Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

bigthink.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 397 posts

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

#71

Post by kennywinker »

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 your body (caloric restriction, extreme diets, stimulant pills).

Did you know that being underweight is ALSO associated with health problems, sometimes as extreme as the ones associated with being very fat.

Anybody reading this and wanting a more nuanced understanding of this stuff should listen to the first few episodes of the podcast Maintenance Phase https://www.maintenancephase.com/

edit: I'm getting downvoted for pointing out two well documented factors that the linked article doesn't seem to account for - I thought we believed in facts and rationality here?

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

#72

Post by drowsspa »

raspyberr wrote: post #20
throwawaysleep wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

There is no hack. Exercise is non-negotiable. Our lifestyles are far too sedantry for our bodies' evolution. If you are not willing to add a small amount of exercise into your life, you are admitting that you are happy to at least have health issues later in life or at most willing to live a shorter life.

Exercising is easy, most people can find an activity they enjoy doing. Eating right is a far more demanding task, and sadly that's what matters when it comes to losing weight.

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

#73

Post by kube-system »

copperx wrote: post #47
newaccount2023 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

something bad is going to happen to people who think they can just take Ozempic for the rest of their lives there's no way a drug that effective has no side effects I know people who have lost weight using Ozempic...you only lose weight...you do not become healthy...you do not gain muscle...you just are a flabby person who is less fat

Losing a significant amount of fat on purpose is becoming healthier, no ifs or buts about it.

There are absolutely dangerous ways to lose weight that will kill you quicker than the weight.

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

#74

Post by pengaru »

Syzygies wrote: post #39

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…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCOn7zS6b8c

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

#75

Post by wkat4242 »

swatcoder wrote: post #62
stametseater wrote: post #5

What interests me is how anybody could ever come to believe otherwise. The contrary belief flies in the face of all common sense, popular experience and medical science. It seems to come entirely from propaganda on social media telling fat people what they want to believe.

It’s because American society doesn’t let being unhealthy be an affirmative choice. You either need to demonstrate some kind of shame for your unhealthiness or some kind rationale that explains how its actually healthy. The honest facts that “I like to eat tasty good” and “I don’t really enjoy too much physical activity” are only permissible if you also say “and I can’t help myself” or “and it’s actually not unhealth…

It isn't the only thing in life of course. If you're healthy but living on the street it's not a very nice life.

For me being obese is not really a choice. It's just really hard to do anything about it, especially because I tend to overeat when I encounter stress in life. And I'm not wired with the discipline to fix it. I often go on diets but they never last.

Also, living alone cooking is a real chore and there's not enough ready made healthy food.

And in terms of exercise I really hate team sports and mindless weight lifting. I do hike a bit though when the season permits.

Are these excuses? Sure but if I could have changed it I would have.

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

#76

Post by 8f2ab37a-ed6c »

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?

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

#78

Post by kelseyfrog »

nerdjon wrote: post #51
widjit wrote: post #21

Denial/wishful thinking are extremely powerful. That said, body positivity shouldn't be thought of as having anything to say about objective physical health: there is zero reason a person who is obese should necessarily feel bad about themselves. Shame is a useless or detrimental approach to changing behavior; shame is oftentimes the reason people engage in unhealthy behaviors like overeating in the first place. Bein…

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 the imaginary is easier than not being fat and the cognitive dissonance is avoided.

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

#79

Post by shmoejoe »

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?

What I’ve always heard is that if it’s something someone can’t fix in 5 minutes they probably already know and you telling them isn’t helping

Now it’s a different story if you’re willing to work with them daily to help them lose weight or something similar. But just telling your friend “he your fat, it’s bad for you fix it” will only hurt

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

#80

Post by zdragnar »

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?

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.

Post reply on HN