[Closed] This Obesity Thing

I've got reasonably fat over the last few years. It is actually pretty easy to do, as you fall out of good habits for a variety of reasons. I do have a bit of sympathy for people who get stuck in the loop and struggle to get out. I have more sympathy for mrsmith and 5th Elephant, as there is no diet which can control the part of the brain that makes you think like a ****. Perhaps surgery?

MrSmith - Member
It's the food manufacturers fault.
It's caused by modern lifestyles.
It's the governments fault for closing playing fields.
It's the computer game companies causing sedentary children.
It's the portion sizes in restaurants.
It's the higher sugar content in drinks.
It's the media's fault for making sweating/sports unnatractive to women.

Actually it's none of the above, the blame lies at the feet of the lazy fat carcasses who shovel shite food in their gobs yet like to blame something else because it's easy, just like its easy to shove another cake in your gob, like its easy to sit on your fat quivering arse.

It's interesting to see the usually eloquent and open minded members cave in to their prejudices so easily when the right buttons are pressed. Sad really.

It's interesting to see the usually eloquent and open minded members cave in to their prejudices so easily when the right buttons are pressed. Sad really.

Sorry I didn't realise it was a thyroid/genetic/psychological/other condition* that made you a bloater.

*delete as appropriate

Perhaps surgery?

Gastric band?

Has anyone watched Wall-e?

Maybe a bit flippant, but for a simple explanation of current trends, that basically sums it up!

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This thread is making me hungry
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^^ Well that overshadows any concerns I had about flippancy.

Blaming individuals isn't the answer, and bullying or bribing individuals won't make and difference. We need a wholesale change in the way our transport infrastructure is set up, to drive us all toward active travel. We need major changes to food labelling and taxation to stop us eating so much sugar.

Blaming individuals isn't the answer

to stop us eating so much sugar.

Is it because people don't care what they eat and food companies don't care what they produce. Its a common theme which covers lots of issues... Its called nobody really cares.

You are responsible for what you put in your mouth.

Eat healthily, it isn't hard. Preparing dinner tonight took me 30 mins plus 25 mins cooking. Not expensive ingredients either - chicken breasts. £3.33, cans of beans. £1, onions and garlic £1, stock and herbs £0.50 rice £0.50 cabbage £0.50, carrots. £0.25. 4 large helpings at less than £2 per helping. Good luck getting a decent ready meal for £2.

Do some proper exercise. Agreed that a lot of gym goers think that 15 mins on minimal resistance is exercise.

GB

If you're suggesting riding a horse is harder work than walking, it begs the question why did people ride them around all over the place for centuries?

Because for similar effort you travel much further.

Flippancy aside; the horse, the industrial revolution, industrialising food production, credit revolution, whatever point you want to blame we are victims of our own success.

Every gain in child mortality or life expectancy has come at cost which we are now reaping.

Blaming individuals isn't the answer, and bullying or bribing individuals won't make and difference. We need a wholesale change in the way our transport infrastructure is set up, to drive us all toward active travel. We need major changes to food labelling and taxation to stop us eating so much sugar.

Or alternatively people need to take responsibility for how many pizza and biscuits they eat and stop expecting someone else to fix it for them.

2 things...
First off ,when I'm swimming I see the ladies doing aquarobics. This consists of repeatedly touching your shoulders and talking for half an hour. At no point is a sweat raised.
Second no one on The Burma Railway "couldn't lose weight."

Or alternatively people need to take responsibility for how many pizza and biscuits they eat and stop expecting someone else to fix it for them.

Evidently people have trouble with this basic task of moderation and taking control of their lives.

As a dietician doc friend of mine so eloquently put it, no fat people came out of Belsen.

no fat people came out of Belsen.

not many alive ones either 🙄

In the words of Harvey Walden IV "eat less move more"

Simples

I don't get cross about a lot of things. However, very fat people and smokers really do wind me up, mainly because you eat (quite literally) into the NHS budget and delay things like hip ops for my grandad.

My sister in law has quite bad cerebral palsy and epilepsy and lives on disability benefits, so is by no means rich. She decided she wanted to lose some weight and so bought healthy food and did 25-30mins a day on a £30 stepper machine. She lost several stone and is now a much healthier weight. If she can do it there are no excuses for anyone else.

Sort it out, people.

GB

Or alternatively people need to take responsibility for how many pizza and biscuits they eat and stop expecting someone else to fix it for them.

I prefer policy by evidence, rather than bullying and internet-opinion. Studies show that asking people to take individual responsibility doesn't work.

Look at smoking; how did we hugely turn around the numbers smoking? Was it individuals taking responsibility, or was it a combined campaign of taxation, education and a level of prohibition?

I'm glad to see that everyone has a really good understanding of obesity. You don't have a ****ing clue. Live the life and then understand.

If it was so easy the country would be full of people the "normal" size.

This thread shows the sort of short sighted bigotry that obese people have to face on a daily basis.

+1 miketually, well said

Like Postierich,I'm becoming fattist too.People are just letting themselves go and becoming lazy.Some people were always meant to be fat no matter how hard they try to lose it,I know people like this and I sympathise.Others choose to be fat through gluttony,lack of willpower,zero motivation.Some of them may blame health issues but it's probably their obesity that caused them initially.
My blood boils when I see a bariatric on a mobility scooter stuffing their face with a supersize burger and chips.

It's complex but at the heart of it is too many people taking on more calories than they need for the amount of physical activity they do each day. Which is very simple really, but the behaviours behind it are very complex...

I do think lack of education has a fair bit to do with it - as in education about how to prepare healthy meals, how to make healthy choices in the supermarket and the canteen and how to make the best of all your opportunities to burn calories during the day. e.g. in the station where you have the choice of a single flight of stairs and an escalator, how many people take the stairs?

I suspect that self-esteem may have a fair bit to do with it too - people describe getting fat as 'letting themselves go'. No-one I know who's out of shape is proud of it...

Someone needs to explain what it'll do to GDP - obesity reduces productivity (increased absence from illness) and as healthcare is provided by the State, means higher taxes. It also means we have to import productive labour e.g. Poles, Romanians, Bulgarians. I think government need to be a bit more forceful and overt about the consequences... it's going to kick our standard of living in the nuts

Gastric band?

No, that stops bile from coming out of your stomach. You need something to stop the bile coming out of your mouth.

At 51 and doing 3000-5000 miles a year on the bike and eating reasonably healthily I have been surprised to start putting on some weight ( 5 10 and 76.5 KG)

I don't think it is as easy as some suggest.

After doing some research I also realised how little I actually knew and just what the food industry is doing. How many people really understand the influence of carbs on body fat as opposed to calories? How few carbs the average person needs to consume and the consequence of excess? The amount of sugar in product and why food marketed as low fat is just so bad.

There is a massive educational job to be done and some major changes in legislation to be made if there is going to be any dent in the current trend.

BTW I am now around 3.5KG lighter after just less than a couple of weeks but have had to be pretty disciplined for this relatively modest reduction. ( no alcohol, bread, milk, potatoes, drinks ( other than water, green tea and black coffee), chocolate etc)

I prefer policy by evidence, rather than bullying and internet-opinion. Studies show that asking people to take individual responsibility doesn't work.

Look at smoking; how did we hugely turI prefer policy by evidence, rather than bullying and internet-opinion. Studies show that asking people to take individual responsibility doesn't

Good for you, I expect people to take responsibility for their actions and not blame everyone else.

No, that stops bile from coming out of your stomach. You need something to stop the bile coming out of your mouth.

All sorted.

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BigSteve - Member
I'm glad to see that everyone has a really good understanding of obesity. You don't have a **** clue. Live the life and then understand.

Become fat so I understand? As much as I will often take any excuse to justify a McDonalds, I think I'll pass on your offer thanks

For the record, I've been fattist for years

Why are there so few fat people in Japan? Judging by what they sell in the supermarkets I would guess it's solely down to their diet and self control. Supermarkets in the UK stock crap because we demand it.

Supermarkets in the UK stock crap because [s]we demand it[/s] they, and suppliers, get away with it.

Supermarkets in the UK stock crap because [s]we demand it they get away with it [/s]people buy it.

Why are there so few fat people in Japan? Judging by what they sell in the supermarkets I would guess it's solely down to their diet and self control. Supermarkets in the UK stock crap because we demand it.

I'm not sure about the supermarket point. How can it be right that it is cheaper to buy processed food rather than fresh? If budgets are tight and preperation time is a lot less what do people do?

There's another reason for exercise - it may help avoid Alzheimer's Disease, as may a sensible diet.

legend - Member
Become fat so I understand? As much as I will often take any excuse to justify a McDonalds, I think I'll pass on your offer thanks

For the record, I've been fattist for years

I take it that you have never had a weight problem then. You've never had to suffer the daily abuse by mindless morons (and a lot of then seem to reside on this forum) who think, just because you are fat you are stupid, lazy, smelly and any number of other adjectives. You won't understand the spiral that being overweight gets you into. You won't understand how hard it is to actually lose weight, nor that the body actually goes through periods of not losing weight despite only giving it 800 calories a day. And that during those periods the despondency that sets in. No - didn't think so.

As a skinny whippet it came as a shock to me to find i had got a bit fat, overtly - bit of a spare tyre and jowls. Reduction in exercise due to time issues and inability to control eating as i have never had to.
I can totally see how it would be easily to mentally get stuck in a rut. The only way out though is to take ownership and do something about it.
Eat better, cut carbs and high sugar out etc. walk up and down the stairs instead of taking the lift, walk to the shops etc. There is no excuse really but it does require some effort.
Fwiw i looked long and hard at my eating habits - we cook every night and rarely eat takeaways, ready meals don't really exist here either. I did drink quite a lot of beer and had just lost a bit of focus. I did a bit of 5:2 stuff, chopped out beer midweek, cut out high carb dinners etc and reduced a few sugary things. Seems to be visibly working and i do actually feel a lot better. I has been an adjustment but nothing hard is easy !
I grew up being seriously bullied about being skinny (and ginger !) so give me a break cos picking on fatties is no different to picking on skinnies. The world needs to MTFU and stop trying to blame others for their own issues. Take responsibility and make a change.

Discipline, self restraint and a bit of self respect would help many people. They are lazy of mind as well as physically idle.

I can totally see how it would be easily to mentally get stuck in a rut. The only way out though is to take ownership and do something about it.

Which is slightly harder than doing nothing about it but not exactly difficult if you can be bothered to think about what you eat.
Today I did some freebie work for a charity that helps people with pancreatic cancer. Met some sufferers who were going to be photographed/filmed as part of an ad campaign. Pancreatic cancer survival rates have not changed for 40 years.
Those sufferers have my sympathy, people who are fat through overeating don't.

Pretty much what NZCol said (apart from the ginger bit)

Imagine being so useless you were incapable of doing anything about your problems?

Are you similarly unsympathetic towards people who are say, so depressed they kill themselves?

In England, most people are overweight or obese. This includes 61.9% of adults and 28% of children aged between 2 and 15.

If people are genuinely ill through no reason of their own doing then yes they have my sympathy.
Shoved cake down your hole and sat on your fat arse? No. Same goes for drinking/smoking to an early grave.

If people are genuinely ill through no reason of their own doing then yes they have my sympathy.
Shoved cake down your hole and sat on your fat arse? No. Same goes for drinking/smoking to an early grave.

BUT 60% ( and growing) of the population are not just going to "wake up and smell the roses" Unless there is some decisive action around education and legislation the problem will continue to get worse. Whether you like it or not there is a food and drinks industry looking to profit and providing proper healthy food is way down their agenda.

Sorry I didn't realise it was a thyroid/genetic/psychological/other condition* that made you a bloater.

*delete as appropriate

Yes, a thyroid condition can make you a bloater even if it is treated.

I have very little self control with food and can easily polish off most of a tub of pringles/family sized bag of crisps/packet of biscuits/tub of ben and jerry's.

I can manage NOT to buy them in the first place.

Fat people can lose serious weight if they have the desire as we see from those slimmer of the year awards, most don't really care when it comes down to it. Every and then there's a story in the papers about someone who saw their holiday photos, or whatever, and felt so ashamed that they sorted themselves out.

I had a mate who was very overweight in my student days. One summer got a job on a building site, came back in great shape. Gotta want to do it.

The point is that if 60% are overweight, then overweight is the norm. Perceptions change. People tell me I'm too thin, my BMI is 24, so I'm actually just the right side of oveweight.

This is why showing 27stone people on these news reports is unhelpful, show someone who's 6ft and 16 stone as an example of obesity, would be an eyeopener to many I think.

Also, if the problem is 60% of pop and rising, then its systematic and not individual, no amount of preaching personal responsibility is going to help.