The case for being overweight

It's also possible that a lot of people stayed thin and in shape because they knew what their genetic code said, and the genetic code got them anyway. You can do a lot to help or hurt yourself, but if one person's heart has 80 years in it and the other's has 62, the Cheeseburger Effect isn't going to decide who lives longer.

 

This is an aside and might not have anything to do with anything, but this story make me think of some thoughts recently about football and the insane number of non-concussion injuries. I've watched the game for 30 years and I never remember there being a year (even last year and the year before) so many freakin' body injuries on tackles.

Granted, players are bigger, faster, stronger but that doesn't mean they hit harder than their beastly brethren of generations past.

But it just seems to me that some of the fat we *should have* protects bones and muscle -- provides at least a little sponge and cushion -- against the massive hits. As it is, college and pro players are just muscle machines these days. I'm not so sure that's a good thing for football considering you're getting hit so damn much.

As I said, it's probably just apples to zebras but the game is changing too fast. I never remember the players getting hurt so much during the eras when they packed fat. I'd love to see ESPN's Sports Science guy take a whack at it.

 

BMI is epic bullshit. I'm 5-9 and the minimum "normal" weight is 120. That's insanity.

 

I would NOT hit that.

 

That's exactly what it means. Force equals mass times acceleration. If guys weigh more and run faster, the collisions are greater.

 

When was the last obese 85-year-old you saw?

Aside from Ernest Borgnine?

 

Yeah, not sure where I was going with that line. Got lost in thought.

 

The people who we view, by eye, as overweight mostly fall into the obese category in BMI.

 

Worst ... Poin Files ... ever.

 

I think it's all bullshit. I see one doctor, every year, who tells me I need to drop a few pounds. I know I need to drop a few pounds, so this year I tell her I want to get down to 140 or 145 (I'm 5-8 and anything less than that makes me look like an anorexic) and she starts freaking out saying that's took thin. Make up your mind lady. You're fatter than me anyway and you always have been.

Anyway, my blood pressure is low, my cholesterol is fine, I'm on my feet all day at a very physical job. I'm just not very happy with my appearance. I don't look like what I did in my early 20s, but I think we'll all be okay.

 

Would ... in (and for) a second!

 

My college roommate was a pretty small guy at about 5-8, 150 or so... and his girlfriend at the time (now wife) is a gorgeous girl who is probably his height, maybe an inch taller... We were at a bar and they were messing around on one of those "guess your weight" scales and she was two pounds heavier than him. He was giving her shit about it and put her hands over her very, very, very ample rack and said, "Hey, these are heavy!"