Who Is Fat?

Looking to avoid the fattest countries (excluding my own), I performed a little internet research on the fattest countries. The below link is actually pretty cool because you can sort by the gender and the % of people who are thin, average, overweight and obese. Travel wisely.

http://apps.who.int/bmi/index.jsp

Wait, why “travel wisely”? Because you might be crushed by big people?

People with money in the developing world are fatter than you think (Bangladesh comes to mind). Seeing as you won’t be interacting with many farmers but most likely portly wealthy people these stats don’t give a fair representation of what you might encounter. Conversely, if you go to certain parts of NYC on a summer day you’d be hard pressed to find a fat chick.

Ohai: Yes.

Tikka: agree that this is true, particularly in Asia. I think that exploring a European country with a low proportion of high BMI people equals meeting lots of HCBs. It’s definitley all about the circles you travel in, which is why you choose to hang out with backpackers and I originally chose to do some personal training on the side.

When you see a morbidly obese person, do you feel pity, sadness or anger?

Pity, followed by apathy as I eat my McDouble and super size soda for lunch.

i never understood why people just couldn’t stop being fat, especially girls…

They love to eat. If it were so easy to not be fat for people, then everyone would do it. Life is better being in shape, not just in terms of dating but how other people perceive you

i have to admit, i have gained weight over the years as my metabolism slowed and my workouts became a weekly thing as opposed to daily, but if my gut is ever so big that it covers the important view, I think at that stage, either i have completely given up or I’m so wealthy as not to care what the HCBs think…

People get fat because no one exercises…way easier to exercise than to stop eating, imo.

Some interesting research showed that being active had substantial health effects even if it didn’t result in weight loss. Obese and overweight people who got at least 20 minutes of some kind of activity per day (walking briskly, even minimal exercise, etc.) were *substantially* less prone to diseases in the next 5 years than those with similar BMIs who didn’t.

That was a really interesting result. I can’t remember where I found that, though. Would love to cite it if I could remember.

A hot woman in my tango class is a yoga instructor and I started going to her yoga classes recently. The workout she gives is nice, because it doesn’t kill you, but it definitely challenges you. After only 5 sessions I started noticing substantially improved muscle tone where years of weight machines had almost no effect. Being the only guy in the class is also kinda nice.

exercise smexercise. 2nd law of themodynamics.

calories in vs calories out

For a while maybe, but just limiting calories will eventually result in a loss of muscle and that awful skinny-fat appearance…you know, like when a chick thinks she looks good because she fits into a size 4 but without her pants on her butt is flat and practically hangs out past her 'roos (shudder).

^Yep, know plenty of thin girls with flabby tone. Gotta exercise. Plus the cardio benefits to the heart, and circ system and working out the toxins. Not to mention boosting metabolism during the day and giving you more energy.

+1, good deal man

You guys seem to be putting a lot of weight on exercise. If you bike for thirty minutes, that’s like 250 calories, which is like a 20oz coke. Obviously exercise is important to turn a fat person to a skinny person, but it’s probably only a quarter as important as diet is.

I think there’s interesting research about how sugar affects people. The research says that people eating a lot more sugar now has changed the way they metabolize. So if you eat a low fat diet that is high in sugar, then you won’t lose much weight. I don’t really have a gut yet, but I like to think that if I start ballooning up like my Dad then cutting down on sugar would be my first step. It’s just so good though.

I’m not saying exercise only, although I do think people should be doing more than the 20 minutes crap they’re stating these days. You have to realize our bodies evolved in an environment where we were moving and working manually the majority of the day. Nowadays we sit nearly the entire day and have much larger diets. I think it takes more than 20 minutes to balance things out. Typically I’d say 60-90 is a more accurate number, at least 4 days a week just to put a dent in it. Obviously this can be a real chore for some given their schedule if this means the gym. So a better alternative would be to find hobbies like bicycling with the family in the evenings or whatever that can allow you to balance out family or friend time while also getting some exercise for an hour or two, killing two birds with one stone.

The 20 minute thing in my post was not suggested as an ideal or optimal amount of exercise. It just pointed out that even a little exercise could have some health effects, and it was to get overweight people not to give up on it just because they didn’t turn thin right away (or even at all).

Personally I hate the gym. I’m fine running outside, going out dancing, biking, hiking, playing tennis, swimming, and I’m enjoying the yoga surprisingly more than I expected.

But I hate smelly locker rooms. I hate the slightly damp feel of the floor as people walk from the showers to the changing areas. I find being connected to a stationary machine incredibly boring. Sometimes in the dead of winter or the heat of summer, when the weather is so awful outside, there’s not much choice, but I’d prefer to run outside to run on a treadmill any day.

The one nice thing about machines for strength training (which I don’t really do enough of) is that you can measure your progress by how far you’ve moved the up the weight scale.

Over the years, I’ve learned to tolerate the gym, but I have yet to actually like it.

you go out dancing?

I’ve done Salsa and Swing for a long time, and some of the Brazilian ones too: Samba, Forro. Lambada was always fun but it’s not so popular anymore. For me, the fastest weight loss I’ve ever experienced was going dancing several nights a week for a year (though that was long ago). Pounds melted off, and I had tons of fun at the same time, and women always like a good partner.

Last year I started doing Argentine Tango, which is not as big a calorie burner as the others, but it’s darn hard to do, and a lot of fun if you get it right. And there’s a decent concentration of HCBs in the tango community.

No doubt, dancing keeps your body in shape. The older women in the tango community are *extremely* well preserved, so it’s going to be nice when I’m older too. My tango instructor has a six pack that is still well defined even when covered by a half inch thick wool sweater. I remember thinking “how defined must it be if it looks like that covered up”??? I know a woman who tells me it’s even more impressive when the shirt is off (not that I particularly care, but she sure did). :wink:

Smart move, doctor. When I lived in Switzerland and the U.S., often played the Tango card whenever possible, regardless I’m average at best. A couple of chicks still bought it because I’m in fairly good shape.