The Model & Celeb Weight Thread [Read post #1 before posting] #1

[masquerade]

^What I'm saying is that what might have started because of poor eating choices and lack of working out has grown. People are raised to not work out and such. Are you going to call a child who's parent only feeds him/her mcdonalds lazy? no. but that kid grows up without any knowledge of proper eating and excercise, and then their kids have the same. its a cycle. thats why its called an obesity epidemic. this lifestyle is part of our social construction now

[BerlinRocks]

Originally Posted by kateelle

What are your sources? Because according to medical journals, the average is overweight. Simple fact.

the only medical source I trust is Nature!
Medical reviews is as Fashion magazines... there's a lot of money under it...
some laboratories etc. can pay money to some reseach-ppl just to get a good paper... and in this paper things can be wrong!
I know it can sound weird but it's like that...
So what say Nature about obesity?

[xmodel citizen]

^^ For children, it's a different story. But I know for most teens my age, laziness is a problem. Even my thin friends are fatties, sitting around eating and complaining about walking anywhere lol

I know parents and family are a problem. My family is a prime example. My family has major weight problems and have since long before the obesity epidemic. I feel like my mother has raised me with some VERY unhealthy habits and now I'm forced to deal with them seperate from her. Many kids with obese or unhealthy parents are stuck because they depend on their parents for guidance but also support. When all your family eats is junk and fast food, how can you get healthy? It's not like kids can support themselves.

But I think the biggest problem with kids is simply exercise. Now parents just set their kids in front of the TV or computer rather than encouraging them to get outside and play. Also many parents have weird paranoias about allowing their children outside. When I was a kid, I was ALWAYS outside running and playing.

[BaroqueRockstar]

Originally Posted by xmodel citizen

^^ For children, it's a different story. But I know for most teens my age, laziness is a problem. Even my thin friends are fatties, sitting around eating and complaining about walking anywhere lol

i think this is a huge issue in the US b/c in europe public transportation is much more prevalent (i've been told...) but here everyone drives, even if it's to somewhere that will take 7 minutes walking to

[masquerade]

^ thats definately a problem. almost everything i've heard/read about the obesity epidemic talks about the fact that kids aren't going outside and playing anymore.

and active children do tend to grow up to be active adults. and where does that leave the ones who arent active? it leaves them continuing the cycle. there are so many people who are stuck in this cycle and you see the government and tv shows (cookie monster becomes veggie monster; "honey we're killing the kids") trying to break it and i think it will help but this is very recent and obesity didn't start one day because everyone decided to sit at home and eat chips, it took time and so will this.

im not saying that people aren't lazy per say, but its a learned laziness, they are just sitting around going "today im not going to do anything"

[xmodel citizen]

Oy, it's also difficult because everything is more spread out than Europe! It's 25 miles between where I went to high school and where I currently live. We don't have a subway, metro or trains, so you either get their by car or bus. The bus system in my city is completely unreliable. The last time I took it, the bus got a flat on a highway off-ramp and I had to walk across the highway and wait for a ride (I was 30 minutes late to my final exam). At my school, everyone would drive .25 miles down to Taco Bell or McDonalds! So we're talking about 10 minutes of walking time and everyone drives instead.

[iJustWalk.]

i was really surprised when i was with family in Canada at how they drive everywhere... there's a coffee drive through about a minute away by car and when my uncle wanted tea he would drive round there to get some instead of making it

[Boomer]

My 2 Cents... Having been a model once and being around models and fashion people my whole life, I will admit to having a greater than average interest in weight issues..But- of the guys in my peer group that I've known and talked to- by the BMI and weight charts we are almost without exceptionoverweight!! Now if some of us "look like everyone else" (which I hate, who wants to look like some of them!! ) it doesn't mean we are in a healthy situation. I can only think of a few that would be "beach ready', from what I can see...(Keep in mind I'm speaking of older business types, not active teen and college people...) The only issue I have is how this huge sample of the population is going to get such serious amounts of weight off... Let's face it, most people will never change their diet and exercise habits enough to lose large amounts of weight.... And, at the risk of opening a hornets nest, I would have to agree with Karl Lagerfeld- The number of people threatened by EDs is very small compared to the number that are at risk due to overweight...

[Rochas]

^^let me guess...

Tim Hortons?

[xmodel citizen]

Originally Posted by iJustWalk.

i was really surprised when i was with family in Canada at how they drive everywhere... there's a coffee drive through about a minute away by car and when my uncle wanted tea he would drive round there to get some instead of making it

LOL, that's pretty much how it goes!

And even people from healthy environments are not immune! One of my friends this year was an exchange student from Denmark. She's very tall (5'10") and was thin when she moved here. Her host family is overweight (the dad is really tall and wide) and she ended up gaining like 20 pounds.

I went swimsuit shopping with her and she was getting really upset because she had gained so much weight. For the first time in her life she had strechmarks and love handles. She was telling me her host family ate fast food constantly and she never walked anywhere. Whereas in Denmark, she rode her bike everywhere.

[Caroliiine]

Originally Posted by xmodel citizen

But I think the biggest problem with kids is simply exercise. Now parents just set their kids in front of the TV or computer rather than encouraging them to get outside and play. Also many parents have weird paranoias about allowing their children outside. When I was a kid, I was ALWAYS outside running and playing.

I agree with this comment 100%.

The Toronto Star recently did an article on how, through the generations, parents are keeping a tighter leash on their children. They fear predators will kidnap them (thus, they drive them to school instead of letting them walk), the kids will drown in the pool/lake (thus, they don't let them go swimming/canoeing/etc.), etc... Parents don't let their kids do much on their own these days and they're often too "busy" to take the kids to activities so kids get less and less exercise.

In addition to this (at least in Canada), the Ministry of Education is cutting down on the hours spent in Physical Education classes. When I was in elementary school, we had Phys. Ed only 2x a week, for an hour and a half. That is THREE mandatory hours of exercise per week! And now, they have cut that time even more so. Also, the Canadian (Ontario, at least) government is cutting a lot of funding for after-school programs, which means less sports equipment = less sports being played.

Not to mention urban expansion. These days, many families are moving from the city to the suburbs, where it is "safer" and the homes are a lot bigger for the price of a smaller one in the city. This means that everything is a LOT more spread out and kids require driving EVERYWHERE - to school, a friend's house, the library. When I was a teen, I walked to school, took the train, walked to the library, the community center, etc. In suburbia, where I live now, it would take me over an hour and a half to walk to the closest community center.

I also notice that a lot of the kids these days are very spoiled (no, this is not everyone). They get PSPs, Xboxes, laptops, all the junk food they want, etc. If you have a PSP or an Xbox, why would you want to go outside? You'd rather play on your game. And if they're spoiled, it usually means the parent has a hard time saying NO, as in, "No, you cannot have any more candy. No, you cannot play xbox, go outside and play". The parents who continue to buy junk food for their already overweight children are just helping them get fatter.

This has 2 negative consequences: 1) children get picked on in school for being fat; 2) obesity rate goes up. #1 is horrible enough because it is an awful feeling to be bullied and made fun of. #2 is also bad because it leads to health complications when they are older (diabetes, stroke, ligament problems). Most overweight kids don't lose the weight once they get out of school.

[Caroliiine]

Originally Posted by iJustWalk.

i was really surprised when i was with family in Canada at how they drive everywhere... there's a coffee drive through about a minute away by car and when my uncle wanted tea he would drive round there to get some instead of making it

Depends on where you live, really.

If you live downtown (in the city) like Toronto, Vancouver, you wouldn't drive everywhere because parking is expensive and traffic is bad. Unless, you know, you're extremely lazy or something.

I live in the suburbs right now and we drive everywhere.

As for coffee/tea - Tim Hortons does make some really good coffee/tea. Much better than you could make at home. 'Cause, you know... "it's steeped!" (that's one of their marketing gimmicks for their tea, for those who don't recognize it ;p)

[iJustWalk.]

^
i do love tim hortons too, but it was just really starnge to me.
i guess in england people make tea day and night plus we don't really do drive through coffee where i live

[Isadora]

^^ haha yea only 1/3 of the country has got Starbucks too! And I thought they were taking over... I guess we haven't seen everything yet... gosh

[masquerade]

Originally Posted by Caroliiine

I agree with this comment 100%.

The Toronto Star recently did an article on how, through the generations, parents are keeping a tighter leash on their children. They fear predators will kidnap them (thus, they drive them to school instead of letting them walk), the kids will drown in the pool/lake (thus, they don't let them go swimming/canoeing/etc.), etc... Parents don't let their kids do much on their own these days and they're often too "busy" to take the kids to activities so kids get less and less exercise.

In addition to this (at least in Canada), the Ministry of Education is cutting down on the hours spent in Physical Education classes. When I was in elementary school, we had Phys. Ed only 2x a week, for an hour and a half. That is THREE mandatory hours of exercise per week! And now, they have cut that time even more so. Also, the Canadian (Ontario, at least) government is cutting a lot of funding for after-school programs, which means less sports equipment = less sports being played.

Not to mention urban expansion. These days, many families are moving from the city to the suburbs, where it is "safer" and the homes are a lot bigger for the price of a smaller one in the city. This means that everything is a LOT more spread out and kids require driving EVERYWHERE - to school, a friend's house, the library. When I was a teen, I walked to school, took the train, walked to the library, the community center, etc. In suburbia, where I live now, it would take me over an hour and a half to walk to the closest community center.

I also notice that a lot of the kids these days are very spoiled (no, this is not everyone). They get PSPs, Xboxes, laptops, all the junk food they want, etc. If you have a PSP or an Xbox, why would you want to go outside? You'd rather play on your game. And if they're spoiled, it usually means the parent has a hard time saying NO, as in, "No, you cannot have any more candy. No, you cannot play xbox, go outside and play". The parents who continue to buy junk food for their already overweight children are just helping them get fatter.

This has 2 negative consequences: 1) children get picked on in school for being fat; 2) obesity rate goes up. #1 is horrible enough because it is an awful feeling to be bullied and made fun of. #2 is also bad because it leads to health complications when they are older (diabetes, stroke, ligament problems). Most overweight kids don't lose the weight once they get out of school.

well said. you basically summed up a lot of what I was trying to say in a lot more eloquent fashion.