Living ~400lbs

… and believe me I am still alive

Statistics

  • A Hypothetical Doctor’s Visit

    Jasmine is waiting in the exam room and her chart shows that her weight today is up five pounds from her last visit two years ago, putting her BMI at 32. Her blood pressure was borderline high in contrast to the normal readings in previous visits. Although Jasmine’s labs were normal in past visits, they… Continue reading

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  • 2013 at Living 400lbs

    Most-read posts / pages: Day in the Life About Barefoot Contessa How Do You Comfort Sore Muscles? Fat Clothing Catalogs… Day in the Life: Shower, Chafing, & Jock Itch But…! Disney World What If You’re Too Big For Lane Bryant? Exercise Some more amusing search terms: unicorns are real they’re just fat and gray and we call them rhinos rhetorical question about… Continue reading

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  • Fat Bias Isn’t Just About Rapport

    As noted on Twitter, the article Tara Parker-Pope wrote for the New York Times about a study in Obesity looking at how fat patients aren’t always welcomed by doctors. Not news, though I suppose it’s good to have quantitative research supporting it. Really, though, this is just the tip of the iceberg.  Here’s some more. For patient stories on… Continue reading

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  • Things to Read

    A clear explanation of why  New York’s fat hatred is much more harmful than the soda ban from Melissa McEwan: People do not die of “obesity.” Some fat people die from complications of what are commonly known as “obesity-related diseases,” like heart disease and diabetes, but those diseases have only been shown to be correlated with fat, not caused by fat.… Continue reading

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  • Fat Demographics

    I ran across some interesting US data from the CDC recently. Among men, obesity prevalence is generally similar at all income levels, with a tendency to be slightly higher at higher income levels. Among women, obesity prevalence increases as income decreases. Most obese adults are not low income (below 130% of the poverty level). Among… Continue reading

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  • Things to read

    I think a lot of people look to exercise to help them lose weight, and when they don’t lose weight immediately with exercise, they quit. They return to the couch, and they basically never move again. What is lost in that is that fitness is almost certainly more important than fatness. — Gretchen Reynolds, promoting… Continue reading

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  • Rebecca Puhl on Chris Christie & Weight Bias

    Rebecca Puhl is the director of research at the Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity at Yale.  The Rudd Center is pro-weight loss, which can be disconcerting to run across on their website. Nonetheless, they do useful research on weight discrimination and health, not to mention writing articles for CNN on how weight discrimination affects the news… Continue reading

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  • 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… Continue reading

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  • Way Outside the Bell Curve

    Per the US CDC’s Anthropometric Reference Data (PDF) 5% of adult, non-pregnant women in the US weigh less than 111lbs, and 95% weigh less than 250lbs.   90% of US women weigh between 111 and 250lbs. This is why I consider myself a statistical outlier, weight-wise.  As I’ve noted before, in some ways I’m a freak of nature —… Continue reading

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  • Deciphering studies: Absolute vs Relative Risks

    I thought this example Lisa Martinez made in the comments at the Well blog was one of the clearer examples I’ve seen for absolute vs relative risks. 100 women took ABC pill and 100 women took a placebo, which is not an actual medication. Of the 100 women who took ABC pill, 2 developed cancer… Continue reading

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  • Perspective: Use It Or Lose It

    I recently discovered that the CDC has Anthropometric Reference Data (PDF), otherwise known as various body measurements (height, weight, waist, etc) broken down by age, gender, and percentiles. Personally I find this data fascinating.  The height tables, for example, were a wake-up call. At 68″ tall I know, intellectually, that I’m on the tall side… Continue reading

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About Me

Former software tester, now retired heart patient having fun and working on building endurance and strength. See also About page.

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