w00t w00t booyah

Be careful of numbers. Particularly numbers like "100 lbs overweight", because among other things, doctors keep revising the definition of "overweight" downward over and over again with little regard to what that actually means for people.

Our very definitions of these markers are completely skewed now, in my opinion, because the medical community has gotten so utterly preoccupied with only one disease (heart disease) that they ignore everything else. There are studies that have shown that people who are currently considered a "healthy" weight by current medical standards actually have a higher morbidity rate than people who are slightly overweight. What does that mean? It means a "healthy" weight is actually less healthy than being overweight. There's something seriously screwed up about that, but if any doctor tries to say anything about it the entire community comes down on them like a load of bricks, because thinner must be better.

So to be honest, from the studies I've seen, saying somebody's "100 lbs overweight" really should be translated to "60-70 lbs overweight", because the current definition of "the right weight" is actually at least 30 lbs underweight for most people. Mind you, even 70 lbs overweight is still bordering on obese, so it's still a problem, but...