Living ~400lbs

Category: Anti-Obesity Programs

  • Happy New Year!

    Hello and welcome!  I’m back at work with my new cartoon-a-day calendar (New Yorker cartoons) and new wall calendar (Pacific Northwest landscapes).  I even cut off some of the photos from last year’s wall calendar to decorate my cube.  Ready to work!  (Yes, I know it’s Wednesday, but today feels like Monday to me.  Yay four-day weekends!…

  • Things to Read

    From Paul Campos discusses the failure of a “sophisticated and expensive attempt” to validate the hypothesis that “significant long-term weight loss improves health outcomes”: It will probably come as a surprise to most readers to learn that this hypothesis remains almost completely unconfirmed by the medical literature – in part because we simply don’t know…

  • Some Things To Read

    The Fat Nutritionist has an excellent, and sadly useful, post titled “A little 101 – I get to exist.” It is okay to be fat, because fat people already exist. Fat people have existed for a very, very long time. Even if all of us tried, not all of us would become permanently thin. Fat people exist. We…

  • Soda Ban?

    I’m sorry if this offends anyone, but I don’t necessarily care about New York’s proposal to ban larger-than-16oz-sugary-sodas.  Partly it’s because I’m not affected; I live in Seattle and haven’t even sampled non-diet pop* in years. I am skeptical that it would make fat people thin, naturally, but I think it would be more likely…

  • Junk Food In Schools Doesn’t Correlate To Fat

    Remember how banning junk food in schools was supposed to make fat kids thin?  Guess what?  No,  it doesn’t.  At least not according to “Competitive Food Sales in Schools and Childhood Obesity: A Longitudinal Study” in Sociology of Education (January 2012). But of course we should’ve thought it would, right?  It’s not like “Snack food intake does not…

  • Quick Question

    About adding apple slices to Happy Meals (and reducing the size of fries): Also, for those who are over age 12: Is there any toy which would entice you to buy a Happy Meal for yourself?

  • US Obesity Rates Level Off Again?

    Oh, not again.  Still.  They’ve been level for years, but this time the Journal of the American Medical Association noticed. There’s discussion as to why, such as “people are getting healthier”.  Given how dieters often gain weight in the long term, I thought this perspective a bit more realistic: Dr. Ludwig said the plateau might…

  • Things to Read

    As others have noted, Paul Campos’ piece on how the US “Let’s Move” campaign aids and abets bullying is worth reading.  Besides noting that advocating for “child obesity to be eliminated” paints a “pick on me” sign on anyone who isn’t model-thin, Campos also cites studies that have tried healthy interventions with children in the…

  • QOTD: Why Stigmatize Fat Kids?

    From Pattie Thomas’ post at Psychology Today in response to a “Cease to be obese crusade” billboard on how kids should exercise: Why do you have to promote weight loss in order to promote exercise? If you really believe in the calorie in/calorie burned model, promoting exercise and healthy eating for every one would automatically…

  • Things to Read

    This is kind of a mishmash ;) If you’ve seen comments about “dickwolves” and PAX and wondered what it was about, JetWolf has a nice summary. Author Seanan McGuire addressed why fixing the US healthcare system is so terribly, terribly important this week.  Seanan has discussed why she needs health insurance here and here. Seanan’s new…

  • On Decoupling Exercise and Weight Loss

    From obesity researcher Travis Saunders comes this excellent post on how Canadian public health efforts to increase activity work against their own aims by tying exercise with weight loss: [T]he average weight loss in response to a moderate increase in physical activity levels is very modest, and it’s likely that many people would see no weight…

  • On Fat and Eating

    From Hanne Blank: Truth is, it is totally possible to be a fat person eating “healthy” and “sustainable” and “locavore” and “balanced” and “nutritious” and “organic.”  This fat I have on my hips here?  That’s some locally-grown, sustainable, artisanally crafted, homemade fat, right there, practically glowing with seventeen kinds of early 21st-century middle-class white American…

  • A few links

    Marilyn Wann launched a new HAES site at  http://2011revolutions.blogspot.com/, focusing at replacing diet resolutions with a revolution. Jezebel: If You’re Fat-Phobic, You’re Also An Ignorant, Bigoted Idiot and Biggest Weight Stories of 2010. “I don’t eat a hamburger and large chips every day!” A qualitative study of the impact of public health messages about obesity…

  • Quote of the Day: Healthcare Providers and Expectations

    From an article on healthcare providers stigmatizing fat patients: Healthcare providers also need to readjust their expectations. Getting individuals who are obese down to a normal weight isn’t realistic: Research shows that most people can’t expect to lose more than 10% of their body weight and, more important, to maintain the weight loss over time.…

  • Things to Read: Scandals That Aren’t

    This bit on Fast Food Restaurants Not Single-Handedly Ending Child Obesity is hysterical.   Yes, some fast food restaurants pledged to make “healthier” choices available, and yes, they make some “healthier” choices available.  Is it really a surprise that you might have to, gasp, order the milk and apple slices instead of pop and fries?…

  • Doing the Same Thing, Expecting Different Results

    Can you place this quote? Just about everyone can list ways to fight childhood obesity: schools should alter lunch menus, teach nutrition and hold more physical education classes. At home, parents should be more diligent and the Xbox less available. Here’s the problem: as logical as these suggestions might sound, when many of them have…

  • Michelle Obama: Let’s Harm Fat Kids

    If you haven’t read Kim Brittingham‘s piece on Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” anti-obesity campaign, you really should. When we frame our battle for healthier children as a battle against fatness itself, we’re merely proclaiming open season on fat people. We’re encouraging an already fat-prejudiced society to further demonize those who bear the fat – worst…