I think it's about time we discussed this.....

Yes, and we can all thank a "certain" company for taking their CYA stance and "fixing" a problem that didn't even exist.

All this talk about weight, health, exercise, and American lifestyles reminds me of this picture:
http://www.goodexperience.com/broken/i/04/02/america-fitness-s.jpg

Really, Moosh is a trooper and I do believe he knows what it's like to be descriminated against.

For whatever reason.

Sure the world don't work this way but what if the majority said, "SKINNY PEOPLE SICKEN ME?" and everywhere you went you got snide looks and remarks?

Every three months there would be a It's time we discussed skinny people thread and why it's a problem. Or why are people purple, Or mixed race, or non catholic?

I've made no bones about being upset with insensitve people or people who got nothing better to do than make fun of, worry about, or otherwise THINK THEIR PERFECT SOMEHOW.

Thyroidism is a disease and medical treatment does nothing more than help you feel awake when your awake instead of walking around like a zombie most days, Levothroxine or synthroid does not make you lose weight but helps you have the energy and willpower to do so.

Please if you think your perfect, IN great shape or otherwise have no issues. Call me when you have that triple bypass, die from cancer or whatever at an age in the early twenties. I now have known two people to die from lung cancer before age 25 and never smoked. I have a uncle who's always eatten right, never been overwieght and had his first bypass at age 26 and has 7 bypass operations since and two angioplasties, He's now 63. IM sure he's kept Swoosh's wife in buisness himself. Why? because his colesteral runs about 350 even with a great diet and the best medications they have.

And last but not least, what ticks me off the most is the people who have all the time in the world to worry about everyone else. If the person with the weight issue or whatever the problem dosen't realize they have a problem and find a way to deal with it themselves, All your ridicule and fun making and even WE need to discuss post do to that person is make them find comfort in a bucket of chicken or a cigarette or a night of binge drinking.

Your not helping by doing so, Worry about yourself because I may or may not live to be 100 being overweight but who knows what your'll get struck down with? Alzheimers? Arthritis? Heart disese ect. You don't have to be fat to get em.

As for being too big for rides? Yeah there is such a thing, And I'll even agree with reasonable sized restraints for rides are necessary. However, Some of the rides are just rediculous with their super short seatbelts and rules.

A MF restraint even tho buckled ect. is no good if it isn't touching the upper thigh. Size isn't the issue unless you can't get it to do that. A skinny person would get thrown if it wasn't in their lap. Honestly that whole issue was over someone not doing their job correctly at SFNE and a man who physically and mentally could not pull the restraint down himself. A co-riders statment of the bar being a foot off his lap and even S:ROS operators at SFDL saying so make me believe its true

Chuck

The interesting thing is people who equate skinny with healthy and it just isn't so. Somebody may have some sort of freaky metabolism and can suck down 6000 calories a day with no visble effects, but if they eat like crap and don't exercise, they just might be in a bit more trouble than that person who carries some extra pounds but maintains a healthy lifestyle. Blatant disregard for healthy eating because "I never gain weight" is what disgusts me.

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Charles Nungester said:
I'll have the last laugh when your 40 with a non working thyroid wondering why you can't fit on rides.

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Why are you getting all up in my grill? Did you even read my comments about bona fide medical conditions, or are you just trying to lash out?

Some people are genetically predisposed to certain things. I have a friend who probably won't live to be 35, so don't even try to tell me about it while I'm watching my friend die.

The issue is the people who are unwilling to do anything about being overweight who are in their current state because of poor choices they make. Sorry about your thyroid but this isn't about you.

^^I have a blatant disregard for heatly eating because "healty food" tastes terrible! =]. I'm of the believe "Everything in moderation". I know I've eaten like there was no tomorrow before (see double gyros cheeseburger), but that is now an ocasional treat (like once a year if that...cant find them in the DC area ;)). But at the end of the day, something is going to kill you (unless you belive in the rapture). I'm in the camp with Chuck, mind your own freakin' business! If he wants to smoke, let em, if I wanna drink, dont get between me and the keg.

Again, agreeing with Chuck, I wonder what is the real purpose of the thread other than to bytch and moan. Practically, I *do* believe that folks should split meals @ theme parks but that's my personal quest for portion control (having a wife on a 1200 calorie diet will *quickly* make you 'portion size aware').

Though I would like to know who decided that 6'0" / 180 is "overweight". :)

EDIT: One thing to add about manufacturers/operators, I really have a problem with the Intamin trains that the belts in the front and back of the cars are the same lengths, yet are anchored at different points. Thus, those who just fit in a front seat, will not fit in a back seat. One would think that either the manf, or the ops would figure this out and standarized things.

lata, jeremy
--who carries all his (limited) weight behind him *** Edited 7/27/2006 1:56:19 PM UTC by 2Hostyl***

Some of you are really ticking Santa off.

I saw him scribbling wildly in the Bad Boys book a little while ago...

"Eat, Santa! Nobody likes a skinny Santa!"

Paula :)

Jeff, none of my comments were aimed at you. I thought everything you said was pretty much inline and true.

Portion control is so where it's at. You can eat whatever you want on Weight Watchers as long as you don't exceed your point total for the day. That teaches you that cheese fries are bad if you expect to eat anything else the rest of the day, and forces you to find other things in the right quantity. You can still eat crap, just less of it.

The weird thing about it is that your body generally adjusts over time. I couldn't put down an entire pizza anymore because I just don't physically have the room. I can't drink as much beer either. Ah, the things we do to be healthier!

Jeremy, I agree. You can pass every law for McD's being the problem. Make every comment ect.

It isn't even really a portion size thing but rather what you eat.

As I said, I can eat two footlong subs, Split to eat four times a day. Have a bag of baked lays, All the diet pop I want and still lose weight and a pint of 1% milk (Don't ask me why milk helps, I don't know)

All that and never being hungry is less than lunch at Wendys from the junk menu.

That ONE skyline Cheese coney is more fat than my entire daily intake on the Jared diet and Im eating four times a day now instead of two.

Yeah, I wish others would realize this and that it's not as hard as I thought it would be. The biggest problem is staying on it and not straying and if you do to make it a treat instead of a everyday thing.

Chuck, who went a little overboard, I'll admitt that but I think some people go overboard worrying about others when nothing can be done unless the person him/herself really wants to and ridcule, pitty and harasement only hurt or compound the problem.

A drinker drinks more when he's told he drinks to much, A smoker smokes more when the comment, Light another one is made and a person who eats junk will eat more when ridiculed.

Sorry.

Chuck: I think that there is more than one road you can take. If changing *what* you eat works for you, that's awesome. Alternately, for some (read *me*), it's easier to just eat less of the same foods. When my cholestorol went 'borderline', I didnt stop eating cheese, I just only eat it every *other* day. I didnt go vegetarian (I love MEAT), but added a couple of veggie meals to the weekly rotation.

A "Jared Diet" would never work for me because I'd never stick to it. We all have to pick what works individually. :)

It depends on the person. For some people, the Weight Watchers (portion control) method works. I know of a few people who lost a ton of weight that way and I am so happy for them. For others, it's changing what you eat- baked potatoes instead of cheesy fries, toast instead of donuts, etc. Not everyone is the same and what works for one doesn't always work for the other.

What amazes me are the people that are so oblivious to what weight loss entails, acting as if it's always a matter of simply getting off your a$$ and taking a walk. To go as far as saying that overweight people disgust them? It never seems to occur to people that some people are overweight because they can't help it, or are overweight because they choose to be that way. Did it ever occur to some of you that some overweight people might actually like themselves that way? Oh, the horror! But let's look at some other unhealthy things that people do that are clearly a decision of theirs:

Tattoos (possible cause of skin cancer)

Alcohol (possible liver and kidney damage)

Smoking (possible lung cancer)

Base Jumping (possible impact with a solid object)

Aside from drinking, I'm not big on any of those things, but if someone decides to do any of them, I'm not going to look down on them in disgust. It is their life and they should be free to do what they want. It's okay to be gay in modern society (as it should be), but it's not okay to smoke if that's what you want to do?

You want someone to admit they are obese? I'm her. That’s right. I am obese. Am I proud of that? Hell no. In my quest to lose weight I eat 1200 calories a day during the week and allow myself around 1500 on the weekends. I do allow myself a "treat" of "normal" food every now and again too.

I had to laugh when I was reading another board I visit and they were making fun of fatties going to McDonalds saying they shouldn't be eating there. Sure, a good portion of the people eating there probably don't care about their weight, but some do. Once every couple of months I allow myself a McDonalds cheeseburger meal (or any other fast food place). So, just because I'm fat means I can't ever eat at a fast food place ever again? I don’t think so. Moderation is key.

I also exercise. Not as much as I probably should, but I do exercise. I have a gym membership in the winter and in the summer I walk mostly. Parks are great for this with all the walking there.

So far I have lost 40 pounds. With a LOT more to go. It is a slow and long process. It is my fault that I allowed myself to get this obese, but it isn't anyone’s right to make fun of me for it. It will probably be at least 2 years before I lose all of the weight I want to lose and I'm okay with that. If you want to make fun of me, then go ahead, because I know it isn't right of you, and I know what I'm doing to better myself.

I've seen more than one reference in this thread to the accident at SFNE being at fauilt for the newer Intamin restrictions. That may have been the final straw, but to fault Six Flags for what happened is short-sighted. Maybe seatbelts weren't checked (but they *were* fastened). Would that really have prevented the incident? The man was obviously too large to ride, and it's easy to say that now. But how was anyone to determine what was "too large" when Intamin provided no possible way for ride operators/attendants to determine who is safe and who is not?

Intamin is at fault for their poorly designed restraint system, plain and simple. I'm sure the situation at Millennium Force must be frustrating. I have not been to Cedar Point in several years, but people are obviously pissed off about it. But I also think it's (unfortunately) necessary, and I don't blame Cedar Point one bit for it.

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escher26 said:
And... a few suggestions for folks that might want to lose weight or may already be doing so... that might help cause I'm all about helping if I can:

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I mean no offense, but your suggestions on eating healhier strike me as odd. For instance...

1) If you must have a burger, have a veggie or soy burger. Boca burgers are excellent. Your suggestion of In-N-Out burgers over McDonald's is misguided, as they are *far* worse for you.

2) What effect is drinking soda water over diet soda going to have? Both are essentially the same in terms of nutritional content. Plain soda water cuts down on some of the acid in diet soda, but that's not going to affect weight loss.

3) As for funnel cakes, well, I would suggest a healthier alternative altogether...like some fruit. :)

Honestly, weight loss *is* difficult, and anyone who says it isn't either has some amazing metabolism or has never really tried it. Nobody is going to be able to live without "cheating" once in awhile. Moderation is no doubt the key. But if you're trying to make lifestyle changes to lose weight and keep it off, simply substituting In-N-Out for McDonalds and drinking plain soda water isn't going to cut it.

It's not just about exercising either. Realize that an average exercise burns between 300 and 500 calories, and losing a pound of weight requires buring 3,500 calories. That's a hell of a lot of exercise sessions! And yes, I do realize that the benefits of exercise extend much further than those 300-500 calories burned during the workout. I'm just pointing out that exercise alone isn't going to make the weight magically disappear.

-Nate
*** Edited 7/27/2006 5:10:38 PM UTC by coasterdude318***

For once, I agree with Nate (was that a cool breeze coming from the direction of hell?) I find it wrong to say that Six Flags is responsible for the accident on Superman. Seatbelt or not, the retraints should have prevented any rider from being released from the train. Maybe the guy was obese but that shouldn't have been an issue. What did Intamin expect? Only people of average proportions/weight to ride their rides? That is more than being short-sighted, that is being ignorant to the point of being stupid. And it's not like that is the only time a rider death occured on an Intamin ride because of the restraints.

But what I find even worse is the fact that Intamin has not come up with a solution to this problem and is instead content to let parks do things like shorten the seatbelts on their rides. Suppose the following:

A car manufacturer puts a car on the market and someone gets into a horrible accident where the car lost control after taking a turn too fast. The driver was ejected because it was found that the seatbelt couldn't accomodate his 6'6" frame. What should the car company do?

a) Demand all cars be returned to the dealerships to have their top speeds limited to 40 MPH?

b) Forbid people over 6' tall drom driving their cars?

c) Fix the problems with the design so future incidents don't occur?

Why is Intamin content with picking A or B?

Oh man, the haters out there. I can't wait until all the people over 6' and 190 lbs rise up and eat all those skinny, runted bastards.

Any bears out there? Can I get a shout out? :)

I don't get this "well Europeans make the rides so we should expect the rides to be smaller". If you're an American Amusement Park, you should know your demographic. If you buy rides that 5%, 10%, 20%, etc, of your customers can't ride, you should be willing to pay for the consequences.

NastyNate, I wouldn't complain to CP because they didn't test you before the queue, I would complain to CP because you payed the same fee as everyone else and you weren't allowed to ride.

There's a reason why ticket prices are usually cheaper based on height, not age. Should I expect Cedar Point to lower tickets prices because of weight? Ya, I do.

Come on, haters, bring it.

Remember when Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen made that comment about a Chicago sportswriter being a f*g, saying it meant something different in his native country? The common response was, it doesn't matter what it means in your native country, it matters what it means in America because you get paid in American dollars. The same should apply to Intamin- if parks pay you in American dollars, you should make your rides ridable for American riders. B&M didn't make their seats smaller when they built a few coasters in Asia.

Rob makes a very good point with cars. And I think it comes down to the products that a park chooses to purchase. If it alienates and causes a certain portion of your paying customers to have a bad day, they won't be back with their money and the movie theater down the street will snatch up the business.

He also makes a very good point about folks thinking it is a simple matter of getting off your a$$ and walking. Case in point: http://www.thefatmanwalking.com/page/65309/index.v3page;jsessionid=5h8lc83pqs56a

I recommend anybody interested in this discussion to read his journal.

Re: The SFNE incident, the man's size was clearly AN issue, but I think what really was the MAIN cause...his inability to keep himself upright due to his condition. Also thinking vaguely about the girl on the Scrambler...upright, feet on the floor, otherwise the restraints CANNOT help you...

Back to size issues, it DOES seem reasonable to expect that companies who SELL a product should keep in mind that potential buyers DO give consideration to what THEIR customers demand. As American culture seems to be our #1 export, I expect other industrialized nations to see more and more weight problems...and since THEY'RE going to be buying more rides in the *near-ish* future than US parks are....makes sense to think that the European standards will drive mfrs. to build rides for more *sizable* guests... ;)

Finally....may everyone find it in themselves to think about compassion and understanding BEFORE typing... :)

So is it possible that all these ride manufacturers suddenly do design rides to accomodate the increasingly larger folks and suddenly lesser sized people can't ride because they're too small.

Or do we generally think it's possible to design a restraint that holds everyone from the little cute blonde standing at five foot nothing and 100lbs all the way to that big burly dude who stands 6'6", 400lbs and everyone inbetween?

I guess my point is that if rides currently accomodate average sized people (and that's a broad generalization), then won't shifting the scale just alienate a different group of riders?