I have a 400 lb coworker. He sat in and broke his chair and tried to get disabilities. He is also "gluten free." Im pretty sure he is on TWW.

Tell us about your 400 lb coworkers.

4/6/2015 8:29:06 AM

I can only think of one that is at about the 400 lbs range.

nice guy
wicked smart
fingers look like sausages
doesn't smell

[Edited on April 6, 2015 at 8:41 AM. Reason : h]

4/6/2015 8:41:21 AM

No morbidly obese people at my work. One obese dude, but he probably clocks in less than 300. His wife is probably about 200. That's really it.

Also, chair collapse is totally compensable under comp.

4/6/2015 8:44:40 AM

I have a large coworker who is one if my closest friends. She eats dogfood all the time (cheetos, doritos, french onion dip etc) and always complains about hurting somewhere. My mom tells me to keep my mouth shut about her diet...but she complains all the time. Do I just say something about the merits of fruit?

4/6/2015 8:45:04 AM

Quote :

""gluten free.""

It's funny to me when I see fat vegetarians/vegans. I know there is a ton of junk food that is not meat but when I think of vegetarians I usually picture someone skinny.

4/6/2015 9:03:49 AM

I am a vegetarian... I eat a pound of white bread at each meal with organic gluten-free cage-free pasture raised ketchup and mayo.

4/6/2015 9:07:27 AM

disgusting. fat fucks should pay a lot more for insurance, and just because he's too fat for his chair doesn't mean the employer should pay for it.


gross.

4/6/2015 9:18:13 AM

white bread with ketchup and mayo???

4/6/2015 10:20:03 AM

^
To me sounds like Big Mac sauce to me.

4/6/2015 10:39:41 AM

Anybody who knows anything about me on TWW would know I was being sarcastic... those are 3 items I have not purchased in decades, and perhaps consume 0-4 times a year.

(I was mocking the special sub-class of vegetarians who stuff themselves with white bread, white rice, white pasta, nasty sauces/condiments, boxed cereals aka candy, cookies, junk food, etc., but won't touch eggs, dairy, or meat because they are "bad for you".)

4/6/2015 11:03:03 AM

I do have a coworker like that. A vegetarian who has a diet consisting mostly of pringles and poptarts. I really don't care too much about that, but he thinks his dogs should be vegan as well. Poor dogs, they need meat!

4/6/2015 11:04:10 AM

I have a coworker like this. He is probably only 300-350. He kinda eats like dog shit, but not as bad as others have mentioned. Biggest problem though is he used to be an installer so he was in a much more physical job. Now he sits at his desk all day doing primarily design and project management work. We try to get him to go walk, get out of his office, etc but he won't do shit about it.

4/6/2015 11:09:42 AM

jibbles calling out fat people?

4/6/2015 11:18:48 AM

I used to work with a woman who weighed close to 3 bills. She ate a Bojangles tailgate special for lunch one day.

4/6/2015 11:20:41 AM

Is this thread one of those "So I have this 'friend'" conversations?

4/6/2015 11:21:36 AM

I am the 400 pound coworker

4/6/2015 12:14:00 PM

^

4/6/2015 12:15:38 PM

i am the walrus

coo coo ca choo

4/6/2015 12:21:21 PM

I really do feel sorry for fat people, regardless of the reason they are fat. They are discovering powerful genes which are switched on in children who are obese or later become obese as adults, and there can be a multitude of reasons for the genes. It also has a lot (more than y'all think) to do with what the pregnant mother ate. You might think "put the pizza down, why is that so hard to control", but more and more research is finding that if while carrying the mother ate junk food it primes the baby after birth to prefer similar junk food and to be highly predisposed to become obese.

As much as we would like to believe that we have control over ourselves, in an increasing number of situations, it is the hormones, genes, and other chemicals in our bodies and brains that have control over our actions.

A lot of times I wish I was bigger, but I am thankful for how I am. I was 125 till I was 19, and increased to 145 in a 4-6 week span as a 1st semester freshman . Ever since then, which was 19 years ago, I have stayed between 140 and 150 (my equilibrium weight is 145-147), hitting 155 when I was lifting seriously 10 years ago and also a year ago. I am at 146 now.

4/6/2015 12:36:29 PM

There's a dude in my office that's pushing 4 bills. His asscrack is always showing, doesn't own a belt that isn't straining like the lines holding a cruise ship to the dock, and he smells god-awful all the time. I've seen him eat entire large and extra large pizzas at lunch time by himself and be eating a bag of chips in the afternoon. Tried telling me one day he was on a diet as he was eating a cheesesteak and fries and literally drinking an entire 2L Coke straight from the bottle.

4/6/2015 12:43:11 PM

I use to have a 400 pound coworker that everybody, including our dickhead boss, would openly taunt. I felt bad for the guy, and tried my best not to make him feel like an outcast. I wanted to be nice to him, but at the same time he was less than average at his job, and he had terrible body oder issues.

4/6/2015 4:16:20 PM

I am overly judgmental of fat people, but usually in a very private way. I would never say anything to anyone, but I really just don't understand how obesity happens. I can't wrap my head around someone allowing themselves to gain that much weight, and not stopping it.

I'm lucky to never have dealt with weight issues, so it is really hard for me to empathize with those that do. I have a hard time seeing it as anything other than a character flaw.

4/6/2015 4:18:13 PM

^ read my post a few above yours.

Science.

4/6/2015 4:39:37 PM

Yeah, that doesn't help with the empathy aspect. Overcome adversity and exercise every once in a while!

4/6/2015 5:02:57 PM

Everybody is different with regards to willpower and determination. After all, those are also mostly determined by the milieu of chemicals in the body and the brain.

So, you have literally no idea how it would feel to be in that situation, if you truly have an altered brain and hormonal chemistry due to how your mother ate while she was pregnant with you and how she fed you in your childhood.

So yeah, try a little bit to put yourself in their shows and just try to imagine having impossibly powerful urges to eat excessively and/or unhealthy foods.

Just try.

I used to feel like you, but as I said:

Science.

4/6/2015 5:07:23 PM

We ate like crap during my childhood, and my Mom had gestational diabetes with me...

Excuses, excuses.

4/6/2015 5:25:06 PM

But I thought most fat people were "bubbly?"

4/6/2015 5:44:51 PM

don't be fat. Eat right & exercise and you won't be fat. science

4/6/2015 5:48:37 PM

Quote :

"So yeah, try a little bit to put yourself in their shows and just try to imagine having impossibly powerful urges to eat excessively and/or unhealthy foods."

Dude, I am currently pregnant with twins. I understanding cravings.

4/6/2015 5:56:18 PM

i'm the fattest person at my job at 6'/220

4/6/2015 6:13:16 PM

I read an interesting piece somewhere, about how obesity is the only human vice which cannot serve as a tragic flaw (in a literary work). You can have a novel in which the protagonist has tuberculosis; or is an alcoholic or a degenerate gambler; or is socially retarded and has no friends; or even who killed his father and married his mother. But no amount of literary skill can make a reader feel strong pity for a 400 lb. fatass. It just doesn't work.

I think it has to do with some deep-rooted physical repugnance for obesity.

4/6/2015 7:37:02 PM

^She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb comes pretty close, I'd say.

4/6/2015 8:00:50 PM

At my former workplace a coworker was quite large. Her desk chair bowed under her weight so that the base for the wheels was touching the ground and the chair would not roll. We got her a new chair - but this one was reinforced on the base with metal or something stronger than plastic. She was a nice person.

[Edited on April 6, 2015 at 8:18 PM. Reason : that is my fat coworker story]

4/6/2015 8:10:56 PM

^^^That's a pretty bold statement. Megan trainer is all about that fat acceptance and bass.


[Edited on April 6, 2015 at 8:19 PM. Reason : .]

4/6/2015 8:16:41 PM

WHAT'S EATING GILBERT GRAPE

CHECKMATE MOTHERFUCKER

4/6/2015 8:26:56 PM

^^^^
Maybe I'll check it out. However, it's an Oprah book of the month, and I really hate Oprah.

^^, ^^^^
I should clarify one point (or maybe weaken my position.) I don't want to claim that literature won't support a fat protagonist. I'm claiming that it would be very hard to make literature support a morbidly obese protagonist. I'm kind of envisioning a sympathetic story about a 600 lb. guy who just stuffs his face all day because he can't control his eating. It would be hard to execute that story in a serious way.

^ not checkmate....I never felt any sympathy whatsoever for her. also, she wasn't the protagonist. she was an ulcer on the protagonist's life, in fact.

4/6/2015 8:28:33 PM

4/6/2015 8:37:38 PM

Quote :

"Maybe I'll check it out. However, it's an Oprah book of the month, and I really hate Oprah."

I hate Oprah too, but many of the books in her club are actually awesome, including that one.

I'd recommend anything by Wally Lamb actually.


But yeah the protagonist in that one isn't morbidly obese, but she definitely does some binge eating.

4/6/2015 8:42:11 PM

Quote :

"400 LB COWORKER"

4/6/2015 9:16:36 PM

its easy to be fat. its not science. its what you eat and how much exercise you get. of course (most) everyone likes candy/junk over fruit and vegetables, its delicious, cheap, and readily available.

4/6/2015 11:11:27 PM

You didn't say "protagonist," and you are probably a bad person.

4/7/2015 7:50:49 AM

Quote :

"She eats dogfood all the time (cheetos, doritos, french onion dip etc)"

i'm just imagining a dog eating those things now

4/7/2015 8:30:04 AM

Quote :

"No morbidly obese people at my work."

4/7/2015 9:37:48 AM

Quote :

"WHAT'S EATING GILBERT GRAPE CHECKMATE MOTHERFUCKER"

I felt no pity for that woman for being a fat fuck. I felt sorry for special Leo when she dies...but no remorse for that woman for transforming into a blob.

4/7/2015 10:55:51 AM

what about Lardass in Stand By Me?

4/7/2015 11:42:54 AM

What about Tommy Boy, or Del from Planes, Trains and Automobiles, or Private Pyle from Full Metal Jacket, or Chunk from the Goonies, or Bob from Fight Club (yeah, none of them are morbidly obese... well maybe Farley and Candy)

4/7/2015 11:52:14 AM

400 is deceivingly easy to achieve. I work in IT and there are probably three 375+ guys on the management team. While they're obviously overweight, they're also about 6'3-6'5. Without prior knowledge, I would have guessed around 300-320 for them knowing it's just fat (but it turns out, being really fat and that tall adds up quickly).

4/7/2015 12:16:17 PM

Quote :

"400 is deceivingly easy to achieve."

Yeah, I think I might disagree with that. I don't think I could get anywhere close to that, even if I consciously tried to for several years.

4/7/2015 12:21:07 PM

^^^
Lard-ass is probably the best counter-example I've heard yet. But even so, there's a big comic element to his story; it's not a drama and we're not asked to pity him.

Still, you're right; his story centers around his being fat, and we're definitely rooting for him.

^^
I haven't seen all those movies. But I feel like most of those guys are probably either characters who happen to be fat but whose fatness isn't the focus of the plot, or peripheral "fat guys" who aren't the movies' unique central characters.

My claim is kinda restrictive. I'm saying that a story centered around a morbidly obese guy's fatness, and attempting to portray him in a primarily sympathetic (rather than comic) light and evoke pity, is very hard and maybe impossible to do.

4/7/2015 12:23:19 PM

I think that jives with Planes, Trains and Automobiles. The fat guy is the annoying, and disgusting character, and you don't have any sympathy for him until the very end, and that's despite his gross habits.

4/7/2015 1:45:04 PM