Too Fat to Graduate?

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Meh, we already had ours up here. I ate a lot of turkey! Hope you 'Mericans do the same! Especially those of you who, like myself, already have your degrees.

 

Crap, I haven't graduated yet, but I just ate a supreme-load of sweet rolls and pies.

 

No, that's my point actually. He's not morbidly obese or, at this point, probably even unhealthily obese. He would make a nice bouncer or line backer, though, especially with his martial arts training.

 

Martial arts skills come in handy for linebackers?

 

Didn't you know? It's a war out there. Sounds like he'd be a bit short for a linebacker, though.

 

Hey, that just gives him a lower center of mass, right?

 

and likewise...

Unless universities in Canada is very different from the ones I'm familiar with, I was required to take a TON of courses that had no bearing on my degree. My degree in biochemistry, and of the 138 credits I needed to graduate, only 60 of them had anything to do with science. College and universities already require you to take a great many courses that have no bearing on your future career.

I never thought of that, but yeah, you're right. Of course, we're not too strict with Jack when it comes to what he eats. He cannot have a candy bar for dinner, or anything like that, but we buy the bags of Hershey's miniatures, and he knows he's allowed two of them every night for a snack. (Two of the little candies, not two bags!)

Agreed. I'm 5'9" and 195 pounds, so very comparable. I could stand to lose some weight, and I certainly would be considered overweight, but I'm not obese by any means.

 

I'm only 5'2" but weight 144lb. Most people will say I do not look overweight, my measurements are healthy and doctors and nurses all tell me that I'm good and fine.

However if you look at government reccomendations they are not the same as medical reccomendations. (Technically medical ones are meant to be based on what the government thinks is a good idea, surely it should be the other way round? )

For healthy eating, that truly is a parental issue more often than not. A lot of schools teach about healthy eating and different fruits and vegetables - a lot of the children find it interesting - but I've even seen parents complaining that the school is trying to force the parents to buy 'expensive products' for their children... such as apples... those highly exotic and costly to import things!

Also with the healthy eating initiative from the government banning certain foods you had parents smuggling in chips, chocolate and crisps to their kids through school railings complaining the government was trying to stop their kids having fun and having nice food. (Irony being some of the 'health foods' reccomended as alternatives had higher fat content than the chocolate bars they replaced)

Schools, colleges and universities need to ensure that there is ample opportunity to get involved in fitness, not necessarily manditory, but encouraged and offered sympathetically and with encouragement. It is a matter that is difficult to force - you can't stop a student from eating what they want outside of a classroom, you can only give them all opportunities and allow them to take responsibility.

 

The problem with recommendations is that some of them are not appropriate for all. For example, the GDA (Guideline Daily Amount) is commonly used, at least in Europe, in food packages etc. to tell how much calories, vitamins etc. the product has (as a percentage of this GDA). The healthy calorie intake per day in GDA is 2000 kcal, which is perfect IF you happen to be about 5'5/145 lb, 25 year old woman, who does little physical work or exercise. Most people don't fit to this category. There are own GDA:s to children and a more general recommendation to adults (with calorie intake ranging from 1940 to 2570 per day). I'm 6'4/220 lbs. and my average daily energy consumption is about 3500 kcal. Somehow I have the feeling that I'd be too skinny if started eating along those recommendations .

The same applies to BMI; if you're shorter or taller than average, or have some muscle mass, it's not that useful. As said above, many athletes (or bouncers) have BMI over 30.

However, some aspects of these recommendations are useful: for example the GDA values also tell the amounts of protein, fat, fiber, natrium and so on. And of course there are some guidelines, which apply to all. Eat your vegetables

 

BMI scales with height, though that's the only thing I've seen it scale with. I'm on the upper end of healthy (not quite overweight) according to the BMI, and I admit I could stand to loose a few, but I also think I'm a bit wider across the shoulders than most 6'0" people, and I think I'm a bit closer to my ideal body weight than they say. Well, a bit at least.

8People, 5'2" and 144? Either you're overweight or have denser tissue (which can happen if you have muscle mass). My wife is 5'7" and 140lb and is pretty fit. We could both convert a little of that fat into muscle, and she gripes every now and then that she used to weigh 120, but I think we're both doing well.

 

Wow NOG -- what did peeps do to you to deserve such a rude comment? That comment was as close as I've ever come to giving a neg rep. You may not have been thinking clearly about what you said or simply did not care the affect it might have on a person. I really hope a mod (or you) will cut it out before peeps reads it.

My daughter, who is 5'2" was at 130# in high school and nowhere near overweight -- she was also slender in the legs and hips. I would say the 125-135# range would have been ideal for her build, with a slightly different build (average hips and more muscular legs) 144# would be a very good weight.

"Pretty fit" is such a generic statement but 140# at 5'7" is still quite slender. The ex was 5'8" and 120# and looked like a rail (she still does, my middle finger and thumb could touch when wrapped around her upper arm). Mrs Bruno (who was a DIV 1A starting guard in college) was 160# when she was in GREAT shape, she's 5'8" tall.

 

Re-reading that, it did come off much harsher than I had intended. I've edited it so that I hope it sounds less harsh. Now I'm just worried I sound like an awkward idiot, but that's preferable.

As for body statistics, while my wife is no where near obese, or even overweight, she isn't "slender", either. I'm just thinking, physically speaking, if that's 5'7" and 140, and 8 is 5 inches shorter and the same weight, there's either a difference in density or in breadth or width. My wife doesn't have a whole lot of muscle mass, of course, so the difference in density may very truely be the issue.

 

All that is still pretty callous, NOG.

 

With luck, we can pad the thread.

I'm 5'9" and 238 pounds of soft, mushy loveableness. I'm overweight by any form of measurement. However, I work a steady job (2 of them in fact*) and I pay my taxes. I also contribute to charities. On the rare occasions I ride the bus, I always give my seat to a pregnant woman or a senior citizen. I shower on a daily basis, and the clothing I wear covers all of my body, so no one can be grossed out by my bare skin. I see the doctor about 4 times a year, primarily to renew my thyroid medication. This is not above average for Canada, and thus I am not a drain on the medical system. All in all, I am a net contributor to society, meaning that I give more to the society than I take out. I do not inconvenience anyone. I go out of my way to avoid making life more difficult for any of my fellow citizens.

Therefore, to anyone** who has a problem with the way I look or thinks I should change to become more like they are, to them I say "You have a right to think whatever you wish. But keep your effing nose out of my effing business (unless I ask for your help) and work on whatever flaws you might have in either your body or mind. Believe me, you have them -- if you ask me I'll be glad to tell you, but I'm not so effing arrogant as to volunteer such opinions. Do me the same courtesy and we'll get along fine. Otherwise, I'll sit on you!"

*I have to work two jobs to finance all the food I eat, right? I thought I'd get there before anyone else did.

**This includes government agencies, educational institutions, employers, NGOs and religious organizations, as well as private individuals.

 

I trust a medical opinion over a person on the internet who has never seen me and is going on two basic measurements without knowledge on weight distribution or body build. The curtesy of a correctly typed username wouldn't go amiss, however.

I actually got more hassle when I was 98lb than now, and I still get told that I feel boney at being a bit over 10st

LKD, a strong viewpoint, and admirable for standing up for yourself. I have rarely had sympathy for the alternative view I've seem some girls have had before (at university! Not even high school!)

A girl ate herself until she was hospitalised - her reasoning? Nobody told her to stop eating. She expected people to tell her what to do, how to eat, how to excersize and just simply went self destructive. Needless to say she was diagnosed with a couple of mental health issues that had been neglected to be addressed. Otherwise assistance would have been provided for her - support from a special division of the university which would help her plan meals, teach her how to use the on campus excersize facilities.

If in the induction week of university there was information on budgeting for healthy meals (even a small recipe book made available, I know of a couple in print and online) and the use of local or on-campus facilities was covered the ignorance card could not feasibly be played by any student - issues or no.

GDA are also GDA instead of RDA (recomended) because of the 'fluffy' maths applied to it. At one point there was a booklet supposed to be available in supermarkets in the UK that had how to calculate how much of each nutrient you should try and accomidate for WHILE you were shopping... Needless to say it lasted about two weeks. A cute idea in premise, but impractical in their intended execution.

Most universities in the UK now make sure all their on-campus catering meets with healthy ideals and fairtrade more often than not (Helped by a lot of students leaving home and feeling they should change the world with their new course by being fairtrade only... then realising the cost) However there are also more often than not a lof of other establishments with cheap, quick food with great student discounts, and all the healthy eating options of a lard factory.

 

One of the things I pride myself on is the ability to admit the truth. When I see someone who is over 300 pounds, and none of it is muscle, say "I don't have a weight problem", well. denial ain't just a river in Egypt. But if they say "Yeah, I'm fat. I fail to see what business that is of yours -- if you want to point out flaws, your mustache makes you look like a 70s porn star" I say "yeeeehhhhaaawwww! Stick to 'em!"

 

Man, I wish I had a mustache that made me look like a 70s pornstar. Best mustaches ever, those and the ones Nietzche and Stalin had, class act mustaches. Just for the record seeing as we are sharing and I have not really weighed myself in quite some time but I am 185cm tall and I would guess I weigh around 120kg which in heathen units is 6.1" and 264lbs. Quite overweight, in the obese zone even and I can't say I am completely comfortable but neither does it really inconvience me in any other way except make me feel slightly less attractive to the ladies.

 

I just have to say, all in all, I really stuck my foot in it up there. I appologize if I offended anyone, especially you, 8People. I'm honestly not even sure what I was trying to say any more.
*jumps in a lake*

 

Just don't forget to strap on your PFD first! (I hear that bricks work really well.)

 

I was thinking a lead-lined breathing apparatus, but bricks are probably easier to find.