'Living with obesity: The people hard-wired to store fat'

[TheVampiresWife]

I've just read this article on the BBC. I know it sounds daft, but when I finished reading I had a little cry.

I'm 49 and I've been everything from a size 8 to a size 30 and all sorts of permutations in between, many times over. I've spent all my adult life trying to lose weight and have been treated for anorexia and binge eating. I cannot maintain a healthy weight, however hard I try. The longest I've been a healthy weight for was about a year in my 30s, which led to anorexia, following which I shot up to 18st. I'm currently about 15st (I don't own scales) and a size 20. At my heaviest, in my 20s, I was 21st. At my lightest, 7st 5lbs.

Everyone in my family is or was obese. My mother and aunties were on diets constantly but were always obese. They all died in their 60s due to health issues connected to their obesity.

I so, so desperately want to break this cycle. This article made me feel incredibly sad, because for the first time my weight struggles (and those of my family) made sense but also seemed hopeless. It also comforted me a bit, because for decades I've blamed and hated myself for the state I'm in. I'm currently eating no more than 1600 calories a day but the weight isn't shifting - in fact I seem to be putting it on. I'm disabled (rheumatoid arthritis) so can't exercise.

The narrative that obesity is about laziness and greed is incredibly hurtful and ignorant. This article appears to prove that for some people, it really is an illness that we have little control over. As I say, depressing and comforting in equal measure.

Oh - and here is a really good fact sheet with advice for people with the FTO obesity gene (like me) <a class="break-all" href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=kashilab.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Patient-Handout-FTO-Gene.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwizodbh66PxAhWK5OAKHc1zDRUQFjACegQIBRAG&usg=AOvVaw3EQbqpo8m0R4i4v6Xjdo2M" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=kashilab.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Patient-Handout-FTO-Gene.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwizodbh66PxAhWK5OAKHc1zDRUQFjACegQIBRAG&usg=AOvVaw3EQbqpo8m0R4i4v6Xjdo2M

Also recommend Why We Eat Too Much. It's a gamechanger. I've reverted to old ways of eating the last couple of days due to a (close) family bereavement. I've felt awful since. Back on it properly today. Not because I am concerned about weight gain but because I just don't enjoy the sort of food most of us eat, most of the time anymore.

Why we eat (too much) is a great book and goes a long way to explaining the issues with how our culture has obesity and diet completely wrong.

I don’t think it is strong enough on disentangling calories and weight loss, though. He does try to explain it, but it really needs hammering home. There is not a direct link between calorie intake and how much we weigh. Also there isn’t a direct link between calorie intake and how much we want to eat. The body doesn’t work like that.

Please concentrate on quality of food and stop blaming yourself. Exercise only helps because we are designed to move, so don’t worry about that too much, just move regularly and in as many different ways as you can.

I’m really sorry for all you’ve been through. I hope society wises up to the misconceptions soon.

I agree with their call to see it in a more holistic way. There are so many factors. And of course the stereotypes that are attached to being obese are really entrenched, people feel free to express them etc.

I am and have always been pretty slim except when I had pnd. I would say it's a combination of genes, upbringing, and somehow not consuming the societal messages when I was young. Even though most of my schoolfriends had eating disorders to some level.

My DH is obese. His family are all big. Again I think it's genes, upbringing.

There's the addiction aspect as well. I have other vices. Vices that are not visible from looking at me. And things like exercising non stop are addictions. Some things are deemed ok by society and some not even though they are driven by the same mechanisms.

I really think that the whole 'just don't eat so much' is a useless thing to say. I mean yes if you hardly eat anything you will lose weight. But it's simply not as easy as that.

I worry about him but am at a loss as to what to do tbh.

But yes. There are many components.

The diet industry is a massive scam as well.

DH is 20 stone and off the top of the NHS BMI thing.

His ankles are starting to give trouble etc and of course I worry. Should I get that book or would that make him feel worse?

I really feel for you all on here. The judgment and pressure is much worse for women.

Sorry if my posts are out of line given they're not about me.

We have a lot to learn about our microbiome and how our depleted colonies of microbiota lead to inflammatory illness including obesity. We can't go backwards - hygiene and antibiotics are life saving. But some of their consequences (20th century illnesses) are disastrous for us too. I've just read 10% Human by Alanna Collen.

@TheVampiresWife i think i posted on another of your threads.
I have a fat gene and also an annoying gene which may give me more chance of getting breast cancer.
So, I just don't eat very much and exercise a lot. I'm a size 10 and have been since my late 20's.
My DS is very large and fat and hasn't got to that stage yet either where he understands that he can't eat as much as other people and be thin.
Vegasim isn't the answer as then you also get osteoporosis and anaemia

Very interesting. I've been every size from an 8-18. To maintain a normal bmi I cannot eat normally...I was a size 8 in my early twenties, I skipped meals and barely ate. I'm currently a size 14-16 and that is only through sheer willpower. My dh is one of those people who don't put weight on easily and previously assumed overweight people were gluttonous but even he admits I don't eat much. No alcohol, no takeaways, no fast food, no fizzy drinks. It's an endless battle for me

How do you find out if you have the fat gene though? I'm intrigued!