As Oliver Hardy said 'Size is no excuse for clumsiness'.
Watch their dance routine in their film 'The Music Box', and Stan's steps are rather clumsy in comparison to Ollie who appears to almost flow along.
Obesity needs a new definition
- Thread starter Ming the Merciless
- Start date
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Watch their dance routine in their film 'The Music Box', and Stan's steps are rather clumsy in comparison to Ollie who appears to almost flow along.
oldandslow
Guru
I'm pleased they're redefining the criteria for "overweight", as it should help me to get up hills faster.
bobzmyunkle
Über Member
BMI - obese shaming.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/jan/18/diagnosis-of-obesity-lancet-report
Williams has researched the relationship between obesity and identity and found that people whose BMI defined them as obese felt stigmatised, and that the term failed to capture the difference between those making an effort to manage their weight through diet and exercise and those who did not.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/jan/18/diagnosis-of-obesity-lancet-report
Williams has researched the relationship between obesity and identity and found that people whose BMI defined them as obese felt stigmatised, and that the term failed to capture the difference between those making an effort to manage their weight through diet and exercise and those who did not.
Punkawallah
Über Member
IDK about that, but when they were reporting on BMI in the 80’s (News of the World) my brother and I did the numbers for a laugh. The result was that he was ‘overweight’, and I was ‘obese’. He was an aspiring cyclist at the time, and I was training for a County swimming competition. We both agreed we were not too fat, just too short.
I suspect the same attitude might have done some people more good than the BMI.
OP
OP
Ming the Merciless
There is no mercy
- Location
- Inside my skull
Not the same as being healthy as you’ll know
PaulSB
Squire
- Location
- Chorley, Lancashire
Absolutely. I know a guy who was very fit, a good cyclist, excellent stamina and endurance. He was significantly overweight, with it all sitting on his very large "bloated" looking stomach. He's had a range of health issues, now diagnosed type 2 diabetes and can no longer ride.
The main cause? An appalling diet.
ebikeerwidnes
Guru
- Location
- Z’ha’dum
I have also seen a strange thing in the Media
One minute they will be banging on about how many people in the UK are obese and how terrible it is and how everyone needs to be on a diet and go to the gym
then they will have articles about VERY overweight people who are fed up with being treated differently and are so much happier now they have ditched the diets and the exercise and are much happier and how wonderful it all is
a consistant message would help
but that does require a more sensible message about how to do it - rather than senssible messages being drowned out by the sensational stuff
One minute they will be banging on about how many people in the UK are obese and how terrible it is and how everyone needs to be on a diet and go to the gym
then they will have articles about VERY overweight people who are fed up with being treated differently and are so much happier now they have ditched the diets and the exercise and are much happier and how wonderful it all is
a consistant message would help
but that does require a more sensible message about how to do it - rather than senssible messages being drowned out by the sensational stuff
Fastpedaller
Über Member
But cycling is good if you do it for a long time because it's difficult to eat without dropping the food whilst cycling
teeonethousand
Senior Member
I can do it 😂😂😂
Fastpedaller
Über Member
EER - do you know me? Joking aside from my experience it's easy to fall into the ' I'm fit' mindset. Although nobody has ever said I look overweight, I had the 'fat on the inside syndrome'. After having some 'digestive issues' (I won't go into more gory detail) I took a trip to docs and had blood tests which identified me as pre-diabetic and 24% likelihood of a heart attack within 10 years
. This shocked me into chucking all the biscuits in the bin. I'd got into the habit of 'cup of coffee and a jaffa cake' followed an hour later by 'cup of coffee and a (more than) few crisps'. I was unwittingly on a downward spiral. I recently saw an acquaintance who looks fit and cycles a lot - since i'd last seen him he'd had a heart attack - His explanation "I'd just eat anything because I knew I'd burn it off". He said he's fallen into the same trap. I've been attending NHS pre-diabetes meetings, and it's quite enlightening to learn (amongst other things) that sugar is a big nasty, and eating big meals is just as bad as eating the wrong type of food. I've gone from 82kg to 74kg (most of it went very early on in the process) and I can now see my abs again 
OP
OP
Ming the Merciless
There is no mercy
- Location
- Inside my skull
It’s absolutely fine when exercising, for instance out on a long ride, as it’ll be taken up by the muscles from your blood as fuel. No insulin spikes. It is when you carry on eating the same, when not active, and you get the spikes etc.
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presta
Legendary Member
My BMI is 18.7 and my WHR 48.6%, but I'm not sure that tells you more than just looking at the way muscles have wasted and fat accumulated. A year after I quit cycle touring my weight hadn't changed, but the rib cage like a xylophone had disappeared under a layer of fat. My diet's better than average by pretty much any metric you care to name, but that alone isn't a a lot of help without exercise.
ebikeerwidnes
Guru
- Location
- Z’ha’dum
you need more practice!!
Rusty Nails
We remember
- Location
- Living in the slow lane
Dogtrousers
Kilometre nibbler
This is pretty much aligned with what I was saying above. Which means the planets are in an unusual alignment and I am right for once.
Prof Francesco Rubino, the chair of the Lancet Commission that produced the report, said BMI should be used as a “screening tool” to understand risk, not to diagnose illness.
That much should be completely obvious. Something derived from two simple data points can be useful to flag someone as being worth a second look but cannot be of any use in diagnosis. I don't understand how we've got to the point that anyone thinks otherwise.
