This is, like, the Zombie thread that keeps coming back to life, just when you think you finally killed it.

Levi hasn't been around since summer 2002.

LMAO...Return of the Living Levi part V!

LOL, Glad he is gone!!!!

Well not sure if Levi is reading or not but I took a visual survey while at Burger King yesterday. We rarely go out to a place like that but had the grand kids with us. Of the about 30 people there I would classify maybe 3 as obese and 5 needing to lose 10 pounds. The rest were thin so maybe he just was looking at a screen loaded with people heavy who knows. Were not all fat over here in fact many are in great shape.

Did you become hypothyroid from taking anti-thyroid pills, radioactive iodine uptake, or from undiagnosis? I am currrently on methimazole for Grave's Disease for the past 3 months now. I am always feeling fatigued, I'mreally worried I'm gonna become hypothyroid and gain more weight. I gained 5 lb since I started the meds.

I am not offended at all by the question... I am a new here, but still would like to throw in my thoughts.
I was never heavy growing up, very normal weight and also very active. I played every sport available to me including gymnastics, volleyball, soccer, baseball, track and field, field hockey and basketball. I never thought about food. I ate whatever I wanted when I was hungry. I don't ever remember food being an issue growing up, I was raised in a middle-upper income family, so the low income = obesity is not true for me. After University - still weighting in at around 125 pounds, I started my first office job. I sat all day. Starting dating my husband - who loves food and always needs good quality and big quantities. I gained 10 pounds per year over the last 8 years... Does anyone really notice gaining a pound a month? I sure didn't. So, my activity basically stopped, I sat on my butt all day and I ate a lot. I stopped getting on the scale, and then I finally hit the big 200 mark. I always thought the same thing as Levi - How do people get so big? Well, it happens by living and by changing of our lifestyle. It is not a conscious thing that we do. The hardest part is admiting that I am obese, but I have and now I am on the road to good health and good living.

I don't know how anyone could get upset about Levi asking a question about how'd we get obese. If you got upset, I would suggest you immediately get referrals to counseling. You wouldn't be upset if he'd asked "how'd you get so thin." I'm fat, obese, chubby, porky, thick, etc. etc. I'd rather someone ask me an honest question than to dance around a subject of interest (unless it's money or religion or my sex life).

I think that's because no one "normal" perceives there to be anything wrong with being thin.

Levi may be long gone, but his question is probably one that every single person on this board has asked of him/herself at some point. This is an excerpt from a Q&A forum sponsored and answered by the Cornell University Cooperative Extension:

Q. My question is - are there any studies or is there any evidence that the increased availability of bread and refined carbohydrate products (usually low in cost and readily available anywhere) has contributed to the increased incidence of obesity in this country? Also, is the increased prevalence of adult obesity directly related to the increased incidence of childhood obesity here?
A.The relationship between diet and obesity is a tough one. Many people have looked for such a relationship and have been unable to find one. In fact, there are some data showing that obese people eat less sugar and refined carbohydrates than their leaner peers. There is even a debate about calories. Most researchers have not found an increase in caloric intake with increasing body weight. Several researchers, including our own work, have found that intake increases with lean body mass, and not total weight. The only consistent finding between diet and obesity is that obese adults and children eat a high percent of their calories as fat. It is important to point out, however, that this is intake after they are obese. What is most important is what do they eat just prior and during their weight gain. We just don't know.

Hmm it was a combination of many things really and I'm not sure I can attribute them all. In a nutshell...I had to move to NC right before middle school and I was depressed. Then I never really "fit in" in middle school and got even more depressed. Though I I had some friends, all male of course, I got rejected every time by girls...guess it kept packing on as a result.

In highschool I gained a newfound respect for self reliance, determination, and self improvement and devoted myself from Sophomore year and on to bettering myself. Now in my second semester of college I've nearly met my goals after doing Atkins off and on and finally returning, this time to stick it out, this past January.

Ironically now that I'm nearly at my goal some of those girls are at my university are coming to realize now want me...I obviously don't give them the time of day .

I've never been overweight, just to use that as a qualifier right from the get-go

I agree there was some tact needed but in my opinion (and I realize I will probably get mega-flamed) for this, we are OVERLY conscious of the self-esteem of people who are morbidly obese

I'm not suggesting that we should be going up to anyone on the street who needs to lose 40 pounds and tell them, but when someone in your immediate circle of friends/relatives is MORBIDLY obese, you should feel able to discuss it with them as you would any other life-threatening problem (alcoholism, drug addiction, etc)

But most of the time we keep quiet, because in our society even saying "Have you ever considered joining a gym?" to an overweight person, EVEN IF THEY ARE A GOOD FRIEND/RELATIVE OF YOURS, is considered a crime punishable by death. We are expected to pretend that this person looks absolutely fabulous and is not doing anything to risk their health, because how unfortunate if it hurt their self esteem

I don't want to make anyone feel awful, but I do have a good friend who is morbidly obese, and I'd really like to help. Yet I say nothing because of these social norms. How is that helping her? From the stories I've read here, a lot of people who've succesfully lost weight did so after hearing a really negative comment about their weight. So isn't addressing the problem the right thing to do?

Apologize if I've offended anyone, thats not my intention and as I've stated, I have no way of knowing how being morbidly obese feels

I'm just curious as to what you think "saying something" is supposed to accomplish. Without an ounce (as it were) of exaggeration, I can tell you I was born overweight, and have been overweight every day of my life. Do you think you have any words of wisdom I haven't heard from friends, relatives, doctors, strangers on the street, read in books, seen on TV, seen in films? Do you think that these morbidly obese people are simply waiting for you to tell them they have a problem? Once you speak the magic words, they will slap themselves on the foreheads and say, "Wow, I have a problem. I never knew that before!"?


Joining a gym? I almost certainly know more about physical fitness than you do, and have spent far more time in the gym and exercizing than you have. I used to be able to bench press 300+ pounds, walk 2 hours to a gym, play basketball for 6 hours a day, then take a two hour walk home. I still weighed well over 250 pounds.

What really annoys me about your post, by the way, isn't the gross ignorance of it (ignorance is something we all suffer from in one area or another), but rather, the implication that fat people have simple solutions to the problem but simply refuse to adopt them. Most obese people have been told this their entire lives ("You just need willpower!"); it is only now that science is coming to the conclusion that food addiction and obesity are diseases, and there are no easy cures. I suggest you take a look around this site, and really listen to the anguish, the feelings of frustration and self loathing that you can find everywhere. I guarantee you that no one needs to be told by you they have a weight problem, and I also guarantee you that "going to a gym," or merely being told to do so, isn't going to solve anything.