One thing I think that needs to be outlined from the start is that all men, no matter if they are fat or otherwise, benefit from male privilege. I will be happy for the day to arrive where this isn’t the case, but it is a reality that I recognise exists at this current time.

I think it is also fair to say that most, if not all, fat people are affected by fat stigma. If we take these two things as being true, then it makes sense that fat men will still receive male privilege and therefore should have it easier than fat women.

I don’t think it is necessarily true to suggest that fat men get a ‘free pass’ because they are male. I still get comments about my weight, and get judged on it even in situations where it has no baring on the outcome. I’m unable to do things that I would like to do because society has decided that I’m too fat to do them.

I was bullied as child for my fatness, and still suffer negatively because people think that fat is synonymous with lazy, dumb, stupid and many other things. I’ve been told that I should lose weight because it would make me a better employee. I’ve been told by the opposite sex that I’m unattractive and ugly because I’m fat.

I also receive the benefits of male privilege. Fat women will be judged harder on all of the things that I’ve mentioned above. Fat women will suffer inequity and injustice more than me. I have access to things in society more readily because of my gender.

So I don’t think it is fair to suggest that fat men get a free pass and get to avoid the stigma of being fat. I do think it is fair that fat men receive privilege because they are men, and that sometimes this privilege will stop the fat stigma from getting in the way of what they want to do.

I don’t think any fat person gets it easy. I do think that men still receive male privilege even when fat, but that this doesn’t just wipe clean the effects of fat stigma. It does mean that the stigma affects me in different ways.

I would also point out that alcoholics buy their alchohol from pubs, clubs, liquor stores and (in some states of Australia) supermarkets. Alcohol can lead to increased violence, can cause health issues such as liver damage or damage to a person’s brain. Therefore pubs, clubs, liquor stores and supermarkets that sell alcoholic beverages (take home or for on-site consumption) should pay higher rates to local councils. This money can be funnelled into public health initiatives.

Smoking is well known to increase the likelihood that someone will die from cancer, lung disease or a myriad of other health complications. There are even big pictures and warnings on the packets to show that this is the case. Therefore local councils should increase the rates for properties where tobacco products are sold. This would include corner stores, bars, supermarkets, specialist tobacconists, pub and clubs that have cigarette machines and many other outlets.

I’m not sure what the correct solution is if a place sells both alcohol and cigarettes. Perhaps they should have a larger increase.

By now you probably think I’ve fallen off my perch or that I’ve lost the plot. No one would ever suggest that slugging businesses with extra local council rates because of what they sell is a great idea. Well if you believe that, then you haven’t seen today’s Sun-Herald.

Darebin Council from Melbourne is looking a proposal from one of its councillors to charge McDonalds, KFC and other major fast food chains up to 400% more in rates. Apparently this is to “discourage” and “penalise” them and has been supported by the Obesity Policy Coalition and dietitian Rosemary Stanton.

Straight from the report on the Sun-Herald’s website:

Darebin councillor Gaetano Greco said council was investigating a rate slug to discourage and penalise major food outlets.

“Councils have the responsibility of looking after the health and wellbeing of their community,” he said yesterday.

“Here we are, looking at an extra tool that council can use to limit or control the spread of fast-food chain outlets,” Mr Greco said.

Councillors voted to explore the option as part of a wider campaign against Type 2 diabetes after they were told that using planning controls against the outlets would not work, the Preston Leader reports.

I call bullshit.

This is purely and simply a cash grab. Councils struggle to increase rates because they are scared of voter backlash. They can’t target businesses for no reason as it would be unfair and wouldn’t be allowed. But by claiming to want to safe the fatties by making themselves more cash, they can win public support for the idea. By targeting only the major fast food chains, they know the public won’t mind because the major fast food chains are seen as the evil scourge of society. Plus they can probably afford it, right?

This isn’t about fat people. This is about wanting to make money from the global fast food chains. If this was about fat people then a whole metric buttload of businesses would be in the firing line. Fish and chip shops, local take away shops, Chinese resturants, local burger joints, and so on. This is about money and money alone.

Secondly, fat people don’t need to be saved. We are not some sort of helpless group that can’t control themselves when they see the goldern arches or a bucket of fried chicken rotating around on a sign. This is about using the stigma that fat people experience every day and using it to whip up public support for the proposal. The idea that the bigotry I deal with as a fat person is being used to make people support a proposal makes me sick with rage.

There is so much wrong with this whole thing that I don’t even know where to begin. To be honest I don’t have the spoons to go through every detail and explain just how wrong this is, so I guess I’ll have to leave that to others to do. I wish I could say that I can’t believe that this is happening, but I can.

Also, Obesity Policy Coalition? What the fuck? I’ll have to do a second post on that later tonight…

I learned very early with computers the GIGO principle – Garbage In, Garbage Out. It doesn’t matter how good a computer is, or how good the software is. If what you put into it is tainted, or skewed, or wrong, what comes out of it will be tainted, skewed or wrong. This principle applies to scientific research, news and other information just as much as computers.

I think it is important to analyse information that is presented to me. I think the Australian media should do a better job of getting facts right and making sure that what is reported isn’t biased or at least mentioning any conflicts of interest that people interviewed may have.

I’ve been in the media a couple of times to talk about being fat and the discrimination against fat people. It might be fair to suggest that I am biased, and perhaps even some people who see me on these programs would think that. The thought could run across someone’s mind that I am against fat discrimination and believe in fat acceptance, health at every size and other principles only because I am fat. “Perhaps he should just stop complaining and put down the fork” might be a response from some people in the community.

When a doctor or academic talks about these sorts of things, it might be fair to think that there would not be any bias. They are there to take information and make informed decisions that are based on the facts in front of them. Why would there be any need for them to promote fat acceptance or weight loss? If an academic says that a fat person can be healthy, or that childhood obesity is on the rise, there doesn’t seem to be a need to question it.

Yet I think that everything should be questioned.

For example it was reported back in 2008 that childhood obesity rates are not rapidly increasing as per the media scare campaigns. Yet we are still bombarded in the media with the message that kids are getting fatter and fatter.

Which was the main point put across in a story on Today Tonight called Obese Kids. Such an original title. But I’m getting petty.

The obesity expert presented this evening was Dr George Hopkins. He talked about how obesity was on the rise in children and the types of medical issues that obese children could look forward to later in life, like Type II Diabetes, Heart Disease, and even increased risk of Cancer! Yup, the big C. I’ve never seen that one used before but there is probably some research out there that supports this view.

He also went on to talk about how he was having great success rates with bariatric surgery on kids up to 13 or 14 years old. 13 or 14 years old. I couldn’t help but scream at the television. I’m not a doctor, but I am a human. I can’t imagine how someone that young could be in the right state of mind to make a decision about bariatric surgery which has so many repercussions in later life.

So who is this Dr Hopkins, obesity expert? Well Dr Hopkins is a bariatric surgeon (surprise!) who runs the Brisbane Gastric Banding Centre. He has a link to the LAP-BAND® website as the second and third links on his links page. His first link is to the Obesity Surgery Society of Australia and New Zealand (OSSANZ), of which he is a member..

I suppose that it would make sense to link to your professional body on your website when you are a member. If you wish to know who sponsors OSSANZ, you need to email them. I didn’t bother, but in a submission to the 2008 Australian House of Representatives’ Inquiry into Obesity in Australia, Coviden made a submission which included the following paragraph:

In Australia, Covidien has been closely involved in supporting the work of bariatric surgeons treating obesity and its co-morbidities since 1996. Our early commitment to this important field of surgery began by working with a small group of surgeons to help grow the Obesity Surgery Society of Australia and New Zealand (OSSANZ) to the point where it now has membership of approximately 150 bariatric surgeons. Throughout the last 12 years, Covidien has also been responsible for supporting the training of many General and Gastro Intestinal surgeons in the latest techniques used in the rapidly advancing field of metabolic surgery.

Who are Coviden? Well Coviden and Allergan joined forces in 2007 to co-promote Allergan’s LAP-BAND® Adjustable Gastric Banding System. So presumably they would be quite for lap banding procedures. And I’m sure that Coviden would not provide OSSANZ with any support for research into lap banding. (Well I’m not sure either way).

Oh, I forgot to also mention that you can find Dr Hopkins through the website “Gastric Banding Procedure” which just happens to be run by Allergan. Take a look at the site. Unless you knew that Allergan wast the company that made the LAP-BAND®, you would think it was a general information site. Surely there is no agenda there.

This story is a beat up and just a promotion by people who stand to make a large amount of money by having kids sent to them to have bariatric surgery. This makes me mad.

A little sidenote is that the Today Tonight website links to Baker IDI. You would hope that they are a completely unbiased organisation. Well let’s look into that.

The International Diabetes Federation (IDF) Taskforce on Epidemiology and Prevention of Diabetes released a paper called Bariatric surgery: an IDF statement for obese Type 2 diabetes.

Professor Paul Zimmet was one of the authors on this paper. The paper notes: “PZ has received a consulting fee from Covidien Australia.” He is also Director Emeritus and Director of International Research, Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute and Professor (Hon) Monash University.

Associate Professor John Dixon was another author on this paper. He is Associate Professor, Department of General Practice, School of Primary Health Care, Monash University and Senior clinical scientist, Human Neurotransmitters Laboratory, Vascular & Hypertension Unit, Baker IDI Heart & Diabetes Institute. In the paper it notes that “JD is a consultant for: Allergan Inc, manufacturer of the LapBand System®; Metagenics, manufacturer of Bariatric Advantage® nutritional supplements; and Scientific Intake, manufacturer of the SMART® device. […] His institutions, Monash University and Baker IDI Heart & Diabetes Institute, have received support for his research from Allergan Inc, […].”

No, surely they aren’t getting money from the companies who sell the very same products that their research promotes and recommends? This should be an outrage! But it isn’t. The media don’t ever look at it. They don’t care.

So I say that it is important to make my voice heard. Even one small voice can make a difference. Hugh props to Dr Samantha Thomas and Frances Lockie for standing up for the rights of fat people and telling it how it is, without corporate backing.

Regardless of your view, please let me know in the comments why you think one way or the other – anonymously is fine.

Are you all serious? (ok most, not all)

Think back about all of the weight loss products you or your friends have tried over the years. Have any of them helped you lose weight and then keep it off for ever? A small percentage of you will say yes, and good luck to you. For the large percentage of people the answer is no, No, NO!

Scientific studies that have been done in recent years show that short term weight loss is achievable through all sorts of diets but that long term weight loss is very much a pipe dream. Those who achieve short term weight loss and then gain end up gaining more weight than when they started.

I’m a prime example. I used to weigh around 120kg in my 20s. I went on weight watches and got below the ‘magic’ 100kg mark. I then ballooned up to 135kg. I did that TWICE. That left me around the 150-160kg mark. Perhaps if I had not dieted, I’d still be around the 120kg mark.

That isn’t the point though. The point is that what you feel about your body is about what is in your head. I read an excellent article this morning which talked about a lady who was a size 10, who wouldn’t be happy until she was a size 8. When she was a size 8, size 6 was where she had to be.

You have to make a conscious decision to realise that most people stuffer from some form of body dysmorphia. You will always feel fatter or uglier or than you are until you realise that.

It isn’t easy. You have to work at it. I have some awful days. I have some brilliant days. But life goes on regardless. I eat well and exercise. I’m healthy, give or take. That’s what life is about. Not unattainable goals.

Thanks to Sonya for trying to point this out. It is a shame that the point was missed on most of you.

Recently an acquaintance of mine, “Jane” (who, like me, is single by choice), e-mailed a video to every woman in her address book. The video was one of those compilations with a laugh track, where men are doing “disgusting” things like being fat and drunk, being fat and toothless, being fat and clumsy, being fat and bald… you see the pattern. The caption Jane put on the video was, “this right here is why I’m happily single!”

I immediately felt my hackles rising, but I knew Jane meant both the video and the comment to be a joke, albeit a tasteless one. So instead of being the arsehole who bitches about not finding it funny, I decided to throw the e-mail away and not say anything at all… which I later realised makes me the arsehole who doesn’t defend her brothers (or indeed herself) when the time comes. If nothing else, even if I wasn’t going to comment on behalf of the men in the video, I should have spoken up for my own views on being single. I think there’s already too much of an unhelpful stereotype that women who choose to be single do so because they hate men, or because they find men repugnant when said men don’t meet up to some arbitrary Hollywood standard of attractiveness. None of that has anything to do with why I’ve chosen to be single. And I resent the implication that I would remain single on such a ridiculous premise as “because men are fat,” especially when that implication is coming from another single woman.

As it turns out, one woman did respond negatively to Jane’s e-mail, but she missed the point quite spectacularly. She attached a photo of a tall, slender, muscular man with dark hair and blue eyes, and she said, “Jane, be fair— they’re not all ugly trolls!”

Sigh.

I thought for a moment about how if this were reversed and a group of men were talking about how not all women are fat pigs and that some are sexy supermodels, as women we’d be absolutely fucking incensed. But it’s okay when we do it to men, right? Men can take it, and if they can’t, then that’s even more evidence that those particular men (i.e. the fat ones) can be safely dismissed as not manly enough to be worthy of our attention.

Seriously, what year is this?

A woman calling a man an ugly troll, regardless of what he looks like, is an incredibly short-sighted act, not to mention that the comment says a lot more about the woman than it does about the man. Yes, we all have things we find physically attractive and things we don’t find physically attractive, and I’m not saying I’m always perfect about not judging people unfairly, but to write a human being off as unworthy of companionship due to his appearance not adhering to fashion magazine standards… that just seems, well, disgusting. It also means that if it’s okay for women to tear men down that way, then it has to be okay for men to tear women down in the same way… or, as is sadly so often the case, for women to tear each other down and men to tear each other down. Why do humans find that kind of behaviour necessary? And worse, why do they think it makes them look funny or cool to act and talk that way?

Ever since Janevideogate, I’ve been wondering if I’m making too big a deal about this issue. The video was intended to be a lighthearted joke, after all, and I’m certainly no stranger to over-analysis. But I feel there’s something very wrong about women complaining that they feel pressured to starve themselves down to a size zero because many men judge them solely on how thin they are, and yet those same women are happy to point and laugh and say that they’d rather be single forever than have to date a fat man. I’m aware there’s a general public opinion that fat people, both male and female, don’t have feelings, and that it’s okay to ridicule their fat. But it seems to me there’s an even higher level of taunting that fat men in particular are required to endure, simply because they’re expected to “be men” about it, and sadly we have come to equate masculinity with an ability to withstand hurtful insults dressed up as cheap humour.

I’m curious to hear opinions on this topic. This recent event has certainly prompted me to re-evaluate my own views on gender expectations, especially where body image is concerned, and to try to find some way to express myself effectively to those whose jokes I find offensive and cruel.

Samantha is a great friend of mine and she always tells me that my story of being bullied at school has stuck with her. I told it during the Fat Studies Conference last year. She asked me to write a guest post about bullying and my experiences in light of National Anti-Bullying Week and the youtube video doing the rounds of the young Australian boy, Casey.

So, in all its late glory, my post on childhood bullying.

I finally watched the latest YouTube video that has been doing the rounds of the media outlets in Australia over the last two days. Titled “Fat Kid Fights Back”, Edit 12/03/2011 – This has now been removed from YouTube – Nick we see what happens when a kid who is being bullied snaps, loses control, and takes matters into his own hands. The end result is a nasty body slam which resulted in the bully breaking his ankle and both kids being suspended from school.

Since the ‘fat kid’ has a name, or at least a supposed name, I will call him Casey. There is a whole lot of support in the community for Casey and even backlash against him being suspended from school. It is timely that this has come to light with Anti-Bullying Week being in full swing. And yet the only thing I could feel when I was watching it was sadness. Utter sadness, even tears.

Lindsey “The Doctor” McDougal said it best this afternoon on his radio show on Triple J. He had watched the video today and he spoke about how it took him back to his childhood where he was bullied. By his accounts he was (and is) a bit of a nerd and that learning guitar was the only thing that saved him from the bullies. He mentioned that it brought back the feelings of being bullied and punched and kicked. The feeling of being harassed by his girlfriend’s mate, who would call him gay and such stupid stuff that kids do.

All I could think of while watching the video was how awful it is to be bullied. I was bullied at school for a long time. I think it started in year four or year five where I used to get picked on because I was fat and slow and soft. I have never been a hard arse and so I was an easy target for those who needed some way to feel better about themselves. The daily teasing and taunting would eat at me. It just hurt so much to see everyone laughing at you. I didn’t really have friends at school because they didn’t want to have to deal with these people. I used to hang around some of these people because at least it was better than nothing.

Then there were the times that I would snap. One final verbal dig or one final push, punch or kick and I would snap. I would go ballistic. Yet I was a useless fighter so I would end up going rounds with some kid for no reason and end up in a worse position than I was. I was fat, slow and couldn’t defend myself. Awesome.

Sometime in year eight I was being picked on again. I remember two of the three boys clearly and could tell you their names. I was punched and kicked. I was punted square in the gonads by one of the boys and then had a bin, with its full contents, dumped on my head. I was out the front of the school admin building so the teachers and principal were probably somewhere around.

So I’ve just been kicked in the nuts, been punched and kicked some more, called names and had a bin dumped on me. So what did I do? I snapped. I ran after the boys and swore and yelled and hit and whatever else I could. Again I was still a useless fighter but what could you do? And then the principal or a teacher came out and saw it and that was that.

I was called before the principal to explain my actions. I explained and pleaded and begged. Nothing was to be had for it. I retaliated, and therefore I was the one to be punished. I don’t believe they were punished at all, because I think they denied it. The pain in my nuts and the self loathing in my head and my heart couldn’t deny it though.

To this day I have terrible relationships with men. I prefer the company of women and have very few close male friends. I am easily overpowered (mentally and in status) by men. I will avoid situations where I have to be around guys my own age or older. I just feel constantly intimidated.

Do you have any idea how much of my life is made so much harder by the shit I went through as a child? The name calling and the fights and the people who didn’t stick up for me all sit at the back of my mind and come back to haunt me. So much of my childhood was painful and full of tears or just plain self-hate that I have no real fond memories.

I don’t get to look back at all the fun I had when I was growing up. I look back and wish that I could reach out and help that little kid who just needed some support. All he needed was for someone to stand up and say that bullying is not ok. Verbal abuse and physical abuse is not ok. It doesn’t matter what colour, size, shape, socio-economic background someone comes from. It is never ok. Never.

I will live with the memories of my childhood forever and I will have to deal with the consequences of not only my actions but the actions (and inaction) of those who were around in my younger years. Casey will have to deal with the same thing. Let us just hope that now people will support him and help him through this tough time.

As I wrote in one of my previous posts I’ve been a bit unwell recently. At the time I figured that everything that was going on was due to my mental health issues. The symptoms seemed to fit the bill and my doctor was sure that was it. Don’t get me wrong here – I still have a mental illness and the symptoms still relate to that in some way. It’s just that things changed recently.

About a month ago I felt a pain in my right breast. At first I figured this was some bruising or some such weird pain that was easily pushed aside. I only ever felt it when I was laying on my stomach so I thought perhaps it was just the way I was laying. Yet over the weeks that followed the pain got worse day by day. Now even if I bump it against something it can hurt. It’s not excruciating but certainly something to be concerned about.

So I did like most men wouldn’t do and I went to the doctor. We chatted about all the symptoms she poked and prodded and what not and she diagnosed something that I had never heard of. Gynecomastia. In basic layman terms, the tissue around my breasts was inflamed and sore, which is what can happen to boys during puberty. Apparently men on steriods have this issue as well. So off for some blood tests and an ultrasound to rule out any other causes like breast cancer. Don’t forget men of the world that you have to be just as careful about breast cancer.

Blood results are back and the reason has been identified. I have very low levels of Testosterone. Very. Low. I’m sure some men may be thinking at this point “am I really a man if I don’t have testosterone?” when they hear such a result. Personally I’m just relieved to have some idea of what is going on with my body.

If you check out this link to the Wikipedia article section it shows you what effect testosterone has on the human body regardless of gender. My bloods also showed irregular red blood cell levels and glucose levels, which could both be due to this. My recent weight gain above my regular set weight point, my lethargy, disinterest in the world in general and the exacerbation of my mental health issues could all be related to this one hormone. It makes you realise just how finely balanced the human body is and how easy it is to screw it all up.

I have to have some further blood tests next week and then if that confirms the findings I’ll be able to get some form of supplement to treat the symptoms. it is likely due to me taking my anti depressants as there is a link between drugs that affect the brain and hormone levels. I won’t be going off them because they are too important for me right now but we’ll see what the doctor has to say.

Why am I sharing this with you?

I want men of the world to realise how important it is to listen to their bodies. it is important to go to the doctor when they are feeling unwell or if something strange is going on. Normally I wouldn’t have bothered but it was only because it was in the breast area and I was concerned it might be something really bad that I went. I don’t consider gynecomastia to be that bad but I would never have found out about my testosterone levels otherwise. And I’d still be sitting here feeling like shit and not knowing why.

It is also important to remember that just because I’m fat there aren’t medical issues to that are the reason I’m  feeling sluggish, tired, disinterested or whatever else. I’d suggest that people get things checked out and get it sorted. It probably helps that we’ve found an awesome doctor recently, but make the effort to find one because it is worth it.

Men of the world: Don’t feel ashamed to talk about health issues, especially issues to do with your “manliness” or whatever. Get it checked and get it fixed and you might be feeling better in no time.

Now after all that, I could use a snooze…

What about those people who don’t identify as male or female? Where would they fit into this research? Are they being excluded because of the use of this false gender dichotomy?

I don’t blame the researchers here for this. They were using preexisting data collected between 1980 and 2008. Importantly they noted that much more data was available for women, whereas 59% of the national data for men was from the 2000s and 34% was from the 1990s. I think that shows just how much emphasis was placed on women when looking into weight issues during the 1980s and possibly even earlier.

I think it provides an insight into how weight management has been viewed historically – as a female issue, not a human issue. I would suggest that the pressure on women to conform to the idea of a “healthy weight” has been around a lot longer than it has been for men. When I was growing up, men had “beer guts” while women “had a bit of a pudge they needed to get rid of”.

Yet here is still a group of people who identify as neither men or women who aren’t included in this research. What does this mean for them? It certainly doesn’t reduce the pressure placed on them to confirm to the socially acceptable idea of weight and size.

I think it would be fair to suggest that gender identity is important when it comes to research into weight and health issues. Social pressures would be different depending on the gender identity which could lead to different trends in these groups than what we see if we try to make them fit into the false dichotomy. Why not just look at this as a human issue, rather than focusing on gender?

What do we do about this? I don’t think I have the answer.

The “Global Burden of Metabolic Risk Factors of Chronic Diseases Collaborating Group” released three reports today that describe global population-level changes in body-mass index (BMI), systolic blood pressure, and cholesterol over three decades. I’ll be frank: I have not read through the articles relating to blood pressure and cholesterol. Each article covers its own subject area and was then summarised in a further commentary. My review considers the research undertaken in regards to the BMI and the summary of all three reports.

The report notes that in 2008, 1.46 billion adults had a BMI of over 25, with 502 million of those with a BMI of over 30. The summary indicates that this means that “obesity” affects one in nine adults. I’m not sure that one in nine constitues a tsunami. The report also shows that the prevalence of “obesity” is nearly twice that which existed in 1980.

All of these figures sound really scary when you leave them on their own like that. There is no context. So let’s add some context.

Over the study period (1980 to 2008) the mean global BMI increased by 0.4-0.5 per decade, which is roughly 1.12-1.4. The mean BMI for women was higher at 24.1 whilst mean BMI for men was 23.8. It should be noted that men had a higher BMI than women in high-income regions, while this trend reversed in medium- and low-income regions. It’s important to note that the largest mean BMI values for both men (33.9) and women (35.0) came from Nauru. The lowest values were found in east Asia and high-income Asia-Pacific sub-regions (21.4-2.9) for women and in sub-Saharan Africa and in east. south and southeast Asia (20.6-28.1).

In the discussion, the paper looks deeper into these figures. There are two important parts that I think need to be considered by the media and the world at large:

Research is undoubtedly needed into the proximal and distal causes of the recorded trends. For example, to what extent have changes in physical activity versus increases in caloric intake or changes in dietary composition brought about BMI rise? What explains the heterogeneous BMI levels and trends, including by sex, in high income countries (Asia-Pacific vs western Europe vs Australasia and North America) or in Africa’s sub-regions?

Or in other words, why are BMI trends and levels not similar within countries with similar socio-economic levels or even in similar regions of the world? Some high-income countries to have low increases in BMI, for example France and Switzerland yet other countries with a similar socio-economic level such as Australia had larger increases.

They further point out how more research is required into the efficacy of long term weight loss benefits:

Randomised studies of diet change, some of which increase the amount of exercise, have shown moderate weight loss benefits for up to 2 years, but long-term and community effectiveness of such interventions is not clear. Simple advise and exercise alone have not been efficacious, even in trials.  Structural, regulatory and economic interventions have potential to change physical activity of dietary patterns for whole communities and populations, but few have shown effects on weight.

There goes a few of the weight loss industry myths right there. But they go further:

That interventions on metabolic mediators might partially mitigate the health effects of rising BMI is supported by results from randomised trials, and more importantly from the fact that many countries have successfully reduced blood pressure and lipids despite rising BMI, and by a larger amount in people with high BMI.

So dispite the “Tsunami of obesity” research supports the fact that increasing metabolic rates through exercise can mitigate the health effects of being fat. I take that to read that you can be fit and fat. I’m not a scientist, but that’s what I read. How about you?

As a final note, it should be noted that the research into BMI did not mention the term “Tsunami”. This was part of an overall commentary of the three pieces of research. In fact, the title of the commentary was “Stemming the global tsunami of cardiovascular disease” (my emphasis). They did mention a “Tsunami of Obesity” in passing but the main comment they are passing is that urgent attention needs to be paid to cardiovascular health. So I wonder why the media decided to focus on the “Tsunami of Obesity” instead of the “Tsunami of Cardiovascular Disease”?

Citations

National, regional, and global trends in body-mass index since 1980: systematic analysis of health examination surveys and epidemiological studies with 960 country-years and 9·1 million participants
Mariel M Finucane AB,Gretchen A Stevens DSc,Melanie J Cowan MPH,Goodarz Danaei MD,John K Lin AB,Christopher J Paciorek PhD,Gitanjali M Singh PhD,Hialy R Gutierrez BS,Yuan Lu MSc,Adil N Bahalim MEng,Farshad Farzadfar MD,Leanne M Riley MSc,Prof Majid Ezzati PhD,on behalf of the Global Burden of Metabolic Risk Factors of Chronic Diseases Collaborating Group (Body Mass Index)
The Lancet – 4 February 2011
DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(10)62037-5

Stemming the global tsunami of cardiovascular disease
Sonia S Anand,Salim Yusuf
The Lancet – 4 February 2011
DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(10)62346-X