Anonymous wrote:I guess the tumor wasn't 90 lbs. Those stories about people who have huge tumors removed are interesting. They often think they've gained weight but it's the tumor getting bigger.

Ha, no, the tumor didn't weigh 90 pounds. As it was on my ovary it screwed with my hormones and nothing I do seems to budge the weight. But in high school I knew an extremely obese woman with a huge stomach flap. I asked my mother, who also knew her, about it and she said it was a tumor that couldn't be removed because of how huge it was and how large (and therefore risky as a patient) she was. I forget now how big it was, but something like the size of a fetus?

Anonymous wrote:I wonder... I am slightly overweight and think about joining a gym sometimes. If I walked in and saw people like me and heavier I think it might make me think it isn't a successful gym.

Why? It isn't the gym's responsibility to make customers lose weight.

I wonder... I am slightly overweight and think about joining a gym sometimes. If I walked in and saw people like me and heavier I think it might make me think it isn't a successful gym.

I guess the tumor wasn't 90 lbs. Those stories about people who have huge tumors removed are interesting. They often think they've gained weight but it's the tumor getting bigger.

Anonymous wrote:To me this is stupid and it is discrimination.

If you are overweight own it and do the work to change if that is what you want to do. Why do people go to the gym and watch other people and then get all caught up about feeling intimidated and insecure, give me break.

You are at the gym to focus on yourself and work out. Enough about all these hurt and intimidated feelings.

Would you like my 90 extra pounds? Gained largely due to a tumor I had (since removed). If you haven't felt the indignity of your great obesity slinging around you as your excess sweat dribbles everywhere, in your fat folds, as your boobs perform gyrations that two very good sports bras can barely contain and your workout clothes ride up down and everywhere except covering you, then pipe. I'd welcome a space where the other people understand this. And discrimination? Get ahold of yourself; it's not the only workout option in a remote Idaho outpost.

And to PPs who were wondering about being "expelled" or "kicked out" when you lose weight: there would be no greater joy than being graduated out of such a gym!

Just because you are skinny, it doesn't mean you are healthy. A gym can help skinny people improve their health by building strength and endurance. Some overweight who exercise are healthier than some skinny folks who don't do much exercise.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To me this is stupid and it is discrimination.

If you are overweight own it and do the work to change if that is what you want to do. Why do people go to the gym and watch other people and then get all caught up about feeling intimidated and insecure, give me break.

You are at the gym to focus on yourself and work out. Enough about all these hurt and intimidated feelings.

Not necessarily. For "gym rats" working out is serious business and they get annoyed when they have to wait for equipment (when the person using it is obviously clueless). "Long-timers" tend to get territorial. I've seen it happen many times.

Ignore the gym rats. They don't keep the lights on at a club. Plus most clubs have areas where you can avoid them to do your strength work.

Not the worst idea ever.

I have a roommate who is thin - thinner than most people I know, including myself (I'm a size 6) - who joined weight watchers to lose the 5 lbs or whatever that she feels she is overweight. I feel like she probably shouldn't belong to weight watchers because the other people there probably hate her for being thin, and are not going to be comfortable with her in their group. (she's also 26, and very, very attractive.) She's the "after" shot to their before. She doesn't need to lose weight (and she's vegetarian, with pretty good eating habits), but I did manage to convince her to join a gym so she could develop good exercise habits before she actually needed them when she hit her 30's/40's.