"I'm not 'obese,' I'm 'festively plump!'"

If you want to see the obesity epidemic first-hand, check into a random hotel in Orlando or Houston and settle into a chair in the lobby. The skinny folks look as though they risk being eaten.

 

Did you consider that many of those overweight or obese people may actually be eating salads with low-fat dressing, or a baked potato on the side instead of french fries? Maybe they're drinking iced tea instead of pop. Ever think that maybe they walked to that restaurant even though they could've taken the car or public transit?

No, apparently it's easier to assume that, just because they're in a restaurant, they're fucking gluttons loading up on super-sized double Big Mac combos. You know, just to make it even more difficult for the heart to struggle to pump blood through all that excess weight.

Overweight by whose standards, though? As I've said, the Body Mass Index table is flawed, which means that 65 per cent figure is also flawed if that's what is being used to determine who is "overweight."

 

doubleJ-Most fat people are fat because they eat too much and don't exercise enough.

 

Festively plump? Don't you mean horizontally challenged?

 

Obesity is like that fat fuck Jesse Helms once said about obscenity: "I know it when I see it."

 

I'm with stupid.

 

That may be so, but judging someone based only on their size denigrates those people who have made a commitment to get more exercise and correct their eating habits but perhaps haven't yet begun to show the results of those lifestyle changes. Or maybe they've already lost 10 pounds but still have 30 to go.

I'm all for telling it like it is and not sugarcoating the words "fat" or "obese," but the truth is that fat people know they're fat and really don't need the rest of the world to keep reminding them of it or to judge them because of it.

 

Oh, living in the south, I can usually tell who the ones are that got fat because they stuff their jowls with pork and its many by-products and drive to the end of the driveway to pick up their mail and the ones who are large for genetic or glandular reasons.

 

Now that's funny.

 

It's not so funny if you're in the buffet line behind them.

 

JJ, you're absolutely right. Our friend from Central Illinois would have weighed 350 at some point, still plenty big, and would have been headed in the right direction by fifty pounds.

However, you and I have both seen big folks turning over buffets.

Now, you might say that's not my business -- and like you say, they don't need to hear that they're big. They already know as much. But at least in Canada, it's a societal problem. We spend money and do plenty of nagging to get people to stop smoking and to drink less, because it costs all of us -- it costs everyone who pays taxes and uses the health care system. Well, the same goes for the grossly overweight. Their weight affects me, and not just when they ask to lift the armrest between us on a flight. So while I can be humane in hoping that people who need to lose weight lose it, and I can offer my full support to them, I'm not going to give a 400-pound dude sitting down to his fourth plate of fried chicken a hug and and a pat on the ass. I don't care if he's tired of hearing that he's obese. Maybe it's the 1,000th time he's told that it finally clicks.

It took that kind of tough love to wake up Central, and he, his family, and in some small way, everyone around him is better off for it.

All that being said, I wasted a milestone post on "I'm with stupid," so take my rambling for what it's worth.