The point is that the health benefits of exercise are not limited to long term prevention on major disease it also improves mental health and quality of life.

There is no one type, size, shape or ideal but to argue that the shape and poor health and yes fatness that Americans are in right now was inevitable is utter nonsense. There are a lot of factors that have gone into it and none of it has to do with the moral quality of fat people but to deny the relationship between what we as a country eat, how we as country live and travel and what we as a country now look like is preposterous.

(None of which is nonsense BTW Americans are depressed and sleep deficient and stressed out and there are many factors contributing to this but one helpful thing for depression and stress is exercise. People would be more inclined to exercise if there was not an impossible weight loss goal attached to it and it was presented as fun instead of labor in service of an aesthetic)

what BMI? what height/weight ratio? what pant size?

I’m not necessarily referring to any remarks made in this thread when I talked about the smoking/fat-alcohol-drugs comparison. However, I do see it all the time. I’ve had protracted arguments with people on Salon, for example, about just that.

Is this Salon?

Do us a favor and limit your response to what’s being discussed here, unless you link or quote something someone said elsewhere and label it as such. Because you’re tilting at windmills over here.

Sorry, deep6, there is no advantage in dieting to improve health. None. Not only does dieting not lead to permanent weight loss, but in itself it is a much stronger marker for morbidity and mortality. There is no such thing as “a healthy diet”. People are fit or not. People are fat or not. People who are not fit should be encouraged to get more exercise, they should not be harrassed about their food intake. Overweight does not elevate any risk factors for disease.

Ya see, this is one of “those” comments. Glad to see it didn’t go unchallenged this time.

So who is this sentence arguing against precisely, I’m confused. I want to feel good, I want to be healthy. I want other people to do the same because it adds to human happiness and progress. For me a side effect of those things for me was that I lost weight (until I fell off my bicycle and busted my hip that is). It does not mean it will be that way for everyone, it certainly won’t mean we will all be thin but in all likelihood based on the real world experiences of people I know well Americans would not be as fat on average. They would also be less anxious, sleep better and be less depressed because they would be eating better and exercising.

Actually what I am tired of is getting slammed for holding opinions I don’t hold.

What does that have to do with you not getting respect? How does a desire for health and a more positive and less moralistic attitude towards food deny you respect?

And speaking just for myself, I never said “nobody could lose weight and keep it off.” Or that nobody should try, ever, if they really have a burning desire to do so and it’s physically realistic for them. Some people can do this, although it’s a lot more rare than media hype would have it, and I do understand the dream to fit in, be accepted, be respected, be paid. (And how sad that we give women in this society a zero-sum choice between having a relaxed attitude about eating and having a highly paid career, unless they are one of the rare genetic lucky duckies with a hummingbird metabolism.) If I could “slim down for life” and still have a life, maybe I’d join you.

But I daresay you’ll encounter the opinion, “Everyone can and should be thin, and all it takes is a little effort, which you fatties are too selfish to make,” a lot more often than you’ll encounter, “Not everyone can be thin and not everyone needs to be thin.” Even on sites supposedly with “progressive” or “feminist” viewpoints. So if you’re tired of hearing/reading that you can’t have what you want (a thin body for life), how tired do you think I must be to get slammed over and over again with the idea that I can’t have what I want (respect at whatever size I am)?