Carrying "extra weight"
Jun. 26th, 2007 03:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sarahmichiganI think it's interesting that this idea has popped up in LJ or in real life several times in just the past couple of days. It's mentioned on the "Fat Hate Bingo Cards" that are going around on my size-acceptance communities, I mentioned it to J. while we were out walking, and then it popped up in the context of a weight-loss post by an LJ friend.
(Note: I'm not picking on the person who made the weight-loss post; if you're happy, I'm happy for you. You just reminded me that I'd been meaning to post about this issue).
The friend who has lost weight compared her former higher weight to lugging around a grade-schooler every day. The Fat Hate Bingo Card compares "extra" weight to lugging around a backpack (and the author of "The Rotund" blog has snappy comebacks to several items on the bingo card).
I have a problem with these comparisons and was mentioning this to J. while we were out walking on Saturday. We'd walked to Dairy Mart to get a half gallon of skim milk, and I was carrying it in a backpack. I told him that people talk about carrying X amount of pounds as if it were like carrying a backpack or a weight around. But, it's really not like that at all. The approxmiately four-pounds of milk weighed me down in a completely different way than, say, four pounds I might gain around my menstrual period in water-weight gain. That weight would be distributed equally around my body, and I'd barely notice it, except maybe in a slightly pinched waistline. The four pounds of milk hanging in the small of my back felt completely different.
If anything, carrying around "extra" weight is just helping you get a better workout. What do athletes do when they want a more challenging program than just lugging around their own body weight? They add wrist bands or ankle weights. Nobody tells them they're destroying their health or harming their heart by doing this (although doing it poorly can certainly strain the joints).
The medical evidence for extra body weight being any kind of burden on your heart health is extremely weak (the biggest risk factor for cardiovascular diseases is family history, not body fat percentage), and having some extra body fat actually confers some health benefits, such as lower incidences of broken hips and osteoporosis as you grow older.
Just another one of those piece of conventional "wisdom" about weight and health that doesn't stand up to scrutiny very well.
(Note: I'm not picking on the person who made the weight-loss post; if you're happy, I'm happy for you. You just reminded me that I'd been meaning to post about this issue).
The friend who has lost weight compared her former higher weight to lugging around a grade-schooler every day. The Fat Hate Bingo Card compares "extra" weight to lugging around a backpack (and the author of "The Rotund" blog has snappy comebacks to several items on the bingo card).
I have a problem with these comparisons and was mentioning this to J. while we were out walking on Saturday. We'd walked to Dairy Mart to get a half gallon of skim milk, and I was carrying it in a backpack. I told him that people talk about carrying X amount of pounds as if it were like carrying a backpack or a weight around. But, it's really not like that at all. The approxmiately four-pounds of milk weighed me down in a completely different way than, say, four pounds I might gain around my menstrual period in water-weight gain. That weight would be distributed equally around my body, and I'd barely notice it, except maybe in a slightly pinched waistline. The four pounds of milk hanging in the small of my back felt completely different.
If anything, carrying around "extra" weight is just helping you get a better workout. What do athletes do when they want a more challenging program than just lugging around their own body weight? They add wrist bands or ankle weights. Nobody tells them they're destroying their health or harming their heart by doing this (although doing it poorly can certainly strain the joints).
The medical evidence for extra body weight being any kind of burden on your heart health is extremely weak (the biggest risk factor for cardiovascular diseases is family history, not body fat percentage), and having some extra body fat actually confers some health benefits, such as lower incidences of broken hips and osteoporosis as you grow older.
Just another one of those piece of conventional "wisdom" about weight and health that doesn't stand up to scrutiny very well.
