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Is the term Morbidly Obese considered offense?



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I was wondering if anyone here considers the term "Morbidly Obese" offense?

I was Morbidly Obese until a few months ago. When I talk about my surgery, I don't use the F word. I say Morbidly Obese. Some people have become so offended and they aren't even large people. They are pencil stick thin and act like they are defending larger people. It irritates me because they have no idea what it is like to be Morbidly Obese your entire life and then finally slim down and see what its like to feel normal.

I think Morbidly Obese is more polite than to say... I was fat... there's the F word I try to avoid. :(

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We were all brought up with the words Fat, Thunder Thighs, and Hippo.......

In today's world, the wording Morbidly Obese is correct. But if you go by the Fashion World, everyone is Morbidly Obese unless you are a size Zero (0).

If you look at the clothes sizes, I use to fit in an XL, but now an XL is really a Small. I have seen Smalls that would fit my 2 year old grand-daughter. It is so sad what today's society has made women feel they should look like, and a man wants a woman to look this way.

Most magazines are of beautiful women, but in reality, they are photo shopped and touched up.

So if people become upset because they are called Morbid Obese and really have never even felt what that is like, They just need to realize the FASHION INDUSTRY/MODELING INDUSTRY has done this to them.

I have a friend who is 5'7" and weights appx 130, and they say she is way overweight. How sad is that. She is a beautiful woman and looks great, but not in the eyes of SOCIETY

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We live in a very sad society. What concerns me more is that the US is becoming more and more obese and its not as simple as "work out" and "eat better". I had said in a discussion else where that food was addictive and its hard to get into shape. People started telling me that food was not addictive and I was full of it. I then took a picture of a loaf of bread and asked them if they knew what half of the chemicals in the bread were. They went silent. I then went on further about what MSG does and how it makes you want more more more. Let's face it, if food wasn't addictive then food companies and fast food companies would be out of business. They have to use chemicals in their food otherwise our body doesn't crave it. It's the same argument with Cigarettes.

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To me, the only way that would be offensive is if someone used it in a non-medical sense, like if someone used it to describe me without knowing my weight or bmi. Kind of like when some of my past doctor's would assume that I had diabetes, when I never had problems with my blood sugar. I kind of felt like- if you want to test, by all means do- but please don't assume that all obese people must have diabetes, because they don't. I don't know why people would take offense to the use of 'morbidly obese'- especially if you're using it to describe yourself in a more specific and medically accurate term than just 'fat.' That's interesting.

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Morbidly Obese is just the clinical term.

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Morbidly Obese is just the clinical term.

Yep, it's the medical definition of having weight above a certain BMI.

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I'm not offended by it. I have referred to myself as that. I just think it means that you could die from your weight and the complications that come along with it. Not defensive at all, to me any way.

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Because the use of the term morbid in the UK is used to describe a very negative person the term 'morbidly obese' usually makes me think of an overwieght person person who doesn't think positively. Ironically sounds like the old me... ;)

In seriousness, I would much rather the term morbidly obese than the F word. Right now over here there are stacks of TV shows portraying morbidly obese people with the F word in the title. The portrayals are negative to say the least and it is as if these TV shows have been made to laugh at people, not to help them or gain an understanding of the challenges of being overweight which might develop into a change of prejudicial attitudes.

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I would think it would be offensive if you simply walked up to someone on the street and say "wow, you're morbidly obese"... Other than that it is just a medical term.

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I'm not offended by it at all cause I understand it's a medical term. However, I just don't care for it.

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    • Alisa_S

      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
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    • Alisa_S

      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
      · 1 reply
      1. summerseeker

        Life as a big person had limited my life to what I knew I could manage to do each day. That was eat. I hadn't anything else to look forward to. So my eating choices were the best I could dream up. I planned the cooking in managable lots in my head and filled my day with and around it.

        Now I have a whole new big, bigger, biggest, best days ever. I am out there with those skinny people doing stuff i could never have dreamt of. Food is now an after thought. It doesn't consume my day. I still enjoy the good home cooked food but I eat smaller portions. I leave food on my plate when I am full. I can no longer hear my mother's voice saying eat it all up, ther are starving children in Africa who would want that!

        I still cook for family feasts, I love cooking. I still do holidays but I have changed from the All inclusive drinking and eating everything everyday kind to Self catering accommodation. This gives me the choice of cooking or eating out as I choose. I rarely drink anymore as I usually travel alone now and I feel I need to keep aware of my surroundings.

        I don't know at what point my life expanded, was it when I lost 100 pounds? Was it when I left my walking stick at home ? Was it when I said yes to an outing instead of finding an excuse to stay home ? i look back at my last five years and wonder how loosing weight has made such a difference. Be ready to amaze yourself.

        BTW, the liquid diet sucks, one more day and you are over the worst. You can do it.

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