<p>So curmudgeon would your solution be to grin and bear it and let obese people sit half in your seat, or make bigger seats and have all of us just subsidize the overeating and indulgence that goes along with weighing 300 pounds?</p>
<p>I see obese people all day long and they eat and sit, whether they are employed or not. And feed their kids the same way.</p>
<p>I realize that there is a big movement out there for the “fat is beautiful” people to excuse and exhalt obesity and just keep manufacturing larger clothes, but I personally think there are few excuses for obesity, and that it is not beautiful.</p>
<p>curmudgeon: You’re my hero, and you made me laugh as usual.</p>
<p>collegialmom: I’m not even going to bother this time because you know best. Aren’t you glad you have another thread to spread this intolerant claptrap, even in the face of mounting scientific evidence? Almost as good as creationism.</p>
<p>I guess it must offend you that some fat people are on CC and you might even like their posts. Gotta make sure this doesn’t happen. Don’t you have any empathy at all? Narcissism is also a disease but it destroys others.</p>
<p>Wish I could be as funny as curmudgeon. It’s interesting how empathetic the men are and how cruel the women are. Food for thought. Oops! I sAId a dirty word.</p>
<p>What curm is saying is pretty reasonable, but here’s my question: how do we accommodate for obesity without encouraging people to become obese by making it easier? I mean, if I were on the path to obesity, one of the things that would turn me back would be the inconvenience and societal disapproval. If we remove that, and effectively are like “whatever your weight, we’ll accommodate you”, how do we then at the same time encourage people to lose weight?</p>
This is off topic but I think there should be some etiquette regarding airplane seat usage. I follow this rule - a person stuck in the center seat should be permitted first dibbs on the armrests since both of their armrests are shared. This rule gets more difficult with more than 3 seats in row. More etiquette - no other body parts or clothing on the neighbors space - i.e. a suit jacket that’s half in the neighbor’s seat; no sleeping on the shoulder of the seatmate; no grabbing the back of the seat in front of you to pull yourself out of your own seat and give whiplash to the person whose seat you grabbed, etc.; etc.</p>
I don’t really know any obese people (or overweight people) who wouldn’t rather not be obese regardless of how accepted they are by their friends and society. I think rather than being on the receiving end of societal disapproval they need positive encouragement and education as to how best combat their condition. More research can help as well in order for us to understand better why some people become obese easily and others not. Sometimes some simple knowledge can go a long way as in the article I linked above regarding the ‘feel full’ hormonal difference in people and techniques that can be used to improve it (eating more slowly).</p>
<p>Speaking of airlines, I am almost always stuck in the middle, between my two 6 ft tall sons. Fortunately, they are very thin and I’m smaller than average, so it works out. </p>
<p>I sympathize with zoosermom, because I have also been seated next to someone who impinged on my seat a great deal. But I certainly felt tremendous sympathy for that person – I’m sure it wasn’t pleasant to know that she was taking over half of my space.</p>
<p>
Do you think that obese people are somehow unaware of it? I don’t think society, or any other individual, needs to do anything to point that out or to make people’s lives any more miserable than they may already be.</p>
<p>I’m a little surprised at the intolerance here.</p>
<p>Re: 1of42 - you MUST be joking! That’s right up there with “welfare moms who have babies to get more money on welfare!” You were being facetious, right?</p>
<p>I just happened to be watching “The Biggest Loser” (I’m not really overweight.) WELL! Here were a couple of dozen overweight people who spent the WHOLE WEEK with a trainer exercising and eating carefully for the sole purpose of losing weight with the huge incentive of being on national TV. Guess what? Quite a few of them lost 20 or so lbs the first week (mainly because the first week of weight loss is about water, so they lose the most) but the SECOND week most of them lost less then 10 lbs! These are people who might be at least 100 lbs overweight.</p>
<p>For those of you small minded enough to think that all they need to do is exercise and eat more carefully, is it possible that there might be other factors that serious people just can’t control? What explanation can you possibly have for the experience of these very serious struggling people on national TV who are supported by the perfect environment of a sequestered situation with personal trainers? They’re losing an average of 2-6 lbs! Can you possibly empathize with their extraordinary disappointment at such little weight loss with such a supreme effort?</p>
<p>I was on a flight three weeks ago and had the unlucky ticket! 280 or so on one side and at least 320 on the other. I’m 5 9’ and 140, so it was not exactly going to work. When I asked the flight attendant to switch seats, she acted like I was just terribly unreasonable and kept apologizing to the two obsese woman.
Obesity can not be fun, but I don’t buy this scientific evidence. It’s all pretty lame as far as I’m concerned. My sister and I were buying some mums at Walmart while I was home last month. Her minivan happened to be parked pretty close to the door & while we loaded thirty mums into the back, two huge woman sat and waited for us to finish. They were holding up a line of cars, but they didn’t care. They wanted that parking space, after all it would have taken far too much effort to walk from the one FOUR SPACES AWAY!
For the most part, I control my weight by taking the stairs, parking far away, cleaning my own house, mowing my own yard, planting my own mums and a little thing called thinking about what I put in my mouth and why I’m putting it there. I think that obesity is mostly about laziness and gluttony and the rest is mostly pretty lame “scientific evidence.”</p>
<p>First of all, I think we should take away accomodations for blind people because people might just forget their glaucoma testing because they know they are going to be accomodated.</p>
<p>Then I think we should make all tall people sit in the back of theaters. After all, I am only 5’7" and I often can’t see over the heads of people in front of me at all, and I have paid the same money for my seat. And sometimes they are wearing hats, or have hair that sticks up! Or maybe we should just cut off their heads as the red queen says.</p>
<p>However, I do think that the very best in life should be reserved for the blonde, blue eyed women who are of perfect weight, have perfect figures, and play tennis because everyone knows they’re the best.</p>
<p>Oh, and two pounds is a very different two pounds on you than someone who weighs 340. Where is your compassion. Your post is filled with callousness, smugness and self-righteousness.</p>
<p>Let’s see, Sarahsmom, you don’t like fat people, they’re lazy and gluttonous, and you don’t like drag queens because they’re perverts. Hmm. Guess it’s great there in perfect land.</p>
<p>BTW: I am a man who is 5’7" and weighs exactly what you do. I guess you would discriminate against me as a shrimp.</p>
<p>Re: Sarahsmom42 "For the most part, I control my weight by taking the stairs, parking far away, cleaning my own house, mowing my own yard, planting my own mums and a little thing called thinking about what I put in my mouth and why I’m putting it there. I think that obesity is mostly about laziness and gluttony and the rest is mostly pretty lame “scientific evidence.”</p>
<p>I guess you’re just wonderful and people with problems aren’t. Not much more to be said!</p>
<pre><code> Why do would someone feel less successful for losing 2-3 pounds if they weigh 140 or 340? That makes no sense.
I worked as a nurse for six years and obese people are twice as much work as those who are not obsese, sorry if that’s insulting, but it’s a fact. Scientific evidence is just like statistics, you can make it support whatever you want.
Oh, and yes, it’s pretty darn good here in perfect land. Sorry if that makes you jealous.
</code></pre>
<p>garland, you’re absolutely right, but it’s not just tonight. It’s been happening for a couple of weeks now. However, on a positive note, there are some posters who are clearly showing exactly who they are and the more their fingers type, the more clear it gets to even more members here, and their credibility is dropping like a stone. They’re spreading their ‘wisdom’ in several threads and on more than one forum on CC. It’s sad.</p>
<p>Re: Sarahsmom - ummmm … yeah, losing 2-6 lbs really IS a lot more on a smaller person then it is on a larger person. I think that’s even scientifically non-debatable. Call it the … percentage rule of weight loss.</p>
<p>I’m really sorry. I HAVE to apologize to all of the tolerant intelliegent people out there (for whom I AM jealous of!) I got carried away and became intolerant of intolerant people. I just fell into that petty trap!</p>
<p>Just one more, please?</p>
<p>No, Sarahsmom, I’m really not jealous of your perfection. Because, you see, your “perfection” is only skin deep. I’d MUCH rather be jealous of people who aren’t as “perfect” on the outside as you seem to think of yourself as, but rather people who are kind, compassionate, intelligent, and tolerant of people who … are different. I also need to get over my surprise that parents on a college board could be petty and small minded. That’s my fault and constant naiivete about how wonderful the potential of people could be. I need to be more broadminded about that.</p>
I don’t know if you had a chance to follow some of the links I posted or research some of the science yourself but it’s definitely real and more is being discovered all the time. </p>
<p>The problem is too many are judging the others based on their own experience and conditions. They have no idea what it’s like for the other person. Although I don’t have any obesity problems that doesn’t mean others have it as easy as me. If you accept that people are built differently, that some bodies are more calorie efficient than others (check my link on the Pimas), some feel full and some don’t, that some people have psychological factors affecting obesity, some have a difficult time controlling their innate urges, etc. then it’s logical to assume that some will have a much harder time with obesity than others.</p>
<p>I am a pretty small person - about 5 ft 4 inches and about 115-120 lbs and have been blessed with a great metabolism - I probably could eat five cows and not gain a pound. I actually weigh 1 lb more than my mom and she is 22 years older than myself. That being said, I am one of the most openminded people that I know and I have to chime in on this. There is a gentleman that I work with who is very obese. When he walks by, the floor actually shakes. One day, he was working on a project and was going back and forth, back and forth, and I literally wound up in the bathroom throwing up because I got sick. It was like motion sickness. I’ve gotten queasy a couple of other times, but have only puked once. I actually have my motion sickness medicine in my desk drawer, in case I start to feel like that again.</p>
<p>I don’t care what he weighs and treat him just like I would treat anybody else, but I would like to have my desk in a spot where I’m not going to get sea sick when somebody walks by it. If I wouldn’t have gotten this new job I was going to ask my boss if I could swap desks with somebody else, because this desk certainly isn’t working out for me. Between him walking by and Mrs. IWearPerfumeThatFendergirlIsAllergicToEveryOtherDayEvenThoughI’veBeenToldAboutItAMillionTimes whose desk is next to mine… sitting at my desk all day is like one giant headache! It’s nothing that I think I’m better than them or anything like that, but I’ve came home from work so many days literally sick from sitting there. </p>
<p>sarahs >>> What about civil rights for average weight people. Have you ever been in coach when the plane is full and the person next to you takes up one and a half seats? Can we talk? <<<</p>
<p>I had this happen to me and I was soooo annoyed. It seems that this very large man knows that his “situation” is a problem so he makes sure he boards early so he can quickly raise the arm rest between the seats. So, when I arrived, the “available” part of my seat was less than half of what it should be. I complained to the flight attendant and she said there was nothing she could do. </p>
<p>I later called the airline and suggested that the policy should be that arm rests can only be raised if BOTH passengers agree - they didn’t bite. I then told them that they owed me for half of my fare since they only provided half of a seat… They gave me a voucher.</p>