You Can Be Fat and Fit, But Only to a Point
For Example, The Point Where You Wheeze When You Open The Mail
One of the arguments made by some fat acceptance advocates is that simple excess weight, even when present as fat, is not necessarily an indicator of poor health. In a recent newspaper interview, Professor Andrea Garber, the chief nutritionist for a weight reduction program for obese children and teenagers at UC San Francisco, stated this position succinctly: “Studies show that if an obese person exercises and eats healthfully, their cardiovascular risk is lower than the thin-appearing person who is sedentary and lives on junk food.”
This may be all well and good as a scientific truth, but it doesn’t go all that far as a rationalization for obesity. For one thing, cardiovascular fitness does not protect the obese individual from diabetes, foot and knee joint problems, or certain obesity-associated cancers. For another, Garber stresses the importance of exercise versus a sedentary lifestyle, but there’s a Catch-22 in that regard: Obesity itself can become a limiting factor on the ability of the person to engage in productive exercises.
Jogging becomes too hard on the lower joints and ligaments and must give way to walking. Sudden-movement sports such as basketball and tennis become similarly too hard on the obese body.
Too Obese for the Gym? Get Real!
And now another problem, brought to our attention by a news item about an Oklahoma City woman who joined a gym to lose weight only to be told by the staff that, at 385 pounds, she was too heavy for the stationary bike and other exercise machines.
The woman was offered a customized workout program that emphasized water aerobics, which failed to satisfy her, but there’s no ongoing drama here: the gym owner elected to refund her money and that was that. Even so, there are two significant messages embedded in this item.
To the obese: There are upper limits to the fat-but-fit principle, and above a certain weight, your ability to control that weight and maintain vascular health through exercise begins to diminish.
To gym owners: Get real. The obese are one of your best potential sources of clientele, but only if you have facilities and equipment able to accommodate them, extreme heft and all.
(By Robert S. Wieder for CalorieLab Calorie Counter News)
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