One caveat with the above, PCOS causes fat more then other way around.
Obesity has trashed my body, but then there is a chicken and egg argument here, fat came as a symptom of failing bodily processes. That said, should some plump person with a 30 extra pounds be considered diseased? I think they need to be careful of the line they draw as to who is unhealthy, not everyone is going to be built lithe thin but of course on this blog, I have held the line due to my personal experiences that obesity is a disease and causes major health problems.
The more heavy you are the worse the problems but even people into the 200s have mild things to cope with. It seems to me pass a certain 180 or so mark for women, and past 200 for men, is when feet start hurting, the obesity starts weighing a person down and they "pay" for it in various ways. Fat is uncomfortable, and no size acceptance activist is going to change the fact that the fatter you are, the harder it is to get up the stairs. Many of them mean well, we don't want people treated like pariahs, like dirt, there are fat people in the mid-range sizes who live very active lives however the pretending that obesity is not part of a disease process is whistling by the graveyard in size acceptance circles, as Americans grow more fatter and sick from our toxic culture and adulterated food.
My only hope is that now they have named it a disease, is they will look at it's true causes and stop forcing treatments that have been proven failures over 40 years.
Good for you for pointing out the truth! Having an excess amount of fat is uncomfortable. I can always tell when my weight gets to high because my hips and knees hurt when I walk. That does not mean that I don't accept myself, it just means that I weigh to much.
ReplyDeleteYes it is the truth, the size acceptance world needs to admit it. The fat HURTS. Of course this is relative to how much, but it is an ignored fact. One thing I am dealing with, and this is related to trying to hold on to an active life, is I am hurting my feet, just from walking like a normal person, I am housebound this week due to heat but we had a cooler start of June and my feel felt like they had been crushed especially my left foot. I wonder even if I am breaking bones in my feet walking just from my sheer weight. Like a stress fracture. I wonder if I was insane to go to a art festival yesterday, it was at various venues where I could sit down, and where husband could drive to one by one, but I took my scooter in there and felt like my foot was going to fall off.
ReplyDelete500#peep, I read your comment on obesity as a disease at FFF. First, I want to say how pleased and proud I am to see someone point out the REAL drain on our nation's wealth, which is not you and me (I, too, am disabled).
ReplyDeleteSecond, I hope you can find help for your health problems. I'm about half your size and my problems are almost 100% due to medical negligence. I was seriously hypothyroid, undiagnosed, untreated, which led to infections, which led to physical problems I never would have had if I had ever had a responsible and thinking health care provider. I don't know what shape I would be in if I hadn't eaten superb food and supplemented heavily for decades.
It is absolutely no fun not to be able to get around and do the things you love to do, without pain. I used to be incredibly active; now I have to be very careful to get lots of rest or I set myself back from even tiny gains in well-being.
It's good to hear from a large fat person; I've realized I have small fat person privilege -- it is MUCH MUCH easier to weigh 250 pounds (and it's often assumed I weigh less). I want to read some more of your blog posts.
I am truly conflicted here. I follow some HAES principles in that I think it's good for me (allow me to stress what I think applies to my body and mine alone) to emphasis healthy food and regular exercise and not a number on a scale because when I was completely focused on the number on the scale, my life was miserable. And in pursuit of weight loss, I followed a popular, medically supervised VCLD that triggered a severe autoimmune disease that I'll live with forever.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I'd like to see more serious research put into obesity that is not focused on blaming on the victim, cutting us up with surgeries that are dangerous and don't work, and pumping us full of drugs. I don't think the answers have been found.
I guess right now, I'm more in the HAES camp, but I'm not closed off to other answers. I hope they're out there. I don't think we're meant to carry around all this extra weight, I just haven't found the alternative yet.
Thanks anon, yeah I agree about the REAL DRAIN on our nation's wealth, and neither parties will admit that one.
ReplyDeleteSorry you are disabled too.
With the health problems, I believe they have pieces of the puzzle, but haven't joined them together, keep seeing all this mention of a "metabolic problem" on medical records. Wish someone would investigate further. The kidney stones to me are further proof of out and out Cushings not just the pseudo, or some other more complex endocrine problem.
I think untreated hypothyroidism wrecks havoc, and sorry you went through that. I have cardiomyopathy as a direct result of mine, [the weight does other heart stuff] but I wonder how much of that is responsible for the insane water weight? Is your hypothyroidism being treated now? I had SERIOUS results from mine including body-wide skin sores, bald spots, etc. I of course have wonder what my life could have been with a joining together of familial early medical neglect joined together with the medical indifference of doctors. I am facing this again it seems where no one wants to diagnose or get to the ROOT of a problem. Controlled diabetics, don't just start spouting off hundreds yes I mean HUNDREDS of uric acid kidney stones.
Thanks for being empathetic about the pain, it is very hard for me, I have missed out on a lot, there are things I do where I am in pain and try to shunt it aside. The doctors actually were in absolute shock, that I got to the point of renal colic, throwing up etc, with pain of the kidney stones and never went to the hospital but my life has been a training in the taking of pain. What's a kidney stone to walking on a broken foot? LOL I hope the rest does help you where you can have some normal days. Thanks for being interested in a very large fat person's view. :)
First, I commented as anonymous because it seemed to be the only way I was able to. I'm Elizabeth!
DeleteUntreated hypothyroidism is unbelievable. I have eaten superlatively most of my life -- when I was young, my mother provided excellent food, then she became diet-obsessed and I missed out on important nutrition as my body was growing -- which is fortunate because I could be in much worse shape.
I have not experienced some of the awful things you have. I got a kidney infection from a ridiculous source and my depressed immune system could not cope. Then my PCP was so obsessed with my weight (180#?) that she must not have noticed the bacteria in the urinanalysis she did. For two years I walked around with the infection until my vertebra slipped due to losing muscle tone which was supporting my injured spine (from serious horseback riding).
Next major infection was pelvic inflammatory disease, which nearly killed me. By the time I went to the ER, I had peritonitis and bowel obstructions. Several months later I had a complete hysterectomy and felt fantastic for the first time in years. But then a car accident, infected mesh put in me for hernia repair, part of mesh removed (I've been living with drainage for 10 years from the mesh remaining), and finally a PCP who treated the hypothyroidism. But I had to threaten her to get a second grain added, and finally my swollen thyroid shrank to normal size. I simply told my current PCP that he was going to prescribe three grains and he did. So my hypothyroidism is treated, but I am left with problems, including fibromyalgia, that probably wouldn't have occurred with proper treatment in the first place.
Getting to the root of your problems -- that is it! My husband is an RN and he is stunned by how doctors think they have no responsibility for the patient, only the single part they are treating. I wouldn't mind weighing what I weigh if 1) I didn't have this mesh inside me, and 2) my now-huge hernia could be repaired. I've ridden, hiked, canoed, at this weight. But, once again, 250 pounds isn't so difficult to cope with.
You sound like you have incredibly high pain tolerance, which can not work well for one, as I can testify. The surgeon who saved my life was emphatic that I stop being so pain-tolerant. Has anyone said anything to you about this?
Have you ever read Adelle Davis? I went back to her book, Let's Get Well, recently because my hands started scaling and peeling due to stress. The PCP of course gave me topical steroids; I wanted to get to the root of the problem and am taking flush-free niacin which is clearing up my skin. She has an entire chapter about kidney stones and I will read up on what she says about uric acid stones. The book is from the past, but there were excellent nutritional studies done 60 to 90 years ago that they could never do today (due to expense).
So sorry you have been through those horrible things. I do think something bad is happening to the medical world. It kind of scares me how I have to manage every step, and I wonder what will happen to me if I am not well enough for multiple phone calls. A lot of the doctors don't seem interested in diagnosing anymore and/or getting to the root of things. It sounds like a lot of your problems could have been alleviated if they got to the root of things. Do they not teach them to do this in medical school anymore. With me how much can be wrong with one person? I mean losing most of my hearing, kidney stones, why not think in the whole systemic way rather then the piece meal way? Sorry you have to deal with the mesh. I have a hernia that hasn't needed surgical intervention, Thank God.
DeleteI told mine some months before I was OFFICALLY diagnosed I thought I had kidney stones and one even said that was part of whole grain bread I was digesting, small ones. Fibromylgia does seem to accompany hypothyroidism, I am not sure how that works but have noticed it happening in many woman I know.
I would like to read the Adelle Davis book. It does seem I am going to have to do my own research about what is happening to me. I feel out of my league because I know nothing about kidneys, I have Merck manuals etc, scattered about the apt. I can't stay on allopurinol the rest of my life. [that's the drug holding off new kidney stones] I think there was more wisdom in the past now forgotten, doctors seemed more interested in actually diagnosing people. I did suffer from the kidney stone pain, maybe I fear the hospital more then pain? :0 LOL :p PTSD sometimes tells me to stay home that its easier to suffer in bed rather then deal with the emotional and other trauma of the hospital. They did tell me to go to hospital next time but in my case, I think of the bills. I am already up to eyeballs in doctor bills. Guess I have the rule to go to ER I have to be acutely dying, fever over 104, and/or unable to breathe. I actually haven't been in the hospital on an emergency basis in 6 years but have gotten intensive nursing care at home etc. I don't think they are happy with that, but I guess sometimes with all my problems I see the unfamiliar hospital doing more damage to me. Does that make sense? Those not familiar with severe obesity, it could be a nightmare.
Hi Kate,
ReplyDeleteNot everything about HAES is bad, I do think that it is a good thing to emphasis healthy food and exercise, I just think it is limited and have written about my issues with it, that for the very severely fat, and perhaps for the smaller fat, something is "broken" and not working right and no amount of healthy exercise or good food is going to fix the problem though it certainly can't hurt to try, there is far more going on with obesity including our toxic environment and adulterated food, which is ignored by HAES and much of the size acceptance movement in their promotion of fat.
http://fivehundredpoundpeeps.blogspot.com/2012/06/is-haes-white-flag.html
I believe those VCLDs are dangerous. The body usually just drops the metabolism. I get sick when I try to do severe diets or bear "hunger pain" past a certain point and have been stuck in that nether world of being able to drop the calories low enough for this body to deal with them properly. I hope you are managing your autoimmune disease, I have them too, and they are no fun.
I'd like to see some serious research on obesity too, done by honest researchers who are interested in real help and not just profit for the megacorporations or fearing getting in the way of their repeat profits and repeated business. I have to admit I was very disheartened to see so much being poured into WLS which I think is a failed dangerous method promoted because of the huge amount of money they make with each surgery. I would like to see real help TOO! Thanks for making that point.
http://fivehundredpoundpeeps.blogspot.com/2011/02/letter-to-obesity-researchers.html
The surgeries bring nothing but suffering, do not guarantee success and basically just bring the fat person new digestive illness and feelings of unwellness such as puking your guts up everyday "to be thin". The blaming the victim garbage needs to stop today to get REAL ANSWERS. How come none of these guys ever address the differing hunger levels of the fat? Why is that never addressed?
http://fivehundredpoundpeeps.blogspot.com/2013/05/fat-city-and-this-is-why-fight-against.html
Thanks for being open to other answers. I just want real help for fat people. I don't want people to suffer anymore. You are right we are not meant to carry around this extra weight, not at all.
http://www.aeonmagazine.com/being-human/david-berreby-obesity-era/ - I think you'll like this article.
ReplyDelete