Fined for being too fat

Trops

Trops

New member
Saw this article in the New York Times about Japan having passed a new law requiring all people to be measured and if your waistline is above 33.5 inches for men and 35.4 inches for women, you get fined and shamed.
 
oh the shame of it all..

why are women allowed to have bigger waists then men are? that seems wrong...


I thought it was the waist to hip ratio that was the indicator of potential issues... a person could be 4'9 and fall under the max for waist size but still be chubby.. crap I'm 5'9 and have 33" waist -I make it under the limit and I'm fat...
 
I'm all for incentive programs to lose weight, but this is kinda weird. Shouldn't they go by %BF or the hip to waist ratio like mal said?

I wonder how this is actually going to affect things in the long run. It'll be interesting to see.
 
maleficent said:
oh the shame of it all..

why are women allowed to have bigger waists then men are? that seems wrong...
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Because while it may not be a good excuse, women have children and have the fat after they have a baby, it's apparently harder for women to get as toned as men too, etc etc.

But I stick with the baby thing.

If I could be 35 inches around the waist I'd be thrilled though..
 
The people of the world are becoming fatter and fatter and Japan is doing something about it. Good for them.

~Rina
 
I found this both interesting and disturbing. It seems incredibly oppressive that a government would do such a thing; however, it is also disturbing how incredibly FAT people everywhere are becoming! I am curious as to how it will all pan out.

cheers
ABBA
 
LowFatMilk said:
Because while it may not be a good excuse, women have children and have the fat after they have a baby, it's apparently harder for women to get as toned as men too, etc etc.

But I stick with the baby thing.

If I could be 35 inches around the waist I'd be thrilled though..
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You are right - it's not a good excuse. Women are significantly smaller and shorter than men, and they have thinner body frame, so it makes no sense that the limit for women is nearly two inches larger than for men.
 
MichaelJohnson said:
You are right - it's not a good excuse. Women are significantly smaller and shorter than men, and they have thinner body frame, so it makes no sense that the limit for women is nearly two inches larger than for men.
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Even through puberty women gain weight in fat, while men are supposed to gain weight in muscle (not 100lbs in either though). The fact is biologically the ideal body fat percentage for a woman is higher than the ideal body fat percentage for a man. Women are built to carry a little more cushion because of their reproductive responsibilities. Now if that happens to be two extra inches on the stomach compared to the man, then it's two extra inches on the stomach.

Do you honestly think the country is giving 2 inches extra to the woman to piss men off, or perhaps is it possible,that they do think about their decisions a bit?

I don't think they should have a ban on inches at all anyways. There are so many circumstances. I know people who look like they're constantly pregnant because of diseases, even though the rest of their body is stick thin. These same people are eating 3500 calories a day to survive.

I also think people need to be responsible for their own weight/inch loss destiny, and if they choose to send themselves to an early grave, then let them.
 
The "government limits — 33.5 inches for men and 35.4 inches for women... are identical to thresholds established in 2005 for Japan by the International Diabetes Federation as an easy guideline for identifying health risks". So I guess the numbers aren't so random after all. Those who have "a weight-related ailment will be given dieting guidance if after three months they do not lose weight. If necessary, those people will be steered toward further re-education after six more months."

I don't know -- would this have worked for you? I'm not sure if I would like the government meddling with my waist, though I do enjoy the current ad campaign for healthy eating that's running over here -- all the happy multicultural folk making good choices to the cheerful music...
 
This is definitely wrong. Ones waist size is NOT the gov'ts business at all. This might have been concieved with good intentions, but after all we all know what road is paved with so called 'good intentions'...

-N-
 
Some of these reactions seem to give the impression that the poster thinks that it's about appearance(Fining people for not have perfect, beautiful bodies? Uh, no.) rather than what it's actually about-health.

Extra abominable fat has been linked to all sorts of diseases and ailments- one of the many outcomes of everyone becoming fat and unhealthy in a country is skyrocketing health care costs. The government stepping in the stop this from happening? Good.

Have you ever taken a good, hard, long look at the state of some of the countries that did nothing about their people getting fatter? A person being overweight does not just affect themselves by being so- they affect the entire country they live in.

Also, it says that "the government will impose financial penalties on companies and local governments that fail to meet specific targets." So it's not like they're sending a bill to any one person who is fat.

~Rina
 
Nightporter said:
This is definitely wrong. Ones waist size is NOT the gov'ts business at all. This might have been concieved with good intentions, but after all we all know what road is paved with so called 'good intentions'...
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In countries like Japan where healthcare is paid for by the government -it definitely is their business...

It bugs me enough that with my own company's healthcare - it's one rate fits all -that smokers get charged the same price as non smokers

My objection to this in Japan is that it's too one size fits all and that's never the case...

To go with a stereotype -the majortiy of japanese women aren't amazons... they tend to be on the petite side from what I've seen... a waist size of 35 is rather large... my own waist size is smaller than 35 and I'm not the least bit tiny.
 
Layri said:
Also, it says that "the government will impose financial penalties on companies and local governments that fail to meet specific targets." So it's not like they're sending a bill to any one person who is fat.
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So then the companies stop employing fat people or people who are close to being fat, or who have been fat and liable to put the weight back on. Maybe even genetic testing to see who is likely to put weight on. The fact is that it is a law that is prejudicial against people who are overweight. I'm all for concern for health, that is why I am losing weight, but it shouldn't be forced and it shouldn't be enforced and creating prejudice and creating a divide between those whose waists are under a certain a size and those that are above is wrong in general and a step in the wrong direction along a path that can lead to nowhere good!

Sorry for the hyperbole there at the end!
 
So then the companies stop employing fat people or people who are close to being fat, or who have been fat and liable to put the weight back on. Maybe even genetic testing to see who is likely to put weight on. The fact is that it is a law that is prejudicial against people who are overweight. I'm all for concern for health, that is why I am losing weight, but it shouldn't be forced and it shouldn't be enforced and creating prejudice and creating a divide between those whose waists are under a certain a size and those that are above is wrong in general and a step in the wrong direction along a path that can lead to nowhere good!
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If you actually look more in to how this is playing out, what they're doing is far from being like "You're too fat. Fired!"- it's more along the lines of "Lose enough weight to be under the limit by x date"

It really depends on how you look at it. Take a look at some of the fattest countries in the world- obviously gently encouraging people to lose weight doesn't work. I think it's extremely beneficial for there to be a fine in place, so it's no longer a matter of wanting to be fit but having to be. Obese people have such an impact on health care costs that such laws can greatly benefit society in more ways than one.

~Rina
 
Big-John said:
Hopefully Farting.. Now something should really be done about that.
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I wish something could be done about this... I wish my farts didn't stink. ;)

As far as the Japanese setting waist sizes - I read the entire article, and I'm most intrigued by the idea that employers will be held accountable for their employees, with large fines possible (I actually wrote about this article in my blog today - one company calculated that they could pay as much as $19 million in fines). I think it's a slippery slope when a business is responsible monetarily for their employees' waist sizes - or maybe that's just the skeptic in me that can see jobs being linked to your waist size at some point down the road.

While waist size may be one indicator of good health (with the U.S. established waist size quite a bit larger than Japan's), I can't help but think it's dangerous to establish one "standard" and determine that all of Japan must meet that standard, especially when the article points out that preliminary research says these numbers are pretty close to average waist sizes in Japan right now. I'm just glad I don't live in Japan.
 
Layri said:
If you actually look more in to how this is playing out, what they're doing is far from being like "You're too fat. Fired!"- it's more along the lines of "Lose enough weight to be under the limit by x date"

It really depends on how you look at it. Take a look at some of the fattest countries in the world- obviously gently encouraging people to lose weight doesn't work. I think it's extremely beneficial for there to be a fine in place, so it's no longer a matter of wanting to be fit but having to be. Obese people have such an impact on health care costs that such laws can greatly benefit society in more ways than one.

~Rina
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This isn't just about getting weight under control, it's also quite scary that a government is trying to control people's lives this much. What will they force on people next?

I will say this about weight loss though. It's important to me that it was MY decision to lose weight. Weight loss isn't just about the physical, it's an emotional/mental journey too.
 
there are some countries that are far more - and i'm not sure proactive is the right word - about people's weights - there's at least one member here who was put into a weight loss program in their school - while it's a good thing that the schools are taking an interest in student's health - what it reads to me as that overweight kids are being singled out and put into special programs because they are overweight...

that seems like it would be damaging to a student during the years where a lot of their self worth develops.
 
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