I've always wondered why being overweight is automatically associated with being unhealthy. It never fails that when being over weight is being discussed, most people always state the opinion that overweight people should lose weight "for their health." But what if that overweight person is already healthy?
Of course being overweight is correlated with over eating, eating unhealthy foods and lack of exercise, but I'm pretty sure not every overweight person lives such a lifestyle. There are overweight people who eat balanced diets and get regular exercise. But their bodies were simply not built for being slim.
I personally don't believe in, people being big boned or small boned and having that affect their size. But I do believe in the set point theory, which states that everyone has a set weight at which their body is at equilibrium, and when that weight is displaced by a gain or loss, the body will aim to get back to that weight.
I personally notice this in myself. My set point weight is about 150lbs. If I lose weight, I have to work very hard to maintain it or I will eventually creep right back up to 150. And conversely, if I gain weight, eventually return to 150. For my height 150lbs happens to be at the very beginning of the overweight range.
Now this is a bit of a far fetched example because at 150lbs, I can literally lose one pound and not be overweight anymore. But this is exactly why I'm using this example, because as someone who aims to eat as healthy as possible and exercise regularly, I don't think I'm any less healthy at 150lbs than I am at 149lbs. I may prefer aesthetically to weight less, but when my health practices are on point, I feel just as healthy in the healthy weight range than I do in the overweight weight range.
Not only that, but health research has been coming to find for many years that people can be thin and very much unhealthy. That they may have elevated fat as opposed to lean muscle in their bodies and suffer from ailments such as high cholesterol.
I'm not trying to put down thin people, similarly people assume when they see a thin person that they are either uber health nuts or starving themselves. But similarly that might not be the case. Everyone know at least one thin person who says they eat long a hog and never exercise. I find it hard to believe that a naturally thin person who lives on a fast food diet is healthier than a naturally overweight person who eats a balanced wholesome diet. Even though the overweight person will be looked upon as the unhealthy one no matter what.
The bottom line is, it's impossible to just look at someone and know what their lifestyle is or why they are overweight.
How do you feel about this? Do you look at overweight people and assume they are unhealthy? Do you believe it's possible to be overweight and healthy?
Comments (76)
I think I might just sit back and wait for the firestorm a-coming.
But for the record, I know people who are overweight and healthier than I. Due to thyroid problems or what have you, they're overweight, not because they have a love affair with chips or don't exercise or anything.I'm mildly guilty of it.
Not that I think every overweight person is unhealthy... but there are some people that I look at and find it very hard to believe they are healthy based on the "amount of overweight" they are. I often factor in the way their hair/skin looks as well, since diet has an effect on those (of course, they could have separate issues with those things, and that clicks after a moment, but that's not my knee-jerk reaction).
At 150 pounds, I wouldn't make that assumption about your body, OP. If you were 225 or 250, I might.
I've also found that most of the people I've really known who were heavier had poor eating habits (either eating unhealthy food or eating too much food), so that's skewed my perception of it a bit as well.
I do realize that there's a disconnect between health and weight, however I'm fighting a battle with ways I've been conditioned to think based on not only societal expectations but also based on examples from my life.
Wrong in most cases, but I mean, I'm not going to see someone who weighs 500 lbs and think anything other than unhealthy. And no, I'm not one of those ridiculous people who doesn't actually know what weights look like on people - my brother is a LARGE guy all around, and his normal, healthy weight is between 250 and 275.
But yeah. After a certain point, you literally cannot be healthy. I definitely think some people are built to be large/overweight or even possibly obese, as well as people are built to be small/underweight/etc. But if you are incapable of functioning normally due to your weight, no, that's not healthy - e.g., can't walk short distances, etc. And maybe the weight isn't the source of the problems, maybe it's a disease or whatever, but I'm also not saying I assume extremely obese people are unhealthy strictly due to their weight, but after a certain point it's quite obvious that there is something off healthwise, either a condition that causes or creates the environment for such extreme obesity (like Prader-Willi) or conditions caused by extreme obesity.
being "over"weight means you carry to much weight for your frame/muscles/organ capacity/bone structure - most likely from fat. and this is unhealthy.
Excess weight is a health risk because it is associated with higher instances of disease.
i mean, if you can clearly tell that someone is overweight then that is NOT healthy.
excess fat = excess calories consumed and NOT burned off, thus meaning it was never needed in the first place.
i also refuse to accept that some people are "meant" to be overweight. no one is meant to be that way. our bodies were not MADE to be overweight. we were designed to be constantly moving and burning calories but in todays overly sedentary world that is not often the case..meaning that more people will be overweight. but just because more people ARE that way, doesn't mean we can call it "healthy"
people try to make excuses all the time as to why they are fat because they can't accept that they are just flat out eating too much and not moving enough.
I think it's a bit difficult to say that people who are just a couple of pounds into the overweight range are unhealthy, but there definitely is a point where it becomes unhealthy.
For example, the 2 people used to illustrate this post do not look healthy to me. You can see that they have large bellies (rather than just fat thighs/bums etc.) which suggests that they will have very high levels of visceral fat around their internal organs. This is not healthy.
Re: the 'skinny fat people' thing - this merely illustrates that some people have visceral fat and you can tell just by looking at them (fat people with large stomachs) and sometimes people have it but you can't see it (inactive skinny people), but either way it is dangerous.
I do think in conversations such as this, there is a risk of confusing physical fitness and health. One must be physically fit (to a certain level) to be classed as healthy, but being fit does not make you automatically healthy. I know plenty of smokers who can run faster/longer/further than me, but I wouldn't describe them as 'healthy' because they smoke.
I also think there is a problem in that people have different definitions of health. I would not call a person healthy unless they don't smoke, don't binge drink, don't do drugs, aren't overweight, aren't underweight, eat a healthy diet, do some exercise, don't overexercise, don't have unprotected sex AND don't have any major illnesses etc. So to me, if you are obese, you will be automatically unhealthy by my definition, just as a smoker or a binge drinker will be, regardless of their other health habits.
However, other people would look at my definition and say that as long as you meet half of them, you are healthy. Other people would just say as long as you are not dying/have a horrible illness, you are healthy.
Furthermore, some people will say 'Well, you might have some rare condition which means you can't lose weight' but I would argue that this does not make the person any healthier. They might be as close to healthy as they possibly can be in the circumstances, but not truly healthy. It is not about blameworthiness. Someone might eat right/exercise/not smoke etc. but be suffering from cancer. I would not call this person healthy (obviously - they have cancer!), regardless of the fact that it's not their fault they got cancer. Health is not the same as virtue.
I don't hate BMI like some people, but it's really not the best measurement in terms of health. Height to waist ratio is much better as it is really the fat in the central areas that is unhealthy (bum/thigh fat isn't that big a deal). This should be kept so that the waist measurement *at belly button level* (not higher!) is less than half your height. So at 150 pounds, you're almost certainly fine. But if you were 250 pounds instead, you might want think about making some changes.
I think you're putting too much stock in BMI - I'm assuming that's where you're getting your statistic that for your height 149 is not 'overweight' but 150 is. I think anyone with a 'set point' that makes them obese probably has an underlying medical condition.
Doctors always urge their patients to make lifestyle changes because obesity is a major health hazard. For example, fat tissue produces more estrogen which can lead to overgrowth of other estrogen-sensitive tissues such as the endometrium, prostate, breasts, etc.
And yes, genetics can play a role but I’m sure a lot of people are just eating too much and/or leading sedentary lifestyles.
Overweight is more than often associated with excessive fat, not big bone-ness. If someone has excessive fat on their body, something is obviously not right in their lifestyle, in their biology, or a combination of both. I think that's about all that needs to be said.
@MissPixieGlitter@xanga - Exactly!
Wow really?...to some of these comments.
Overweight does not automatically equal unhealthy.
Of coarse it's possible to be over-weight and healthy, but a large majority of over-weight people aren't. Though, I'm not someone that tells anyone they need to lose weight or get healthier, because it isn't my body so I don't really give a shit.
ive always been 15lbs ova weight ever since i was 12 ive been dis size since 2002. weighing 169lbs. but i look healthy u cnt tell im ova weight either. even tho im 5'4 but now i have a thyroid condition called hyperthyroidism, well disease. graves disease but since i had surgery n had my thyroid removed which was tryin 2 kill me. i have hypothyroidism. been fightin this disease ever since i hit 20 2yrs ago. i find myself healthier at 155lb now. u can feel a difference when losin weight
well because people can't tell your weight exactly just by looking at you, I don't think people judge you for the number on the scale and therefore your BMI or whatever.
when people (including me) look at people and think they're unhealthy, it probably isn't someone like you who has good habits. it's probably someone who's obese. there's a difference between just being big and being very overweight/obese.
overweight does not automatically mean unhealthy, but the people in the photograph are not overweight, they're obese. Obesity is not healthy, but I think you can be overweight and healthy and I think we should differentiate between that.
I'm overweight and I consider myself to be fairly healthy. I workout 3-5 times a week and I try to eat healthy, but I'm still overweight.
At 150lbs I doubt that you're overweight or unhealthy.
i understand that thin people are not always fit. i, for one, am slim but not fit, by MY standards. i calculate my fitness around cardio activities. if i can't run 3 miles within 26 min, i consider myself unfit. that said, i'm fairly lenient towards the idea of overweight people considered healthy, because if you look at examples of many Polynesian people, they'd be considered overweight by our standards, but they are quite fit from daily exercise and natural foods (very important factors). however, the picture of the people you posted are clearly overweight (obese, even) and UNhealthy. the difference is the amount of body fat. muscle weighs 3x more than fat. you can be considered overweight, but have very small percentage of fat (but i am NOT talking about muscle builders here).
i find the most important and underrated aspects towards being healthy to be small daily activities that we don't make a conscious effort to adhere to. walking, for example, is greatly beneficial and could be very enjoyable with a companion or (as i prefer it), with my ipod. but i say walking, not moseying. there's a difference. my average speed is usually 7 blocks within 6 minutes. other things like taking the stairs instead of the escalator/elevator...like i said, small, seemingly inconsequential activities that count a lot towards being healthy.
I think it's possible in some cases. I happen to be oveweight myself. I don't ever have to go to the doctor and I'm hardly ever sick. I do exercise and I do try and eat well and currently trying to take off the excess pounds. I think I'm at a point where it's easier to get a lot of bad diseases, so while I may be healthy now, that could change any time. That's why I'm trying to change.
What annoys me more than anything, is when someone, who is at a healthy weight, says, "I can eat whatever I want and I never gain weight because I have a really good metabolism or genetics". No one thinks twice about that. But if someone, who is overweight tried to say the similar (bad metabolism and genetics), it gets bashed to death. One is acceptable, the other is not. Not all healthy weighted people are healthy, either, but that's more assumed too. That's just the way it is...
I have a friend who is a size 0 who eats nothing but fast food (and lots of it). I'm sure that can't be healthy in the long run...but just looking at her you'd probably think she's healthy.
I don't understand how you don't think that bone structure can affect weight. A person with larger bones that are wider set has a framework for his body which is naturally larger and wider. It's like if you were building a house - if your framework is larger and wider-apart, built to sustain more weight, you're going to be building a larger house.
So tell me why you don't think bone structure affects weight. Maybe you have a valid insight I haven't considered yet, but right now, I'm just confused.
@sonnetjoy@xanga - I was thinking the exact same thing.
Bone structure has a lot to do with the amount of weight you carry. Seriously, bones aren't weightless. It also determines how you are going to look at a certain weight a person with a small skeletal frame will look completely different from someone with a medium or large skeletal frame even if they all were the same height and weighed the same. The person with the small frame will carry more fat and or muscle than the other two because their bones are bigger and contributing to the weight. Granted a lot of overweight people claim to be big boned really have a medium sized skeletal frame and are overweight.
I do agree that not all over-weight people are unhealthy. No you can't look at someone and no what their life style is or if they are unhealthy. However, if you look like the people in the picture, the chances that you are healthy are pretty slim.
I actually read a study where they found slightly overweight people have longer life spans than people at "healthy" weights. Just something to think about.
Hell, I know a girl that's skinny and eats basically potato chips and donuts. You don't have to be skinny to be healthy, and you don't have to be fat to be unhealthy.
The two people in their pictures are not just overweight
they are obese
there is a difference in being over weight and being obese
Who assumes people who are a bit over weight are unhealthy?
This reminds me of lunch at work today... I ate a very small (but delcious salad) while this woman at a different table, who was a little taller than me and very VERY thin (so thin you'd look at her and think "wow she's really skinny"), scarfed down tons of fries and two gigantic hamburgers. I'm not sure how the world works but it's just not fair!! :(
seriously? your seriously asking this? because being overweight statistically increases your chances of developing many different health problems. (heart disease, cancer, diabetes to name a few...) its science, jeeze louise. even being somewhat overweight increases the risk for health problems. of course not everyone who is overweight is unhealthy but MOST are. its not some social predjudice, its common sense backed by SCIENCE.
Overweight is not but obese is
http://beautifullifesharing.blogspot.com/2009/02/getting-fat.html#more