Obesity plagues impoverished families

Laurel Silver said half-jokingly she better increase her leg extension repetitions. She was panting after less than a minute of holding one leg up.

But the reward was worth it. For the first time in 20 years, Mama Silver, as people in town call her, was finally going to wear women's shoes again. She was having them custom-made.

About 300 pounds and not quite 5-foot 3-inches, Silver, 67, is morbidly obese.

For Silver and more than 60 million U.S. adults -- or 30 percent of the adult population -- obesity has become a national epidemic, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

About 65 percent of people 20 and older are either overweight or obese, according to CDC.

Food insecurity -- or a family's inaccessibility to enough healthy foods for a balanced diet -- is like one side of the obesity coin. Silver's story fits on the other.

Silver said she was always a chubby child, and she weighed 200 pounds when she graduated from nursing school.

Because she worked nights, she developed irregular eating habits. Since her children are grown, she prefers to eat out. Grocery stores make it difficult to shop for one, she said.

"I know my eating habits are not normal. For one, I worked nights for 35 years," she said. "You order in takeout on the night shift, fast-food."

And there is an important social aspect to eating out with friends, said Silver, who eats one big meal, such as the eight-pack at the Paragon, which comes with two of everything: sausage, pancakes, bacon.

A retired registered nurse, she acknowledges her weight has health consequences.

Silver has osteoporosis, her bones are thinning and she has lost 3 inches in height. She also has lymphedema, an accumulation of lymphatic fluid in the tissue, which causes swelling, most often in the arms or legs, and occasionally in other parts of the body.

And her family -- her parents were also overweight -- has a history of heart disease, although Silver doesn't have symptoms of anything. Not even high cholesterol.

Some of her weight is attributed to a polycystic liver, which she must drain periodically. Once, one cyst yielded 31/2 quarts of fluid.

"I am fat, but that is a good share of my tummy," she said.

But her weight did lead to an early retirement. Silver stopped working at the Larimer County Jail because she was worried she wouldn't be able to run from one end of the jail to the other fast enough if someone were having chest pains or a seizure.

She spends $400 of her $1,200 monthly income on medication.

She said she is not obsessed with losing weight, but she is trying. She's already lost 30 pounds.

She exercises about 30 minutes a day and tries to spread meals out into smaller portions. She said her recommended weight is about 110 pounds.

"Technically, I have been obese my whole life," she said. "But people didn't make an issue out of it back then."