I do agree with this statement. Rather than argue that people that are obese are healthy, it is probably more appropriate to argue that EVERY student could benefit from learning healthy eating and living habits. One of the most harmful things we've done in our society is convince ourselves that since skinny people may not exercise or eat well that they are equally as "unhealthy" as obese people are. The research actually shows that normal weight people who exercise live longer than normal weight people who don't exercise who live longer than overweight people who exercise who live longer than overweight people that don't exercise. We've also done a disservice to people by not calling obesity when it's appropriate. It's a shock to know you are obese, but it gives you a realistic picture to the health risks you face.

Agreed...as long as we know that not everyone will take that with them when they graduate.

You got no argument here.

I'm not familiar with this philosophy. Of course being Obese is not healthy and NO ONE wants to be obese. The bigger issues for the obesed and all of us are Food Addiction, Bulimia (and other eating disorders), Our Food Industry, and how we relate to Food, Health, and Fitness in our society. It's not only Obese individuals that overindulge and are gluttonous when it comes to food. This is a societal problem and until we treat it as such and involve everyone as opposed to singling out a particular group, which causes other problems, including the eating disorders above, we will not be successful overall.

I'm really curious about the ins and outs of this. What if your BMI is below 30 until your last semester senior year? What if it's 29 one day and 30 the next and then goes back to 29? There is only one pound difference between a 29 and a 30 after all. Is this required if, at any point in your college career you hit 30? What if you get pregnant while you're in college? So many questions...

Clearly you are right, and our population is getting more and more obese at younger and younger ages (though you can't diagnose a child as obese, btw!) Anyway, even physicians get so used to seeing so many obese patients that we get immune to it and start thinking its normal. I can't tell you how many times I and many of my friends have said, "Oh, Mr. So and So is a little overweight..." looked down at chart, looked up and said, "oops, he's over 350 lbs! He doesn't look that big!"

My statement before, though, is a commonly held belief. "My skinny friends aren't any healthier than I am." It's not true. "I'm not really obese. My BMI is 30, but I'm big boned." No, you are obese. The BMI problem applies to a very small subset of elite athletes with extremely high muscle mass which is heavier than fat.

I, of course, say all of this as a life time over eater in a family of over eaters and type 2 diabetics. It is hard to control these behavioral patterns, but lying to yourself about your weight doesn't help.

Maybe I missed this, but how do they figure out who is >30? Is there a class weigh-in or something?

Also, I was under the impression that most/all universities required some sort of physical education class. Am I grossly misinformed?

Possibly...I dont recall having to take PE in college...high school yes...

Oh, I know that we were required to have 1 credit of physical education. Most of the physical education classes were 1/2 credits, so you had to take two unless you could find one worth more. However, "physical" was a stretch for some of them. Billiards, really?

I guess I just thought that was the norm. Interesting.

Physical education classes were required for some, but not all, majors at my alma mater.

When I was a communications major, it was required. When I switched over to business, it was not.

We're all required to take a PE credit but First Aid and CPR counts so that's what I took.

My alma mater didn't have a PE requirement. I do remember my mom saying she took swimming as a PE requirement when she attended Lincoln back in the day...so I guess the idea of this shouldn't be so foreign to me.

When I first started school, I was under this impression, also... until I started talking to my friends who attended other schools.

Penn State has a PE requirement. When I started school in 2002, every student had to earn 3 credits, and all PE classes were worth 1 credit (and usually only lasted for part of the semester). It was either in my sophomore or junior year when they changed the classes to 1.5 credits, but the curriculum was expanded (although not by much).

At Penn State Behrend, we were able to take everything from Golf, to Ice Skating, to First Aid/Personal Safety/CPR, Ballroom Dancing, Scuba Diving, Certified Lifeguarding, Personal Defense, Aerobic Dance, Jogging, Strenth Training, Skiing, Snowboarding... plus, a variety of health courses. You name it, they had it.

I took swimming one semester (and they added the requirement of writing a paper to bump it up the half of a credit), and a health course.

And if you played on a varsity team for the school, I believe you earned 2 credits. So you'd still have to take another PE class like everyone else.

It was a good way to spend a few hours of the week. I swam for 10 years before I got to college, but I just kind of stopped. After taking that swimming class, I was actually motivated to go to open lap swim on my own. If I didn't take that class, I probably never would have found my way to the campus pool.

I think this is a good idea as long as everyone is required to do it. Will it change everyone's life? Probably not. But sometimes, other kinds of classes don't do that, either.

Back in my day we had to take at least 2 PE credits. I took 3 because I was one credit short at one point and well, how many 1 credit courses are there? I thought it was a great opportunity to try things you've always wanted to try but didn't have time/money. I took Modern Dance, Golf and Couple, Square and Ballroom Dancing. Sadly, I've never met a man who knew how to ballroom dance, other than my dad, but my dad and I really kick it up on the dance floor! I believe Sailing was an option too!

ETA: I think Modern Dance and Couple, Square and Ballroom dancing were both very physical classes. Golf? Not so much. It was like going to the driving range twice a week.

This may have changed, but at Otterbein, we had to take 4 classes with different focuses. I took tai chi, fencing (which was AWESOME!), pilates with core stability, and group hunt seat riding. When I moved to the UK, people were SHOCKED that students had to participate in PE for academic credit. Yeah gym class.

WVU offered gym classes but they weren't a requirement for graduation. I know the yoga classes filled up really quickly, and I think swimming and ice skating were options too.