Thread: TV programme last night

You are so right Debbie, it is no good expecting people to make major changes to their lifes without offering them the help to do it. The support available to people with anorexia is there now, I know it is never enough but it is there. For bulimia, there is a recognised medical approach. For the obese - it's a casual expectation that they must get on with it or die young! No other medical problem is treated with sicuh derision. Right, I'll join you off the soapbox now Debbie!

Debbie,
Hmmmm, I see where you are coming from with the wholesale accommodation to the obese but I don't think it'll ever happen - unless market forces come into play and quite frankly I can't see enough obese people having the front to stand up and be counted - sadly most of us want to remain as invisible as possible and not make a fuss - I'd have put up (I often did) with any amount of personal discomfort rather than complain to MacDonald's that their booths are too small. I was embarrassed/unhappy enough with myself without handing my self esteem on a plate to some rail thin jobsworth for them to poke about at it and demean myself even further. Maybe if there are more Ricky Grovers our position would be strengthened. Do you know I can remember years ago attending a Weight Watchers class where you had to stand in the "PigPen" if you'd gained weight - and these classes were supposed to help us!!!!!

As for the costs, society already has, by law, to make dispensations for the physically disabled et al - look at the new legislation about shop access to those in wheelchairs, material in braille for the blind, hearing induction loops for the deaf etc. Plus all the multilingual translation of official forms/signs etc. I'm unaware of there being a big backlash against the users of these costly services - Sadly, I think the fat are seen to "have brought it on themselves" and so deserve no public sympathy - plus we're too fat to run away when the brickbats come flying Let's face it, most fat people don't want to be fat, we want to be normal - whether for vanity or health reasons - that's why we're both on here and doing Cambridge, so it stands to reason that we are unlikely to identify with the fat lobby.

I think you are bang on target about the support and help and I think it needs to be spread wider and start earlier and encompass the food industry etc. At the risk of making a sweeping generalisation, kids don't do cookery as a matter of course in school, nutrition isn't taught, poor quality food is too freely available and we're all buying it and thinking "Great - a tin of beans only costs 7pence" when we should be thinking - what are they putting in these and what are they not putting in these to make these so cheap? Why is it I can buy a cake, all iced and boxed up, way, way cheaper than I can buy the ingredients to make it? It's not all to do with economies of scale but a lot of it is to do with the cheap, unlisted cr*p that is substituted for wholesome ingredients. Cheap, additive filled foods, advertised to children to harness pester power (take the Dairlyea advert - their fatty processed cheese is "great for giving them calcium" - yeah and how much fat?? and why more salt per 100g than the Atlantic Ocean???) are stoking the fires of this obesity timebomb.
Well, I for one am making a stand and am buying and making my own foods from now on! I've made chicken nuggets, onion rings, pizzas (including the dough and pomodoro sauce) and a cake today for my son. We had fun making them together and used wholemeal flour/fruit sugar etc. OK, so I could have made even healthier options (which he wouldn't have eaten) and in a really wierd way it helped me not mind so much about SSing - cos I sooo miss my food and after almost a year on CD can still eat for England and win the gold medal

Cambridge has given me a second chance to live, not just exist (I hear you Debbie!!) and this time round I'm going to do my best to respect this body of mine - baggy and saggy like ol' BagPuss it may be. I really detest that Gillian McKeith, she irritates every bone in my body, but it's a very true maxim - "You are what you eat!"

Blimey, this is some high horse I'm on now - I've even missed Corrie cos I'm so fired up with VLCD evangelical zeal, too bad that people have to be ready to listen and not just hear to get the message!
I'll shut up now, promise (can you tell I'm not at work and am missing the adult company? ).....
A
xxxx

Ann,
Bless you! I just feel very passionate about this VLCD topic and would love to see everyone knowing about them and having more choices! You and I both know how good it feels right now - I just wish more people could too!
Love,
A
xxxx

i watched it as well and agree with everyone that they shouldnt change things because like others if they had I wouldnt have felt more compelled to lose the weight!
I do think though they should have more choice in clothes as I always found it such a nightmare to get anything that looked nice although evans have improved a lot recently.
I think alton towers are good in having the size of the seat for the ride outside the queue to test as it must be horrible to queue up for hours to find you cant fit. I think that was a good thing. x

and as for discrimintation well dont get me started! I got enough stares and abuse at 20 stone so I cant imagine how awful it is for people bigger than that.
The thing that gets me so mad is if you see an anorexic person people feel sorry for them, ok they stare but they are thinking to themselve ahh poor girl but then a 20 stone women walks past and they think eurgh what a slob. So whats the differance? They both have the same problem! an eating disorder just a differant ends of the scale. You dont often find people laughing and pointing at skinny girls do you? it makes me so mad!!! (not that i want anyone to laugh and point at them either but you know what i mean!!)

Ailsa, I dont really know what to say, you dont need to shut up!!!!
fab post hun, and made me think lots x

Wow! AKB - I just read your high horse postings! Agree with every word & very, VERY eloquent hon! I think more counselling & nutrition advice but an increase in the size of seating etc. might only prolong the problem; quite a lot of people have an embarrassing situation (flights, seats, rides etc.) that prompted them to lose weight. If everything were made bigger would that still be the case? I'd like to think so, but I suspect not!

On clothes front of this debate I have to say that I do think that there should be more shops to cater for plus size clothing! A lot of us here are gonna be losing weight for a long time - why should we pay high prices and be deprived of smart or fashionable clothing until we get to the 16-18 size range?!!!

And the truth is, even if there were shops that offered more fashionable or sexy plus size clothing - the fact is that when you looked in the mirror - you will still be overweight. Your sexy halter top would certainly look better if you were in a healthy weight range. I can't see a wider choice in clothing stopping people from losing weight...

I love clothes and I have spent a fortune on them trying to make myself feel better... But I know now that the only way for me to feel better is to lose weight and be healthy. And of course if I get to my target I get to buy a new wardrobe (I am soo shallow!!!).

And I wholeheartedly agree with all the comments here about obese people needing support! We most certainly do need guidance and support - I have been overweight my whole life and its only at age 27 that I have found a positive way to change my weight. It is all thanks to a horrible doctor who pissed me off - I can't wait to see him next time and tell him to go and f**k himself!!!!

Sorry about that - pent up rage - maybe in a few months I'll be glad my doctor was horrible to me - it was kind of the final straw. Something has changed in me, probably for the better.

I definitely agree about the clothes .... a range of well designed, well fitting, fashionable clothes would go a long way to helping overweight people feel a bit better about themselves.
Unfortunately, even the shops that DO stock bigger clothes tend to have a range of gear which are just scaled up versions of size 10 High Street fashions (low rise jeans and short tops in a size 30?? THAT'S going to look nice - NOT!). What would be great is larger clothes that suit the different problem areas ... e.g those that carry the weight on the tummy need different styles to those who carry it on their bums & hips. It seems as far as clothes designers go, big is big - end of.

When it comes to positive, practical help from the very people who SHOULD be helping - doctors, the general consensus seems to be that most of us got woefully inadequate help and some have even experienced downright negativity. Something HAS to change!

Fat Factors by Robin Marantz Henig New York Times!
Fat Factors
By ROBIN MARANTZ HENIG
Published: August 13, 2006


Fat Factors - New York Times
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I have been very much interested in this debate whether obesity might be caused by something else?

It's an interesting debate Mini but I for one am hoping I became obese purely through overeating the wrong things .... because if it's something else, something that is out of my control then chances are I'm headed straight back to Fatland once I start eating again and that thought is too horrible to contemplate!

Hi all

Sorry i've been away a while time seems to fly along and before you know it three weeks have passed! I didn't get to see that programe, but I agree that it would not be good to up size everything. I know that I withdrew from life simply because I didn't want to put myself in what i thought would be humiliating situations. This has led to a sheltered life of home and work and I'm only now getting out into the world and doing things like theme parks I should've been doing in my teens.

There does need to be a rethink of clothes, especially for younger people and at more reasonable prices. in this materialistic world fat people, or those worried about weight, are seen as a capitve market willing or having to pay top price for clothes, diet food etc they can't get elsewhere. Don't we all know the same problem of buying all the range of colours a top comes in becasue it fitted well for a change

I have noticed that when I was 21 stone I thought if only i was a size 16/14/12 or whatever I would find that perfect outfit when ever i needed it, but either i'm too choosy (or too tight with money more likely) I still can't find it that easily even though i've so many more shops to choose from! I just hope I don't replace my food addiction with shopping

I do think more needs to be done to sort out the emotional problems behind weight issues rather than concentrating on diet and exercise as the Government seems to be doing, because unless those problems are sorted out there is no chance of increaseing the % of people who loose weight and keep it off. I'm with you Ann now I'm getting there i hope to keep it off too.

I read in the paper yesterday that they are doing reserch in Austraila into why the body is so reluctant to release fat once it has been stored. They think that whilst the body has been conditiond to store fat incase of famine it has not yet learnt to cope with our modern abundant lifestyle and so resists any attempts to loose the fat through ordinary diets and exercise by creating plateaus. I suppose what VLCD's do is create the famine the body has stored the fat for. This seems to me to be a much better way of dealing with the fat then all these invasive operations such as stapling and bands.

Mary