I stand corrected, thank you. I just find it difficult to grasp that "studies show being overweight (defined by a BMI of 25- 29.9) or obese (defined by a BMI of over 30) does NOT necessarily indicate ANY kind of health problems."

Now a meta-analysis recently published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine suggests another trigger for adult-onset asthma: being overweight or obese. While weighing more than you should has previously been implicated as a risk factor for the condition, Colorado researchers found that the more a person weighs, the greater the risk for asthma.
http://www.healthnewswebsite.com/...a/asthma_causes.html

*Every time I try to quote you and put this response in the same message I can't separate our responses, so I just deleted the post above, but here is my response:

This is the same article we were discussing earlier. Unfortuantely, the RW author is using the terms significantly overweight and obese interchangeably. "Overweight" and "obese" are two separate categories as defined by BMI, and, more specifically, as defined by the study the article is referencing, and there was NO statistically significant difference between metabollically healthy normal weight and overweight people. There was a difference between metabollically healthy normal weight and obese people. It's a writing error that shouldn't have occurred in an article on this subject.

When I search pub med for the journal cited on that page for "asthma" and "overweight," I can't find it. The Duke "Health News" page you linked just mentions it was another meta-analysis and a Colorado group. If you find the original article, I'd love to take a look.

Sorry, no luck, I am completely out of my lane of expertise and was just trying to add to the conversation. To be honest, I have trouble grasping it just out of personal observation and not a medical education. I also tried to find the reference from this article, because if as little as 5 lbs makes a difference in asthma control I would really want to know.

http://www.webmd.com/...ght-adds-asthma-toll

this was not a new study. I was a META ANALYSIS of other studies. They did not take exercise status into account, which matters way more than just a bunch of numbers. we know that in thin and overweight people exercise is the prevention for EVERY disease state: heart disease, cancer, dementia....

so grain of salt for meta analysis and not taking exercise status into account

Fair enough. Exercise gives me joy in addition to decent health. I'm happy to share that, hence the missionary thing. It works for me, but I guess it's not for everybody.

And that's part of the reason why we have so many sick people who over-burden our medical systems.

Do you have kids? I do, and I know that I am the missionary for their healthy lives. I recently took up a new sport (speed skating) and I started out skating with the kids. I've since graduated to the adult sessions (haha), but I still go skate with the kids and help the coaches out. While they are not my kids, I try to help them in having healthy lives.

You have to model the behaviour you want to see, right? Problems are always solved more effectively when people work together than alone or at odds. Sometimes it not about you.

AP

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"How bad could it be?" - SimpleS

I am constantly reminded of this when all I want to do is sit on the couch & watch tv after work. Do I want my 2 year old son to think that is good? So I go to the extra effort to bundle him up (we live in the cold, frozen north), put him in the sled & take the dog for a walk. And he comes outside when we shovel. I'm kind of anal about it, but luckily my husband supports it.

BTW - I love that you are speed skating!! We have a club here & an outdoor rink (oval). I've always wanted to try it. Maybe when my son is older we can try it together.

If course I'm an advocate for my nieces and I would be if I had my own kids. My entire family is athletic. My mom who is in her 60's travels to Dubai for 2.5 weeks returns home and the next day goes on a 5 mile hike in the mountains. Their dogs get a minimum 2 mile hike, everyday. My nieces are involved in so many sports. My sister was and still is a competitive swimmer and her husband actively plays tennis. Where did my sister and I get this behavior - our parents and they are passing it along to the girls. BUT this is family, it is not my responsibility to teach the rest of the world. These people, Fat America need to want to do it on their own and many of them are too lazy to make the effort. Trust me I applaud the ones who do!!:-) You are the type of parent we need more of. I'm always thrilled when I see parents get their children involved in 5k's, triathlons, etc. I tried to get my family do to a 5k while I did a half mary on Thanksgiving, when they found out they needed to wake up at 5:30am, they said NO THANKS! I was pretty bummed.

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"Though she be but little, she is fierce" ~Shakespeare | Powered by HD Coaching | 2014 Wattie Ink Triathlon Team | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter

Maybe they had no healthy role models. Maybe it's not just being lazy - they might actually not have the skill set required to be healthy. Obviously they have to make the choices to lose weight, but if it is overwhelming or cost prohibitive or going against the "norm" it might seem to be an insurmountable goal.

Saying "I want to be rich" is a lot easier than figuring out all the little steps over time that will get you there.

You make a VERY good point. There are a lot of people who have never seen people in their day to day lives eat well, exercise, take care of their health. I work with ~600 people, and I always try to be accessible and non-intimidating about the subject. I do get folks approaching me with questions.... all sorts of questions... "I want to start riding my bike to work, like you and so-and-so, how do I find a good bike?" and "what does 'fructose' or 'HFCS' mean?"

I managed to get our Health&safety and HR folks to do a wellness week - it was awesome, we had a nutritionist come in and talk with people, we had a stress expert, a "how to use the gym at work" expert... all sorts of stuff. Even our social committee started changing the junk out of our vending machine for healthier options.

Many people I work with would never even think about these things if they hadn't been exposed to them in a non-threatening environment.

AP

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"How bad could it be?" - SimpleS

You're both right and kudos to both of you for your efforts and modeling.

Back to the frankly shocking statement the lululemon guy said... I remember age 11 doing callenetics video exercises where it showed her legs with a long spiel about this is what perfect legs should look like. I looked down and wondered why i didn't have a thigh gap.

age 39 i found out from a physio that i don't have a thigh gap because i have slightly knock knees.

I can be skinny or very overweight and not have a thigh gap

I've done yoga for many years, skied a lot in my 20's and ran several races inc 3 half marathons - now i'm doing a tri season and want to do a 70.3.

I'm not visual, so i'm not super athletic (I'm kinaesthetic) and still makes me angry that i can just be called wrong like that.

Maybe they had no healthy role models. Maybe it's not just being lazy - they might actually not have the skill set required to be healthy. Obviously they have to make the choices to lose weight, but if it is overwhelming or cost prohibitive or going against the "norm" it might seem to be an insurmountable goal.

Saying "I want to be rich" is a lot easier than figuring out all the little steps over time that will get you there

this sort of thinking is what is wrong with the majority of society today. people take the easy way and push out the resonsiblity for their lives onto others by coming up with list of excuses.

it aint that hard but it takes a bit of work...

Grrrr - Don't take what I say out of context. It is totally up to the people to make healthy changes. I'm just saying that those of us who come from a place of privilege make take for granted how "easy" it is to lose weight.

If you have grown up in a family without anyone modeling fitness or healthy eating, you have quite a bit to overcome. Everything is ultimately about personal responsibility, but there are very real 'barriers to entry' to health and fitness in Western culture: time, money, childcare, safe environment, appropriate shoes/clothes, cultural acceptability. People who are already maxed out trying to meet Maslow's more basic needs are sometimes trying to just exist day-to-day.

Certainly, one way for society to deal with people struggling with their weight is to heap on the scorn and disgust, but why? I don't understand why anyone would want to be deliberatley cruel like that. What does that do? Does it help solve or fix the problem?

EXACTLY!! Apparently, it is now MY responsibility to help people with absolutely no self-control so they don't feel shunned by society and can wear lululemon yoga pants. Why is it people don't like to take responsibility for their actions?!?!? Because I make good decisions about my health and support lulu's statement, I'm the one who's wrong here...I swear to god, more often than not, Americans are ass-backward in their thinking. I love how we are making excuses for the fat to stay fat, that is rich. If this isn't catering to the overweight and obese then I don't know what is!

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"Though she be but little, she is fierce" ~Shakespeare | Powered by HD Coaching | 2014 Wattie Ink Triathlon Team | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter

I'm calling BS on this! Are you kidding me, it takes money to exercise, since when?????????????? There's a sidewalk right outside their front door!! Baby steps..your post reads like they need to join Equinox and wear $200 running shoes.You don't need to spend ANY money to make a positive change in your health. You talk about personal responsibility then you make excuses for these people!!!!!!!!

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"Though she be but little, she is fierce" ~Shakespeare | Powered by HD Coaching | 2014 Wattie Ink Triathlon Team | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter

If you have grown up in a family without anyone modeling fitness or healthy eating, you have quite a bit to overcome. Everything is ultimately about personal responsibility, but there are very real 'barriers to entry' to health and fitness in Western culture: time, money, childcare, safe environment, appropriate shoes/clothes, cultural acceptability. People who are already maxed out trying to meet Maslow's more basic needs are sometimes trying to just exist day-to-day.

Certainly, one way for society to deal with people struggling with their weight is to heap on the scorn and disgust, but why? I don't understand why anyone would want to be deliberatley cruel like that. What does that do? Does it help solve or fix the problem?

eat less?!?!...it doesn’t matter where you came from or if you were privileged...eat less aint that hard, no?

A sidewalk outside of who's door? Yours or theirs? Is it safe to walk out there? What time of day is it when they can exercise? Who's going to watch their three young kids? Is that person tired because they've already worked two shift jobs that day?

Yes, eating less is an answer. It's a very simple answer.

Yes, eating less is an answer. It's a very simple answer.

I know it is extremely hard to believe that this simple answer is the solution to the problem. I am not a bit sarcastic here....

People love complex solutions because they can create tons of excuses because they cannot cope with complex...think about it

Uhhhh, stereotype much,"Push". I didn't realize all overweight people were poor, had several kids and lived in the ghetto. Again, you're making excuses for them, if they want it, rich or poor they will do it...it takes baby steps, not a phd in chemistry.

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"Though she be but little, she is fierce" ~Shakespeare | Powered by HD Coaching | 2014 Wattie Ink Triathlon Team | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter

Talk about keeping it simple, this guys story about being broke and losing 250 lbs is really something, all of his food came from the dollar store and his exercise was simply walking. "at the time, he was broke. Aviance, who was then pursuing music and clothing design on the side, had recently been laid off work. “I was unemployed and couldn’t afford a gym membership or fancy diets,” says Aviance. “I realized that walking was the easiest exercise I could do and it cost nothing. So I grabbed my dance music and tennis shoes, and started walking.”
http://health.yahoo.net/...et-could-it-work-you