Obesity is a choice

There was a news piece last night on food insecurity in the U.S., some statistic about the number of people in the U.S. without access to enough calories. And yet, every adult interviewed who was dependent on charitable food provisions was also significantly overweight. The picture was disconcerting. Poor fat people complaining about not having enough food. I get it though. In America, even the poorest among us, especially the poorest among us, have grown, and grown, and grown accustomed to this vast, endless, Mississippean flow of absurdly cheap calories. We've been lulled into thinking it's natural to have no effective limits other than the available hours in the day to the amount of food we can consume. Having that change, even slightly, with the recession must be a horrific shock to some people.

 

Okay I come off as biased when it comes to obesity, but it's only because the majority of people who are overweight become so because they don't take care of themselves.

Statistics show that the obese are far more likely to suffer from diseases and higher demand for health care than those who are more fit. That's not universal, as there are many reasons why someone is overweight or why a fit person suffered a heart attack. What can be determined is that people who exercise more will be at less risk of heart disease and depression. Rather than try to improve the means to save people after a heart attack, these people should take some responsibility to not have one in the first place. We all have that responsibility.

 

Promoting lifestyles that prevent people from getting obese in the first place is the key to a healthy nation and reducing our national healthcare costs. Once someone is fat, the odds of them successfully losing weight and keeping it off are, well, slim. And if someone becomes fat in childhood, you can almost write them off. If a child isn´t active by the age of 10 or 11, they´ll probably live a sedentary lifestyle to the end of their days.

The problems for parents of active kids though is that we tend to spend a lot of time sitting on our butts watching our kids play sports. Scheduling my own workouts around the kids isn´t all that easy, but I´m a huge believer in ambient exercise, trying to build a lifestyle where a lot of movement occurs as a matter of course, walking to the store instead of driving, living in a walkable community in general to minimize the need for a car. Oak PArk I think is one of the most walkable suburbs in the country and Chicago in general is not bad depending on where you live. Some cities are awful and promote obesity just by the way they´re designed. I think Manhattan is incredibly walkable, but you need plenty of money to enjoy living there.

 

One comment on the "Walking" post by Darth_Yuthura. Didn't you see my post about shin splints and ankle sprains? That was why I mentioned the gym and especially swimming, as I thought you would mention those as an alternative to walking, as obviously one can't walk or jog very well with shin splints or a sprain.

One thing that would cut down on excess calories is for food manufacturers to cut down on the "High fructose corn syrup" in canned foods and other prepared food items.

 

I also seem to recall a post on people not having enough for the gym. If they can afford to go to the doctor to get shin splints, then they can afford the gym as well.

 

Darth_Yuthura,

You don't go to the doctor to get shin splints! Shin splints are a type of break in the shinbone that develops from jogging too much!

No, it doesn't cost nearly as much to visit the doctor as it does to have a gym membership. Gym memberships run anywhere from $80.00 a month on up.

 

I'm not remotely proficient in medical terms. By definition, a splint is a rigid material used for immobilizing a bone. That's what I assumed you meant by your terminology.

In that case, please elaborate what happens when someone gets 'shin splints.' What is the treatment for the condition you speak of? How would an obese person get this condition if s/he doesn't jog enough to get it? Do some become so heavy that their bones simply buckle under their own weight?

And I have a membership for the Princeton club at $40 per month... in a four month deal. Rates can and are less than your stated > $80 a month. Where do you live?

 

I live in the Bay area and $80 a month is the reduced rate for a gym in my area. Rents are really high here, so a gym membership costs more.

I was assuming that the person's weight was fine until he/she developed shin splints and couldn't run any more.

You get shin splints by stressing the shinbone by jogging too much, especially on concrete. They are very painful and the only treatment is to stop jogging/running. They take a long time to heal.

They are long, narrow breaks in the bone, hence the term "splints," from splintered.

 

Shin Splints

Flat Feet and Fallen Arches

Food Inc.is showing in theaters in the U.S. and seems to be largely ignored.

Apparently one of the professors at my college is working on an analysis of data to show correlations between: the use of
ride on lawn mowers, tv remotes, and other changes in the U.S. lifestyle -to- BMI trends.
I look forward to seeing it published.

 

I'm not terribly pleased with that description of flat feet, as there's a distinction it fails to make in regard to severity.

 

Master_Sweet_Pea,

I read the definition of shin splints, thanks for that, but when I had them, my doctor said they were small breaks in the length of the shinbone, not just minor muscle damage.

I wore appropriate shoes for jogging, too.

However, the treatment of rest and ice is difficult for someone who is addicted to jogging to do. They will jog every day and not take the time off for proper rest.

I know lots of people who will jog no matter what the weather, no matter how they are feeling, etc.

I walk half a mile to a mile every day now, instead of jogging.

I also am on the South Beach diet, which really seems to be working.

 

Too bad there aren't more like you.

The problem is that there are just not enough out there who want to exercise. If you simply don't have the time, that's just an excuse. It would be more accurate for such a person to simply say exercise doesn't relieve his/her stress. Otherwise someone would make the time.

 

I agree with the original poster there are way too many obese people in today's society.
And I think the problem is acceptance. I think there would be a lot less obese people if society wasn't so accepting and sympathetic over it. I don't understand why it's something to be sympathetic over. Like a lot of people said you control what you eat and there's no reason if you eat healthily and exercise you can't lose weight, but I'm not saying it is easy. There are some people with medical conditions that makes them obese, but a lot of people said that, and honestly, how many obese people actually have that condition?

 

It'll probably be half of all who are overweight. It's not like this is a society where people are willing to take responsibility for themselves. If a child doesn't fit the mold, he's got ADD, ADHD, autism... the list goes on.

In the case of the obese, there are some cases where it's biological. But it's also biological for people who don't burn off what they eat will gain weight. They don't have an ailment. Anyone who doesn't would be sick.

 

I think we are living in different societies as I'm not seeing that acceptance and sympathy you're referring to.

 

Does Mcdonald's come to mind? We're a culture that loves sugar-saturated beverages, greasy fired foods, and who watch shows like Family guy. Morbidly-obese characters are not amusing, yet Americans seem to think it's funny.

Our culture revolves around food. For ***'s sake, we have eating contests!

 

Those are two different issues. On the one hand, society promotes obesity through cheap and convenient food, relentless marketing of unhealthy foods and infrastructure and social values that promote sedentary lifestyles. On the other hand, people feel very deep prejudices against the obese, e.g. this whole debate about whether obesity is an individual failing. You're fat because you're weak, etc.

That said, with fat people rapidly becoming a majority, it's hard to believe that greater social acceptance won't follow. Our perception of "fat" has probably changed. So many people are overweight we probably don't notice the 200 lb guy who ought to weigh 180. And young people who are a little bit chubby can still look cute - the advantage of being young - even your body fat is better looking than ours.

 

I'm referring to that I've had things yelled at me by people in passing cars before, I've had people say it as insults against me in past jobs when people would sometimes be less than pleased with me.... all in all, I don't see this acceptance or sympathy being claimed.

 

More people becoming overweight is definately a problem. It must be dealt with properly.

Seeing as Cigarette ads are banned and there is talk certainly in the UK of banning Alcohol adverts, I don't see why promoting of unhealthy fast food should not also follow suit.

 

A problem that I have is that I lose weight in the summer and put it on in the winter.

During the summer, I cycled to work every day, regardless of weather. There was exactly one day between April 14th and October 16th that I did not commute via cycling - when my bike got a flat and I didn't have time to do anything about it and still arrive to work on time. That day, I took the bus. For me, during the summer, I drove about 22.5 km each day if I was just going to work and back. In the summer, I do all my grocery shopping on the bike while wearing a backpack - I find it means I have to think more about what I want to get and helps prevent me from buying useless crud. In the course of an average week, I cycled about 150-200km; I'd also be walking for one purpose or another for about four hours on one of my days off. I ate 2000-2200 calories a day, ate a balanced diet, etc. Ten pounds came off.

With the arrival of fall and winter, biking is less practical (for reference, I live in Atlantic Canada). Doable at this point? Yes, somewhat. Rain didn't keep me off my bike in the summer, but you try cycling through pouring rain when it's just about the freezing mark, at night (it's dark at 5pm). I've adjusted by doing things like getting off the bus a kilometer early and walking if it's not pouring rain, cutting calories (if all the nutrition information I've read for the food I've eaten today is right, I'm dead-on 2,000 for the day) while still eating a balanced diet as best I can (weighted a little heavy towards getting lots of fresh fruit and vegetables), and I still take my bike out on days off.

I've put on over five pounds since mid-October.

There are, of course, other factors at work. I have a stressful job in anti-fraud that also happens to be a desk job. I spend late, late nights playing World of Warcraft, which means I don't get a really optimal amount of sleep. High stress, spending all day at a keyboard, insufficient sleep... I'm placing blame for weight gain there.

 

That's not problematic from what I've gathered. You have an annual cycle where you would be active that is countered by a few months when you don't have favorable weather for biking. I'm like that when it comes to rollerblading, as I need a paved surface. When I do, I tend to go great distances with roller blades than using a car. Now that I'm 'landlocked,' I've not had as much opportunity to work out as I used to.

It doesn't seem a problem for you, as you've got a cycle where you stop gaining weight and return to a more healthy way of living routinely. Most people who get fat may slim down at some point, but often regain the weight afterwards. It's unhealthy to dramatically change your weight set point, but ~10-20 IBS is fairly small. And it's excellent that you have gotten in the practice of losing weight, whereas most people would have more difficulty in changing to a good diet and working out.

 

I meant acceptance because there are so many fat people it's become normal. When I go out, half the people I see are fat.
It's become a choice to live healthily and look after your body, why is it a choice that people encouraged to make and not something we should be doing anyway.

And there's all these fat clubs to support people who need to lose weight because they haven't got the willpower to do it themselves.

 

[image=http://static.reelmovienews.com/images/gallery/fat-bastard.jpg]

"I eat because I'm unhappy, and I'm unhappy because I eat. It's a viscious circle"

 

In that sense, I'd say the same can be said about smoking, alcohol, drugs, and casual sex.

 

Smoking and Drugs should be discouraged, alcohol in moderation.
The problem with all these things is that the companies producing them are very powerful and promote them heavily. Plus the governments get quite a lot of revenue taxing stuff like Cigarettes so they're less inclined to encourage people not to take them.

It is a shame people choose to be unhealthy as then have to force themselves to be healthy as if it is a chore, but people are entitled to live as they choose (provided they obey laws).