Fat acceptance in TNG

[Academia Nut]

Considering the fact that in Star Trek IV McCoy gave an elderly woman on dialysis a pill (without having to tailor the dosage!) and within minutes she grew a fully functional kidney and the degree of metabolic control they have with the various dermal regenerators and the like, it seriously would not surprise me if the treatments for the symptoms were basically "Here, take this pill" and the next day your cholesterol is down, your arteries are clear of plaque, and you've lost 50lb. Even if the rest of society doesn't care, I doubt the doctors performing the treatment would be particularly pleased to see overweight patients on a frequent basis just for treatment of the symptoms, especially since the socialist economy of the TNG-era UFP offers absolutely no incentives for doctors to treat symptoms and not causes. While just being a bit overweight is probably accepted as being a body-image thing, the moment medical complications due to weight arise the doctors would no doubt find it easier to treat the symptoms and causes at the same time a proscribe a magic pill that causes you to move towards a healthier BMI.

Note: Saw Stofsk posted about the Corbomite Maneuver, which is a fair point and they might not in fact have magic weight loss pills. Then again, Starfleet is a military style organization, so getting your weight up to the point where it would require medical intervention is probably a no-no, and the fact that in the TOS-era all their food came from stores rather than replicators probably means that aboard a starship with limited supplies to ensure everyone gets enough to eat, control of diet is essential and you might as well make sure it is healthy along the way.

The out of universe reason is of course that Star Trek was filmed in Hollywood and with Hollywood attitudes, and thus finding overweight actors requires you to go out of your way, which isn't really worth it unless they wanted to tell a story about that sort of thing.

[Connor MacLeod]

Medical tech doesn't have to be the 'magic fat pill' - it could simply be that medical care is not as big an issue for Federation citizens compared to how it is with modern life. People talking about a 'burden' act as if the Federation is going to be subject to the same sorts of resource, cultural and economic limitations that we face IRL, and frankly its debatable whether any of that applies. I actually kinda doubt they have anything resembling health insurance (or insurance in general.)

And if there are no burdens on others and the 'harm' it may do can be minimized, then it largely becomes a matter of choice. So what if people choose a life that is unhealthy and is going to probably cut down on their life expectancy? That's a personal choice, period.

The cultural issues aren't even going to be remotely the same for rather obvious reasons.

[FaxModem1]

Just want to note, that in Star Trek Nemesis, when Picard and company discuss Troi and Riker's wedding on Betazed, and the tradition of being on the planet naked, Picard notes that he will be in the gym. So, body image is there in the 24th century.

[Prometheus Unbound]

To answer the OP:

Fat people are gross to look at naked and in early TNG they wore spandex.

Go figure why they didn't want fat actors.

[Havok]

HEY DID SOMEONE SAY FAT THREE TIMES?!

Unbound... the guy obviously isn't talking about out of universe.

There are fat people shown in Star Trek. For fucks sake people watch the shows. They just are not in the fucking military.

I hear the military i.e. Starfleet has physical fitness and performance requirements. Go figure.

As to the question of why we see no fatties in civilian Federation civilian life? I think as a whole the strongest points brought up were:
WWIII eliminating the society we have now that allows for blatant under activity and over eating.
Food, replicated or not, being altered so Troi doesn't get fat eating ten tons of chocolate whenever Riker hits Risa.
Medical science: Grow a new kidney with a pill probably comes along with take a pill to reduce body fat.

As to the moral/ethical implications of being fat:
They let bald people be bald. If someone decides to allow themselves to be fat, people probably won't freak out about it. I doubt I would be shunned in the 23rd or 24th century of Star Trek. They would look at me and say, that guy eats too much and doesn't exercise enough... just like today. Would I be in Starfleet? No, but I wouldn't be in the Marines now either.
Are they going to allow "crane fatties"? Doubtful, but those are issues that rarely have to do with laziness or just over eating and have to do with physical/medical problems and deep seeded mental issues which as a society, even now, we try to treat and fix. The medical issues would probably be addressed at a very young age, if not pre-birth to avoid the mental issues all together.

[Havok]

Just want to note, that in Star Trek Nemesis, when Picard and company discuss Troi and Riker's wedding on Betazed, and the tradition of being on the planet naked, Picard notes that he will be in the gym. So, body image is there in the 24th century.

No shit Sherlock. I mean, you did notice all the makeup and combed hair and trimmed beards yeah? The issue isn't whether self image/body image exists, it's if being fat is accepted/tolerated.
It is inherently a stupid question given the breadth of races and cultures the Federation encompasses and has contact with, but the answer is obviously yes, it is accepted.

[edaw1982]

To answer the OP:

Fat people are gross to look at naked and in early TNG they wore spandex.

Go figure why they didn't want fat actors.

That is pretty much the long and short of it.

But it's probably for the same reason nobody (barring a few exceptions) wears glasses.
The only reason Kirk and Co. start packing on some extra weight, and Kirk starts wearing glasses for his growing hyperopia, and as case of 'They're getting Old and more deskbound'.

Because 'Nobody wants to see problems now, in the future...unless they make for good storytelling/work within the narrative' (Like the character taking off glasses and pinching the bridge of their nose in exasperation, or losing their glasses and going 'Lol I can't see!!')

[aussiemuscle308]

and as he got older he put on more and more weight which didn't go away. Same goes for Scotty.

"It's no good, Captain. i cannat reach the controol panel"

[TOSDOC]

I didn't see anyone add here about how much fun a workout in a holodeck could be. Worf's calisthenics program looks like just the stress reliever I need after a day at the office, for one. If I had that every day, I definitely would be losing pounds left and right, and have a blast doing so.

But there's more to it than that. You could program a stadium full of people to cheer you on as you take one lap around the track--the cheering just gets louder the farther you go. Who wouldn't want that kind of motivation? Or see how fast you can run with a T.Rex after you. The possibilities are endless--who needs a boring stairmaster?

[bilateralrope]

I wounder if replicators altering food so it's healthy is at least partially responsible for characters complaining about the quality of replicated food.

[Batman]

Unlikely as they apparently can be reset to replicate real alcohol (with all its nasty side effects) with no trouble as per 'Up the Long Ladder'.

[Lord Revan]

also what's considered "tasty" does vary by culture on earth (there loads of food finland that most europeans (let alone americans) wouldn't touch), so it's not unreasonble to assume that the Federation might have different food tastes then modern day americans.

[spaceviking]

I wounder if replicators altering food so it's healthy is at least partially responsible for characters complaining about the quality of replicated food.

I doubt it because people have noted that replicated healthy food is inferior to the real thing. (Discussion about tomatoes on DS9, I can not remember the episode.

[Batman]

While that's certainly true the problem doesn't seem to be that some replicated foods are considered 'yucky' by some(the current real world situation) but that whatever replicated food people do enjoy ordinarily 'isn't as good as the real thing'.

[Stofsk]

I'm doubtful there's any actual difference in quality, but more a psychological/cultural thing. Picard, being a captain and who has a well-off family, could claim his private stock of unreplicated caviar 'tastes better' simply because of its scarcity. Keiko once looked at O'Brien wide-eyed when he told her his mother cooked with real food (she was aghast that she handled it let alone that he ate it).

[Daefaron]

I wounder if replicators altering food so it's healthy is at least partially responsible for characters complaining about the quality of replicated food.

Well, not sure if it was said in this topic but in one TNG episode Troi wanted REAL chocolate, not the 'Pretend' (If I remember the wording right) one the replicator puts out.

The computer replied that her request went outside the replicator limits. Long time ago, I forget how it was all said but basically boiled down to the computer going "We can't replicate that food item because it doesn't match the health requirements listed in the settings."

[Skgoa]

Very few people would actually choose to be fat versus not so fat, all else being equal. The choice certain people really make is "I choose to eat a lot of calories and not get much exercise," not "I choose to be fat." Maybe in Star Trek, people don't make that combination of choices. If great-tasting diet food is easily available, or if there are relatively cheap ways to alter your body's metabolism to avoid fatness without having to spend long hours exercising, nearly every person who might otherwise be fat would probably take those options.

Let me expand on that:
I have been overweight all my concious life. I have clawed my way from 120 kg in high school to ~100 now. It is fucking hard, even though you hate yourself every fucking day. The drive to eat is a very very strong motivator, especially when you never learned to eat healthy. It's an entire lifestyle. You don't see the consequences of your behaviour and when you are making an effort to change, you don't see that result in a satisfactory time frame, either. Even worse, the whole world is lying to you about what your problem is, the reasons for it, and how you could solve it. Mostly because they want to sell stuff to you that makes it worse (e.g. snacks, special diet programs) but often also simply because they themselves have no idea about nutrition themselves, they were just lucky enough to have parents who got it mostly right by chance. Just look at the exchange about sedentery lifestyle above. It's absolute bullshit. The overwhelming majority of energy you need every day is used to simply live. You know how many calories one hour of excercizing burns? As much as is in one portion of instant ramen. Or in one donut, for that matter. No, the reason that office job is ruining your figure is because you eat the wrong stuff and too much of it. And of course everyone is lying (conciously or by ignorance) about what the right things to eat actually are. E.g. a tub of ice cream that would make me puke if I ate it at once has ~750 cals. A loaf of ciabatta bread has 1200 cals. Trying to loose weight by not eating ice cream and only eating "healthy" bread? Fat chance, pun intended.
So, to bring this rant back to topic: It is not just a choice to overeat. The choice is "I do what my subconcious is craving me to do and what will not have any consequences in and of itself - especially since making the 'right' choice goes against my very nature as a human being and won't bring ANY improvement in and of itself to my life." Willpower or lack of it only comes into the equation, when this choice is made again and again. Because it takes a metric fuckton of motivation and willpower to stop making this rather obvious choice, that you have made your whole life, and go against your nature, your upbringing, your 'normal' routine - just for the promise that somewhere down the road, you are going to be rewarded with a life/body, that you have never even experienced.

So yeah, education and the availability of healthy food would go a long way.

[dragon]

well in TNG time being fat might not be an issue with their tech. Replicate good tasting food but healthy.
Plus starfleet is semi military so they're expect to stay in shape.

[Batman]

Yeah. I bet that totally hasn't been mentioned in this thread before.

[dragon]

Yeah. I bet that totally hasn't been mentioned in this thread before.

Yeah that's what I get for being half asleep and not reading posts fully.

[aussiemuscle308]

As to the question of why we see no fatties in civilian Federation civilian life?

Don't know other than the obvious 'hollywood' answer, but some of the Ferengi are fat (probably to exaggerate them being gross and greedy). There was a short discussion on Fat people in Trek on another forum when the topic of Star Trek:Hidden Frontier came up, as they have many fat people... probably because they didn't have much choice of actors, and most of them are, err, trek fans!!

Also, the human body naturally wants to store fat, so we can get through leaner times (something that never happens when there's a big M at the end of the street, or a replicator in your suite).

[Lord Garth, FOI]

Riker got fat as william howard taft toward the end of the series run. If Frakes wasn't 6ft 4 he wouldnt have been able to hide it so well on his long frame. In the films he had a slight case of moobs in the Enterprise finale he had full on jugs

[Darth Tedious]

So there's been a lot of talk of magic diet pills and replicated low-calorie food, but why has noone mentioned simply lipo-ing the fat out (and doing a colonic) everytime you step through the transporter?

Given that there was only ONE toilet on Enterprise D, it would make sense to do it that way...

[Admiral Drason]

So there's been a lot of talk of magic diet pills and replicated low-calorie food, but why has noone mentioned simply lipo-ing the fat out (and doing a colonic) everytime you step through the transporter?

Given that there was only ONE toilet on Enterprise D, it would make sense to do it that way...

There was a chapter of UPF where the crew of the Enterprise got the runs and the solution was to beam the waste right out of their colons. So in my mind it is what happens to all starfleet personnel who have IBS.

[Boeing 757]

"Thou shouldst eat to live; not live to eat."
-Socrates

Words by which one should live steadfastly in every century IMHO.