There is no question about it, the human body is an amazing piece of kit. Resilient, responsive, healing. Definitely something to be marvelled.
Our bodies are machines essentially; the brain is the ECU, the stomach the fuel tank, the legs the wheels. Just like any car, it needs to be maintained and suffers wear and tear as it carries us through life. If you overload a car with lots of weight, it increases pressure on the running gear. The shock absorbers, brakes, rims, tyres are all at risk of damage. Our bodies are the same. Evolution has seen us bipedal throughout. An incredible if not slightly flawed design as our hips, knees and ankles absorb the enormous load pressures we exert on them as we go about our daily lives. Walking, running, going up the stairs, going down the stairs... I marvel at the functionality our organic mass actually has. So when you add additional weight pressures to that design, you immediately start to see an imbalance and pressure on those crucial ligaments, joints and muscles. It is estimated that we exert 4 times our own body weight on our knees when ascending and descending the stairs. At my heaviest weight, that equates to 1204 pounds of pressure on each knee for each step I took up or down. Jeez, no wonder I suffered acute knee pain and tried to avoid stairs like the plague.
Extra weight not only affects the running gear, there are also consequences for the internal organs. Fat collects in all manner of ways and everyone is different in terms of how our bodies store it. It is purported that people who have an apple shape body (carrying a lot of weight around their waist) are more prone to fat collecting in and around their internal organs. Conversely, those who are pear shaped are more prone to excess weight on their lower body exclusively. It doesn't matter which angle you come in from, excess body fat is intrinsically bad. Sure, we all need some fat to stay healthy but copious layers only serve as an insulation that masquerades as a ticking health time bomb. I should know, my poor body really has felt the effects of obesity.
As the weight melted away, I was amazed at how I recovered physically. As I mentioned in my opening post, my blood pressure was high, my knees were literally bucking under the weight and I suffered years of agonising pain as they swelled in protestation. I was refused life insurance due to my weight (something I will cover off later on) and the stretch marks traced across my skin would have anyone thinking I had given birth to octuplets.
The agony of chafing
Summer is a season most people look forward to. Hot days, balmy nights, beach trips, al fresco dinners. to me it represented pain and discomfort, not to mention the requirement to reduce clothing layers which ultimately meant baring flesh (even small amounts). Getting my large arms out and into a T shirt was an epic ask. I think a vampires skin would have seen more sun than my own. Scantily clad skinnier girls got me envious. mainly because they could function normally under the warmer temperatures.
Our thighs are not designed to rub. Simple as. My over sized thighs were so intimate with each other I could not separate them. During the winter it was fine, they could merrily continue their close bond and cause me no problems. Introduce some summer heat and humidity which equalled sweat and the rubbing would culture deep and painful chafe sores that would require talc and Vaseline. I have had such severe chafing before that I bled, the skin actually broke! This resulted in a walk John Wayne would have been proud of. There were occasions where I was forced to take horizontal rest for a few days, legs akimbo to ease the friction burns.
I would spend the whole of spring dreading the impending summer season. That large ball of burning hydrogen in the sky didn't 'alf give give me' gip at times!
Just a word of warning, hereon in I may touch on some points that will make you wince. Perhaps some readers will understand fully where I am coming from through their own personal experience and some of the things I go over are not necessarily comfortable for me to face up to but it was the way it was.
Heat and humidity do not work so well with a morbidly obese body. Where body parts meet and would ordinarily have some gaps, extra fat layers means those gaps are bridged and the skin is free to not only rub but culture the bacteria that thrive in the warm, moist folds of skin. I owned a bosom that Dolly Parton would have been jealous of, I suffered an ongoing issue with soreness and an itchy rash under each breast that was ever present. Ouch anyone? I did sweat far more than I should have done, even a 2 degree rise in temperature saw my sweat glands open up. Women are supposed to glow and men are supposed to sweat right? Nope, the larger me was quite adept at giving any man a run for his money in the sweating stakes. I recall always being mindful of my sweat patches, which were always prevalent in the mid of my back, underarms and sometimes even my legs. Sometimes you could have been forgiven for thinking that I had just been rained on despite the apparent dryness everywhere around me.
So this required me to wear clothes that would not allow the tell tale damp patches to be so prevalent, thicker top and trousers were the order of the day. Not practical for hot weather!
I always felt so self conscious about my face, I seemed to sweat more from my face than anywhere else and my nose was consistently wet, just like a dogs. All in all, I felt like one, big, walking sweaty mess and yearned for winter to arrive. How different things are now...
On that damp note I am going to sign off this second blog post but in the words of a famous Austrian, I'll be back!
A fat person in remission
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