Fat is Where It's At!

In April of 1982, war broke out between Great Britain and Argentina over the Falkland Islands. Argentina's military invaded the Falklands and Britain responded by sending in a navel task force and amphibious assault. The war lasted for 74 days and resulted in 257 British and 649 Argentinian military dead. At the time I was full of piss and vinegar in Canada having been placed on Ready Alert for the event. We in the military watched this closely.

Shortly after the war, we started to receive reports back. The one that caught my eye the most was a medical report in regards to troop performance. The Falkland Islands are a great place to raise sheep, but a terrible place for an armed amphibious assault. It is made up of a lot of hills with steep banks and a lot of rocks to climb over making it very exhausting for a soldier to climb a hill, run, shoot, etc, all while carry more than 70 pounds of gear.

Soldiers of course were dropping due to fatigue brought on by physical exhaustion. Where it got interesting was the ones that were dropping first were the body builder types with very little fat. Where as the ones that would be considered overweight were in fact able to travel further distances for longer periods. This of course only makes common sense as the human body uses sugar to short bursts of energy and stored fat for energy when the sugar runs out.

From that day on, I stopped going to the gym. I refused to replace energy for looks.

Fast forward 30 or so years and I find that I made the right choice. I stayed large but not to the point of what I considered un-healthy. When that happened I would diet and get back to my comfort zone. A little over a year ago, I read a report that one of the specialists had written. The part that upset me was his description of me as being obese as I have never felt obese a day in my life.

Over a period of 8 months, I lost weight at the rate of 10 pounds per month due to not being able to eat caused by the advancement of my MS. I am no longer what one could consider obese after having lost the equivalent of a small person. My weight hasn't been this low since I was in high school. But on the bright side, I have gained a pound back since my CCSVI procedure and am able to eat.

I am not the only one that has been saved by being overweight. I do not believe anyone should be obese to the point where it is detrimental to their health, but society has made a grievous error by promoting thin as beauty. The conventional treatment for cancer is the same way. Patients that are overweight have a much better chance to survive than an underweight patient.

Personally I think the worse thing ever was the inception of the Body Mass Index when it seems pretty obvious that that little bit of extra fat, could indeed save your life.

I may not gain back all that weight. I may just accept this weight and go out and buy clothes that fit. But I have to wonder, if I didn't have that extra weight, would I have made it long enough to get the treatment that has obviously worked?

The next time someone calls you fat, take it as a good thing. It really is.