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Excess weight, obesity more deadly than previously believed

colorado.edu

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Re: Excess weight, obesity more deadly than previously believed

#11

Post by rootusrootus »

vanilla_nut wrote: post #6
exfatloss wrote: post #2

Previously believed by whom? Pretty sure we've been aware that obesity is a huge problem for a generation now. I mean we literally talk about an obesity epidemic. Next, science is going to find out that water is wet.

I don't believe this myself, but I do know a lot of people who believe being overweight is unfairly demonized and not as harmful as TPTB would have us believe. Many point to BMI as an inaccurate gauge of healthiness (there's a fair point there about eating disorders and ethnic predispositions towards higher BMIs) and unhealthy obsessions with thinness (as opposed to fitness). Look up "Fat Acceptance" if you'd like to…

> I do know a lot of people who believe being overweight is unfairly demonized

Because it is. As you yourself allude to later...

> I don't think we should view fatness as a moral failing

It clearly is not. I suspect the only people who believe that are the folks 'born on third base' as it were.

> some people need a bit of a push to kick bad habits like overeating

Some people? The vast majority of people are overweight. Anyone who isn't fit & trim has no business commenting on anyone else's bad habits and moral failings. None. Got a little bit of a spare tire? Shush. Got some love handles? Shush. Skinny fat? Shush again!

> if we can reduce it, we should

100% agree.

Edit: Downvote all you want, guys, most of you pushing that downvote button need to lose weight just as much as I do.

Re: Excess weight, obesity more deadly than previously believed

#14

Post by 8f2ab37a-ed6c »

ehPReth wrote: post #9

Man, food is so addictive and not like you can just stop eating it like you can quit drinking booze or quit smoking!

What's unique about food is that unlike smoking, drugs or booze, a human will always have to go back to eating, it's essential for day-to-day life unlike Jameson, Marlboro and meth.

If you have a healthy relationship with food then you're fine, otherwise every day you're faced with willpower checks that you might struggle to consistently pass.

Re: Excess weight, obesity more deadly than previously believed

#15

Post by thriftwy »

There was an article[1] about two gene mutations which cause (a) lose fat, lose muscle, and (b) lose fat, gain muscule.

If you could build a selector between these three modes (normal human, (a), (b)), you could solve HALF OF HUMANITY PROBLEMS. For real.

That's not a joke. I see a lot of people around whose lifes are crippled by the fact they're not in the body mass which would be most productive/healthy for them. People are losing a decade of life and another decade of productivity due to this. A lot of interpersonal problems are also due to this, more than you can imagine. Half of world's perceived social injustice go away once you fix BMI.

We do not even realize the amount of self-humiliation humanity suffers by not being able to control something so fundamental.

Disclaimer: My own body weight is normal, though I would perhaps accept additional muscle; but it pains me seeing people who suffer from this every day, people who are better than me in most other respects.

1. https://davidepstein.substack.com/p/the-diy-scientist-and-th...

Re: Excess weight, obesity more deadly than previously believed

#17

Post by dkarl »

saurik wrote: post #4
exfatloss wrote: post #2

Previously believed by whom? Pretty sure we've been aware that obesity is a huge problem for a generation now. I mean we literally talk about an obesity epidemic. Next, science is going to find out that water is wet.

The "science" has been saying for a long time now that there's might even be a health benefit from being a bit overweight, and that --as this article carefully explained (which means I guess you didn't read it)-- there is a "U-shaped" distribution of outcomes; in contrast, this study claims all that prior work is wrong, and that there is a "straight upward line".

The U-shaped distribution of outcomes has been discussed for many, many years, and I've never seen it mentioned without the caveat that most doctors and scientists suspect that it's a misleading statistic attributable to serious illnesses that cause weight loss. This definitely isn't the first study to support that interpretation, either.

In other words, the longstanding conventional wisdom (at least as presented in the media) is exactly what this study set out to vindicate, not the opposite, like the press release claims.

It's possible that this study is a significant step up in quality from existing ones, and it's possible that their method of considering past BMI is new and interesting, but the framing of it as the first to challenge conventional wisdom is pure marketing hype.

Re: Excess weight, obesity more deadly than previously believed

#18

Post by [deleted] »

cscurmudgeon wrote: post #7
gnicholas wrote: post #3

> Masters pointed out that a lifetime carrying excess weight can lead to illnesses that, paradoxically, lead to rapid weight loss. If BMI data is captured during this time, it can skew study results. “I would argue that we have been artificially inflating the mortality risk in the low-BMI category by including those who had been high BMI and had just lost weight recently,” he said. It's like the teetotaling bias — a…

Reminds of the parachute study that was shared here recently: https://healthjournalism.org/blog/2019/02/breakthrough-resea...

[deleted]

Re: Excess weight, obesity more deadly than previously believed

#19

Post by exfatloss »

dkarl wrote: post #17
saurik wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "science" has been saying for a long time now that there's might even be a health benefit from being a bit overweight, and that --as this article carefully explained (which means I guess you didn't read it)-- there is a "U-shaped" distribution of outcomes; in contrast, this study claims all that prior work is wrong, and that there is a "straight upward line".

The U-shaped distribution of outcomes has been discussed for many, many years, and I've never seen it mentioned without the caveat that most doctors and scientists suspect that it's a misleading statistic attributable to serious illnesses that cause weight loss. This definitely isn't the first study to support that interpretation, either. In other words, the longstanding conventional wisdom (at least as presented in…

This. The U (or typically J as I've heard it described) shape comes mostly from the fact that very many very unhealthy people lose a ton of weight and end up with a super low BMI.
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