Are You Fat?

[Redistribute the Rep]

I hope you don't mind me asking, but are you fat? It seems pretty subjective, so what do you consider to be fat? And how do you feel about it? Society has pretty strict standards, leading some of us to view a normal weight as fat, especially when it's ourself.

Please, no posting your specific weights. That's just too personal.

[QueerVanguard]

I'm pretty fat by societys standard but your right that the idea of "fatness' is a social construct.

[Brandon's Impotent Rage]

Me?

Yeah, kinda. From the front I look rather stout and stocky, like a football player.

But from the side I look like I'm pregnant.

[QueerVanguard]

a interesting question we might want to explore here is why being thin as a rail is the beauty standard capitalism has come up with.

[Bala Perdida]

For some reason, I'm perfectly within the weight range for someone my size but I still have a gut. For years I was closer to being underweight but, in my opinion, didn't look like it.

[#FF0000]

I'm pretty fat, objectively speaking lol. I've been working on losing it though, for like two years now. Lost a lot of it, then gained it back, which has been pretty demoralizing (especially considering I was working at one of the more physically intensive jobs I've worked at)

But I'm back at it, again.

[Danielle Ni Dhighe]

Yes, I am.

[QueerVanguard]

I'm pretty fat, objectively speaking lol. I've been working on losing it though, for like two years now. Lost a lot of it, then gained it back, which has been pretty demoralizing (especially considering I was working at one of the more physically intensive jobs I've worked at)

But I'm back at it, again.

I wouldn't use the word ""objective' when discussing "fatness". The whole idea is made up.

[#FF0000]

I wouldn't use the word ""objective' when discussing "fatness". The whole idea is made up.

Man, there's a whole lot of arbitrary nonsense when it comes to measuring who is overweight or a "healthy weight" but there is 0 question that I carry significantly more fat on my body than a typical adult my age.

[Aurorus Ruber]

a interesting question we might want to explore here is why being thin as a rail is the beauty standard capitalism has come up with.

The conventional explanation that I have always read, in sociology textbooks and so forth, is that thinness connotes wealth and status in modern society. Low calorie foods like fresh produce and green tea generally cost more than high calorie foods like cheeseburgers and sugary soft drinks while regular exercise requires a certain amount of leisure time that poorer people often lack. Thus on some psychological level we associate a thin figure with high social status and thus desirability in a mate and vice versa with a fat figure.

As for myself, I am incredibly thin and always have been regardless of eating habits and amount of exercise. Not that I am bragging by any means; if anything I am skinny to an unhealthy degree.

[Sewer Socialist]

I'm thin by American standards. I'm average by, say, Japanese standards.

What is fat? I don't think I could quantify it. I generally don't talk about whether people are fat or not, so it doesn't really come up. I think of some people as fat in my head, though. I definitely hold myself to a tougher standard than other people. My mom has an eating disorder. Or had? We don't talk.

I do have sort of an odd body type in that I'm really bottom-heavy.

[Comrade Jacob]

BMI is 33, so yeah

[Atsumari]

My BMI is 16.1
For me, this is been a great privilege when it comes to transitioning.
I used to be pretty liberal when it came to food. Basically, everyone should have the autonomy to consume what they want and have control of their own body but after learning the effects of obesity, the horrifying dishonesty from the food industry, and even the effects of sugar on someone, there has to be some sort of action taken against our current food culture, especially for poor people who unfortunately do not have easy access to good food often due to location, income, and lack of time.

[Comrade Jacob]

That's very thin.

[Comrade Njordr]

No, I'm fairly average with some muscle mass. I've got a pretty muscular build which is nice.
BMI is about 21-22.

[Os Cangaceiros]

The conventional explanation that I have always read, in sociology textbooks and so forth, is that thinness connotes wealth and status in modern society. Low calorie foods like fresh produce and green tea generally cost more than high calorie foods like cheeseburgers and sugary soft drinks while regular exercise requires a certain amount of leisure time that poorer people often lack. Thus on some psychological level we associate a thin figure with high social status and thus desirability in a mate and vice versa with a fat figure.

Fatness has historically been associated with opulence, has it not? Because if you're fat that means you can afford lots of food (assuming you don't have a medical condition of some kind). It also means you're probably eating lots of meat, which was something of a luxury item back in the day.

Green tea may be more expensive than soda but water is cheaper than both, and it's zero calories. It's what I've gone back to, that and coffee.

[Tim Cornelis]

My BMI is currently about 26, my bodyfat percentage about 20% (different tools give different outcomes), and I'm currently doing a cut, and by september I hope to have a BMI of circa 24. I feel pretty fat to be honest, despite it being hardly overweight by average standards. Doesn't feel good.

I don't think 'thin as a rail' is the beauty standard, maybe among a minority of women, but generally women are supposed to be 'curvy' and men muscular to an extent, but not really bulky.

[bcbm]

im pretty lean

[A Revolutionary Tool]

I'm freakishly skinny at this point. Every time I see family they talk about my weight, it's actually annoying. I just don't know how to eat right though. I miss my mom, she fed me and kept my weight at reasonably skinny, now I think people think I'm a drug addict or something or anorexic. I'm starting to exercise more so I'm getting a little muscle mass back.

[Redistribute the Rep]

Although my bmi is in the normal range, I see myself as fat. I would probably not consider a person the same size as me to be fat though. It's just that the way I see myself in my head is completely different than what I see in the mirror. I would like to lose quite a bit of weight to be honest.

[Counterculturalist]

I'm a pretty big dude. I'm tall, so it doesn't show as much as it could, but I definitely need to lose weight for health reasons.

I was in pretty good shape until about 6 years ago when I quit my job and quit smoking at the same time. I gained almost 40 pounds seemingly overnight. Then I took up exercising and dieting and lost it, and then relaxed a bit and gained about three quarters of it back. I'm pretty active - I walk everywhere I can, and do an hour workout everyday, but I also have stupid habits like eating chips and drinking beer while surfing the web.

I'm pretty self-conscious about it. I refuse to take my shirt off in public... not even to go swimming.

[RedAnarchist]

About this time last year my BMI was about 33, it's now about 24/25. I still look a bit flabby around my torso, but I'm a lot thinner now in certain places such as my arms, legs, hips etc.

[Ethics Gradient, Traitor For All Ages]

I'm pretty skinny. I'd like to bulk up but I smoke too much and don't really enjoy lifting high

[Ceallach_the_Witch]

my bmi is pretty normal and hardly anyone i know considers me 'fat' (with a few notable exceptions) but i consider myself really fat and pretty much hate everything about my body

[human strike]

I'm underweight. My BMI is 16.5. I'm quite tall and have a very high metabolism - I find it very difficult to put on weight. I have to eat a lot just to maintain where I'm at now and I lose it very easily.

[GiantMonkeyMan]

I'd say I'm the healthy side of skinny right now. There was a period of my life when I couldn't afford proper meals and was barely eating anything and I lost a lot of weight. I've always been relatively skinny so it wasn't good at the time but I've built a lot of that back now that I've got the income to eat regularly.

[RA89]

No I'm fairly lean but working out is a big part of my life. I'm working on becoming ripped.

[Bala Perdida]

My BMI is 16.1
For me, this is been a great privilege when it comes to transitioning.
I used to be pretty liberal when it came to food. Basically, everyone should have the autonomy to consume what they want and have controlled of their own body but after learning the effects of obesity, the horrifying dishonesty from the food industry, and even the effects of sugar on someone, there has to be some sort of action taken against our current food culture, especially for poor people who unfortunately do not have easy access to good food often due to location, income, and lack of time.A lot of low income neighborhoods, ghettos and stuff, often have liquor stores and fast food restraunts strategically placed in them. Both of which, of course, packed with sugar heavy high calorie foods. It's genocidal how they basically enforce diabetes like that. Especially since these places are the easiest source of sustenance for many of these hoods. Taking EBT and what not. In East Palo Alto, they didn't even have a grocery store in the city till like the 2000's. I gotta fact check that again, but I can confirm that Mi Pueblo was the first grocery store actually in the city.

EDIT: Mi Pueblo was the first 'full-service' (so I'm guessing that means meat and produce service) supermarket in the city. It opened in like 2008 and they had a 23 year void without a supermarket at all in the city.

[human strike]

Poverty causes stress. Stressed people typically eat fatty foods and exercise less. The poor also often have less time and money to cook with. There's evidence to suggest eating fatty foods negatively affects our mental capacity for dealing with stress. Putting on weight can also negatively affect our perception of ourselves leading to more stress and a feedback loop (unfortunate phrasing, but I'm not sure how else to put it). Larger people also generally earn less and find it harder to get jobs or promotions; this acts to maintain poverty.

This is one way poverty harms health, by creating cycles of behaviour that lead to obesity. Obviously poverty can also lead to people being underweight when people simply can't afford food, and stress sometimes stops people from eating. Either way it's almost never good for your health. It's important to point out that its relative poverty, or in other words inequality, that has this impact. More equal societies typically have fewer health problems related to weight.

[Quail]

** mild trigger warning

I'm about in the middle of the "healthy" BMI range. I feel quite fat, but I think that might be in my head.

I've noticed that my sense of how big I am corresponds to my state of mind. If I'm feeling unhappy, or feeling dirty/like I want to disappear, I perceive myself as being fat. I guess it's easier to lose the fat than deal with the problem.

[BIXX]

Fuck bmi tho it tells me I'm a short fat dude

[BIXX]

Really though I'm actually at a fairly healthy weight. Want to lose just a bit more fat so I have a six pack, but mainly after that work on strength.

So I'm not exactly fat but I'm not where I wanna be.

[Zoop]

Why are you all concerned with BMI? It has absolutely no merit; it is complete and utter tosh.

I'm okay about my weight. I wouldn't mind losing some, but I don't want to be "toned", as people say. I don't aim to "bulk up", or look "good" (I hate it when people say that). I just do strength training, which fortunately doesn't add much mass, so it's the perfect routine. I'm 190 pounds, and I'd be happy for it to stay around that. So no, I wouldn't say I'm fat, albeit I'm indifferent to labelling my body.

[Ceallach_the_Witch]

i sometimes have weird daydreams about pulling/cutting bits of myself that i dont like off which needless to say is incredibly fucked up

[Zoop]

i sometimes have weird daydreams about pulling/cutting bits of myself that i dont like off which needless to say is incredibly fucked up

I dabble in those daydreams now and then too. Usually involving the fat around my pectorals :unsure:

[lutraphile]

No. Quite thin, 5'8 and 130ish. Was underweight in the past.

[Sentinel]

Not very. I was a bit overweight in my early 20s, but then I lost 17 kg (37,4 lbs) over just a few months about 10 years ago, by a strict starvation-type diet After that it was up and down a lot for a few years.

Nowadays I seem to have managed to find some kind of balance, and consistently stay in relatively good shape. I could still lose a few kilos of bodyfat to be completely satisfied though.

I guess it is mainly a result of keeping a more strict of a count on the amount of carbs I eat, but more recently also some excercise.

[Sinister Intents]

I'm very thin and very lean. You can easily see my muscle definition and I'm fairly at 5'6" and 148 pounds. I'm usually a lot lighter and I hate how much muscle mass I've put on.

[Blake's Baby]

I'm about the weight I want to be, but I'm also a basically skinny guy who's also fat. Right amount, just composed of the wrong stuff in the wrong places. For British readers of a certain age, I resemble Purple Ronnie - an oval with stick arms and legs.


Fatness has historically been associated with opulence, has it not? Because if you're fat that means you can afford lots of food (assuming you don't have a medical condition of some kind). It also means you're probably eating lots of meat, which was something of a luxury item back in the day.

Green tea may be more expensive than soda but water is cheaper than both, and it's zero calories. It's what I've gone back to, that and coffee.

Yes, in the past opulence and fatness and riches went together.

Now fad diets and gym membership and personal trainers go with wealth and poor people get to eat sugary fatty starch and 'fluffy cellulose' or whatever it's called all day instead. For the first time ever the poor are fatter than the rich (at least in the West and some other places to that have adopted some Western cultural norms, like American Samoa). Not for the first time, we will die sooner.

People don't drink water becaue... it doesn't taste of anything. Coke tastes of sugar and sunshine and endorphins. Water only makes puritans happy. Coke makes everyone happy except puritans.



** mild trigger warning

I'm about in the middle of the "healthy" BMI range. I feel quite fat, but I think that might be in my head.

I've noticed that my sense of how big I am corresponds to my state of mind. If I'm feeling unhappy, or feeling dirty/like I want to disappear, I perceive myself as being fat. I guess it's easier to lose the fat than deal with the problem.

I'm sorry Quail, but do I think that must be in your head. If anything, I'd say you're tending towards being underweight. Not dangerously so the times I've met you, but I think you need to be aware that your perception of yourself doesn't necessarily conform to what others see - and we maybe can be a bit more objective about some things. If you start punishing yourself or sublimating other problems into weight-loss then I think that might have bad results.

[Blake's Baby]

Sorry, pressed the wrong button. DP.

[cyu]

I was on the thin and scrawny end of the spectrum in my younger years - now in the process of tipping towards the other end in my old age :lol:

Anyway, if you imagine the religion you hate most, and think if that religion regularly advertised during your favorite TV show, in your favorite magazine, or whatever media you regularly consume. What would you think about it? Would you go to your least favorite religion's weekly gatherings on purpose? If you refuse to subject yourself to such brainwashing, yet you consider yourself fat, I'd check the advertising you're regularly subjected to.

I would stop watching that TV show if it comes with ads containing words like "lose weight", "low fat", "zero calorie", "look your best", etc etc - those ads are intended to make you unhappy with your appearance, then profit from it. You don't need that kind of brainwashing in your life any more than you need religion X's brainwashing in your life.

[Os Cangaceiros]

Yes, in the past opulence and fatness and riches went together.

Now fad diets and gym membership and personal trainers go with wealth and poor people get to eat sugary fatty starch and 'fluffy cellulose' or whatever it's called all day instead. For the first time ever the poor are fatter than the rich (at least in the West and some other places to that have adopted some Western cultural norms, like American Samoa). Not for the first time, we will die sooner.

People don't drink water becaue... it doesn't taste of anything. Coke tastes of sugar and sunshine and endorphins. Water only makes puritans happy. Coke makes everyone happy except puritans.


People should go back to water. Nothing more refreshing than water IMO, especially when it's ice cold.

It's somewhat easy to eat healthy on a cheap budget, assuming that you have even a basic understanding of nutrition & have access to a grocery store. I know because I fall under the poverty line and I'm forced to eat like a fat person on a diet despite being 5'10 and 160 pounds, due to the fact that I'm a type 1 diabetic. Food is a fucking curse for me. Basic food items like broccoli, nuts or canned items like chick peas aren't that expensive in most parts of the USA, though, and require minimal or no preparation.

[Sewer Socialist]

Well, I was thinking about this today. I think that, when I think I'm "fat", my clothes fit differently, I feel fatter under my skin. I'm outside my comfort zone. So this is a very different standard than I apply to other people.

Since I've been injured, I've put on a small amount of weight, and I feel fatter right now. It's this little thing in the back of my mind; something's slightly off. Since I'm used to being a certain size, even if it's nowhere near "fat", being even a little bigger than it feels like it.

[Ceallach_the_Witch]

for reference i'm 6'3 and hovering around 14 stone

[Cliff Paul]

When I was 16 I was hospitalized for depression/suicide shit. At the time I was around 5 ft 7 and 130 pounds and they actually put me on close watch because they thought I must have had an eating disorder... like that's not even that skinny.

Anyways while I was at college I was on the school's soccer team + I was playing pick-up basketball almost everyday so I was consuming around 5-6 thousand calories a day. When I dropped out of college my caloric output significantly dropped but my intake didn't. Late last year I probably maxed out at around 215 and 5 ft 8, and after that I started working out. I didn't really take it seriously until 2 months ago or so though. Right now I'm at 200ish but with a lot more muscle than I've ever had before. Originally my goal was to lose weight but since I mostly do strength training I'm just starting to look like a 5ft tall Mark Henry... oh well.

[Tim Cornelis]

stone, and people make fun of Americans for using imperial units.

[Sinister Intents]

stone, and people make fun of Americans for using imperial units.

Stone?

[Tim Cornelis]

Brits use stone as a unit of measurement for weight. 1 stone = 11 pebbles. I weigh 144 pebbles, or 89,387 gravel stones.

see:


for reference i'm 6'3 and hovering around 14 stone

[mushroompizza]

I dont' think I'm fat, my BMI test says im pretty average and healthy.

[Tim Cornelis]

BMI says nothing about health though (and is also improper for measuring 'fatness').

[mushroompizza]

Why is that? My teachers have used it multiple times in health class.

[Tim Cornelis]

BMI doesn't take into account skeletal weight/density (yes, big bones) which differs per person, or muscle weight. Two people [men] with a BMI of 25 (say, 180cm height; 81kg weight) are both considered overweight, but one has a bodyfat percentage of 10%, the other 23% (with >20% being considered overweight normally).

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/265215.php

[khad]

BMI doesn't take into account skeletal weight/density (yes, big bones) which differs per person, or muscle weight. Two people [men] with a BMI of 25 (say, 180cm height; 81kg weight) are both considered overweight, but one has a bodyfat percentage of 10%, the other 23% (with >20% being considered overweight normally).

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/265215.php
But the other question you gotta ask, what percentage of men in any given English-speaking country have 10% body fat?

This is why BMI remains a useful shorthand that holds true over large population samples.