More than 73% of Americans are overweight or obese.

I think people with BMI under 25 should have free health insurance premiums.

This would incentivize people to try to get there and reward people who aren’t burdening the healthcare system.

thin is in wrote:

I think people with BMI under 25 should have free health insurance premiums.

This would incentivize people to try to get there and reward people who aren’t burdening the healthcare system.

Thats probably as good as an idea as any. Reward health and by virtue of this decrease overall health costs by eliminating huge swaths of diabetes, htn, and vascular disease.

gts123 wrote:

thin is in wrote:

I think people with BMI under 25 should have free health insurance premiums.

This would incentivize people to try to get there and reward people who aren’t burdening the healthcare system.

Thats probably as good as an idea as any. Reward health and by virtue of this decrease overall health costs by eliminating huge swaths of diabetes, htn, and vascular disease.

I don’t know about free (nothing should be free), but greatly reduced insurance premiums for the healthy would be a great move.

It’s kind of antithetical to the way insurance works, though. They rely on healthy people to pay for the fatties.

My old insurance would pay $30 of my gym membership fee if I went 12 times a month. I'm not gonna lie, $30 is not exactly life changing but psychologically it was definitely a boost on days when I didn't feel like going.

Health insurance premiums actually used to be much more aligned with risk. Unfortunately that meant things like denying people with pre-existing conditions. The ACA did away with that and now premiums are based only on age.

Life insurance premiums are still priced largely on health. Years ago I worked with a guy that was 330lbs, diabetic, and in his 40s when his daughter was born. He was either denied or given exorbitant premiums when he applied for life insurance. Did he use that as a wake up call? No, he eventually left the company for another one that offered employer life insurance SMH.

How crazy is it that they stereotype of a poor person in the US is that they are fat?

The term "fat cat" used to describe the ultra rich because they could afford to over eat, now we associate fitness and in shape with affluence, and fat overweight with the poor.

thin is in wrote:

I think people with BMI under 25 should have free health insurance premiums.

This would incentivize people to try to get there and reward people who aren’t burdening the healthcare system.

This would "disproportionately" affect blacks, latinos, and other minority groups.

To many poor people, little social mobility and many uneducated

Stoppit Smith wrote:

People need to know that bigger bodies or thicker features (legs, backside) are not the end of the world.

They may not be the end of the world, but they may lead to a pre-mature end to your life.

All men look terrible 60+ whether they are fat or not.

People apparently blaming the messenger (BMI) would do well to heed the words of one expert:

"America does not seem to be suffering from an epidemic of buffness"

Stoppit Smith wrote:

People need to know that bigger bodies or thicker features (legs, backside) are not the end of the world.

Lmao. I just knew our resident fatty would be chiming in with his $0.02 at some point.

The problem is that we've gone from tolerating overweight/obese people to delusionally propagating the notion that it is healthy and desirable. That's where people are starting to speak out.

lift laugh love wrote:

Stoppit Smith wrote:

People need to know that bigger bodies or thicker features (legs, backside) are not the end of the world.

Lmao. I just knew our resident fatty would be chiming in with his $0.02 at some point.

The problem is that we've gone from tolerating overweight/obese people to delusionally propagating the notion that it is healthy and desirable. That's where people are starting to speak out.

I don’t know that he himself is obese, or I have missed it where he admitted this, but he does pop up with obesity apologist replies in other threads on the subject as well. It’s a medical condition that a person has chosen and continue to choose to have. Fairly striking to think about.

gts1234 wrote:

lift laugh love wrote:

Lmao. I just knew our resident fatty would be chiming in with his $0.02 at some point.

The problem is that we've gone from tolerating overweight/obese people to delusionally propagating the notion that it is healthy and desirable. That's where people are starting to speak out.

I don’t know that he himself is obese, or I have missed it where he admitted this, but he does pop up with obesity apologist replies in other threads on the subject as well. It’s a medical condition that a person has chosen and continue to choose to have. Fairly striking to think about.

No. Actually there are genetic precursors to the likelihood that they will be overweight or more accurately, it is very complex. But more importantly, some overweight people are so due to metabolic conditions, glandular abnormalities, etc. You can't assume it's just because its just because they chose to be that way.

No. If we send them away to a deserted island with only a crate full of lettuce and a crate full of water, they will be thin after 6 months. People were not fat 100 years ago. People from other countries become fat after 1 generation in the US.

I wouldn't mind betting its due to all the hormones we throw into food to increase harvest output.

Then we can park land, and subsidize farmers to grow less. While growing more.

And the stuff is tasty

It's lack of exercise, this is the biggest factor. Just look at most kids running around and playing. if adults ran this much we would not have a problem. It's sitting on you butt and looking at a video game or phone that has captured kids/peoples time and energy and made them lazy, fat, and no ability to focus. Add to this super size me meals, and we got what we got.

And a lot of us see your rhetoric as just parroting your coaches. In a real life matrix, if a 5'4" 180 lb female, for instance can and has trained to complete a marathon and does (which happens)....even if it's in say 5:50:42, per se...we really don't have the right to call her unhealthy.

lift laugh love wrote:

Stoppit Smith wrote:

People need to know that bigger bodies or thicker features (legs, backside) are not the end of the world.

Lmao. I just knew our resident fatty would be chiming in with his $0.02 at some point.

The problem is that we've gone from tolerating overweight/obese people to delusionally propagating the notion that it is healthy and desirable. That's where people are starting to speak out.

Kids don't play like they used to. Kids play too many video games or just flip through their phones. The 18 year old graduating HS today is woefully out of shape when compared to 10, 20, 30, 40 years ago. Add to that the availability of fast food and you have what we have today.

It's a personal choice made easier by our environment.

Alan

When people come up with the "genetic predisposition to gain fat" argument, I always wonder where these genes were before 1980.