I hope that he has to reimburse the city for having to help his fat ass.

Tax the Fatties!!!

I know obesity is a specific statistic related to body type and all, but it seems like 20% of any group is going to be seriously overweight. That's just straight-up bell curving, dawg.

That said, 600 pounds is getting way up there.

"20% are obese" isn't at all the same as "20% weigh more than the other 80%".

Okay.

To be more clear on that, that source of that 20% number isn't that it's the heaviest 20% of residents when individual weights are plotted on a bell curve. It's people with a Body Mass Index of 30 or higher. That happens to be 20%.

They didn't take the top 20% and say that whatever BMI that happens to be are the obese people, the BMI of 30 definition is a standard.

So what you're saying is no matter what, 1 out of 5 people will be seriously overweight; that 20% obesity rate is just the way nature works. I don't buy it. That's like saying "the world is warming up because that's just the way nature works; it has nothing to do with humans engaging in large scale burning of coal and oil."

I didn't say "No matter what," but if you take any 8 million people at random, yeah, a bell-curve-sized percentage probably are going to be considerably bigger than the average.

Global warming and obesity are both very real issues, but that's about where the similarities between the two end.

we need a retroactive soda tax immediately to eliminate this type of problem

thats very insightful and compassionate and is the kind of thinking that leads to 20% of people being obese

Can you please explain how my compassion for another person's humiliation leads to obesity?

And will you then explain how I should have responded, and how that will curb America's obesity epidemic?

As someone who also has counseled young people about obesity (as well as other maladies) I'll say without hesitation that you're part of the problem and no amount of negative reinforcement is going to get these people to literally get off their butts and change themselves for the better.

Somewhere along the line we've gotten it into our heads that by ridiculing people somehow they're going to magically see the light.

Too bad there's a mountain and a half of abuse research contrary to this.

But please, keep going..it is somewhat amusing.

whats your take on the 'fat acceptance' people, dr. chubby? if negative reinforcement is useless, is positive reinforcement the way to go? is there any correlation between the spread of this acceptance (and the treating of obesity as a disease) and the spreading of the asscheeks of america? please give me your opinion

and then give me 10 40-yard sprints, please

I've been obese in the past because of medical reasons and I honestly feel for this guy. Obesity is a feedback loop of negativity that not everyone can break..especially people like this.

Cheers to you for losing the weight.

I feel terrible for this guy. Can you imagine the shame, the utter humiliation of having to call the fire department to help you stand up after a simple fall? Men in uniform standing around you, onlookers whispering, snickering, snapping pics... The whole time you're awake, watching it all happen, but unable to help yourself. And then it ends up in the news! Then people criticize you for needing assistance because you're fat, and it's your own goddamn fault.

Ugh.

why can't these people be smothered immediately and sectioned with a chainsaw and the meat sent to the poor?

Half of me wants to say : For the same reason we can't do the same to you.

The other half is screaming "Noooo! Soylent Green is Fatties!"

My father, a FDNY lieutenant, has responded to two calls like this in the past. In one situation, part of a wall had to be broken down in order to remove the half ton man from his house by a truck & chains attached to a flatbed. Just awful.

Nice touch including the photo of Mrs. Fletcher here. "We're sending help immediately, Mrs. Fletcher."

How can someone live their life weighing 600 lbs like that??