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

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

#191

Post by procinct »

gadders wrote: post #184
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…

You need to lift weights more than you need to run long distance.

Cardio is certainly important for old age given how common heart disease is. Ideally you would train strength, cardio and mobility.

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

#192

Post by noslenwerdna »

CharlesW wrote: post #147
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…

> 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. TFA doesn't even use the phrase "fat acceptance", which is a completely different thing than claiming "obesity is healthy". The former is simply an effort to destigmatize it, like we destigmatize other forms of addiction. Also, "obesity is healthy" is a strawman — no credible per…

> Also, "obesity is healthy" is a strawman

That simply isn't true. Just look into the "Health at Every Size" movement. There are some reasonable ideas there, like destigmatizing it as you mentioned. But there are also some harmful and ridiculous ideas prevalent in that movement - namely that "weight loss should not be a health goal".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_at_Every_Size

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

#193

Post by jmull »

Interesting. I would have though BMI was a sufficient proxy for body composition for broad samples... That conclusions about the average person with BMI of X were useful.

I guess this argues otherwise, which is worth considering.

(Though, this seems to be just one study right now? I don't think it's rational to draw the strong conclusions the article does from one study. The absolute claims don't seem supported by the evidence, so I guess they are pushing an angle, though it's not clear to me why.)

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

#194

Post by shrikant »

mtlmtlmtlmtl wrote: post #176
jtode wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> Losing weight is actually really easy. Eat less calories than you burn, and be motivated.

I've often heard fitness instructors often phrase this as "weight loss is simple, but not easy" precisely because it's hard to sustain CICO discipline over a reasonable period of time.

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

#195

Post by cat_plus_plus »

Ok, but what now? There is no effective treatment or cure for obesity from public health point of view. That is, sufficiently low calorie intake will make you lose weight. But, if your metabolic balance is out of whack, it will also leave you constantly hungry, lethargic, not able to enjoy one of the major life pleasures. To maintain that long term once has to essentially prioritize staying slim over all other life priorities.

It's likely that prevention of obesity is achievable by changes is easily available food, walkable communities, regulation of problematic chemicals, childhood health education. And also that overtime medical treatments and food modifications will get better at counteracting preexisting obesity.

But in the meantime, "go lose weight" may not be practical medical advice to an average individual. Eating healthier food and having a regular exercise regimen may well be, but losing lots of weight is not an expected outcome. People will still end up eating more of healthier food, or eating unhealthy food due to life circumstances, or getting too fatigued to exercise enough. At this point, "what else can we do to improve your health" because a relevant question.

Fat acceptance? Bah. Just because I am overweight doesn't mean I like looking at fat models. We can admire the best of us while being realistic of what we are going to achieve ourselves. In some marginal way, watching models and athletes does motivate me to watch my food and workout. Just not enough to end up looking like them.

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

#196

Post by amrocha »

throwawaysleep wrote: post #11
lockhouse wrote: post #3

There’s really no getting around the fact that you need to live an active life of consuming things in moderation to be healthy.

The challenge is what is the closest hack to get around it, as most people, admittedly myself included, are not willing to exercise? Semaglutide seems to be the best bet right now.

The closest hack is living in a walkable city, and biking for personal transportation. There's a reason that obesity is not as big a problem in Europe, and even more so in East Asia.

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

#197

Post by ebiester »

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?

Here's a small list of studies: https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/fat-shaming-makes-thing... .

The short of it is that it increases stress, increases depression, eating disorders, and risk of suicide.

As for shame and its ironic effects, you can look to Brene Brown's research and that of other shame researchers.

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

#198

Post by gadders »

kennywinker wrote: post #118
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…

> 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…

They are making a choice to be fat because they eat the quantity of food that creates that condition in their body. Nobody says two people should eat the same level of food. You should eat the appropriate amount for your body.

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

#199

Post by checker659 »

emilyst wrote: post #126
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…

It is bizarre that you would read an article which says, “using body-mass index (BMI) to measure obesity is likely the most problematic factor,” and then immediately prescribe a fixed BMI for everyone without qualification.

> would read an article Or, did they?

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

#200

Post by pkolaczk »

mtlmtlmtlmtl wrote: post #141
arcanemachiner wrote: post #109

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).

Our bodies are not adjusted to eating food with high calory density. Junk food messes up the system the way you feel hungry despite eating enough calories, and that leads to eating too much and becoming obese. You're right that eating the right number of calories in junk food won't make you obese, but it is extremely hard to eat the right number of calories when eating mostly junk food.

Eat healthy food, and eat only when you're hungry, and most likely your body would auto-regulate the calory intake just fine.

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