Russell Crowe, classified by the U.S. government as “obese,” may not have won an Oscar last night, but many “obese” Americans are standing tall.
“Amanda Wylie holds a black belt in boxing, works out five days a week and runs a mile in a respectable 9.5 minutes,” The San Francisco Chronicle reports. “By all height-weight standards, Wylie is significantly overweight. Yet she’s the embodiment of robust fitness.” Says Wylie, a professional health educator: “I wear a size 20 — to look at me you wouldn’t think I’m fit. But I am. Large people can be physically active and metabolically fit just as thin people can.”
Even Kelly Brownell, creator of the “Twinkie tax” on fatty foods (and a man who has said of obesity: “There is no difference between Ronald McDonald and Joe Camel… we have to start thinking about this in a more militant way”) now says “some people are quite heavy, yet are fit… you can be fat and fit at the same time.”
