Live data from Hacker News

“Healthy obesity” doesn’t exist. It is unequivocally bad for you

bigthink.com

171–180 of 397 posts

Re: “Healthy obesity” doesn’t exist. It is unequivocally bad for you

#171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I get to eat what I want and sit around all day? Hell yeah! I am naturally thin. That statement ("i get to eat what i want and sit around all day") is true of my body. Is it such a strange idea that there are as many people who are naturally thin as there are that are naturally fat? Those people aren't making a choice to be fat any more than i am making a choice to be thin. Why should they feel bad about their body…

It's unhealthy and they can change it. While there are many people that have a comparatively harder time to retain a healthy weight, no one has to be obese. A small minority might find it so hard to not become obese that they simply cannot manage it, but that fact should not dominate public discourse and act as an excuse for everyone. More importantly, obesity is contagious. You give it to your kids and family. If yo…

> they can change it.

Can they?

We agree that some fat people can change their weight to become thin. But do we agree that not all fat people can? For example what about people who have become fat as a result of side effects from medication that is treating other health conditions. Hopefully you accept that's not something those people can realistically change. Should they also feel bad about their bodies? I would say no. Now how do we tell which fat people we think should feel bad about their bodies and which shouldn't? Do we have a little health background interview with each one first? Or maybe we could just accept people for who they are, and don't make anyone feel bad for what their body looks like.

As for contagiousness, idk. I know thin kids of fat parents, and I know fat kids of thin parents. I suspect there's a lot more at play than a simple "fat adults make kids fat".

Re: “Healthy obesity” doesn’t exist. It is unequivocally bad for you

#172
post #46

Thinking obesity is one number is as dumb as thinking intelligence is one number. Card counting used to be one number, till they realized how much better two numbers did. Yet in this day of smart phones, one still sees geriatricians calculating stroke risk using a rule they can do in their heads. I'd rather trust my health care to prediction markets, if we could work through the data privacy issues. So where's the BM…

There's body fat percentage, you can calculate this with calipers or in a pool. Even the body builder with a high bmi thing isn't that healthy. It's tough to be large.

Body building at a professional level is extremely unhealthy because everyone is on an elephant dose of steroids and growth hormones. It’s probably the worst life outlook of profesional sports - much worse than just playing video games at home

Re: “Healthy obesity” doesn’t exist. It is unequivocally bad for you

#173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, cutting potatoes and other starchy vegetables is a major part of weight loss for a lot of people. High-starch vegetables are a major contributor to obesity.

I call bullshit. The average cooked potatoe has 25% less calories than rice or pasta. You'd have to eat 3kg of cooked potatoes to get 2100kcal. I am pretty certain it is near impossible to get fat from eating potatoes. Go give it a try. I bet that it is the "frying" part or the sauce or butter that comes with it, that leaves a lasting impression on the hips.

Brother, weight lifters literally eat sweet potatoes to put on weight

Re: “Healthy obesity” doesn’t exist. It is unequivocally bad for you

#174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can eat real food instead of processed garbage, for starters. Nobody's getting fat eating vegetables.

Healthy food can be fattening and unhealthy food can be not fattening. It has very little to do with the type of food and everything to do with the density of calories in the food, and the amount of that food eaten. No one ever got fat eating only vegetables. But you can't eat only vegetables and get all the necessary nutrients(at least not easily).

> No one ever got fat eating only vegetables. But you can't eat only vegetables and get all the necessary nutrients(at least not easily).

Throw some eggs or lean chicken meat into the mix and you've got a complete diet that would be very difficult to become fat on.

Re: “Healthy obesity” doesn’t exist. It is unequivocally bad for you

#175
post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I get to eat what I want and sit around all day? Hell yeah! I am naturally thin. That statement ("i get to eat what i want and sit around all day") is true of my body. Is it such a strange idea that there are as many people who are naturally thin as there are that are naturally fat? Those people aren't making a choice to be fat any more than i am making a choice to be thin. Why should they feel bad about their body…

Almost everyone I met (incl me when I was younger) who think that way never realized just how much food obese people eat at home. It's wayyy more than you think. They never tell the truth about it out of shame because they know how bad it looks to others.

One extra rich tea biscuit a day (100kcal) is 10lbs in a year. You don't know what you are talking about.

Re: “Healthy obesity” doesn’t exist. It is unequivocally bad for you

#176
post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I get to eat what I want and sit around all day? Hell yeah! I am naturally thin. That statement ("i get to eat what i want and sit around all day") is true of my body. Is it such a strange idea that there are as many people who are naturally thin as there are that are naturally fat? Those people aren't making a choice to be fat any more than i am making a choice to be thin. Why should they feel bad about their body…

That's the bit that OP and the writer, if they're different people, miss. Fat acceptance is basically a position that we fatties have been forced into. If every skinny person learned to mind their own business, it wouldn't exist. The problem is not that we aren't listening to our doctors - the problem is that people like OP exist who self-appoint themselves as our doctors and start preaching. And that word was chosen…

So much this. I can't tell you how sick I am of getting some dumb, poorly thought out health/diet advice from a skinny person who never had to lose a lot of weight.

Losing weight is actually really easy. Eat less calories than you burn, and be motivated. My first serious attempt I managed to lose almost 30kg. Sticking with it and keeping it low is really hard. Because every kilo you gain back makes you that much less motivated.

But if you're not motivated, no amount of fascile health advice is going to help. Motivation must come from within. And it can be hard to maintain.

The only diet advice I have from my experience: make a diet you like. If you hate the diet, it will never work. Dieting doesn't have to suck.

Re: “Healthy obesity” doesn’t exist. It is unequivocally bad for you

#177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can eat real food instead of processed garbage, for starters. Nobody's getting fat eating vegetables.

Healthy food can be fattening and unhealthy food can be not fattening. It has very little to do with the type of food and everything to do with the density of calories in the food, and the amount of that food eaten. No one ever got fat eating only vegetables. But you can't eat only vegetables and get all the necessary nutrients(at least not easily).

You can, it's called veganism and lots of people do it.

However, you don't have to be that "extreme". Just eating mostly vegetables and cutting out all the obvious crap will do.

The fact that this is somehow unimaginably strict to many people just shows how completely fucked up our relationship with food is. Most of the foods that make us fat didn't even exist a hundred years ago (at least in its modern, highly processed form) and now people somehow can't imagine living without them.

Re: “Healthy obesity” doesn’t exist. It is unequivocally bad for you

#178

The old line goes > Your BMI tells me your overweight. > But rugby players BMIs are high, and they aren't overweight! > You don't play rugby though do you. I'm glad that "fat acceptance" may be turning a corner and will be banished hopefully and there can be a semblance of rational discourse. Ideally you should be a BMI 22, non smoking, non drinking, long distance runner living in the countryside eating a perfectly b…

> I get to eat what I want and sit around all day? Hell yeah! I am naturally thin. That statement ("i get to eat what i want and sit around all day") is true of my body. Is it such a strange idea that there are as many people who are naturally thin as there are that are naturally fat? Those people aren't making a choice to be fat any more than i am making a choice to be thin. Why should they feel bad about their body…

I was naturally thin too until I started driving to work.

Re: “Healthy obesity” doesn’t exist. It is unequivocally bad for you

#179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a popular internet myth that junk food is cheaper than veggies. Of course it isn't true; junk food is more expensive by weight than anything in the produce aisle, with possible exceptions for exotic imported fruits. How this myth survives people wandering around a grocery store looking at price stickers is beyond my comprehension. A 5lb bag of potatoes costs less than a half pound bag of potato chips.

It's probably the difference in looking at weight versus calories. A cauliflower is, on average, 0.7-0.9 kg (1.5-2 pounds) and provides about 25 calories. A McDonalds burger is, on average, 0.2 kg (0.441 pounds) with about 250 calories. The cauliflower currently costs about 3 euros (yes, you read that right) in the Netherlands while a burger costs around 7 euros. So, calories per euro is 8 for the cauliflower and 35…

A cup of cauliflower is about 25 calories. A 2 pound head of cauliflower is 224 calories, only about 10% less than the burger.

Re: “Healthy obesity” doesn’t exist. It is unequivocally bad for you

#180

The old line goes > Your BMI tells me your overweight. > But rugby players BMIs are high, and they aren't overweight! > You don't play rugby though do you. I'm glad that "fat acceptance" may be turning a corner and will be banished hopefully and there can be a semblance of rational discourse. Ideally you should be a BMI 22, non smoking, non drinking, long distance runner living in the countryside eating a perfectly b…

> Being fat seems to be the most appealing one It's not the most appealing one, it's the hardest one to manage. You can not smoke, you can not drink alcohol, you can not take drugs, but you cannot not eat.

You can cease buying sugary foods and snacks like chips at the supermarket when you shop. You can explore swapping macros a bit so there's a bias in favor of eggs and fish and other protein. You can try to cut down eating between meals.

The idea of Predestination with regards to eating needs to stop. If there is a psychological addiction then that's the part to be addressed, it's a valid concern. I see what people eat - even people that are not obese - and it's disgusting. I can see at work, at restaurants, even walking in the streets what people eat. That this is 'normal' is what we have to actually try to stigmatize. Donuts, muffins, giant appetizes at dinner, all that stuff should be almost never eaten. Birthday cakes? All that stuff will become disgusting and nauseating to you if you step away from it for just a few months, and your body adapts away from sugar and carbs. It might be hard in the beginning as your metabolism struggles to adjust and keep signaling for you to eat more.

And for the record - not drinking alcohol is a lot harder than not eating for many people I know.

Post reply on HN