Obesity in Shetland

[Guest Anonymous]

A better indication, than the BMI, of body fat can be obtained by using some of the clever scales available by companies such as Tanita. These scales have sensors which measure your body fat electrically (don't ask me how), and the readings can scare you.

When I first used them I had a fat percentage of 38%, and the recommended for a man is about 20%. Women are luckier, they are assumed normal at about 30% fat, and I have to agree as that makes them cuddlier..

[bayhaa]

Just been to Solottis - we did a count, 30% obese and that was being conservative....

 

JEEZO!.......How f@*?k'n sad can you get??? - I really don't think It's overweight people they should be worring about considering that statement 'roadslave'!!!

[Spinner72]

I think you're right, Spinner. BMI is far too simplistic a way of looking at the matter. It's just a technical term to describe a person's body density really.

 

The association with fitness is only statistical.

 

Ta, but i did kinda go off on a rant there and lost track of the *real* point i was after, which was that i'm willing to bet that compared to many areas, Shetland has a much higher percentage of fit and healthy obese people.

 

Yes, you did read that right!

[shetlander]

Blame the NHS, blame the Government, blame 'nothing to do' - hell nobody has mentioned the Council yet! Isn't it about time that we started taking responsibility for ourselves instead of placing the blame elsewhere?

 

Its funny how survey methodologies are only disputed when they show something in a negative light. No doubt if exactly the same statistics showed Shetland at the opposite end of the table, the experts would be happy to accept them as accurate, spouting the natural environment and the millions that have been spent on sporting facilities over the years as being contributory factors to islanders healthy lifestyles.

 

I hear the argument about how BMI is calculated although through casual observation, the number of musclebounds as opposed to those who could do with losing a few kilos of bodyfat in Shetland is on the low side. So to be honest, and despite the small pool that the statistics have allegedly been drawn from, the findings don't surprise me much. It seems to me that the acceptability of heavy drinking, over eating and use of the car to travel even short distances are much more deeply ingrained cultural barriers to improving health in Shetland than the lack of good sporting facilities or an accessible outdoor environment, both of which are there in abundance.

[paulb]

^ it is my fault. but then its my fault when i get cancer its my fault when i break my leg.

yep you only get fat by eating more than you need.

now listern carefully i will only say this once.

 

you cant exercise when morbidly obese. its impossable

 

now lets do a bit of teaching. for those of you who think exercise will cure obesity. i challange you to strap on a couple of sacks of coal and go and do some exercise.

so you dont need medical supervision when you need to lose a lot of weight. well i bow down to your better medical skills. you are so much more knowledge able than somebody who has had to live with being very fat all there lives.

there are 3500 kcals in a pound of fat so if you are a hundred pound over the idea weight thats 350000kcals. now on a healthy eating diet you are looking to reduce your intake by a few hundred i let you work how long that would take. when you are very fat your metablism is very slow so you have to eat much less than what the diet experts tell you. for myself that is in the area of 500-700kcals a day. i would love to see you

 

normals live on that for a few days let alone the few years that i would need to

 

again even when i have starved myself for those years it will come back. this is a fact that all the diet industry will not tell you. when you7 put your body into starvation mode it will switch to storage imeditatly you go onto a non weight loss diet.

your body is built to survive starvation hence yoyo dieting you will weigh more after eat diet attempt.

there are deox centres for drugs and lots of stop smoking resorces available . there is only one method that really shows long term weight loss and that is surgery. let me give you a brief idea what you have done. first the cut out about 90% of your stomach and then they bypass a lot of your intestines. thus resulting in a body that cant absorb the cals. now this easy option has a high death and complication rate it also makes you dependent on injections of certer vits that you are now unable to absorb. it also causes dumping syndroms for those who have just eaten i will refrain from explaining what that is.

so please dont think us fatties enjoy being fat. be me for a few days and you will relise that we dont choose to be fat.

 

(*** Mod - Shouting removed ***)

[Evil Inky]

now listern carefully i will only say this once.

you cant exercise when morbidly obese. its impossable

Unless you're completely bed-ridden, it's possible to exercise - even if it's only walking slowly or pushing yourself along in a wheelchair.

now lets do a bit of teaching. for those of you who think exercise will cure obesity. i challange you to strap on a couple of sacks of coal and go and do some exercise.

It wouldn't be impossible - I've given piggy-back rides to people who weigh more than I do.

[MaxFusion]

now lets do a bit of teaching. for those of you who think exercise will cure obesity. i challange you to strap on a couple of sacks of coal and go and do some exercise

 

I have actually done this, for fun I mite add....not coal exactly but a 75L rucksack full of beer and food wieghing about 20-25kg, a 15 kg bag o charcoal

at least 10kg of fishing tackle(mostly lead weights) and camping gear (total weigh in around 50+Kg) and then hiking a few miles over the hills to get to my destination and I didn't die of heart failure either!

not bad for a slightly overweight unfit smoker

 

the answer is to start small and work up

no you may not be able to hike for miles at a time but I'm sure you could manage a half mile daily stroll and work up from there.

[Styumpie]

Going by BMI is a bit hit and miss, the only way to tell if your fat is strip off and have a look at yourself in the mirror, if you have rolls of fat hanging all over the place, and a stomach hanging a foot out over the belt, your probably eating a bit much.

 

Its perfectly possible to have thin folk who are unhealthy due to poor diet and lack of exercise.

 

Its common to have overweight people who are fighting fit, who can do a good days hard graft, or go for a hike in the hills without gasping for breath..

 

There should be no laws to prevent people doing what they want, as long as you cause no adverse effects to anyone else. If you want to be over weight, its really no ones business but your own. Same goes for anything else as part of the freedom we have a right to inherent in being human.

 

The debate is there are more fat people around nowadays, which it is hard to deny. The topic of how healthy or 'fit' people are is a whole different ball game. We would need to see NHS statistics for that.

[roadslave]

Just been to Solottis - we did a count, 30% obese and that was being conservative....

 

JEEZO!.......How f@*?k'n sad can you get??? - I really don't think It's overweight people they should be worring about considering that statement 'roadslave'!!!

 

Ha ha - yes - i admit sad, but it was a hot topic of conversation in the office and we needed some light fun away from the office stress!!! Sorry!!

[dtothet]

There should be no laws to prevent people doing what they want, as long as you cause no adverse effects to anyone else. If you want to be over weight, its really no ones business but your own.

 

i agree with everything you said pretty much. except at this part id say this thread isnt about blaming/finding fat people.

 

id say we should be considering what it is about shetland, or the shetland lifestyle, thats causing statistical results like this (be they accurate or not).

 

 

 

i think there is a good chance that shetland has an above-average number of overweight people as everyone drives *everywhere* in shetland, and often have to.

 

when i lived down south i would walk at least 2 miles every day, just to my daily place of work. and if i do any extra-curricular activities then its extra walking distance

[khitajrah]

If a significant number of a population are visiting their doctors because of obesity-related health issues then that indicates their lifestyle habits ARE affecting other people. The money for their treatment has to come from somewhere, fine, the NHS can spend a fortune on treating obesity but where is this money going to come from? Would it be better if it were taken away from A&E or any other live-saving departments?

[Strawb]

If a significant number of a population are visiting their doctors because of obesity-related health issues then that indicates their lifestyle habits ARE affecting other people. The money for their treatment has to come from somewhere, fine, the NHS can spend a fortune on treating obesity but where is this money going to come from? Would it be better if it were taken away from A&E or any other live-saving departments?

 

I was under the impression even obese people paid their stamp/taxes? A lot of A&E cases are self inflicted - does that lessen their right to treatment? If someone injures themselves playing sport I don't see people complaining about their taxes going towards their treatment.

[khitajrah]

^^ I'm not saying that anyone is any less worthy of medical treatment, but rather than waiting to treat something why not tackle the cause? I'm under the impression this is why they gather statistics and information like the map we're speaking about, to see just where education is needed the most. It would cost a lot less to educate a population on diet and healthy eating rather than give us all gastric bypass surgery because of our excesses.

[Frances144]

^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Here speaketh a thin person.

[khitajrah]

^^ I wouldn't use the word thin really... more like pathetically average.