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

bigthink.com

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

#101

Post by iLoveOncall »

psychphysic wrote: post #96

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.

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

#102

Post by kennywinker »

AlwaysRock wrote: post #92
kennywinker wrote: post #71

Did they control for anti-fat bias? Unlikely. Especially in the medical system, fat people don't get their body issues taken seriously. The stress of being treated poorly by everyone in your life undoubtedly has a huge impact on your lifespan. Did they control for efforts to change you body? Most fat people are trying to be thinner. Plenty of ways that people are told to change their body involve extreme stress to yo…

Whataboutism 101

The only thing bordering on whataboutism is my comment about being underweight. Talking about obesity bring up a lot of extreme emotions in people, and people love to say "it's just about it being unhealthy" but then don't have those extreme emotions when thinking about underweight people. So it's not whataboutism, it's relevant context.

My two other points, anti-fat bias, and the harm of trying to change your body, are things that could explain the health impact of being fat while not actually being a direct result of the fat. So, not whataboutism at all - they are well documented factors that the linked article doesn't seem to account for or consider.

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

#103

Post by robotburrito »

newaccount2023 wrote: post #35

[flagged]

Socialized healthcare could possibly help destroy the beliefs you mention. Public policy will certainly change in terms of what "food" is even legal to sell in this country if bad decisions don't mean profit for private health care companies, but instead mean losses for the public.

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

#104

Post by nerdjon »

kelseyfrog wrote: post #78
nerdjon wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is where 100% body positivity falls short, and that is context. Being a bigger person doesn't make you less of a person, it doesn't mean that you are weak, or even mean that you are unhealthy on its own. As a random person, a friend, whatever we should not pass judgment on other people in that regard. But on the flip side context is incredibly important. For example in a doctor setting. It is deeply conc…

The desire to avoid getting lectured at the doctor's office can result in folks avoiding the doctor in general. Avoiding the doctor had strong negative effects. The main issue is the cognitive dissonance between being fat and bring told that being fat is unhealthy so you're unhealthy. The easiest way for one's mind to resolve this is to retreat into the imaginary realm where being fat can be healthy. The retreat into…

I get not wanting to be lectured, and I guess that is also where tact comes into play.

I have had my share of bad doctors but my current doctor is great and it never feels like a lecture. It feels more like a conversation. He makes a couple of small recommendations and we revisit it in a couple months.

Now I will acknowledge maybe this is because of where I am as far as being obese (as in it isn't a huge concern for my doctor) and I also mention that I am working on it.

But I view this the same way I view sexual health. I engage in some risky behavior, I go in for testing every 3 months. My doctor always asks me about what happened and mentions certain things that they encourage that I don't do. I don't take this as being lectured, I don't take this as them being judgmental or not sex positive, but instead just doing their job.

At the end of the day I am doing something that is not in the best interest of my long term health, and it is their job to tell talk about that.

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

#105

Post by polio »

dudul wrote: post #70
rhaway84773 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there are several reasons: 1. Historically being fat was considered a sign of good health. Of course, this was during times of massive food scarcity and the definition of fat was probably very different from what we consider fat today. 2. Massive amounts of money involved in telling people to eat/drink more, and then spend more money in gyms and taking pills to lose that weight. As opposed to just eating less…

I'm interested in 3. Is there any research or data about that? I do not encourage fat shaming at all, but I can also imagine that in some cases shame may be a powerful motivator for some people. Is there hard data showing that it actually makes it harder?

I think shame can be powerful for many people, but it has negative side-effects that don't seem to be necessary. Obesity also has large genetic and environmental components[1], as well. Shame can make it hard for people to seek help, since the shame can be internalized to the degree that they don't feel like their life is worth fixing.

[1]: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/28/opinion/ezra-klein-podcas...

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

#106

Post by whatshisface »

karmicthreat wrote: post #58

Yea, being obese isn't health in any way shape or form. Unless you have some sort of exceptional physique that takes you out of the common medical model. You probably don't have that. I fucking hate it. I have at least managed to get under a 40 BMI its a huge slog to even get try to get down to only overweight. And even then in realistic terms even if I do, its 100% impossible to stay there over your lifetime after b…

>its 100% impossible to stay there over your lifetime after being obese. Age will just catch up with you.

You will have to keep reducing your diet forever as your metabolism slows. It's not 100% impossible, just a very difficult lifelong struggle, like having type-1 diabetes.

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

#107

Post by stametseater »

zdragnar wrote: post #80
dudul wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm interested in 3. Is there any research or data about that? I do not encourage fat shaming at all, but I can also imagine that in some cases shame may be a powerful motivator for some people. Is there hard data showing that it actually makes it harder?

Shame implies a personal failing, which readily translates into feelings of guilt and helplessness. It is not at all a constructive approach. The "healthy obesity" thing is the pendulum flying to the opposite end of the spectrum: unconditional support turned into acceptance and promotion of what we know to not be true.

Alternatively:

"Shame implies a personal failing, which readily translates into recognizing and correcting those personal failings."

In the 20th century, Americans fat shamed each other and were less fat. Today in Asia, people still fat shame each other and they're a lot less fat than Americans.

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

#109

Post by arcanemachiner »

iLoveOncall wrote: post #101
psychphysic wrote: post #96

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

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

#110

Post by bobthepanda »

8f2ab37a-ed6c wrote: post #76

I wonder what's going to happen long term to the recent trend of celebrating obesity in advertising. E.g. go to any Target and you will see overweight or obese models wearing the clothes they sell. On one hand you have to represent your current population, and with the majority of Americans overweight or obese, that's who your customers are. On the other, can this be seen as normalizing a disease?

Fat people exist, and they need clothes to wear.
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