I was on Facebook the other day — as I often am — and one of my friends, a person I know and like, not just some random Facebook “friend”, posted the following:
- “Double-chocolate fudge brownie for breakfast! #thatiswhyimfat”
Cute, right?
A few people commented on the post, primarily laughing along with him, commenting on why they are fat themselves, offering up other desserts that might make good breakfasts, all with a few LOLs tossed into the mix.
As I said, I know this guy, and he’s a bit pudgy, but he’s not hugely obese, so maybe that’s why he jokes about it. He knows he needs to lose a few, but might never get around to it.
But why laugh about it?
A big part of the reason we laugh at being overweight is because, for most people under the age of 40, dropping pounds is more about looking good than feeling good, and everyone feels good when they’re young, right? So, maybe at some point, looking good is not a priority, which means there’s no real need to lose weight.
You know the story. Life takes over once we graduate from high school and college. We get a real job, find ourselves in a long-term relationship, have a kid or two, and, yeah, we gain a few pounds. No big deal, it happens to everyone. We just buy bigger clothes and accept the idea that as we age, we gain weight. Plus, we’re busy, so we don’t really have time to worry so much about how we look.
As we get older, though, we start to see the health implications of being fat. We have pain for no apparent reason. Our joints start to ache. Our doctor puts us on medications, and at that point many of us try to drop poundage to bring down our blood pressure, cholesterol, lower our risk of heart disease, and just to, overall, feel better.
Anyway, back to the Facebook comment, I can’t help but wonder if my friend would have received the same light-hearted responses to his status update, if his hashtag had been #thatiswhyillgetheartdisease or #thatiswhyillbediabetic or #thatiswhyilldieyoungerthanishould.
Not so cute now, right?
Excess fat on our bodies leads to a host of ills, including heart disease, diabetes, hypertension — this is well-documented. But still we joke about it, and our friends joke about it right along with us.
There is a point where we know it’s no longer a joke, though, right? We all know a super huge person or 2 (or 3 or 4 or 5 these days), and we don’t joke about that kind of obesity. That guy has a problem, not us. Many of us, though, do have a problem, and we don’t even know it.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, more than 35% of the adults in the United States are obese, which is defined as a BMI (body mass index) of 30 or more. Are you part of the 35%?
The CDC provides an easy way for you to calculate your BMI here.
Even if you are not obese, are you overweight, with a BMI of 25 or higher? You have to be overweight before you’re obese, hint, hint.
The bottom line is that our excess body fat is killing us, so, come on, let’s stop joking about being fat and start doing something about it by getting our diets in line! And, trust me on this, if you start eating right when you are younger, you’ll be a whole lot better off when you’re older.