MALADROITHIM'S PROFILE

We have been talking about this for a long time and it is very sad :(

PS I also write a ton of reviews!

So I have encountered some ideas lately about fat people. There is a concept going around that fat people are not to be blamed for being fat - they come that way naturally. There is also a movement claiming that fat people are healthier than thin people, which flies in the face of pretty much everything everyone has been told up until now.

Fat people live longer and are hardier:
http://junkfoodscience.blogspot.com/2006/11/obesity-paradox-1.html
http://junkfoodscience.blogspot.com/2006/12/obesity-paradox-2-how-can-it-be.html

Fat people are naturally fat. They are not lazy slobs. There is no known way to make a fat person permenantly thin nor vise-versa:
http://kateharding.net/2007/05/08/yes-i-like-gina-kolata/
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/05/08/healthscience/snfat.php?page=1

I am not sure what to think. I have and have seen other people gain and lose weight according the classic measurements of how they eat an how active they are. I am pretty sure that a person's weight is more or less manageable. I do believe that certain people are predisposed towards being heavier (my family for example) and that there are certain people who will always be really skinny no matter what. However, for most of us, I believe that weight is something that can be managed if you eat well and exercise.

I think this is relevant to our community because most of us are either severely underweight or severely overweight (remember the stats topic?), and many of us are interested in fitness (myself and Feld come to mind).

Most of my sources are from self-professed "fat bloggers" so it is possible they are making all of this up, and that being fat is, indeed, bad. A google search reveals a ton of results telling you that being fat is good for you and that you should be proud (BBW).

However there are all of the correlations with heart disease etc and obesity that we all know about. There is the fact that obesity has been rising at incredible rates in the Western world in conjunction with an increase in sugar, processed food, and meat consumption. This is true for America in particular!

What are your thoughts? Are you genetically predisposed one way or another? Are you underweight? Are you overweight? Do you treat your body well and have no real results? Is fatness natural, acceptable, and preferable and has Hollywood really warped our minds this much?

I am personally a very healthy weight (6'2" 168 lbs). I work to keep my body in check because I have an eating disorder. I used to weigh about 200 lbs, and that was when I ate a lot of fast food, drank a lot of beer, etc. I lost weight when I started exercising, cooking my own food, and cutting back on liquid calories. I do not know if I am predisposed one way or another. So in my case, the conventional wisdom seems true.