One of my favorite t-shirts says, "I'm not fat. I'm American."

How true.

How big do you have to be to be unable to fit in a medical scanner!!

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More and more obese people are unable to get full medical care because they are either too big to fit into scanners, or their fat is too dense for X-rays or sound waves to penetrate, radiologists reported Tuesday.

And do you know what will be done about it? Instead of actually addressing the problem, I'm sure they are busy designing larger scanners and spending millions to find a way to X-ray fat.

Then we will congratulate ourselves for our advanced medical knowledge.

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You sir, are my new hero! - Trifan 11/13/2008

Casey, you are a wise man - blueraider_mike 11/13/2008

Casey, This is an astute observation. - Slowbern 11/17/2008

Sad, but true.

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Steve Perkins

I heard yesterday that the tour boat that capsized last year in NY (I think, or was it Michigan) anyway, the boat was loaded with passengers according to outdated Coast Guard guidlines of 140# per passenger. Now days people average 170, which still seems on the light side to me.

I just spent an hour waiting in a Dr.'s office and was shocked and disgusted at the number of really obese people.

Take a trip tp Disney and get really grossed out!!!

And you are so correct that they will find a way to x-ray them rather then let natural selection take over :-)

Banger

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Banger

Don't worry in the UK we have a huge obesity club and its numbers are growing every day.

They have special gurneys, special ambulances, special toilets, and even special hospitals geared towards people who are very obese. But it's a real necessity. Many of these people really are too big for the standard gurneys.

An even bigger problem is on airplanes, where there has been lots of debate about requiring people to buy two seats if they are over a certain size. It's amazing that they charge triathletes $50 - $100+ more for our bikes, yet most triathletes + bike (in box) probably weigh less than the average person. If they are really going to penalize based on fuel cost, I think that the ticket should be tied to the total weight of you and your stuff. If you weight 350lbs. and have a 10lb. carry-on, you should pay more than someone who is 150lbs. and has a 70lb. bike box. That's not politically correct, but it seems to be more fair than what is in place currently.

The strangest phenomenon, and perhaps the most upsetting, is that the gap between "fit and fat" is growing. It seems everyone is now under 20% body fat or over 40%, which is a tragedy.

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"Non est ad astra mollis e terris via." - Seneca | rappstar.com | FB - Rappstar Racing | IG - @jordanrapp

Here's one for you c-guy. I was doing some work for a funeral home. The guy has a state-of-the art cremation machine, one of two super-sized machines in CA. He is doing a bang up business cremating 600 to 700 pounders from all over the state. They ship them there on a sub-contract basis and he ships back the ashes. Big demand for the super sized cremation machine.

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I'll be what I am
A solitary man

I travel to africa a lot and take little bush planes out to remote areas. There are some serious weight restrictions on some of the smaller flights. I got talking to one of the pilots about this and mentioned to him that i thought it was BS that i weigh about 50lbs, at least, less than some of the tourists. He just smiled and said that i should not worry about the weight of my bags too much any more as they have an "american" weight limit. I asked him what that was and he replied that if they see an overweight (obese) person approaching the plane they weigh the bags otherwise they let it slide a few pounds with no issue. But if you are obese your bags had better be within the limit.
At least someone gets it i guess.

[reply] It seems everyone is now under 20% body fat or over 40%, which is a tragedy.[/reply]

Hey, that makes me unique Im only at 28%

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Just Triing
Triathlete since 9:56:39 AM EST Aug 20, 2006.
Be kind English is my 2nd language. My primary language is Dave it's a unique evolution of English.

It can be hazardous to your health is you need medical assistance. My son is a lifeguard at a lake and they had to try to lift an obese, severly injured lady from a lake up a small enbankment to where the helicopter was waiting to take her to the hospital. She was so fat all the people present couldn't lift her up the embankment. Luckily, several boaters came over to help. If no boaters, who knows how long until more help arrived.

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I'll be what I am
A solitary man

[reply]
An even bigger problem is on airplanes, where there has been lots of debate about requiring people to buy two seats if they are over a certain size. It's amazing that they charge triathletes $50 - $100+ more for our bikes, yet most triathletes + bike (in box) probably weigh less than the average person. If they are really going to penalize based on fuel cost, I think that the ticket should be tied to the total weight of you and your stuff. If you weight 350lbs. and have a 10lb. carry-on, you should pay more than someone who is 150lbs. and has a 70lb. bike box. That's not politically correct, but it seems to be more fair than what is in place currently.
[/reply]

Rappstar from President!

"I'm sure they are busy designing larger scanners and spending millions to find a way to X-ray fat. "

I'm absolutely sure about that. It'll also become politically incorrect to use the words "fat" or "obese". Somehow "horizontally challenged" doesn't have the same ring.

In all honesty, I just don't understand how people can allow themselves to get like that. Most are not that way because of genetics.

People become addicted to fast food ...if you haven't seen it, watch the movie "Super Size Me" ...scary!

Maybe McDonalds will help foot the medical bill for larger medical equipment ..ya right.

"Maybe McDonalds will help foot the medical bill for larger medical equipment ..ya right. "

I posted several times on the L.R. about McD's/fast food industry and their responsibility to society and all I got back was "freedom of choice", "individual responsibility" or "corporate America profits are wonderful" type crap from the right wingers that dominate over there.

That's why I don't bother with the L.R. anymore.

But I agree, the fast food industry is a large part of the problem. Not totally to blame, but a significant contributer.

Jordan,

For the longest time I have been thinking the same thing.

Fleck

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

600 to 700 pounders?

seriously??? i mean, i could see a few people like this in a state, but a whole market for them?

The problem is, they have billions of dollars to spend on brainwashing campaigns.....yes, the word is advertising....but when you get right down to it, isn't advertising simply the process of trying to convince you to buy something that you wouldn't have thought to buy on your own?

Nevertheless, it's very difficult to compete with that. I used to work in a special after school program in a poor school. These teenagers ate nothing but fast food, chips, and soda.....not to mention all the cigarettes they smoked. Literaly they would show up with TWO bags of potato chips and a large soda to eat for dinner. We've decided that they aren't responsible enough to vote, join the military, or even serve adult sentences when breaking the law, but we sure as hell will get them to smoke and eat crap.

............ok, I'm done.

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-----------------------------Baron Von Speedypants
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how to kick this off? seriously, how hard would it be to have person + bag weigh in at check in. traveling is a total pain in the ass these days anyway - i'd be all for weighing in if it cut down on bike fees.

triathletes may be a small percentage of the world, but i tend to think the group travels quite a bit. cyclists too. you'd think we could carry some weight (har har) with the airlines on this issue.

"A sad commentary."

No kidding.

There's also a growing epidemic of skinny people. People who are so thin they fall into cracks in sidewalks, slip into elevator shafts or get sucked up into air-conditioning vents.......never to be seen again.

I'm serious. At least you can find fat people.

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**All of these words finding themselves together were greatly astonished and delighted for assuredly, they had never met before**

We all make choices in our lifestyles and what we put into our bodies ..and people should be responsible enough to educate themselves to what is "good food" and what is "bad food". The fast food companies. like Mcd's should be held responsible though for their deception tactics. It kills me to watch the commercials saying "Mcdonalds healthy choices" or how they put a spin on stuff like their salads and how healthy they are, or the chicken sandwiches; made from whole white chicken. People honestly do believe that they can then go to Mcdonalds and actually get a healthy meal! Meanwhile a ceasar salad has almost the same amount of bad fat as a big mac. It is not just the fast food companies either. All you have to do is walk through a grocery store and look at some of the packaging and how food companies make their product look so healthy, but turn it over and take a close look at the small fine print of the ingredients and what is actually in the product ..it is pretty scary ..but again people "think" that they are eating healthy from reading the big print written on the front.

I agree with "freedom of choice", "individual responsibility" etc ..but when people are being deceived and told half truths and not really given the whole picture then someone (fast food companies) should be partially held accountable for the obesity problem.

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Member of the Litespeed Factory Team
www.litespeed.com

I shadowed a medical examiner for a while. She had a gurney collapse on her during an autopsy because the guy was so big. There have also been cases where the patient was so fat that the autopsy could not be conducted because they couldn't keep the stomach flab retracted.

My dad, a general practitioner, has had cases where the patient's door had to be removed and the frame cut wider before they could be taken to the hospital for emergency care. They hadn't left the house in so long that they had become too fat to fit through the frame.

Totally. I spend a hell of a lot of time in hospitals, and just about busted a gut the first time I saw a "double wide" wheelchair. I've now I've seen just about everything built "for the American populace" - including the new CT/MR scanners that are coming with larger holes (for those of you who aren't familliar, it's like a stretcher that goes through a doughnut). Not only is fittment and image quality an issue, but also patient safety. If you want a clear X-ray of a really large person, the technologist really has to crank up the juice on that thing. Not good.

I've been a longtime proponent of Rappstar's proposal. If you've ever been crammed in on an airplane beside some 350 pounder who not only flows over the armrest, but under as well - leaving you with a hot, sweaty "organic armrest" you'd be on the bandwagon faster than they could announce it on the horizon. And for those of you know me, I'm no lightweight. I say weigh the passenger + ALL baggage, and have a cutoff for extra charges. I don't care if that extra 100 lbs is on your frame or in your oversized suitcase - it's weight that the plane has to carry. It can be hilarious when the pilot of a small craft has to come back and ask people to move around to help with load balancing, but it's kind of sad too...

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