Another great example is "Chunk" from the Goonies (1985). He was considered so fat that it was comic relief. Now you can walk through any Middle School in the United States and find dozens, if not hundreds, of kids that are MUCH larger!
But at this point in the film, hadn't he lost like 15+ pounds and also shouldn't soldiers be held to a slimmer standard than others? And yeah the movie was made a long time ago. Most people are actually fat now.
It's military standards and boot camp. It has literally nothing to do with perception. Look at drill for a fraction of a second while standing at attention and he will berate you endlessly for trying to suck him off with your eyes. Your bootlace is dragging because you're dumb. You're tired because you're weak. And you are the fattest motherfucker in this universe because you stood in front of the cake in the chow line for too long. It's not about perception. It's just basic. Even in active duty today, he would still be considered overweight, and even if he passed the PT test it wouldn't protect him from getting chaptered out for fitness.
6' 5", 200#, according to the Army, I was overweight by 15 lbs. I ran A group most mornings in PT (fastest, farthest runners), ran low 6 min miles, maxed situps and still had to wait 40 seconds for the test to end. Pushups were always low but fuck off, soy alto. I started lifting, gained 50 lbs, and my neck grew to 19"+ and all of the sudden I was "fit", even though I couldn't run A group anymore, couldn't break 7 min miles, and barely finished the situps in time. No improvement on pushups so don't stop fucking off. It's just military standards. It has literally nothing to do with perception. And people were fat before the 80s, JTFC did I just have to say that? Sure, there are more today, but it's not like Pvt Pyle was broadly considered obese by civilians at the time. The people ITT... 🙄
Shit, have you seen all those fatass larping gravy seals out there at right wing larps? Some of them are so fat on their rascals it's amazing they can even hold a gun and have enough strength to squeeze out a runny turd, let alone a trigger!
I think my kids are old enough to appreciate the jokes in Full Metal Jacket now. I got them to watch LOTR and now we started with The Hobbit. Star Wars next, but that's a tough one, since it seems old to them, but maybe I'll start with Rogue One since it's the best modern star wars movie.
I swear no one in this whole ass thread remembers John Candy or Chris Farley. There were plenty of fat dudes and dudettes back in the 80s and 90s. Yes Americans are getting fatter, but it's not nearly as profound as everyone is making it out to be. Trust me there were tons of fat motherfuckers running around back then too.
It is now year-round bulking season, and I'm loving every minute of it, jerry.
Biggest difference between your conventional fat dude and a sumo wrestler is the nature of their fat deposits. Regular fat dudes, no exercise, have what is called "visceral fat", where the fat is beneath the skin, and exists in between the organs. Sumo wrestlers have subcutaneous fat deposits, just right beneath the skin, as a sort of layer between the organs and the skin. It truly matters less whether or not you're fat, and more whether or not you're active, and have a good dietary composition regardless of potential caloric excess.
The only major limitation on this that I might qualify is that overweight people will probably have to put more effort into flexibility and strength exercises, especially in their lower body, their ankles, their knees, for the same reason that extremely tall people tend to have similar injuries. There's also the problem that it tends to be harder to cut back later in life, and so you can kind of see a huge onset of lots of visceral fat if you keep up the same lifestyle choices while cutting back on the activity, or even keeping the same level of activity as your metabolism slows down, so that's something to also consider.
People also have made points about how the excess of simply carbohydrates, like high fructose corn syrup, and palm oil as a preservative in highly processed american foods, and food deserts, are contributing factors to why americans tend to be super fat. This is true. The other side of this coin also tends to be that american civic infrastructure doesn't tend to keep you as active as perhaps other countries might, so there are less opportunities to burn calories without making a kind of committed lifestyle choice centered around that.
In any case, I do find it really, sad, and funny also, that people tend to treat obesity as a kind of personal moral failing, rather than treating it like any other kind of public health problem, or epidemic. Reminds me of how they treated HIV.
I was watching Steve Mc Queen in The Getaway. When he takes his shirt off I think that this guy isn't very well built. At the time of that moive McQueen was one of the top action stars. A few days later I'm watching a show about an average cop, and when he takes off his shirt he looks like he's been working out every day.