Boris declares war on fat

[Weallhavevalidopinions]

Boris has said his being overweight contributed to his problems with Covid-19.
Stories this morning suggest he will wage war on fat...

What type of help do you think might be suggested?

Have you decided to lose weight due to Covid-19 worries?

YABU - no I will not lose weight due to Covid worries
YANBU - I will lose weight due to Covid worries

I agree, this is another way to shift blame.

Sure we all know for most people who die of Covid it's their own fault. i mean, look at all those old people, if they had the grace to die before they were a drain on society we wouldn't have this problem.

All those who die and coincidentally are fat - it's their fault too.

The80s, one of my motivators in losing weight was the emerging link between obesity and dementia (as well as type 2 diabetes and heart problems - all lumped together as metabolic syndrome - and all with strong correlation to Covid 19 deaths.)

If you are obese you may end up in your care home with dementia a few years earlier....unless your heart attack comes first.

Never heard of boobs getting bigger in peri menopause. Would have thought the opposite with oestrogen reducing.

I've struggled with my weight for years and I am concerned about the extra vulnerability to corona from my weight. At the same time I can't help hearing this as Johnson declares war on fat people and will blame them for costing the NHS millions with their greedy ways.

I agree, this is another way to shift blame

No it's not, being obese has been statistically proven to be a risk factor, and is bloody obvious really.

The medical facts seem clear.

Now how do you tell people they carry some personal responsibility for their weight, without being accused of ‘blaming’?

I need to lose about 5st but I'm doing it for my health not because of covid

Obesity increases your risk of high blood pressure, stroke, heart disease, diabetes, cancer and dementia.
Wake up!

I think it’s great. There’s a big difference between knowing that there are long-term risks and having the risk of suddenly being dead within a month because of excess weight.

I am totally in favour of the sugar tax and would love more regulation of highly processed food. It is designed to be addictive and non-satiating yet has almost zero nutritional value. I love pringles like the best of them, but really the junk food is not much better than smoking. If there was plain packaging and no marketing of highly processed food, sales would plummet.

I do wonder if genetics plays more of a role in whether someone is likely to become more overweight on not.

I accept that generally the more calories that are consumed than burned off, will inevitably lead to excess weight.

What I find hard to understand is that some people can eat whatever they want and hardly exercise, but they don’t seem to put on weight. In that case that’s so much easier for them to stay slim.

I can’t help but think that metabolisms are different and some people have ones that work faster than others. Lucky them.

Don’t get me wrong there are definitely those that eat and eat and they simply don’t try. They don’t care enough but I certainly don’t thing that can be said for all.

For example a friend of mine is a hairdresser. Stands on her feet 4.5 days a week. She eats healthy lunches yet she’s morbidly obese. Now I don’t believe she goes hone and gorges on 3 takeaway meals each night. To stay the weight she is, she would need to consume a heck of a lot of calories. I find that hard to believe so I can only assume her body doesn’t have a metabolism as fast as say mine?

My BMI is 20 and that’s at my heaviest. I sit on my arse all day at work. I eat a lot of shit, I’d have a full tub of Haagen daaz in one go (there’s half your days calories) and I love sweets and puddings etc that’s my down fall!

For example on a weekend I’d have bacon rolls (5 rashers of bacon) or pancakes and syrup for breakfast. Then I’d maybe have a cheese fondue with brie baked with white bread, a selection of Spanish meats etc. I may have a pizza if not or a takeaway crisply shredded chicken with egg fried rice. If then eat a tub of ice cream. drink a bottle of wine over the weekend and a few spirits.

Sunday would be similar. I do try to be healthy through the week Monday to Thursday. And have set meals with plenty of veg but I still need the deserts.

I love cakes from the bakers, cream slices and strawberry tarts so if also have those through the day. I can eat 3 strawberry tarts one after the other. People do seem shocked that I’m not bigger.

That make me think that I’m lucky to have a fast metabolism. It makes feel sorry for those that don’t. I put away some calories for sure so in theory I should be overweight and I’m not. It has to be genetics.

Johnson promoting weight loss makes me want to do the exact opposite, and I'm about go shopping, so extra doughnuts for the Lakie household today

Same here. Shame I did the weekly shop yesterday, if I was going today it would be cream cakes all the way.

Yes, my main worry about covid19 is my weight and it is my responsibility to do something about it.
I really hope this doesn't accelerate fat bashing though. There needs to be an awareness that losing weight and keeping it off is very hard. Statistically only a small percentage manage to keep the weight off.
A good start would be to look into all the additives and the high fructose glucose syrup in foods and heavily tax this. Perhaps use any taxes to subsidise fruit and vegetables.

Forget low calorie versions and switch to eating filling, nutritional foods. Don’t go down crisp and chocolate aisles and don’t make excuses about it being for kids, they don’t need it either! If it’s not in the house, it’s a lot harder to eat crap.

I have been bedridden for 7 years due to severe ME. I also take medication that increases my appetite. I have put on a lot of weight in the last 16 years of severe ME. I eat healthily mainly but I do have a sweet tooth which I try to reign in by having a little bit of chocolate daily. However, recently the little bit has got larger so I am trying to address that. I think the best I can aim for is not to put on more weight.

Wage War on fat 😂😂😂😂
What is he going to do? He’s not exactly slim himself.

thank you BIWI!

No it's not, being obese has been statistically proven to be a risk factor, and is bloody obvious really.

Of course it is. But how does Boris imagine this message will enable people to lose weight quickly enough for the current crisis? It needs to be done, but it needs to be done long term!

Short term we need an acknowledgment that testing only works if carried out by professionals and properly processed with results shared with NHS. We need the best PPE efficiently sourced and distributed. We need a decent solution to the problem of how to balance economic need with safety. We need a solution for safer logistics and/or enabling more workers to stay on furlough. We need a plan for protecting schoolchildren from Kawasaki syndrome. We need a plan for keeping bus drivers and NHS staff alive.

If anything is to be taken from the war, it is some kind of memory of how much organisation went into it and how central clear communications were. Not 3 ministers saying different things on the morning after they have supposedly been briefed.

I've lost 5.5 stone since May 2019 as I was struggling with fitness after having two children close together. My BMI is 26 and I'm so so close to it being in the normal range. Only 11 more lbs to my goal weight.

Or to put it more briefly: the current greatest threat is a sharp increase in infection and deaths over the next month and a half, as more people exit lockdown and start spreading infection.

Very few people can lose enough weight healthily in time to make a significant difference to this imminent threat.

You can't even go running cos everyone hates joggers

For example a friend of mine is a hairdresser. Stands on her feet 4.5 days a week. She eats healthy lunches yet she’s morbidly obese. Now I don’t believe she goes hone and gorges on 3 takeaway meals each night. To stay the weight she is, she would need to consume a heck of a lot of calories. I find that hard to believe so I can only assume her body doesn’t have a metabolism as fast as say mine?

People, especially my OH would say the same about me. I NEVER eat excessively in public or with family but I'm a compulsive eater in private, and have been since I was about 8 years old. My mother made a big deal of me putting on a bit of weight and put me on a strict diet - basically every meal was salad. I rebelled and bought myself with crisps and chocolate bars from the school tuck shop. The teachers noticed and reported me to social services so me and my mum got called into see the school doctor. That led to the school being banned from selling me things at the tuck shop. So, inevitably, I got school friends to buy stuff for me and I stuffed myself at breaks hidden in the school loos! That behaviour continued throughout my life. At home, there's barely anything I'd want to stuff myself on in the cupboards, I eat healthily like the rest of my family (who are normal weight), I usually lose weight on holiday because I have to eat with family and have no chance to gorge in private. But at home, in the car, at work, etc., I'd have stashes of crisps, chocolate bars, etc - even a few things in my works briefcases. When I used to have a 60 minute car commute, I'd stop twice at service stations for crisps, chocolates, pies, etc., and then spend the day at work nibbling fruit and have a salad for lunch! Thankfully, I'm past all that stupidity now, but still have occasional lapses - at least it's not happening daily - more like a binge once a month. So yes, despite what you say with your own eyes about people close to you, you really don't know what goes on behind closed doors out of sight. Binge eating etc is a very real mental health problem which is never addressed. I told a succession of doctors about what I did, but never once was any help offered - the latest doctor I mentioned it to, who is our practice diabetes specialist glibly suggested I look to try to find a binge eating group on Facebook!

That is very interesting re smoking! But I'm not going to start again

God no, don't start again- it's good if very weird to know smoking seems to have some role in protecting against coronavirus, but that doesn't change its role in us developing COPD, cancer etc.

@corythatwas I don't believe everyone is now saying ah great we don't have to bother doing anything else, but it's important to get the info out there, people can do with it as they please. Unless you're saying this is the government's entire strategy now?

This has already happened with Cancer Research UK's marketing campaign last year which stated that obesity is a risk factor. Loads of 'fat shaming' criticism. People don't engage their critical brains at all on this stuff.

Oh god. I forgot about that stupidity.

Very few people can lose enough weight healthily in time to make a significant difference to this imminent threat.

I've lost nearly two stones since all this started to kick off early March. I hope to lose another stone by the end of July. Losing 3 stones in 5/6 months will make a MASSIVE difference to someone's health.