion of spam carries all the hallmarks of a true professional
*waddles off to beat DrP to a masterplan for black pudding, sausage, bacon, beans and egg pie*
Some people are 'happy' (?) being an unhealthy weight and living a lifestyle that is very likely to result in reduced quality ogf life, health problems and in extreme cases early death.
I reckon you'd be hard pressed to find any people are happy about this. Sure, they may be happy about eating a takeaway every night and watching TV, but happy about the consequences?? I doubt it.
There've been plenty of threads on here about people lacking motivation to ride. It's not a big leap from this to a totally sedentary life with a bad diet. I like sitting in front of the TV. I like pizza, curry and kebabs, chocolate and sweets. I've had whole weeks pass by where I've barely been outside never mind do any exercise. However I've always found some motivation to get out and have a walk, run or ride and I dread the day I lose that motivation.
How, then, do we motivate others to get their heart rate up? Let them eat what they want for now, but get them off their backside first and foremost. Chips always taste better after some exercise.
I propose that all tv's should be pedal powered
We have a winner! Awesome idea 😀
the obese are doing us all a favour, they die off earlier and end up costing a lot less to the state.
As mikeyually suggests, the opposite to above quote is in fact true. The burden of ill health is the issue - dead people cost us nowt. Diabetes, cardiac rehab and care for long term conditions does!
On the face of it obesity is pretty straight forward - energy in vs. energy out. Increase one, reduce the other or both in conjunction and hey presto - weight loss or weight gain!
However, the process of decreasing energy in or increasing engery out is extremely complicated:
http://www.noo.org.uk/NOO_about_obesity/causes
In addition, it's a very emotive subject for most people, with some strong 'evolutionary' drives supporting it and thus simple 'will power' isn't a great way of approaching it on an individual level - it requires 're-thinking' how and why we make our food/exericse choices and creating and identifying new patterns of behaviour that better support our broader aims as an individual.
Furthermore, on a population level, no one solution will solve it either - well no one acceptable solution for western society that is. i.e. my preference would be to ensure that all food manufacturers only produced 'healthy food' and importantly provided food in portions of appropriate size BUT which still cost the same. However, this would not be acceptable to the great British public as we have a general bias towards the notion of 'more is better', driven by a number faulty beliefs.
Unfortunately, the people with the power and money to achieve this are the ones driving the availibility of high fat high salt high sugar foods. A tax on this type of food is one idea but given obesity has a strong correlation with low socioeconomic status, you'll essenntially be targeting those on lowest incomes. You could then say - well that would make them eat other foods but actually not having the skills, knowledge, confidence and resource to prepare and purchase 'other foods' is perhaps more the issue.
And so on......
There's an intersting idea from Japan whereby companies get taxed if the average waist circumference of staff is outside a given range - as a result staff 'have to' exercise during the day. How would that go down in the good old [i]'say no to the nanny state'[/i] UK?
Finally, before I get off my soap box - [u]the issue here is not fatness but fitness[/u]. The evidence from 100's of studies suggests that it is much better to be fat and fit in terms of coronary heart disease risk and ill-health, than it is to be thin and unfit.
So bottom-line - let's all ride bikes!
The evidence from 100's of studies suggests that it is much better to be fat and fit
Good point. I know plenty of walking/mountaineering types who outwardly look *ahem* tubby, but could yomp ups hills and mountains for hours. Don Whillans was one of the best mountaineers of his day but drank, smoked and ate like a trooper.
I'm probably overweight at 5'9'' and 13st I just can't avoid the evil carbs!
To answer the question I would take action at an earlier point. Any child who is overweight would have their parents made aware of this, ideally being given free school healthy lunch. you need to start a healthy lifestyle at a young age.
What medical condition, can you give an example?
I was never exactly slim, but I used to be a lot thinner before getting CFS/PVFS - it's not that I couldn't do it now but it's made it a lot harder to do decent regular exercise, and I spend more time around the house being bored/down which can encourage me to eat. There's also quite a bit of evidence that people with sleep problems often end up over eating.
I find it interesting how vehement some of the anti-fatty comments are on here though, not sure there is the same stigma attached to smokers, heavy drinkers etc who also 'cost the taxpayer more'.
Finally, before I get off my soap box - the issue here is not fatness but fitness. The evidence from 100's of studies suggests that it is much better to be fat and fit in terms of coronary heart disease risk and ill-health, than it is to be thin and unfit.
This. Not that I am fat and fit at the moment. 🙁 I'm still more physically active/fitter than half the people I work with though.
The evidence from 100's of studies suggests that it is much better to be fat and fit in terms of coronary heart disease risk and ill-health, than it is to be thin and unfit.
That's a false dichotomy though. It's better to be fit than unfit and better to be thin than fat. In the interests of balance I do not fall into either the thin or particularly fit category.
bacon egg sausage spam black pudding beans toms mushroom fried bread.
And just the other day you were saying you'd give anything to have your health back.. good effort on the breakie though 😀
That's a false dichotomy though. It's better to be fit than unfit and better to be thin than fat.
The point is though that people who are thin but inactive kid themselves that they must be perfectly healthy because they are thin.
Fat people present many problems for healthcare; they don't fit in the beds, they don't fit in the chairs, blood pressure cuffs don't fit, they are harder to mobilise, they need more staff to move them, they don't fit in CT scanners, they don't fit on operating tables and so on.
My wife's a practice nurse, and one of the clinics she runs is a weight loss/diet one. She tells me some funny stories.
Like the woman who doesn't count biscuits because they're 'plain' ones with no chocolate on, so they don't count, right? And the fella who thinks sausages don't count when he cooks them on his George Foreman thing. And there's one who refused to believe that his daily 2L bottle of cider contains any calories at all.
Which suggests that lack of awareness/education about food is a problem.
Although she also told me that when you reach a certain age, it was either 50 or 60 I think, that people who come within the 'overweight' range (out of underweight-normal-overweight-obese-morbidly obese) have the highest life expectancy, statistically.
As mikeyually suggests, the opposite to above quote is in fact true. The burden of ill health is the issue - dead people cost us nowt. Diabetes, cardiac rehab and care for long term conditions does!
Yeah, but non-obese people can end up with all those long term conditions, too - alzheimer's, dementia, etc. They just get them later, which means more years not working and claiming more state aid. From a purely economic point of view, the state should be encouraging obesity and smoking.
_tom_ - Memberbacon egg sausage spam black pudding beans toms mushroom fried bread.
And just the other day you were saying you'd give anything to have your health back.. good effort on the breakie though
Posted 17 minutes ago # Report-Post
Tom. if eating a breakfast was what caused the problem with my heart, i would not be eating it.
however it is not, hence the reason i still enjoy one now again.
people do tend to think that the only reason people get a bad heart is through bad diet and lack of exercise.
in my case, this is not the case.
Yeah, stop leaching off us fatties and smokers you selfish, healthy ****s!!!
Its just me, me, me with you lot, isn't it? You shouldn't be out running or riding your bikes, and eating pasta and salads! You should be doing something more constructive! Like trying to fulfil my dreams of a full English breakfast pie, and campaigning for scrapping the smoking ban in pubs
greedy, deal with the problem if it happens tomorrow, lazy fat pigs!
self control - get some 😉
The evidence from 100's of studies suggests that it is much better to be fat and fit in terms of coronary heart disease risk and ill-health, than it is to be thin and unfit.
Neither is without risk and both are likely to predispose you to some ailment or other.
Basically, would sir prefer to be shot in the left foot or the right 🙄
Matt
C_G has a point but the amount of people who claim a medical condition is way higher than reality.
jb79/stoatsbrother/DrP - please look away now!
I'll try and be succinct here but, imo, the guidelines that GPs receive from the Royal College of Physicians concernng thyroid diagnosis is misleading. It hinges on one blood test result and if this is not above a certain level, even though you may have many other symptoms including weight gain, then you need anti-depressants. 👿
Of course I could speculate concerning money and pharma - Thyroxine needs to be taken for the rest of your life when you receive a diagnosis. Be aware that if you need Thyroxine, you enjoy [b]free[/b] prescriptions for [b]everything[/b] for ever. How much is that costing the NHS?
Hardly any wonder that it's easier for people to go on sickness benefit/invalidity benefit rather than to be listened to/fight the medical profession.
So ... please ... when you see a fat old girl on a bike, don't judge her and just appreciate that she's doing her best with no thanks to the medical profession.
I used to think young hoodys with no jobs should just get out there any try anything (hustle if you like) surely they could find something or start something positive?
this was assuming that all people are born with "drive". then I started to think maybe we're not all born with drive, maybe drive is a gift we are born with (like being naturally artistic, athletic or academic)??