So there’s a college out there proposing to fight the obesity epidemic through graduation requirements now. Lincoln University is requiring students with a BMI over 30 to take a remedial phys ed course. Kate Harding very ably wrote about how this is discriminatory bunk and I agreed and thought “that’s that.” Then I made the fatal error of clicking on the Salon letters section. Why?? Why do I do these things to myself? I know I’m going to make myself crazy. Anyway. I have some things to say, Lincoln University and dear Salon letter-writers.

I am obese. My BMI as of this morning is 31.1. I ran three and a half miles yesterday and I feel just great, thanks. I ran my first marathon in October, something many people smaller than me have said they would never even attempt. Yet, if I were a Lincoln student I would be grappling with this inane requirement. Why is the BMI any kind of a measure of fitness? And why would it be any college’s damn business what my BMI is? One Salon letter writer said, “30 is REALLY big.” As if that cleared everything up. As if 30 was this magic number under which you are ok, but at or over 30, God, look out tubby. Death sentence.

CNN also covered the story in a disheartening way. The angle was basically, we should absolutely be fighting obesity in any way possible, but is this going a bit too far? They asked the question is this “invasive” but never uttered the word “discriminatory.” You cannot single people out based on some arbitrary measure of –I don’t even know what- and require something of that group that you don’t require of everyone else. That is discriminatory. And to the letter writers who clarify that they don’t require a certain BMI to graduate, this is true, but it is also entirely beside the point. The point is the requirement that singles out one group. I am obese and perfectly fit. If I were a student at this school I would be raising some serious hell. I should not have even a second of my time wasted in taking any test to waive the course requirement. There should not BE a requirement. And even if someone has health issues related to weight, you cannot force someone to lose weight. It doesn’t work. The decision and the impetus have to come from within and for the right reasons.

My mother and I have a pretty typically dysfunctional mother/daughter thing going on. A lot of it circles around weight. We are both currently obese according to the BMI calculator. When I was a teenager (before I was obese) my mother took it upon herself to police my eating habits. I truly believe she did this out of love and concern, as I think Lincoln is genuinely concerned for its students, however, this policing had an effect opposite to its intent. When my mother would catch me with a cookie in the kitchen and substitute it for an apple or ask in her concerned loving tone, “Now, you aren’t really hungry are you?” I would burn inside with rage and shame. I’m not even allowed to choose what I eat now? Should I ask permission to breathe as well? Late at night or early in the morning I would sneak down into the kitchen and gobble the entire box of cookies just to spite her. Of course, this isn’t what I really wanted either, but that got lost in the fight for whose body this was exactly. Was my body hers to control and police as she saw fit? Or am I my own person capable of my own decisions?

People don't like to be told what to do, especially young adults. It can produce a rubberband effect. Pull really hard in one direction and just watch how they snap back in the opposite.

Many of the letter writers say what’s the harm in getting more information? In taking a course and learning about health? Well, that stance depends on the belief that fat people don’t know as much as thin people about healthy habits. Personally, I would put my nutritional knowledge up against your average Registered Dietitian. I’ve been studying this stuff most of my life. I can tell you all about monounsaturated, polyunsaturated, saturated and trans fats. (In a nutshell the first is the best, the last is the worst- and a fat-free diet is not the way to weight-loss or any kind of worthwhile life) I can tell you that Atkins is a bunch of trash, especially for runners. I can tell you several types of healthy carbs to eat that have nothing to do with pasta. (And pasta is not a demon either, btw) I can tell you what a calorie actually is (the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of 1kg of water by 1 degree) And yet I’m still fat. The thing is, no one knows for sure how to make fat people permanently thin and it may, in fact, be impossible to do. But we can all practice healthy habits and we can all learn more about taking care of ourselves. Singling out the obese for classes of dubious merit is not helping either the cause of health or education.