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Subscribe to RSSThere have been undercurrents of weight discrimination in the workplace for years, but a Texas hospital decided to go anti-fat full throttle.
A Texas newspaper recently reported about a fat-averse Texas hospital — Citizens Medical Center in Victoria, Texas — and its unheard-of policy of refusing to hire anyone with a body mass index of more than 35.
The policy, according to The Texas Tribune, states:
… an employee’s physique “should fit with a representational image or specific mental projection of the job of a healthcare professional,” including an appearance “free from distraction” for hospital patients.
“The majority of our patients are over 65, and they have expectations that cannot be ignored in terms of personal appearance,” hospital chief executive David Brown said in an interview. “We have the ability as an employer to characterize our process and to have a policy that says what’s best for our business and for our patients.”
Body mass index is calculated based on height and weight, with a measure over 30 qualifying as obese. A 5-foot-10 man who weighs 245 pounds would have a BMI of over 35, the hospital's cutoff. A 5-foot-2 woman would be over the cutoff at 195 pounds.
The hospital’s policy may cause outrage, but it’s an extreme example of an obesity bias that has been percolating in the nation’s workforces, starting with seemingly benign measures such as encouraging workers to walk at lunch.
Companies are beefing up their efforts to make you healthier, and they’re taking out the big guns. You’re costing employers too much money for medical coverage, and increasingly firms are imposing penalties on workers who don’t get with the healthy program.
According to a report released this week by consulting firm Mercer:
“87% of large employers say they will add or strengthen programs or policies to encourage more health-conscious behavior.”
While this hospital is talking about the image heavier workers send to customers, what drives so much of these decisions is the cost fatter employees represent. Healthier workers cost less when it comes to insurance, sick time, productivity, etc., according to many business experts.
But are any these policies legal?
In fact, weight discrimination is one of the last types of bias that’s, for the most part, legal. Michigan is the only state that has any laws on the books protecting the rotund among us, and a handful of cities also have some restrictions.
The Michigan law, on the books in that state since 1977, has seldom been used but appears to be getting dusted off lately by overweight workers who believe they were given the shaft because of their weight.
For anyone who lives outside Michigan, the only recourse is going to the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and seeking help under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Don’t expect a lot. Simply being overweight generally does not qualify as a disability.
David Scher, an employment attorney with the Employment Law Group, said: “This issue was litigated extensively in the airline industry sometime ago. The bottom line is that it is not illegal to discriminate solely on the basis of weight provided the employer has a legitimate business reason.”
However, he added, the Texas employer has two problems here.
“The slippery slope for this hospital is that its reasoning may be questionable and (it) specifically states ‘appearance’ as its basis," he said. "For example, in Washington, D.C., it is generally illegal to discriminate based on ‘any’ surface characteristic for its own sake, commonly called the ‘ugly law’. So a bold policy like this would likely be illegal in D.C. because it flat-out uses “appearance” itself as the basis for the policy."
He said the hospital could be on shaky legal ground unless it can establish a job-related reason for banning heavy workers, such as the possibility that they would be unable to physically fit between hospital beds.
"Further, the hospital will either need to ‘eyeball’ an applicant or do an actual BMI test and obtain highly personal medical information about an applicant," he said. "A hospital of all places should know that merely obtaining this information will likely violate privacy laws.”
The Texas example may seem over the top, but heavier workers have been hit in the wallet before.
In a study by John Cawley, an associate professor at Cornell University, he found that obese white women had worse labor market outcomes than any other overweight workers.
“The obesity penalty for wages was much greater for white than black females,” he told me a while ago. He pointed out that research has shown that obesity tended to lower the self-esteem of white women much more than black women. “That could end up affecting your work potentially,” he speculates.
It’s hard to make a case for such bias at work, especially in today’s economy where finding a job can be so difficult.
Who’s looking out for these portly citizens? Not Citizens Medical Center. Will they be turning away fat patients next?
A version of this story also appears on the website CareerDiva.
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More than 35 is morbidly obese, not just 'fat'.
FYI 30+ is obese, 25+ is overweight.
BMI is a rediculous measurement on which to base any standard. I am 73 inches and at 229 lbs, I am a pint of water away from obese. My Bodyfat hovers at 5%.
5%?!?
You know that's like impossible right? Even male pro athletes have like 6-13%.
http://www.bmi-calculator.net/body-fat-calculator/body-fat-chart.php
I agree with this policy. You go to the hospital and your doctor/nurse is bigger than a house. That's not a good image.
BMI is total garbage, and should not be used on anyone, at any time.
you know that pro athletes aren't ACTUALLY the lowest BF, Highest muscle, fastest ever people, right?
They are pro athletes because their talent sets converge. They are strong, fast, agile, smart, or have good instincts, or any of the above. In fact, when I got appendicitis, mine dropped below 4 briefly.
Wrestlers have notoriously low percentages. In HS, I personally knew one who would purge in every way he could to get under 3.
Regardless, you are proving the point. When 15% is fit, and Athletes can make do with 6 or less, how can an arbitrary scale that doesn't take BF into account work? I could double that fat...weigh 240+ lbs and still be lower than most people. Where would BMI put me?
Male essential body fat is 2-4%. That is what it says, essential. That means any time you go below that level certain chemical reactions in your body begin to shut down.
Which is why I actually linked that site. I'm sitting at close to 25 BMI.
However, I plug in my waist (35") and my height, my neck, my weight, and it thinks I have 14% BF.
BMI is a farce, like another poster said.
I guess because that says essential that means you can't, right?
I am essentially right. That means you CAN NOT argue with me. Because I said so. It is also essential that you brush your teeth every night, and essential that you intake 8 cups of fluid a day. If you fail to do any one of those, you will cease to exist. Hell, I feel weaker already.
It means you're very unhealthy, assuming it's true. My assumption is that you are exaggerating a bit.
What do the authors think is going to happen IF nationalized healthcare gets fully enacted? Do you really think the federal government is just going to let people live, but with insurance coverage?? Oh hell no, they are going to suddenly have a lot of interest in what you are eating, how you are living, and how much you weigh because they will be "paying" for your healthcare costs (yes, I know that my taxdollars will actually pay for your healthcare costs). The government is already talking about tests you don't "need", treatments that you don't "need", that sugar is "poison", that salt should be regulated, etc. They are going impact the way you live because otherwise they'll never get close to the healthcare budgeted (that's already doubled from initial estimates) costs.
Hope you enjoy your choice to get nationalized healthcare folks. Tip- don't get fat or old.
my assumption is that you should do a little research as to what kind of people maintain bodyfat levels that low, and why those types of people may think BMI is a crock.
You know what they say about assumptions, though. They allow you to ignore the ESSENTIAL point. BMI is a faulty determinant of anything.
You know that I've been talking about BF, not BMI during every post after the first right?
The workers at my family dr's office are all obese.
Only my doctor and another doctor that I see are in the "normal/overweight" category.
And I admit 100% - I look around and I think "why on earth should I listen to these people, they clearly dont know what they are talking about if they cant manage their own health and weight"
though, ultimately my better judgement overrides and says - just because these people suck at life, doesnt mean I have to.
Would you take a dr serious who's lecturing you about lung cancer and why you should quit, while he's puffing away on a cigarrette?
No, you wouldnt.
Orthoscopy - you seem to be using the exceptions to the rule, to make clear the rule is bad.
that just doesnt make a whole lot of sense.
surely a hopsital could do fat measurements on candidates who LOOK fit, but are too high on the BMI chart.
but you arent advocating for a logical approach...you're just screaming "THIS IS BUNK, THIS IS BUNK!"
so, me thinks you might actually be fat...and in massive denial.
and i wouldnt be shocked, im sure 10 years ago you went with the "im big boned" approach, right?
Yes BMI is a joke, but any employer who pays for health insurance should have every right to not hire someone who is likely to incure lots of healthcare costs and therefore raise the policy rates for the company and all employees. Aside from that aren't doctors and healthcare professionals supposed to promote being healthy? Isn't that part of their occupation? They should have standards for themselves and those they hire.
I know quite a few big people who are very intelligent, and very good at their jobs! I also know quite a few thin people who are so unproductive its not funny! Typical executive mentality, tripping over dollars to pick up pennies! Just think, some idiot in the boardroom is bragging about how much he, or she saved the corporation in healthcare costs for implementing this policy, while not realizing the costs in productivity few exceed those savings!
OOPS! "Far" Exceed, not "few" exceed!
Employers should be allowed to some degree to decide what kind of people they want to represent their organization. This is a very slippery slope because where is the line drawn? No purple hair? Agreed. No redheads or dreadlocks? Now you may have a problem. If we all made healthier food choices, drank water instead of sugary drinks and exercized more, this may not even be an issue. People will find reasons to discriminate against you if they are so inclined. No need to add to their options by being overweight, getting neck tattoos or any other personal choice that you have some control over.
It already happens for many organizations though. When was the last time you saw a morbidly obese news anchor?
I'm not a lawyer, so I don't know where the line is drawn legally.
When was the last time you had an attractive flight attendant? Those "Pan Am" days are long gone.
when was the last time you saw a fat, non-busty hooters waitress?
truth is, lots of professions already discriminate...and it's perfectly legal to do so. they dont outright say "im not hiring you because you have a neck tattoo" or "im not hiring you to be the receptionist at the dental office because your mouth is full of rotted teeth and that would send the wrong message to our patients"
but that IS the reality.
Apparently obese medical professionals dont seem to care, or have any understanding how it makes some (not all) patients feel - and the reality is many of us have a hard time taking them seriously or respecting them.
and I suspect, it causes a lot of fat/obese patients to not work so hard on their own health thinking "well look at all these fat healthcare workers, they are doing fine - i must be too"
*lots of professions already discriminate*
Its not discrimination. Discrimination is when you have no choice...(i.e being a man/woman...black/white)
Being fat is a choice...PERIOD. You don't like it....change.
In other words, no Americans need apply.
And this is a law in Texas of all places. I would expect something like this from Florida or California, but not the deep fried steak capital of the world.
OK just for fun.....
http://chartsbin.com/view/562
I suppose if more companies had the view of this Hospital Texas might just drop down in their obesity ranking.
also interesting...
http://www.expatify.com/news/the-worlds-top-10-fattest-countries.html
Unfortunately, overweight is often so much more than just eating junk and sitting on a couch. Weight can be attributed to depression, certain medication, menapause, disease and so often by unhappiness in life. Going through periods of change...divorce, job loss, loss of a spouse, there are many events that can affect physical weight changes. What we are beginning to understand in society that our mood and physical reaction to stress can be positively affected by exercise....however, people have to come to this on their own not by embarassment or shame. What we can all wish for is that today 10 more people decide to do something about their health issues and get up and move just a bit more today than they did yesterday.
Just to pick knits, deep fried steak won't make you that fat. It doesn't tend to produce a heavy insulin response (it's the whole Atkin's diet thing.... which is horribly unhealthy, but I digress). Americans tend to love carbohydrate heavy food and drinks, and not a huge amount of fresh/raw vegetable matter, unprocessed (basically almost predigested... a.k.a. ground) protiens and wheats and grains that aren't bleached. all of which produce a pretty high insulin response which packs on fat.
For the record, Atkins is not 'horribly unhealthy.' There is a growing body of research showing that a low-carb diet is healthier than a low-fat diet and better for weight loss. Eating saturated fats actually improves your cholesterol profile (but the link between cholesterol and heart disease is also questionable). Even in the Induction phase of Atkins you are eating two cups of salad greens every day, and as the diet progresses you eat more vegetables and some fruits, mainly berries. The idea that Atkins is a pound of bacon for breakfast and no veggies ever is a lie.
As long as it doesn't go against the constitution, this is fair game. For the most part, being at a respectable weight is something most of us can achieve, so just like other jobs, if you want it, you have to abide by their rules. Kinda like tattoos.
Hmmm. The obese simply cannot perform certain physical tasks as well as non-obese workers, so I see the hospital's point. The problem is, when taken to an extreme we eventually accumulate a population of obese people who want to work but can't find a job, and then go on unemployment. So they go fishing while I keep working to pay for it...
What can't I do, that skinny people can? I can't fit in very small places, but I'm tall and big (even without the fat) so I couldn't do that even if I were underweight. I can't sprint for an hour, but I don't think most people short of athletes and regular joggers (regardless of size) are capable of that.
I'm probably stronger than many thin people, I can run just as fast, and I can walk just as long a distance as many (if not more). What, supposedly, can't I do?
As a health care worker who is on the "larger" side, I agree with mixedpie. I have always been on the larger side my whole life. I have struggled with weight problems, I eat healthy, don't drink sugary drinks, and I exercise on a regular basis. People who have never had issues with weight will never understand.
But the last time I looked I was not here to kiss your butt I am here to save it. AS an ER nurse/paramedic for over 12 years I have never once had a patient say to me, "I wish you were skinny, because then you could have taken better care of me." Because being skinny automatically makes you a better health care professional."
I work 12 hr shifts on my feet in the ER, walking all night long making sure my patients are cared for, and I hold myself to higher standards than most but for the life of me I just can't lose the weight. I have tried a majority of the programs, weight watcher, TOPS (taking of pounds sensibly), the cardiac diet the cardiologist use, etc... But there are some people no matter how much they try will never meet this companies expectations. On a personal note, I would not choose them as a hospital because I am sure they would try to "FIX" that part of me instead of the real reason I became a patient there, such as pneumonia, or a broken bone.
The facility is fixated on weight and not health.
Tjmedic, I think it's a matter of perception. All large people are not unhealthy and all skinny people are not healthy. The neurosurgeon that speaks in street slang and has a neck tattoo that says "THUG LIFE" isn't coming near me with anything sharp, I don't care if he graduated at the top of his class at Johns Hopkins. Obese people are not perceived to be healthy and when you're "selling health" like a hospital is, a doctor that is wider than he is tall lacks some credibility.
Perception is skewed by the general public's worthless concept of what is real and genuine. The perfect woman is supposed to be blond, skinny with big boobs.. the perfect man is tall dark and handsome... or so we were all told as kids growing up. We had to look for the perfect person... perception is just what you believe and perceive to be correct in your own mind. What you perceive as a threat
"The neurosurgeon that speaks in street slang and has a neck tattoo that says "THUG LIFE" isn't coming near me with anything sharp, I don't care if he graduated at the top of his class at Johns Hopkins."
I would perceive as someone who overcame adversity to help society and may keep them as a reminder to himself/herself of the life they used to live but overcame. Also it gives hope to the younger generation who may have followed the same path at one time, they too may overcome adversity and become a neurosurgeon.
But I can assure you "selling health care" is a poor choice of words. People get sick and come to the hospital for help not because we are selling them things... well unless you are vain and are going to have elective procedures for personal enhancement. Then maybe I would be selling something to you...
Ok, when you go down clutching your chest and gasping for air, far be it from me to offend your sensibilities - even though I just recertified in ACLS.
Honey, there is a donut shop just down the street and when I get and after I have had a couple of glazed donuts, I call 911 for you. Hope you get a skinny paramedic in time. If not, Byeeeeee! LOL!
Not only should fat people be singled out but as an employer paying the bulk of his emploees health insurance why can't I say no to smokers, drinkers, skydivers, etc since they all drive up the experience modifier insurance companies use to make rates...why not toothless redencks? Or all rednecks?
so do you only insure your employee's..... or do you offer family insurance as well?
If you do offer family insurance then are you going to have the family line up for inspection? Because looks can be deceiving. Some of the sickest people look "fine" but when you break it down they are the ones using the bulk of the insurance... take a child with Asthma... some can control it well, others rely on the ER to get things under control when their home meds don't work. Look healthy on the outside but are sick on the inside... just something to think about while you are culling your employees and their families....
Er, you do know that you are 147 times more likely to die in a car accident than doing any other thing on a given day?
New rule: ER's will no longer take in MVA (Motor Vehicle Accidents). It just sends those health care premiums soaring. Those morons. LOL!
I promised my mama I wouldn't die hungry...
What if you were thin when you started working there and then started packing on the pounds? Do they fire you?
It's probably a provision in documents you sign when they hire you.
guessing getting pregnant while working there is a bad thing too.... since a large belly will get in your way.. and cause you to be over the BMI limit.. hummmm
I worked at a hospital/clinic for almost 20 years in a non medical position. A lot of the desk clerks and nurses were huge.
Sam Adams, I wouldn't say "no" Americans. Just the 3 out of 4 American's who get on the scale and it shows no numbers, but a picture of a cow.
Too many of you fear the government.
The Corporate, with their multi-million dollar salaries, fleeced from your wallets, is becoming the new government. I assume you know what that is called.
As for the story. Well, it is Texas, isn't it?
Ahahahahaha, you'll have to forgive us smokers if we laugh our *ss off at you fat people and your histrionics. We TOLD you it was only a matter of time till the holier than thous came after you, didn't we?
You can come up with all the arguments you want, you're on the losing track. Hahahaha.
Big difference between fat people and smokers:
If you smoke standing next to me, you're forcing me to smoke with you or leave. If I stand next to you, I'm not going to magically make you fat against your will if you can't walk away.
nosferatu -you are absolutely correct. There's an adage about "coming for certain classes of people, but I didn't care because it wasn't MY class." Until they came for my class and there was no one left to help me.
I still have a smoke now-and-then, but get looks from people as though I had just eaten a child and @!$%# it on the livingroom carpet. Now they're coming for the fat people. Can't imagine who's next, all under the guise of "saving money," or, in the case of this hospital, "appearance."
From the weight perspective...I am 6'-2", 185#. At 44 I still have most of the appetite I had in my teens -2+pounds of meat every day, pasta, potatoes, gravy, etc. The only vegetable I eat is green beans. And yet I stay rail-thin with cholesterol that hovers in the high-140s.
Conversely, we have a friend that is a strict vegetarian, exercises daily, and has three daughters that are active, which keeps our friend in constant motion, not counting her regular job. Yet that woman can't get below 300# to save her life (she's about 5'-5").
Point being that weight is more than just caloric intake, regardless of what the children or "specialists" try to claim.
A final note for "mixed pie" where they changed the subject: there are 3.8 million square miles in the U.S. alone. Why do you people find it necessary to pick the two square feet next to me having a smoke and then complaining about it? If the air has smoke in it, that means I inhaled and exhaled it, making it MY air. Your air is somewhere else....you can find it by the sound of the sniveling whine it makes.
roflmfao oh Fred I wish I could give you a million thumbs ups, this is by far the best post I've seen all week, thank you!
I don't "pick" the 2 feet next to smokers to stand, and if a smoker is of to the side and away from things I really don't mind them.
However, take for example a bus I used to ride rather often when I was in college. I also had some issues with a non-weight related knee problem, so walking could often be very painful, especially in cold months forcing me to take the bus. This bus stop was located on an "island" of sorts in the middle of a busy street. I could not escape a smoker while waiting unless I risked getting hit by traffic or missing my bus. Smokers used to also stand under my dorm window, and all their smoke would billow into my dorm room. The dorms also had terrible air flow and were very warm, so opening a window was the only way to escape sweltering heat in the late spring and early fall. Additionally walking to class often became impossible (I have since had my knee fixed) because slow moving smokers frequently blocked access to foot traffic on sidewalks. Meanwhile, outside of shops just off campus, smokers would gather in large groups directly in front of entrances. Walking into any shop or leaving campus in general forces you to go through it. Everyone has a right to breathe. If a smoker is out of the way, not big deal, their choice, but when a smoker forces you to breathe their smoke (especially people like me who can't breathe near it), then you're infringing upon someone's right to breathe.
Standing next to a fat person won't make you fat. But standing next to a smoker will force you to smoke, and with that you don't even get the benefit of a filter.
Well, "mixedpie," you missed the point again, but your post still says quite a bit about without you realizing it:
The article is about the next stage of histrionics and discrimination; it is NOT about whether or not I should be allowed to smoke in a daycare center or during brain surgery. That is where you tip your hand: you keep changing the subject to your own personal crusade: your own personal issue with smokers. That attitude is rather common, and leads to all sorts of stupid, emotion-based, irrational behavior among anti-smokers to the point that all reason is tossed out the window: "Boohoo, I don't like smokers so they should stay 100-feet from me. Boohoo, I don't like smokers so every indoor place must be non-smoking because I MIGHT go in there."
That attitude toward smokers is a form of acceptable bullying, which is an irony unto itself -the same people that espouse those anti-smoking views and behavior toward others are generally the same ones that cry foul when women/gays/minorities are subjected to subliminal, passive-aggressive bullying. Welcome to their fold, you're in [not so] good company.
Here's a thought: when you're polite to a smoker, you'd be surprised at how polite they are back to you. If you make an effort to deal with reality, it has been my experience that smokers will be reasonable in return in keeping their smoke from you. You whine, complain, or do that fake cough, then expect them to give you something to whine about.
And no, standing next to a fat person won't make me fat, but reading or listening to too much stupid crap makes my brain numb and I find myself drooling like an imbecile. Therefore, you'll forgive me if I ignore you going forth.
Who says I'm not polite to smokers? I generally avoid them, don't "pretend cough" (sometimes I can't help legitimately coughing though), and do my best to avoid where they are. If a smoker is standing off to the side, or is in a designated smoking area, or is generally being considerate of the people around them, I don't care at all. Their body, their choice.
But if a smoker is smoking right outside a residential building, a school, or in the middle of a well-traveled sidewalk, how are those bothered the rude ones? Polite smokers are fine, but it's the ones with a "holier-than-thou" attitude who seem to think that the only air with smoke in it is "their" air, and not the air being breathed by everyone else who are the problem.
I think you're the one here who has a problem (and a mild persecution complex), immediately assuming that anyone who doesn't like to breathe second hand smoke purposefully put themselves next to smokers just to be a jerk.
I intentionally listed instances where the smokers were being rude, inconsiderate, or broke laws. When they aren't, what's to write about? They aren't bothering anyone.
the last thing i wanna see is the person who is treating me is a fat slob...how u gonna treat and help people if u cant take care of yourself ?
To quote my 100 year old "technically obese" grandmother (who is doing just fine, thank you): I can always lose weight. You, however, will always be mean and ugly (inside)!
First the smokers. Now, the fat.
Next, no fat people in restaurants and public places.
After that, who knows?
The deal with smokers in public is second hand smoke.
Until there is proven to be second hand fat I don't see it happening.
Don't worry, I'm sure a test for second hand diabetes will be coming out soon
The deal with fat is they have higher health care costs which ups the insurance rates for the rest of us. So they negatively impact the rest of society just like smokers do. Sorry.
that's absurd. there are plenty of skinny people with health problems. Skinny does not equal healthy. Chronic illness strikes people of all shapes and sizes. It's a cop-out BS excuse.
I thought that they were proud that everything is bigger in texas?
In Texas!? That pretty much rules out the whole state.
I never understood why you shouldn't be allowed to hire whoever you want if it is your private business.
Government jobs sure, but if its my business I should be able to hire whoever I dam well want to.
If I decide I only want to hire fat black guys, so be it, why shouldn't I be able to? If people say that's racist then great don't use my business, go to a competitor. Let the market decide.
Agreed and great point.
Seriously, you don't see the NFL/NBA hiring "little people" to play. You don't hire a blind person to be a surgeon. I could go on.....
It is about image and if that's what they want (which I agree with) so be it. If someone doesn't like it, go elsewhere.
Isn't Texas one of the fattest states in the US? Wouldn't this cut out a massive chunk of applicants?
Not to mention that BMI is probably the worst measure. While I'm sure it's difficult to get 35+ BMI while maintaining a body fat under the "bad" level for your age/sex, it still is cutting out a lot of very healthy muscular and large framed people. It strikes me as weird that a hospital of all places is going on by BMI rather than BFP (which is more accurate).
I can't stand fat discrimination. It's one thing to encourage people to be healthy, it's another thing to prevent people from becoming healthy by forcing them to work desk jobs (being a hospital employee is more active than a desk job, for example), or for lower pay making the unhealthy and cheap food more attractive and even further decreases the attractiveness of a gym membership. Being jobless also doesn't help with the depression that plagues many, if not most, overweight people, and the depression also discourages activity and healthy eating (one of the symptoms of Major Depressive Disorder being the inability or refusal to leave bed). And the corn subsidies from NAFTA certainly aren't helping either (they also are part of the illegal immigration problem too, but that's another story).
I swear everything people in the US do to "combat fatness" only makes people fatter. We need to get fat people into active jobs, give them subsidized gym membership prices, and promote the idea that "fat models can be pretty too" (yes, that would work, trust me).
Or maybe those who are obese should start making GOOD diet choices, utilize a magical concept called PORTION CONTROL, and get off their butts to exercise on their own time. It doesn't require a gym membership to WALK. Heck, if these obese folks would just train themselves to park at the far edge of parking lots and WALK into the grocery store or office, they would be better off! Then maybe they could get in shape enough to start taking the STAIRS instead of the elevator!
I know, now someone is going to whine about how my approach puts too much personal responsibility on those who are obese. @@
um no that would be Mississippi thank you very much
Texas is 12th on the list.
http://calorielab.com/news/2011/06/30/fattest-states-2011/
@SunRunner
There's theory and then there's practice. Part of the problem with being fat is not knowing what a decent portion is and being tricked into things that promise to make you thin but actually make you fat or give you health problems (like diet soda). Then there are many years of cravings to give up. I know this sounds impossible and like an excuse to naturally thin people, but quitting "fat" is like quitting nicotine, or alcohol, or heroin or any other addictive substance. Although it's certainly possible for many people, it's not something that's easily done overnight in just one attempt without a lot of support by family and friends (but because of the "fat stigma" many people aren't supportive).
Walking is nice, but it's also not enough. I've walked everywhere my whole life and I'm still fat. Up until this year when I moved to a place with NOTHING in a reasonable walking distance, I easily walked several miles a day and I often park far from my destination (I park in the far corner of my work parking lot, for example). Still fat. It's not enough. I also have a horrible fear of elevators so I take the stairs every chance I get, even if I'm going up 5+ stories. My junior year of college I picked a dorm on the highest floor I could of the tallest building just so I could take the stairs (then found out the stairs were emergency only after I'd moved in). The simple fact is, it's not ENOUGH for most people to lose weight. In fact, I'm more likely to suggest walking and happily walk some where than a good deal of my thinner friends.
And even then, the depression that comes along with being overweight (more to do with social attitudes like yours rather than "fat on the brain" or whatever excuse people are using now to avoid the obvious) is a GIANT hurdle. It's difficult to go out jogging and not be harassed for being "disgusting" and when your eating disorder is "everyone hates me I need food to fill this void", it's not helping.
Not trying to sound harsh here, but it seems like you have a lot of excuses to not do something instead of doing something. Who cares what other people think. You should care more of what you think. If depression is a problem, see a doc and take some meds. If you don't want to go "out" jogging, do it in your home. I get not everyone will be as thin as a rail but some do not need to look like shamo either.
I go jogging and go to gyms without shame now. I'm still struggling to learn portion sizes without needing a measuring cup out at all times, and to find a way to be active at a very much glued-to-my-desk job (and I doubt I could get a ball to sit on or a treadmill desk). But when you constantly hear "You're not welcome here" "you suck" "you're not allowed to be happy" "you're not allowed to feel pretty" "you make my eyes bleed" etc. it takes A F-ING LOT to overcome. These are hard things to overcome by some people who are skinny, but it's a lot harder and a lot more directed at you when you're fat.
As for "doing it at home", I do, but only because I'm a bad upstairs neighbor. If I were more mindful, I couldn't do it, because of "elephant jumping on the roof" sounds.
I don't have problems getting out and exercising, and go to the gym as often as I can afford to (both time and money wise), but I'm just saying that for some people, that isn't feasible. And even for me, unless I happen upon a nice confidence streak where I don't encounter any articles, people, comments, etc. that are trying to degrade fat people to something subhuman (not too many comments like that on here, and I'm definitely not saying yours is :), thankfully) sometimes getting out of bed is very difficult. And I don't have enough symptoms to qualify for MDD, I really doubt I could get depression meds if I wanted them.
So is it safe to assume that doctors will have all of their privileges at the hospital revoked if they don't fit into the new BMI requirements too?
I think not. Docs bring in the money, I mean the patients. So hospitals would be foolish to jeopardize that stream of income.
If you don't like it back up from the feed trough. Being fat is not a disease, it is a choice. Regardless of other medical conditions. If you eat more than you burn off you gain weight.
Life must be very neat and clean in your black and white world. Talk to me again when you're 50 and 225.
If you have metabolic disorders or hormonal disorders, you gain weight also. Try being a 30 year old woman with PCOS, then come back to the table with some perspective... ignoramus.
I am so disgusted with the world right now. A qualified individual comes looking to work for your company and you deny them a job because you don't like how they look. I work in the medical field. A lot of nurses, orderlies, janitors, front desk personnel and yes, even doctors, are obese. How about the volunteers? Should they volunteer elsewhere to make sure they don't offend your patients' tender sensibilities. Just disgusting.
A couple of thoughts here. One, people should be physically capable of doing the job they're applying for. Obese people don't make good firefighters, but they can do a lot of other things, pharmacy tech, for instance. Discriminating against people only based on weight is wrong, but not illegal (for now).
Victoria is a moderate sized town between Houston and San Antonio and has a large hispanic population, which tends toward the round - not that there aren't a lot of chunky white people down here. Also, I wouldn't be surprised to learn that this is the only hospital in the town.
This should be illegal because you shouldn't be allowed to discriminate based on things that are no one's fault. You're born black, short, gay, female - and often genetically predisposed to be large. You might be able to get rid of some of it but most fat people never lose and keep it off. For most it comes back.
Good for them. We as a society, especially in Texas, are too accommodating for overweight people.
Its hard yes, but we should encourage each other to take care of ourselves.
Some hospitals won't hire smokers because it sends the wrong message to patients. So why not do the same with staff that are fat?
Not in the Liposuction department! :-)