Exercise While Hugely Fat

I wish I had a garden or a yard to go putter in, somehow waltzing around an apartment parking lot, isn't thrilling for the exercise factor. I wish there was a place where a 500lb woman could go do weights or have an exercise bike specially made for them. If they really cared about having us fat people lose weight, why not reach us half way? I was able to get help from physical therapists to get moving and lift can weights and further my walking able to do it slowly without falling over, so now I can walk twice as far as I used to be able to. I heard the idea of buying a wii and doing the personal workouts. Heck even the fishing and bowling games are exercise for me. If only I could afford one, maybe later.

Anyhow I endeavor to try and get more exercise and get a more active life. In my mind, sometimes I think the apartment life stinks, and I dream of gardening in a yard well as much as possible. Need to act on making more of this happen, if only money wasn't so short. Maybe I can get some ideas from this guy: "How Does a Super Super Obese Man Exercise"? There are days I could just spend in bed. I stand to do the dishes, I walk the length of the apartment building everyday and lift can weights, yes I know most people my size are wheelchair bound which scares me. People don't realize just moving this body around hurts, and sometimes just getting through an ordinary day, is hard. But exercise did improve one of my heart conditions, and well my stamina is better. So couldn't I take it further? If only I'd start losing more and faster.

Warm Houses in Winter May Contribute to Obesity Epidemic

Well maybe it is a factor, but somehow the solution of freezing to death to lose weight sounds pretty noxious. "Warm Houses in Winter May Contribute to the Obesity Epidemic" But it makes one wonder what other factors are out there, besides the bad frankenfood, could "modern" life in general via lack of sunlight, warm houses that keep the body from having to fire up the engine and even 24/7 light affect fat? It's an interesting study, at least here is one study where they are thinking outside the box. [The best studies are coming from overseas, and this one is from Britain]

"Increased time spent indoors, widespread access to central heating and air conditioning, and increased expectations of thermal comfort all contribute to restricting the range of temperatures we experience in daily life and reduce the time our bodies spend under mild thermal stress -- meaning we're burning less energy. This could have an impact on energy balance, and ultimately have an impact on body weight and obesity," study author Fiona Johnson, a researcher in the department of epidemiology and public health at University College London, said in a UCL news release."

From Cowcake Blog: "Obesity Boondooglers"

Another blogger response to my "Letter to Obesity Researchers" below an an article entitle "Obesity Boondooglers" and makes a very good point:

"Indeed, one wonders the exact same about the science of obesity which shows such utter lack of urgency as I've never encountered from a field that has talked up the lethal nature of the adipose cell to the extent where it can secure mucho funding, which is when seemingly all said 'urgency' peters out.

Not to mention its utter lack of vocation, intellectual curiosity or even real respect for reason perhaps even science which they seem to turn into a parody of itself. It has disgusted me to the point that I can barely stand to be in contact with it.

As 500poundpeeps states;


When I looked into this stuff, this was the late 90s, I couldn't find ONE study that had taken the severely obese over 400-500lbs and actually seriously studied them.

That is almost as appalling as weight loss butchery 'cos as everyone knows even if you have only a cursory interest in any topic, what's one of the first things you want to know? How bad can it get? What's the most, the least, the greatest, most extreme outlandish example of it"

Good point, it is appalling. Lately I wonder if there are any groups I could bring this to the attention of. Sometimes I think they want fat people to feel as much pain as possible to lose weight. In the back of mine, I think they aren't studying us, because the pain and suffering of obesity makes too much money to really help "solve it". When I get time, that blog entry is going to be forwarded to a few out there.

Letter to Obesity Researchers

Dear Obesity Researchers:

I will begin this letter with the caveat and admission, I do not know of all the research being done, but there are problems I am seriously concerned about. I also am not a scientist but I know when something seems to be missing and when the concentration seems to be all in the wrong places.

Years and years ago, when I was looking into why I gained so much weight, I wrote letters to obesity researchers. [wish I kept some of the names], please help! I did find a medical reporter who did help me, found out about PCOS, so all my efforts did have a good outcome. Finding out about PCOS and other endocrine problems definitely bought me more years of life. During this time, I used to scour Pub med. Personal research saved my life as I have earlier detailed on this blog.

When I looked into this stuff, this was the late 90s, I couldn't find ONE study that had taken the severely obese over 400-500lbs and actually seriously studied them. Ok, there may be some limits, they are immobile, often ill with co-morbs galore, but every other condition is studied in it's most extreme forms why not obesity? Could some of you please study us with the motive to help the severely obese?

Sometimes I want to ask, do obesity researchers really want to help people or is all the research now financed to feed the belly of the diet-industry complex? Am I going into conspiracy land to ask this? It kind of bugs me when I see so much of the research for a new product or related to weight loss surgery. I know one has to get funding for research but could someone please think outside the box for once. Is the future of treatment for obesity restricted to risky weight loss surgery?

More and more I think fat people [especially super obese] are physiologically different but this is horribly denied. Diet, exercise and lose weight and supposely the formula applies to EVERYONE. Sorry guys, but it is failing. This tells me more research needs done. Back in the 1800s, they used to admit that people had different metabolisms, some even far lower then others, what happened to that? Can any of you admit these physiological differences? Maybe some of you already have, but it's not affecting society much. They still expect all bodies to function the exact same.

I remember satiety issues even used to be mentioned far more, where has that research gone? Looks like some studies are being done, but you never see satiety mentioned in the regular medical news anymore except in terms of a new product. [That sounds all well and good, but probably all they will do is add some bulking fiber to the food--remember brown rice fills you up faster then white]

When I go to Pubmed and do a search of "severe obesity" [so much is bariactric surgery related]. It looks like the horses are getting more real research then humans. There's plenty of studies detailing the health outcomes of obesity or seeing if obesity is correlated with certain conditions such as in this one. We already know obesity in severe forms rips the body apart, now please find something that will help solve the problem.

Weirdly it seems its mainly to be the Chinese and others dealing with issues of metabolism. Well Western researchers need to step up.

Now this really bothered me...

I searched for studies citing "super-obesity" and got 293 hits on Pubmed. Over 200 [I counted 203] are weight loss surgery related! There are some mice studies on metabolism thrown in, sociological studies regarding fast food poor people and children, affect of conditions and medical procedures on the superobese--the ill effects from all the weight loss surgery--the cart these researchers seem to have put all their eggs in are scary enough, but really few studies on how they came to be that way in the first place!

Sorry guys, I see a total bias in that!

I have to admit these folks are on to something:[quote taken from here]

Gard and Jan Wright argue in a review of obesity research that “obesity research itself has become so entangled with moral discourses and aesthetic values that the ‘science of obesity’ can no longer speak for itself.”

Why isn't anyone caring to find out, how fat bodies [especially super-sized ones]really function?

I suppose this really doesn't surprise me:

BIRMINGHAM, Ala.—Researchers at the University of Alabama (UAB) at Birmingham School of Public Health say a “white-hat bias” abounds in obesity research, and may skew reported results. White-hat bias is described as the “tendency to distort information about products regardless of the facts, when the distortions are perceived to serve good ends.”
In the case of obesity research, results may be misrepresented by scientists operating with particular biases on topics related to weight, nutrition and the food industry, as well as biases toward products like sugar-sweetened beverages, and practices like breastfeeding, according to the UAB study

There are a few of you thinking outside the box, not letting lies about obesity blind you, but there needs to more in that category.

Some questions to ask yourselves as you go forth with more research:

If we do not know these things, then how can anyone help fat people?

1. Why are fat people hungrier?

2. Why do some people stop at a certain weight and some keep gaining?

3. Why with even the pressure of immobility, severe health problems and worse etc, do so many people fail in losing weight?

4. What is the actual human range in metabolism?

5. Why is so much of the research focused on weight loss surgery? Surely other options should be explored?

6. Why can't more people admit that fat bodies operate differently then thin ones?

It's time to really study the severely obese, this country is getting fatter, and more needs done. Some out there need to do a LOT BETTER.

Update: I would be diagnosed with stage 4 Lipedema in 2014.  

From another blog: "Swept Under the Rug of Size Acceptance"

Here is an article from the FatPinkMonkey blog, "Swept Under The Rug of Size Acceptance". She addresses many of the issues I had previously with HAES, which now I am discussing different issues, per this article. One thing right now I am discussing some of these issues with a leader in HAES who I am having a very good discussion with but it continues my theme, that what applies to more moderately fat and functional people may not apply to the super sized. She does point out something I experienced in size acceptance, the fact that when you get "too big" you are seen as NOT belonging. I heard the but "there is a limit" line too.

Feeding into the isolation I felt in such a large body were the comments of "oh, yeah I like big girls, but there IS a limit", "We don't want to hear about the problems of fat people not being able to wipe their a**" ect. It's actually very common! Fat people hate fatter people. If you have ever seen a fat person and thought to yourself, or actually asked someone else, "I'm not THAT fat, am I?" Then you are guilty of this.

One thing I never have talked about on this blog, is that in the world, the people I fear the most ire and judgement from isn't always the thin but the midsized, who sometimes will run from the super sized and ostracize them, fearing that one day they could be us. She is right there are those fat people who do hate fatter people. This isn't everyone of course, but it is really a problem out there.

I have my own beliefs about weight loss surgery, but totally understand why people make this decision, being super sized is very difficult. You become more immobile, you lose semblance of a normal life, people are going to grab on to any rope that has the possibility to save them.

Fat Kids More Likely to be Bullied

"Fat Kids More Likely to Be Bullied" Ah tell me about that one. Did someone have to really do a study to figure that one out? I've done blog entries talking about my time in school already. Fortunately my parents didn't punish me if I fought bullies, I dare say my abuse would have been far worse if I couldn't. One thing tell your kid to admit they are fat, say to bullies,"Yeah I'm fat so what?", that can deflate them, but if it gets too bad, teach them to stand up for themselves.

Want to know how many fat kids I saw bullied where even the teachers were okay with it or helped add to the fracas? Quite a few. The article says have fat kids get into extracuricular activities to have them not focus on their weight, but if everyone around them continually focuses on it, how is that going to get better? I found this of interest too:

When we started this study, I really suspected that we might find that the obesity or overweight might not be the driving force," says the lead author of the study, Julie Lumeng, M.D., a professor of pediatrics at the University of Michigan, in Ann Arbor. "What we found is that it didn't matter. No matter how good your social skills, if you were overweight or obese you were more likely to be bullied."

What is scary is there are far more fat kids, and it hasn't stopped the bullying! Maybe the fat kids should team up.

Diabetes Frightens Me

The other day, my general practitioner told me I have to go to a diabetes specialist. I'm scheduled to go in a couple weeks. Some scary things about me and diabetes. She wasn't too happy to take a sugar about 45 minutes after I ate--non fasting, that blew the 260 mark.

When I eat less carbs, the sugars go up, when I eat too little, the sugars go up, when I exercise, the sugars go up. It makes a person think what am I supposed to do? I have only "gone out of control" twice,and they say they want to make me wait for insulin. The A1c for me usually averaged around 6.8. Now its 7.3. I'm already on a ton of meds. Life gets awful when your doctor says "You have to go to the endocrinologist and diabetes doctor, so they can figure out new meds or adjust them!"

Taking blood sugars, you think of your eye balls being eaten, and kidneys failing, 145, 167, 176...this week's list of numbers that condemn, and inside my brain is that little voice...[left over from years of abuse being fat]..."This is happening because you failed to lose enought weight, you fat so and so"! "How dare you eat anything!" But then from years of trial and error, not eating jacks up the sugars too, because the liver dumps insulin, and that gives high readings as well.

Even in the doctors eyes, you imagine them thinking "That fat person needs to stop eating those cartons of ice cream and 5 hamburgers at a sitting"[well I'm not] but you can tell they are thinking it. One doctor told me to give up the chocolate and cheese years ago. They see it as a failure on your part. Diabetes the disease that condemns the fat. Sometimes I think I'd be happier saying to heck with it all, but then that is when the infections start.

I am hoping to get it back under control but it so so tiring. I've been a controlled diabetic on meds except for 2 [now on the second time] periods ever since 2001,when they told me I became diabetic. Last month, I was sick as a dog due to digestion and hated food, probably ate far less then usual, and tested for having high sugars. That is one irony with me, I've figured out.

I have friends who have had diabetes and have said forget it, given up caring, and walked around with fasting blood sugars in the 200s for a time. Doctors world over talk about those who neglect diabetes, fat me was even once told I was one of his most vigilant patients. I can understand WHY they do it. There you are having a happy day, you take a blood sugar, it's high and your day is no longer happy and carefree. I still can feel my feet, and my sores still heal, but the whole thing just stinks.

Doctors really do not realize that what fuels my ever-vigilance, is fear of going blind, I am already deaf, I do not want to enter Helen Keller land. Diabetes sucks, it's like living with little time bombs in your blood. Ironically fear and stress raises diabetes. Even Mayo Clinic admits we are stressing out. Well I pray to God to help me with the worry but it's not good, you can be sitting watching TV, and there comes on diabetes commercial one after another to remind you of this dastardly disease.

Being housebound in winter isn't helping the exercise equation though I try to walk a little each day, and do arm exercises.

I found out, I am not a celiac, my skin condition remains undiagnosed and continued even with wheat-free diet for months. It helped me lose a little weight, but past that not much. I am wondering if it's something else. I have realized that if I eat too few carbs, my sugars go up. [stay away from processed ones]

When it comes to this body, its always been like an out of control monster, that does what it wants anyway. Just staying alive shouldn't take so much work. I know my history of insulin resistance and severe PCOS plays into this picture. It just gets so tiring.

One friend who spent years around severely obese told me if I manage to live long enough, she has seen severely fat people with diabetes lose weight and become thin, from illness. Not exactly the way you want to do it.

I bought a herb that is supposed to lower blood sugar [a little bit worried about how it may interact with diabetes drugs so still checking it out], and have done the cider vinegar and cinnamon thing.