Morbid Obesity is now fashionable apparently

[mk]

I rechecked the beginning and why Swervo possibly went nuts.
My guess is the word "appearance."

1. the way that someone or something looks.
2. an act of performing or participating in a public event.

My later wordings there were clearly towards number 2 meaning but confirmation bias is strong.

[Crazed_Insanity]

I don't know man. It's similar to the situation that nobody would admit that they are racists, well other than Trump supporters of course, but reality is that plenty of racism is still going on in blue liberal states. White men still rules Hollywood and Silicon Valley and Wall Street..., yet, none of those white men would admit they're allowing racism... that they actually want diversity!!! I guess it's just fact that white men are superior. Otherwise, why is it so difficult to diversify, right?

I don't know about you guys, but I've read a lot of words here in this thread to the effect of that 'if you're fat, you should be ashamed of yourself because you must be lazy and lack self control and draining society's precious resources. If you're like me and exercise to the point near death experience and control yourselves to eat healthy and not to over eat, you should never be fat! It's super easy, something must be wrong with you if you can't accomplish something as simple as losing weight.'

Maybe I have a reading comprehension problem again and reading too much between the lines. Maybe some of the GTXers that stormed off are just too sensitive too.

Even if you refuse believe you are shaming fat folks here, would you agree society in general fat shames? People can form gay clubs, republican clubs, even Nazi clubs, but nobody would dare join fat club. That magazine cover is really an anomaly. Exception rather than the rule. Seriously doubt that'll start a I'mFatToo movement.

[MR2 Fan]

I do think one problem we have is that, as opposed to other situations, obesity is immediately seen and is difficult to ignore.

People who smoke or do drugs, or have other issues, you wouldn't know unless you spent a lot of time around them, but obesity is always there and visible.

[tigeraid]

So..... I was 300 lbs, now I'm 185 and fit, right? I was diagnosed with sleep apnea like 20 years ago, and have slept with a CPAP ever since. Since I lost the weight everyone's said I shouldn't need it anymore, so last night I finally went for another sleep study. I won't know the results for a month or whatever, but here's hoping it's all gone.

This post is more about my experience last night. First off, it is downright bizarre to be in a sleep clinic full of morbidly obese patients as the only fit person; their eyes were constantly on me, no doubt wondering wtf I was doing there.

The nurse was a very friendly woman in her mid forties, who was astounded at my weight loss. Like, I think my doctor was the only person more shocked at my results. She couldn't believe that I not only lost weight, but put on muscle, that I had visible abs. We ended up talking about it the entire time. I'd never thought about it, but she pointed out that it was often hard for her to stay positive in her job, because all she sees, night after night for 15+ years, is obese and morbidly obese (ie. very sick) people, and she often sees them continue to come back, worse and worse, night after night. Unfortunately, some come back with cancer, or having suffered a stroke, or having lost a foot to diabetes. Some talk of many failed diets. Some have had gastric bypass, only to regain the weight, because bypass does not teach them how to live healthy. To be honest, she overshared a bit, and told me some real horror stories.

She actually got choked up about me, saying that I was only the second (SECOND!) patient in fifteen years to come back to her clinic having lost the weight and gotten fit. I was floored by that number. Terrified. I thought surely there'd be a handful a year? Nope.

Thing is, she's obese herself. And knows it. So a lot of our talk was her asking me endless questions about how to lose the weight. Not just her, but also her obese 20yo son. She mentioned all the usual failed methods, like "eating more fruit", severe diets, and walking on treadmills for hours. Of course, she had never once tracked what she ate, and mostly ate fast food every day for breakfast and lunch. I gave her all the advice I could, and she was positively bubbling over it. She felt she needed to be a role model for her patients, and was determined to get started right away.

So, it was a pretty emotional night for me. On the one hand I'm happy I was able to inspire someone to try and get healthy, especially someone in her position. I'm also anxious to find out if I'm finally free of the condition. On the other hand, it's hard not to feel sad and depressed about the state of our society now, that almost NO ONE who's obese and suffers from sleep apnea ever gets healthy. And the so-called "fat acceptance movement", in my opinion, is sending completely the wrong message and is only going to make this situation MORE the norm, more the status quo. It scares me.

Oh and can I just say how absolutely FUCKED it is, that I have to walk through a food court in the hospital, with a Subway (Which is NOT "fresh" or healthy food, those fucks), a Tim Hortons and some kind of pastry shop to get to the goddamn sleep clinic?

[speedpimp]

Congrats on the weight loss and maintaining it and getting in shape as well, tiger. Being able to lose it and keep it off is fucking awesome.
I'm down 170 since May '12 and have kept it off. I've wanted to get in better shape, but after work I'm just too tired/lazy to go to the gym.

[tigeraid]

Congrats yourself. And while being in shape is great and long-term "important," nothing is more important than having a healthy body fat percentage. So you're there.

[Cam]

Again, great work guys.

[speedpimp]

Thanks tiger and Cam.

[MR2 Fan]

That seems to be a long time to get results for a sleep study...hope it turns out well...I use a CPAP also

[SkylineObsession]

Damn that's a sad story tiger, i honestly feel for all people who are overweight and wish they could all get the help needed to lose it. One of my brothers is around 130kg (286 lb) and he's sort of plateaued around there, but doesn't have the motivation to get more exercise, nor the money to eat better (he's on a sickness benefit for depression). He's better than he used to be, and does want to change, but he's getting a little disheartened that their (sister is a little overweight too) efforts to eat better etc aren't helping anymore like they used to.

NZ has a bit of an obesity problem too. My father has always been relatively 'normal' weight wise yet when he moved to the USA and lived there for ten years, he came back quite overweight (probably around your old weight of 300 lb or so). He too has plateaued with his weight at the moment, i think he's stuck at 110kgs (242lb). And my step mum, who he bought back with him from the US, is also 'overweight', and i worry about her too.

It may end up being an ongoing thing to keep the weight off, but hopefully you continue to keep the motivation up. Maybe you could even start helping others lose weight in a bigger capacity, if that's your thing.

I'm only 80kg's (176 lb) but was sitting at 70 for a number of years. With my current job i can sometimes walk for up to 5-6 hours a day, so i think that some of the weight gain has been muscle growth, as my legs actually have a shape to them now instead of being pin sticks. Been sitting down a tonne for the past few years too (usually fall onto the sofa after work and stay there till bed time because can get quite tired sometimes after work) so have noticed that my abs are slowly disappearing behind blubber, but am conscious of it and have tried to stop eating so much crap and have cut back of soft drinks.

Basically, balancing weight sucks, but it's just one of those things that if you can do it, you probably should (to improve quality of life etc). Nothing's ever easy dammit, but you should be very proud of your weight loss.