Is being fat a choice?

[notevenamum1]

This has all been triggered from a post I read on here the other day that was based around how short men must feel how fat women do when it comes to dating. There was a comment made about how it was worse for the men because they had not chosen to be short. Now this blaze comment about how being fat is a choice really sent me down a rabbit hole.

I think this is probably easy to say if you are someone who has never struggled with weight before but if you are someone like me who has struggled and yo-yo’d with their weight their whole life then they would beg to differ. I am both tall and fat, I have in the past been slim(mer) but it was a hell of a battle to get there and was unsustainable to stay there. Even now I am 5ft8, 14stone and convince myself that I am a size 14...I have to be mindful of what I eat every day, and exercise regularly or I would be even larger than I am now.

Do people look at me and think I am fat because I have no self control? Do they think this is my “fault”?

Is being “fat” a choice?

And that is great that those changes have been made but we still have the biggest childhood obesity problem in Europe so clearly there is more that needs doing unless we want this to get worse
So let's start by taking responsibility as individuals for the things we are doing it not doing that we know very well contributes to the problem.

If you order a take away every Fridays start by deciding that this will stop from tomorrow evening, and instead, put the money aside and decide as a family how to spend it next year on that day.

Many will 4hink 'yeah, great idea, then they'll end the day tomorrow, feeling fed up and tired and think stuff that, I'll just have that take away'.

It wont be because of lack of education, or mental health issues (feeling tired and fed up on Fridays is quite common), it won't be because it's not possible to stop at a supermarket on the way home to buy healthy ingredients, it will be because we will choose not to say no to temptation and only we can deal with that.

I make my own bread, these days. Packaged bread just makes me bloaty and the kids don't even like it much.

I eat very little (healthy food) I exercise im still fat

Its not a lifestyle choice sometimes

I don't think it's a choice many would intentionally opt for, like "yes I want to be fat", I think it's a slow process where some people are predisposed to gain a little extra weight without realising, and then once overweight, either it doesn't bother them (fine, so long as it isn't affecting their health), or they struggle to lose it, and end up gaining more. I am classed as underweight, with a very low bmi and it isn't by choice. I've tried many different ways over the years to gain weight, but I never do, and now at 34, with two young children, I weigh the same as what I did as a teenager. Which makes me think, just as I struggle to gain weight (even on strict 3000 calorie diets) I can see how others with a different metabolism/genes/frame would struggle to lose weight, even when really trying with diet/exercise. So no, I don't think for most, it is a choice. Most people would like to be a healthy ideal weight. Obviously there will be exceptions to this, people suffering with body dismorphia conditions, and some people are genuinely happiest being under/over weight, which is fine if they're healthy. I would love to be the ideal weight for my height, but I don't see it ever happening!

You can't ignore metabolism and hormones in all this. Some people can eat and eat and put no weight on. Others can eat what would be deemed a healthy, normal amount and still put weight on or stay the same. Don't get me wrong, some people will just eat and eat and put weight on and then complain, but there are others where their metabolism makes keeping weight a healthy level very difficult without effectively starving yourself.

i have thyroid issues and a very low metabolism, i am very overweight and addressing it, with varying results. with thyroid issues along with obvious weight implications, symptoms include extreme lethargy and depression. and because my metabolism is low in order to loose a significant amount of weight would take an extremely limited diet, when your expected to deny yourself to such a degree and loose a 1/4 of what anyone else would, you get resentful and pissed off to be quite honest, im unmedicated so medical care has failed me.and then if as i get older and symptoms get worse it will be "why didn't you seek help sooner" , the first dr i saw simply gave me a leaflet for slimming world, understandably i never went back, whilst im diagnosed now, getting consistent medication was met with such reluctance i essentially don't bother now, medical neglect is a large problem in this area aswell, just to give some insight on to how its often a snowball effect.

‘So let's start by taking responsibility as individuals for the things we are doing it not doing that we know very well contributes to the problem’

That approach of leaving it to individuals clearly isn’t working though is it - we are getting bigger. What would you put in place to ‘make individuals take responsibility’? A fat tax?

Helping individuals uncover the root causes of their over eating would help them take responsibility. For example, if you are using food as a comfort then therapy may give you strategies for healthier comfort behaviours.

And why do you think the diet industry is so successful? People do try to take personal responsibility by dieting but most put it back on and go on another diet. No one wants to be overweight.

We can tell people to take personal responsibility as much as we want but when fast food is so quick and accessible it’s making it much more difficult to make the healthy choice.

So why not make it easier for people to make healthy choices? - more cycle paths, restriction of fast food outlets etc. Not saying it’s easy at all, requires a massive culture change.

There are also many other factors other people have mentioned which need looking at - sleep, stress, genetics, food culture, poverty, education, upbringing, food as comfort eating. If we start to address these it will help people then take responsibility for their weight, as you and others are keen on.

There are some areas of the U.K. that are much much more overweight than others. Do you think this is down to them not taking personal responsibility? Or do you think there might also be a number of influences affecting their choices?

A few weeks ago I would have said yes, it is a choice. BUT having watched a documentary about a 9 year old boy who was trying his best to lose weight but failing, despite doing all the right things, I've changed my mind.

His obesity was down to his lacking certain gut bacteria. Once this was sorted the weight started to fall off.

I wonder how many people this applies to, particularly given that many people in the lowest socio-economic groups are some of the fattest and have limited access to fresh vegetables and fruit and are surrounded by cheap and tempting junk food constantly. (This being a factor in poor gut flora)

@LidlDonkey
That is so interesting. There’s just so much we don’t know yet isn’t there. I’ve also been hearing increasing evidence about gut bacteria. It makes you wonder how we will look at this in the future. Hopefully attitudes will change as we learn more.

There also some interesting research around sleep coming out now too.

The thing is that there will always be people affected by different health conditions, but why are these not affecting obesity levels elsewhere like they do here?
Do people in, for example, South Korea not have health issues?

And yes. Gut flora is incredibly important for overall health. I highly recommend fermented foods (not pasteurised) like sauerkraut or kefir.

Ponypals

Thank you for your post, so pleased for you

Are you able to eat a good range of foods? I'm a bit worried I will never eat a slice of cake again

There is SO much more to it than people blithely assume. How you were fed as a child, even down to what your mother ate in pregnancy and if you were formula fed or breast fed, contributes to how susceptible to obesity you are. Hormonal imbalances play a huge role, and mean that 2 people with identical activity levels and calorie intakes can have vastly different metabolisms and body shapes. Most people who are fat eat too much, and eat the wrong things, yes. But why they eat those foods, what they were raised on, what they can afford, their understanding of nutrition, what their cultural attitudes around food are, and whether certain foods agree with them or not, disability or illness meaning they can't exercise or are depressed, psychological problems around using food as a crutch etc etc all of these factors vary hugely, and it's not easy to unpick it all. Looking at an overweight person and just thinking they're greedy or lazy is so narrow minded, ignorant and judgemental, and lacks compassion. It makes me really sad, that overweight people don't get more sympathy. If it was easy, people wouldn't be fat would they?

Excellent post.

I'm fat and I'd desperately like not to be
What I would have to do to become slim I just can't do
I just can't
I've been attempting it now for 30 years

Without success

The thing is that there will always be people affected by different health conditions, but why are these not affecting obesity levels elsewhere like they do here?
Do people in, for example, South Korea not have health issues?

There’s a lot of shit like high fructose corn syrup in western diets. Unless you make everything from scratch then it’s difficult to avoid. The below BBC documentary is worth a watch.

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01jxzv8

Sugar is a different point then what I was asking though.

@SchrodingersImmigrant

What were you asking?

My understanding of your post is that you were asking:

If people in other countries, say South Korea, have the same types of health conditions (thyroid perhaps) as people here and those conditions affect weight gain / obesity here, why aren’t those same health conditions affecting weight gain / obesity in other countries, such as South Korea?

The point on South Korea or other countries with (currently) less obesity is key. We need to look at what it is in their environments and cultures that leads to less obesity.

This paper says:

‘Asian populations show several differences in genetic factors when compared with the white population, and they also have lower cut points for environmental risk factors.’

Interestingly though a lot of Asian countries now have growing obesity problems.

@Blackandwhitehorse

I went to the USA for the first time in 2004. It was the first time I’d ever seen obese people of Asian origin.

@LaurieFairyCake
It has certainly been a huge lifestyle change ( I never really understood that as a yo yo dieter) but not only are your portions smaller but you can't eat certain things.
For example, if I eat a bit of cake I will probably be fine but if I was to eat a slice of cake I will most likely have a sugar dump and it is pretty rough. When I first was getting used to it.. I thought I was going to die!
But now, I don't crave sugary things at all and if I feel like something I will only have a bit.... or suffer
This is an amazing tool they gave me BUT it is not easy. I still have to make the right choices with food and I exercise every day - hard!
And I am loosing 200grams to 300 grams a week. For me this has not been a quick journey but for others it has.

Still.... my BMI is down to 30 from 40 and I just feel.. happier

I didn't answer your question!
Yes. I have no problem eating anything. It is just the amount

Thanks for that, very pleased to hear how well youve done. Did you have the bypass or the sleeve?

I'm hoping the changes I make will be quite easy, I've not dieted for about 20 years - I currently eat 1500 calories a day and the doc said it would help me control it down to a 1000 but that I wouldn't feel hungry just eating that.

^The thing is that there will always be people affected by different health conditions, but why are these not affecting obesity levels elsewhere like they do here?
Do people in, for example, South Korea not have health issues?^

Being fat was also pretty rare over here a few generations back. Do genes just go bad over a few decades?

I'd be interested whether most people consider smoking a choice?