Millions more middle-aged are obese, study suggests

[AnnaLee]

8. If it is true that fat cells never go away

So, supposedly, fat cells shrink when weight is lost but they never go away. If so, when fat is measured, do empty fat cells still affect the result?

I am one of those old people who has gone from 5'7 to 5'5. I also am a fat person from birth. So, my weight has fluctuated from over 200 to under 120 lbs several times in my life. I currently am in a skinny cycle at 115 lbs. Two years ago, I was 240 lb. As I tell people, it is lost for now, but I am sure I will find it somewhere.

And yea, I have all the baggage - the low thyroid, the diabetes, heart bypass and stints, clogged arteries, and whatever. But I know many people I grew up with that have had similar lifestyles and diet, some lazier and eating more than me, that have never been obese.

I do wonder, however, perhaps personally, why we are so determined to label people and group them into the undesired "other". No matter what we claim we are doing when we only accomplish precisely this.