Ok. I have been really good watching what I eat. I was just starting to come out of my winter funk when I got a copy of an insurance paper that my doctor sent to my orthopedic doctor and one of the diagnosis on the papers just jumped out at me... MORBIDLY OBESE it said which totally freaked me out then made me depressed. I was just starting to pull myself out of that hole you get into being cooped up and this made me want to just slither back down into it. I am suppose to be going to physical therapy 3 times a week and I work out there in their gym which I also have access too and have been doing good on the machines and the treadmill but lately I have just wanted to stop . This coming week is my last week of physical therapy but the hospital where I go to for it invites their patients to continue with exercize after rehab is finished for 20 dollars a month ( no problem) for as many times a month as you can get there.
Any words of wisdom would be appreciated.

I DID freak me out...in faact, that was one of my motivators for losing weight. I had to go to a specialist for PCOS issues, and had to take my chart from my gyn to that doctor. It said "abdominal exam normal, but difficult to palpate secondary to morbid obesity" Or, in plain English, "We can't tell if her abdomen is normal because all we feel is fat". That meant that the FAT was getting in the way of my getting a proper diagnosis. It was one of several very big pushes toward my new way of life.

You know what, though? Just because I -was- morbidly obese doesn't mean I was destined to be that way forever. As you said yourself, you are already ON YOUR WAY to not being that scary thing anymore. So you can either take that scared feeling and use it as an excuse to stop, or you can look at it, think to yourself "Feeling scared of my morbid obesity is EXACTLY why it is worth the work to lose weight", and use it to push yourself forward.

I'm really, really looking to being simply "obese" rather than "morbidly obese" in just 1.5 more pounds! The word itself doesn't really flip me out, though, except for the fact that the "morbid" part is related to "morbidity" which of course means...death

that's actually a bit of a colloquial misnomer. in the medical field, "morbidity" refers to the state of having a disease or illness. so morbid obesity would be obesity as a disease in and of itself. "mortality" is the death one. i'm not sure why the lay meaning of morbid has come to be so associated with death because that's not actually what it really means.

Hey! Another word geek!

I think it's easy to confuse "morbid" with "moribund" because they're so similar. Moribund means near death.

The prefix "mor-" is probably the same root in all those words--and some others, like morgue.

Jay

Yep, that's why they will speak of morbidity and mortality (aka M & M), because they're not the same thing. But obviously, morbidity isn't good either.

For example, the CDC publishes the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report:

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/

What exactly is the sequencing in weights?

First you're chubby? then chunky? then fluffy? next comes fat? then overweight? then hefty? followed by obese?

what comes after morbidly obese?

I am 147 and I am still considered overweight according to many BMI calculators. Grrr....

It did shock me when I learned I was in that catagory - I remember thinking "holy crap!"

I don't like labeling anyway, so I simply don't like the word.

Sandy

blog - www.mygritsconfessions.com

I agree that many people get the meaning of these labels mixed up; and I don't like it that we have all these labels: one is enuff really. I'm very, very overweight and I know it, thanks!

I always thought people were saying that as an insult: as in "grossly" obese because I had never heard that term until I came here; but lately I'm hearing people call themselves and others this all the time. Maybe this is a new fad or something.

MANDALINN ~ I agree with what you said; let's use this in a positive way to work towards getting healthier ...

Anyways, thanks for clearing this up for me; now, I'm more informed!

I'm so glad you posted this! I had no idea about that and I, too, was really hung up on the word. It doesn't change what I need to do, but it makes me not so freaked out.

um, i think gabriel iglesias set the ruler as

the 5 levels of fat:

big

healthy

husky

fluffy

and

DAMN!!

ok ok, i realize this is a weight loss forum... and if anybody took offense to that 1. gabriel is one of my favorite stand up comedians and that was a funny and 2. um... chill? haha

At least I'm no longer super obese (once or sometimes called malignant obesity), the medical term for having a BMI of 60 or above. At least super obese sounds sort of cool like I should get a cape and shiny leotard, maybe a secret identity or a theme song. My husband does sometimes sing the batman theme song from the old 70's show and pretend to be "fatman" you know, nuh nuh, nuh nuh, nuh nuh nuh fatman!


As for fluffy, if anyone calls me fluffy, I will smack them! I prefer even the DAMN moniker to fluffy (it makes me feel like a big cartoon sheep). I'm not cuddly either. When my youngest sister was little, she called me squishy and it was said with such love, I couldn't feel bad about it - but no I don't wan't my husband calling me that (his favorite is "sexy hottie wife," which at my size has to disturb many of our friends, along with mine for him "lustmuffin").

I remember a sampler hanging in someone's kitchen when I was a little girl that had a picture of a very round sheep and it said "Ewe's not fat, ewe's fluffy." Blegh, sappy.

My father had many silly nicknames for me, from when I was little (he still uses them today) often included fat, almost like a prefix. Kaplods and Jammers were the two he used the most (thus my user name), and more often than not it was "Fatkaplods," and "Fatjammers," and I learned that fat wasn't always a "bad word," that it was just a description, and could be used lovingly as well as hatefully (though in middle school and high school, I was always terrified that he would slip and use the private nickname in front of my friends).

I am fat, actually very, very fat and I prefer the word fat to most terms including obese. Morbidly obese, not my favorite word, but I've been dealing with that terminology since I was 12, so the word has lost most of its power over me (for good or bad).

WOW! Thanks for the posts and information in them. You all are making me feel right at home . I appreciate the time you took to answer my question and read my ost.

I can't remember when I switched over to obese because well I'm no longer morbidly obese. I have to say that since I was morbidly obese from such a young age (8 or so), that I just had learned to accept it. Now if only I could get down to the overweight category, that'd be something.