Should we bribe people to be healthy?

Reward weight loss, tax weight gain

I am 65 odd kg, A person who weighs 130kg should pay twicw as much as me for flights and other public transport

I agree with Arnoo, tax food with high levels of fat and sugar, and subsidise fruit and veg.

So called healthy 0% fat foods that are loaded with sugar should be banned, or at least the marketing of high sugar foods as healthy should be banned

 

I don't have a moral issue with monetary incentives for people to lose weight. Being overweight can stem from a variety of causes though. It's not always as simple as someone having no self-control. Regardless of the source, any reasonable incentive for people to lead healthier lifestyles, saving health care costs to the system, is good in my mind.

I wonder how prevalent inactive children are in the UK though? I've read stories from members of the community here in the US who say it's very common for American children to be quite inactive today. Not having children, and not working with them in any capacity, this is news to me. When I was a kid, we didn't have cell phone video games and handheld systems to play on sunny days at the park. We had our imaginations and that meant physical games running around pretending to be soldiers and what not.

 

what if that person was 6 foot 8 and a pro athlete? he's still very healthy and lean.
not getting at you i'm just pointing out that measuring 'healthy' with a few simple numbers tends to be hugely over simplified.

deff agree on the low fat high sugar foods being stopped.

 

If I ate primarily fruit and veg, I would probably be dead on the floor from the resulting weight loss.

 

Running is about the only thing I can think of that has a bit of support from Run England, and the Parkrun guys (at least in England) and is free. Though a lot of the people who go to the former are already reasonably fit. I met only a few people who struggled so don't know whether it just reached those who already had a level of health/fitness but didn't want to join a competitive running club or those who could really have benefited from it were put off by starting at a lower fitness level or thought running at their weight would do them more harm than good.

 

Hummm.....

Pointless? really?

We hammer people with photoshopped magazine covers of hulked monsters and make it the ideal of "health"!
The same is happening for women with big bosomed "ideal beauties"

Fact is this is unrealistic and unattainable!
Unless:
- you have boob surgery, fat removal surgery, cosmetic surgery to correct that pesky nose line, etc...
- You splurge in steroids and other banned substances that make cheating so easy!

See? that guy on the magazine can do it... and you, loser, you can't?
What are we really creating? neuroses and a chemical escape?
Addictions?
Definitely!
An aspiration to be healthy?
Certainly not.

ALL sports heroes are created that way (except maybe the darts 350 pounds guy sponsored by Chivas and Marlboro!) - okay, hit me with the clean ones (table tennis maybe?)

What does the guy drinking beer and eating chips on his sofa think when watching TV?
I don't know for sure, I don't have a TV, but it would not surprise e that he would very much want to be like that guy with 18 inches biceps (and pea size balls, but that is not shown!)... but it feels so remote and unattainable that he opens the next can.

You want to defend your monthly alcohol binges, and point the finger at cigarettes... It is okay to get drunk because others are smoking?
One day will come for you to take steroids Steve... it is okay, you'll see, you will make up a wonderful rationalization and fall for it! And, in the end it doesn't matter, because you will have to work twice as much to make it work...

Good luck!


Osu!

 

Climbing and olympic lifting have adult based clubs!
Again though the problem is not so much the sport but the misconceptions of either hippy "EXTREME" climbers (most hobbyist climbers are bussiness men or housewives i know) or steroid using Olympic Lifters (mosy hobbyist lifters do it for the fun or crossfit and usually arent all that fit).

 

I'm not sure about your argument about people being discouraged by seeing ideals and thinking they'll never obtain them and therefore continue being unfit.
Most the motivation for me is the fact that they are so hard to obtain.
Ans in anycase - People change when they want to change. It takes effort and time and willpower that most people cant be arsed to put it. I've only recently decided to do it myself. It was nothing gradually and it was a complete commitment to change. People rarely do that because they are too lazy too or too afraid of failing.
But how can you succeed if you never try?

Andsd as for the argument against the alcohol binge, it sounds quite silly considering steve has programmed certain allowances like that into his life style.
It's the same as a cheat meal.

 

Cut the personal attacks O.K. Steve is the last person who would roid up.

 

fruit is loaded with fructose, a sugar.

 

So a person who is 6'7" and has the same body fat % or lower as someone who is 5'4" should pay more for transportation?

 

What about muscle? A muscly person will weigh more than if they did not train (assuminng they were at a healthy weight to start with). As muscle is a by product or goal of all training, it would seem counterproductive to tax body weight....

 

Most climbers I know are MASSIVE geeks. Want to start a conversation in a climbing wall, take a copy of game of thrones to read.

 

Here is my manifesto...put it to the testo

Taxation/payments are made due to fluctuations from a 'norm' determined by isometric mesurement of each individual.

Big muscular people will still only pay tax for increases.

I'm sure it would be possible to give folk exemptions if they decided to become an olympic athelete and gained a great deal of healthy weight

On the transpotation generally, but flying specifically...

Weight and therefore fuel consumption are critical to the economics of air tavel

On arrival pasenger is weighed with luggage. A heavy person, regardles of the reason they are heavy should have a smaller baggage allowance, than a small person, to equalise thier total weight.

Why do I have spend twice as much as 130kg guy. Light people subsidise heavy people on air travel, then they get thier personal space that they have paid twice as much to transport, invaded Jabba the Hut! NO MORE!

That is true, but you see the difference between eating an apple and a cake as a snack?

 

If you have a cake as a snack, not, you know, pudding for five people like cakes normally are. How are you 65kgs again?

 

You've been asked by other members and MODs to drop this here.
Frankly your oppinion couldnt matter less to me, all you've gone here is cement that.

 

I put it down mainly to intestinal worms ;]

I have just had an even betterer idea...Weigh ins for people collecting thier benefits, deductions for unhealthy weight gain/loss (people sould not be encouraged to be unhealthyly light either), bonuses for loosing and maintaining a healthy weight

 

Let's also note you can be fat and healthy and functional. Cheryl Haworth anyone?