by Michelle Wilkinson

Created on: May 27, 2009

The media may have conditioned us to believe that you have to be a stick insect in order to be fit and healthy, but the reality is different. It seems that overweight people are meant to feel embarrassed or ashamed about their size; to hide away from view and never to exercise in public. Gyms are not designed for overweight people, but for people who already look good in gym clothes (if that's possible!) Clearly this is not the case, but the obsession with how slim and toned people in the public eye are has left many individuals with a distorted, confused notion of what fitness is. Of course it is possible to be fat and fit, but if that's what the newspapers reported then the obesity 'crisis' perhaps wouldn't be such a big deal.

It seems that people in positions of power want us to be scared of obesity, doesn't it? We're continually bombarded with statistics about how much obesity is going to cost the economy and the strain being placed on our health care services. Obviously politicians and health care professionals have a legitimate concern about the state of individuals' well-being because of the wider implications, but sections of the media can be quite irresponsible in their reporting of obesity.

This is particularly true of tabloid newspapers and celebrity magazines. Not all ordinary men and women are interested in hearing what the latest scientific revelations concerning the causes of obesity are, but they do want to know how their favourite celebrity managed to lose twenty pounds in a month. Individuals end up focusing much more on the visual impact of obesity than on the health implications, even though it is the latter which should provide cause for concern for some people.

Some individuals end up losing weight by virtually starving themselves which is just as bad as being overweight and remaining so. The real focus should be on eating a balanced diet and getting regular exercise, which plenty of overweight and obese individuals manage to do. Some individuals actually fall into the overweight category (according to their BMI) because they are muscular, and muscle weighs more than fat. The BMI doesn't take into account a person's body composition - how much fat they have compared to muscle, and it does not take into account a person's frame. Not everybody is designed to be slender; it does not mean that they are unhealthy or unfit.

There are those who simply like to eat - they like to exercise and they like to eat well, but they just do not burn enough calories to end up weighing less. It doesn't take many extra calories to result in weight gain, whilst losing weight requires people to reduce the number of calories they consume. Very active people can find this difficult to do because they have to eat enough to keep their energy levels up.

Overall, it is possible to be fat and fit, but that is not always the impression we are left with due to the correlation between obesity levels and ill health. It is not in the interests of politicians and the media to focus attention on the fat and fit few, but rather on those who do have poor eating and exercise habits. Being slim doesn't necessarily make a person fit, but there are no visible indicators to suggest they may have a problem with their health, unlike in the case of obese people. Surely individuals know whether they are fit or not, though, regardless of their size and it is up to them to make changes if they need to.

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