Fat Welsh men & women

This is just to annoy jings (what else do I live for? ), but further to her thinking that weight doesn't have much to do with cholesterol, I would add that I don't think food fats have much to do with cholesterol either.

Indeed Baggydarling, some fats are positively ggod at lowering cholesterol. (or so they tell us)

My cholesterol was measured when I was twenty-six (some MOT thing my GP wanted to do) and apparently it was what he called "a bit high". He then dismissed that as irrelevant since I had a healthy lifestyle. It has never been measured since, nor has it been suggested that it should be, nor do I care what it is. Cholesterol is not the issue in heart disease.

good not ggod (don't mention god! )

Even jeni has said the jury is still out about the causes of heart disease. It's not just me. The cholesterol fad is just that – faddish group think.

So we don't all need to take statins then?

Oh I forgot about the porn sites......were you disgusted by the bodies or the poses. Sone people think BBWs are the perfect womanly shape. They prefer nice squidgy bits to hard boney bits. But then I suppose some people prefer hard boney bits to nice squidgy bits. Each to his/her own

I wasn't disgusted - I didn't even look! I've seen pics before, but then there is obese and massively obese.

" nice squidgy bits "!

I suppose that's one way of putting it.

I don't suppose you would want to show your squidgy bits like that vampirequeen.

Well I have no intention of becoming a porn star at my age but I'm not ashamed of my squidgy bits. I don't look in the mirror and wish they weren't there like I did when I starved in order to be thin. My squidgy bits are part of me. I've wasted most my life trying to be something I'm not. Now I embrace myself, squidgy bits and all.

I embrace myself daily CSL

As a life long dieter who has only just managed at 59 and a half to get to a near normal BMI I know how complicated the weight issue is. The thing that troubles me is how little support people get from their GPs when the weight is creeping on. Its a complex issue and just telling someone they are overweight, threatening them with obesity related diseases or giving them a diet sheet won't work. At the moment there is no special payment to GPs for supporting people with weight problems and my guess is until there is they wont get the support they need and will just get bigger and bigger until its gastric band or ITU time. Seems mad and sad to to me.

You're right, Susie. Here's a quote from the Huffington Post:
'The National Obesity Forum said that doctors are rewarded financially for recording the number of obese patients - yet not for doing anything about it.'
What does it say about the NHS when GPs have to be given financial incentives to help their patients?!

I do think there is some help for obese people as I have been to a hospital where they deal with 'eating disorders' and the leaflet I read included over and under eaters.

vampire can you stop talking about squidgy bits. You haven't SEEN those pictures that I saw!

Other than prescribing drugs like Orlistat there isn't a great deal that doctors can do. I think there may have been a local diet group near here that people could go to but I'm not sure that it's still going [govt cutbacks, perhaps]. I would imagine the financial incentives are to pay for time used up getting information and passing it on so there is, at least, some sort of statistical evidence of the general weight or overweight of the population.

Didn"t they years ago prescribe drugs to reduce the appetite ????

They had some really bad side effects. I think.

I suppose they would , probably why not around any more

I had appetite suppressants when I was a child. They're fantastic. You don't want to eat but as they're similar to speed they make you hyperactive. I was never a quiet child...borderline ADHD by today's standards. Imagine the effect of speed on a child with traits of ADHD

Vampire - I just feel, as a woman of Reubenesc proportions, I should point put that if you google BBW all the sites that came up look like porn sites. I opened the one that looked OK and OMG! I fear BBW may have taken on a meaning only vaguely related to being chubby! Personally, I have a liking for the word voluptuous!

I do make an effort to keep my weight under control and stay within the lower regions of the overweight rather than obese section of the doctor's chart. It makes biting clothes easier and is kinder to my knees. Absent is right, this 20 year old is nearly three times my weight - how did he get that big without noticing?

NFK Why are you biting clothes? Is this a new diet? Plenty of roughage but few calories?

Do you think my iPad is telling me something? Perhaps I should try it - I found a bag of size 12 in the attic that I'll never have any other use for!

Yesterday there was a big reportin the Independent saying research shows that it is not how fat you are but how fit. Fit overweight people have no more problems with high blood pressure, cholesterol or diabetes than fit lighter people. They also have the same life expectancy.

My daughter is officially 'obese'. She swims 15 or more miles a week, walks everywhere and is active around the house and garden. If she sits down she will be sewing or doing something else while she sits. She was seriously injured in a road accident last year so while she was in hospital all her blood pressure, blood sugar etc were constantly monitored and they were all on the low side of normal. The doctors have all been astonished by how well and how quickly her body has healed. As one said the outcomes couldnt be better. This is because she may be heavy but she is fit, has a good diet and this is far more important than your weight.