Park enthusiasts are overweight ...

[Sir Clinksalot]

This is what always made me wonder.

 

People who go to parks alot tend to be on the heavier side. How is this?

 

With all of the walking around a park in a day you would think that ACEr's and Disney freaks would weigh less.

 

We wore Pedometers to Disney one day and did about 7 miles of walking. You would think people that go to Disneyland weekly would get at least 3 or 4 miles in.

 

So what's the deal? (in my best Jerry Seinfeld impersonation)

 

Is it too many meets and not enough walking? Too many churro's?

 

Now, I used to be one of these heavy people. I'm still not skinny by any means, but I'm definately in better shape now than I was a year ago.

 

We used to go to Disney bi-weekly yet I was HUGE. It's hard to look back at some of our pictures. Even pictures from the TX trip last year are hard to look at.

 

So I ask you ... What's the deal?!?!?

 

Does it make sense to anybody???

[Homey G.]

It's a good question. The only thing I can think of is poor eating at parks, and that may be ALL the exercise these folk get.

 

Better question is what's the tie in between coasters and the gay community. :?

[Sir Clinksalot]

See now Disney and the Gay community I can see.

 

But yeah, Coasters and the Gay ... maybe someone who is actually Gay can explain. Dan? Jim? Joey?

[NitroJoeC]

http://photobucket.com/albums/v359/sir_clinksalot/Six%20Flags%20Magic%20Mountain/?action=view&current=MagicMountain036.jpg

 

LOL who is flicking you off in that pic...just made me laugh.

 

I have no idea about the weight thing...nor the gay thing. Sorry.

[FlyingScooter]

I can't say I ever made the connection between obesity and park enthusiasts. That certainly isn't the case w/elissa.

On the other hand, I've been to enough water parks to know that certain men shouldn't wear speedos just like some women should not be seen in bikinis.

[Wes]

I want to know the scientific reasoning behind why park enthusiasts wear the gaudiest park related wardrobe imaginable. Yeah, that food stained tye-died Star Raven Mad t-shirt from 1996 is a good fashion choice.

 

Also: FANNY PACKS, why?!

[AllisonY2K]

it's probably not the walking or bad food while at the parks, but the lack of exercise and bad eating habits while *not* at the parks. all those trips to Carrabba's add up.

[jarmor]

See now Disney and the Gay community I can see.

 

But yeah, Coasters and the Gay ... maybe someone who is actually Gay can explain. Dan? Jim? Joey?

Because thats the only way we can ride a massive woodie and brag about it to our straight friends without getting the ewww look! But seriously I have always had a thing for coasters I just like the thrill and excitement of it. Im still shocked how many gay people like roller coasters! My question is how come not too many black people are crazy over coasters!

 

Jarvis "feels alone in this crazy coaster world " Morant

[disneygurlz2s]

OK... just thought I would weigh in on this (not as good a pun as one of Robb's, but close).....

 

My being overweight has nothing to do with going to amusement parks, in fact, I think if I got the chance to spend more time at them, I would probably be thinner. Truth be told, the last Disney vacation (full week) that I took (1997) I came home 10 lbs lighter. In fact, if I am at a place where I am busy having fun, I don't usually want to stop to eat. At Disney, I will usually do one big meal a day (generally a character buffet or some fun restaurant like 50's Prime Time) and that's about it.. maybe a snack or two throughout the day, but I totally burn it off.

 

My job is a sit down, don't move around for 10 hours a day job with a high stress level. Plus I have had a lot of stressful things in my personal life. Bad thing is, I am a "stress eater". At an amusement park, no stress, so I don't eat as much, plus I am burning off what I do eat.

 

Shari "walking 10 miles in a day cancels out the two Mickey ice cream bars" Shoufler

[What Now]

It's because nobody can lift them, so they have to turn to roller coasters to do that.

[CoasterFanatic]

I think you will find that the enthusiast that visit many parks will weighing much less on the average than the collective of enthusiasts. Most of the enthusiasts that you find at ACE events and such, don't go to parks nearly as much as some of the younger (and crazier) folk.

 

When I lived in Florida and had a season pass to Disney, I was in the best shape of my life. I would guess that an average Epcot visit for me was at least 11-12 miles of walking.

[Twister II]

Im pretty sure its that sence they only go to the parks once a week, thats only once. And the other 6 days they are on the computer.

[jarmor]

It's because nobody can lift them, so they have to turn to roller coasters to do that.

umm..and the moral of the story is...

[Justin Adams]

It's the same reason that most of the population is overweight: too much junk food, not enough exercise. If you eat more than you burn, you gain weight. If you burn more than you consume, you lose.

 

I think that coaster and park enthusiasts tend to be heavy because they sit on their computers all day and all night looking at coasters, talking about coasters, watching coasters, playing coaster games... you get the picture. They don't take the time to watch what they eat, or they don't care. The only exercise they get comes from walking at coaster parks, and that's few and far between. I mean, just look at most coaster enthusiasts and tell me if you see people that are really into sports, the outdoors and exercise? I don't.

 

Now personally, I lost 100 lbs. myself just by eating better and running. As a matter of fact, I just signed up to run a half-marathon here in San Francisco in October. Team in Training, baby!

 

Justin

[Guy T. Koepp]

I agree about the Coaster Enthusiast thing. However the GP seems to be even more obese, and getting bigger by the year. I was at Hurricane Harbor today and saw one too many patrons that needed to lose a ton. Here's what I don't understand. Why must those people subject us to their obesity. If you don't have it, don't flaunt it. Wear something appropriate. Like a huge black t-shirt. Black is slimming. The last thing anyone wants to see is a 3 bill person wearing is a bikini.

 

The gay thing confuses me. I have several gay friends and none of them are coaster fanatics, let alone theme park fanatics. I will ask them.

 

Guy "I'm proud to say that I've lost 40 lbs since January and am getting my 6 pack back" Koepp

[blackcurrent]

yeah put a black heat attracting T-shirt on at the waterpark and have it stick to you and make you burn.

 

Perhaps you could just look the other way.

 

I don't think the over weight thing is always true.. look at this board all the photos from different people in R&E reports are generally normal in size... some are even slim

[ebl]

At one time I was "up there." But that had nothing to do with being a coaster enthusiast. It was because I got lazy and ate everything in sight. Now I'm down to 150 lbs. (5'-8" tall) and I still like coasters.

 

About the gay thing, I don't know. It does seem like there's a significant percentage of ACE members/park fans who are gay, but I don't think that means anything.

 

Eric

[shepp]

Speaking as one of TPR's Designated Homos (and a svelte 6 ft, 170)...

 

I've wondered about the gays/coasters thing myself. And here are some possibilities I came up with:

 

Coaster fans are not all that disproportionately queer, it just seems that way. Which is to say that the rest of the world is a lot queerer than many straights suspect, but that coasters and theme parks permit more out-of-the-closet behavior than corporate boardrooms and Mormon church socials have room for.

 

Or, yeah, perhaps more than our share of us are getting airtime. In that case...maybe...

 

1) As been noted here before, there aren't many females on this board..and maybe they're underrepresented in the enthusiast community as a whole. (Anyone have a gender breakdown of ACErs?) Therefore, a male/male couple like me and my honey are more likely to agree to travel 3000 miles to ride Nitro and Alpengeist than most het couples. (Just to be scrupulously fair, the first time we rode PGA's Top Gun and SFA's Penguin's Blizzard River, it was by the luck of the draw alongside lesbian couples.) Or

 

2) Queers are just more likely to be sensation-seekers on the whole. God knows my, ahem, sex life has been a lot wilder than my straight sister's, for example...perhaps affectional adventuresomeness correlates with seeking other forms of physical thrills. Or

 

3) We're allowed or doomed or lucky enough or whatever to retain a certain charming immaturity. (You know, the Peter Pan syndrome.) Hell, as you can see, I''m ready for AARP, and instead I'm riding Kingda Ka. This is Behavior Unbecoming A Mature, Responsible Man, n'est-ce pas?

 

Corollary 3a) We're more liable to allow ourselves to do silly kid-like things like join coaster clubs or stay up all night writing overlong TPR posts.

 

Or 4) Queers are, as a group, just cooler on average than hets. Excepting, of course, the straight folks on this board.

[4718]

It's hard to look the other way when I had to try and strap seat belts around the larger guests at Go Karts, get the 12" extension! There was one guy that took up an entire double car, I mean, that's HUGE. The seat pads in the doubles have the standard size butt-dent that is identical to the one in the singles, plus a 1/2 size one for the passenger (they're really only meant for an adult and a kid). His keister spanned the entire width of that cusion, and had to suck it in to click the seat belt, even with the extension! :shock:

 

The crappy part is when you have to tell them they're too big to ride. When I worked at Thrill Shot, we got to the point where we knew some people just wouldn't fit, without even trying to cram them into the cart, simply by looking at them. Then there was the embarassment for the guest when in front of their friends they had to admit they were too big for the lap bar to come down, and get a refund for the ticket they bought. I was happy to help people out that were unsure if they would fit or not and wanted to see BEFORE buying a ticket, kinda like they knew to themselves that they were big and weren't in denial......I wish that had happened more often.

[shepp]

Hmm..thought of another possibility on the gay thing. Lots of folks like in one way or another to challenge themselves physically, but hypermasculine team sports - a primary outlet for many straight guys - has not been particularly, how shall we say, gay friendly. (I myself hated team sports, but managed to complete a couple of marathons, running only aginst my own goals. 26 miles in under four hours. Hurt worse than a Togo.) So certain other areas of physical exertion, notably dance, are more-than-statistically-probable gay. Maybe coastering also fills that push-your-body-to-the-limit thing, but in a way that gay men don't find as daunting (or closeted) as the NFL.

 

Or maybe not.

[disneygurlz2s]

^ I have to say that it was quite a revelation to me to realize there were that many gay males that were coaster fanatics, because that sure doesn't fit the "stereotype", IMO. And as far as the female contingent, it would also seem to be that the females here at TPR are all pretty much straight, if I am correct, and several of us are moms/stepmoms.

 

My opinion on what "attracts" a person to being a theme park enthusiast is that it's the "escape" it provides. Just from different things I have read here, it sounds like a lot of us have had some part of our life where we've had "issues" whether it's been family problems or dealing with sexuality or whatever. You know that bumper sticker? "A bad day fishing/golfing/skiing is better than a good day at work"? I think that applies to theme parks.

 

Going back to the weight subject, it is definitely the other issues and stresses in my life that contribute to my weight, not the time I spend at amusement parks, festivals, etc.

 

Shari

[AllisonY2K]

Speaking as one of TPR's Designated Homos

 

The honesty of that statement cracked me up.

 

I never thought about my weight much until one day at BGT when it became apparent that I was getting too big to ride Montu and Kumba. shortly after that I started dieting and walking more. I've dropped over 50 pounds in a year which isn't too bad considering some of the stress I've had this year, but I would like to drop an additional 50 by next year.

[shepp]

 

My opinion on what "attracts" a person to being a theme park enthusiast is that it's the "escape" it provides. Just from different things I have read here, it sounds like a lot of us have had some part of our life where we've had "issues" whether it's been family problems or dealing with sexuality or whatever.

 

Y'know, that sounds right, too: a little alternate universe where you have to go through metal detectors at the gate, and the only aim is to have fun.

 

Sounds good to me.

[M_Force_4_ever]

I want to know the scientific reasoning behind why park enthusiasts wear the gaudiest park related wardrobe imaginable. Yeah, that food stained tye-died Star Raven Mad t-shirt from 1996 is a good fashion choice.

 

Also: FANNY PACKS, why?!

while I agree with the first part, the fanny pack (for me at least) I have a reasonable explination for. I carry my camera in my fannypack when I go to parks, so I don't have to get a locker or leave it in the car. I also carry my diabetic equipment in the fannypack aswell. while not all ACErs use fanny packs for the same reason, I know they carry useful things in theirs sometimes (advil, money, park map, ect) I think 2 things cause heaviness in coaster/park enthusiasts. 1.poor food choices at parks, 2.too many large meals at events.

[bluemen]

It seems like we might want to know why people in general become roller coaster enthusiasts before we decide why the demographic skews towards the fat gay male. I do really wonder: why do we care these rides?

 

Maybe it's that they are purely built for the rider's pleasure. Hmmm, there's something very... autoerotic about these rides. Maybe we all are just compulsive onanists? The pleasurehound aspect might also help explain the weight issues.

 

Personally, I'm much more closety about being a coaster enthusiast than I am about being gay; most everyone I'm friends with knows I'm gay, but most of them don't know how much I like coasters, and certainly don't know how much time I spend reading/thinking/dreaming about them... I wouldn't want them to think I was one of *those* people. Perhaps I need to develop enthusiast pride and cultivate some gay shame!