NHS costs attributable to overweight and obesity are projected to reach £9.7 billion by 2050

[hellymissy]

So many posters keep banging on about people not wearing masks, spreading the virus and overwhelming the nhs, people breaking rules etc which is obviously an issue - but we also need to focus on some bigger issues around the long and short term sustainability of the NHS a d consider ways to fix them.

Extracts from government website shows that;

“UK and international evidence suggests that being severely overweight puts people at greater risk of hospitalisation, Intensive Care Unit (ICU) admission and death from COVID-19, with risk growing substantially as body mass index (BMI) increases.

The current evidence does not suggest that having excess weight increases people’s chances of contracting COVID-19. However, the data does show that obese people are significantly more likely to become seriously ill and be admitted to intensive care with COVID-19 compared to those with a healthy BMI.

The UK-wide NHS costs attributable to overweight and obesity are projected to reach £9.7 billion by 2050, with wider costs to society estimated to reach £49.9 billion per year.”

If anything will cripple the NHS it’s the direct and indirect impact of obesity on ICU units, and long term pressure obesity puts on the NHS.

Seriously, What else can we do to tackle obesity?

**this is NOT a fat shaming thread, purely a thread to redirect some peoples attention towards some of the real issues around COVID

It strikes me that how these threads typically go (even when the person creating them doesn’t intend it) is that some people will suggest certain things that are likely underlying causes of obesity & suggest possible solutions. Other people will come along & say no those are just stupid excuses people need to take responsibility and eat less or ban them from treatment. For those in the latter group isn’t discussion is pointless as they’ve already decided it’s far people’s (& smokers & drug addicts) own stupid fault for doing something wrong in the first place and they don’t deserve any sympathy or help if they want to try and improve. For people who already are obese hearing this is quite upsetting because we already know we are responsible for eating too much and we are making efforts to stop but we need a bit of support because poverty (of time &/or money), disordered relationships with food &/or targeted advertising that have helped reenforce the idea that food that is bad for us is a treat/comfort (which also leads to many people encouraging you to eat crap if you are stressed/upset etc) are all things that make it incredibly difficult to lose weight. Asking for some help to create an environment where it’s easier to lose weight isn’t suggesting it’s someone else’s fault you are fat. It’s just asking for help. If you are honestly suggesting no one should be able to get that help ever because they should have just not fucked up and started overeating in the first place that’s pretty callous

@DianaT1969

We shouldn't underestimate the addictive quality of processed carbs. Our bodies have an "enough" switch when eating protein and fat. They don't have that when eating processed carbs. There are some YouTube videos on this by doctors. Parents who give their children crisps, cake, a biscuit, white bread, drinks which contain sugar or artificial sugar on a daily basis - what nutrients do they think their child gets from that? That small body processing so much unrequired insulin spiking 'food' compounded by the natural sugar in fruit. They don't get nutrients from it, so aren't satiated. If we cleared supermarket shelves of all super-processed foods and everything containing sugar and artificial sugars, so that the only food left was whole food that you can recognise in its natural state, and nobody could buy it, we'd bring obesity down, but it would take 5 years to break current lifestyles and habits.

I agree.

And I would add to this that the current govt guidelines play perfectly into the hands of the manufacturers of junk food because it’s all about calories

This allows them to produce nutritionally deficient addictive food that’s only 99 calories

Our obsession with calories is misguided / totally wrong. It matters what calories you are made up of. Massively.

I despair when I hear of people with PCOS on this thread who are clearly religiously following the guidelines (and not believed) and keeping calories low and finding it makes absolutely no difference. I believe that poster, it is true that people can follow the calorie dogma and not lose weight. They are simply been given very bad advice. If they understood pcos as a problem with insulin resistance and that eating starchy sugary foods will literally continue the harm, they would be able to transform their health in a matter of months.

I find it a disgrace. That person with a serious health condition being given a treatment that is obviously doing more harm than good. And the icing on the cake being that they are blamed for not following it correctly as the reason why it’s not working.

They say if you build it they will come

In the Nederlands they built the infrastructure and the people use it to shop, commute and get to school

In LA they kept widen the freeway and the drivers kept coming images.app.goo.gl/1Kwv9JQd7nahX2oN7

You will not solve obesity by keep putting another hole in the belt for your trousers.

We need to stop doing what we do and actually do something different

@whatkatydid2013, if obesity could've tackled by help, it wouldn't be escalating as it's even and is expecting to continue to do so.

The solutions are not easy but they certainly start with people just taking responsibity and making some changes.

If anyone made a pact with themselves to reduce their daily consumption by 500 calories day, obesity rate would gradually go down over the years rather than multiply.

The problem is people don't want to face that simple fact because they are set in their habits and don't want to reduce the food they eat because of comfort.

We need to stop normalising being overweight. We need to stop saying it's ok because saying that it isn't upset people. We need to move away from expecting others to sort out what is our own doing.

We need to move away from associating food with comfort and going back to the association that food is mainly a mean for survival and the source of pleasure derived from it should be considered a treat, not a due.

As someone who has struggled with weight I found support for weight loss woeful.
I requested help with weight loss but was told I didn't qualify as I paid fir my prescriptions. My BMI was about 35 at tbat stage.
I was basically bullied into losing weight for an operation by a Consultation who blamed my condition on my weight even though I had every other risk factor too.
I lost weight using vlc replacements but 6 months later I was a stone heavier.
I was in a better place mentally so managed to lose enough weight to crerp into overweight category.
Than a whole heap of issues led to a pile on of weight again.
Some people really struggle to lose weight and shoukd have support to lead healthier lifestyles. I exercise loads btw.

Asda have started selling a very tasty range of ready meals. Lentils, brown rice, vegetables type. There are the sane price as the other regular ready meals. I give a month before it disappear again because people won't buy it preferring the fat Lassen ones instead.

We will then hear people saying that there isn't enough healthy options to buy and it's the supermarkets' fault!

@Macncheeseballs

Fluffycloud - staying or rather being slim is not about will power as much as life style change

It is.

I’ve been fat, I’m now slim. The difference is me, it’s 100% me. I have one very overweight parent and one very slim parent. Same house, vastly different diets & now their old diet related health problems in the overweight one.

No ones holding a gun to my head and making me buy the wrong foods. Even when I was really poor I ate healthily with lots of cheap beans, dried pulses, pasta in tomato sauces, curries, fruit, cheap porridge oats for breakfast every day because I didn’t want to be fat again.

Wanting something doesn’t mean you have to do it. The world won’t end if you stop killing yourself with poor food/alcohol choices.

Some people really struggle to lose weight
Most people do, but what more can be done to get people to accept that the suction is not complex. Eat less of the crap, eat smaller portions, add more proteins, cut down on the carbs, cut down the alcohol, watch total calories, and exercised and be patient, it takes time to lose the weight, the sane it took some time for it to creep up.

Oy a small minority will not lose weight adopting the above yet people always seem to want to find a miracle cure that won't be restrictive and show quick results.

It's funny that the impacts of an aging population are not considered unacceptable though. Obesity is a side affect of a fairly recent modern lifestyle. A generation before and extreme old age is the result of that 'modern' lifestyle.

As there are less physical jobs; more car use generally in society overcoming a sedentary hurdle can be challenging.

But of course no one wants to address car use or our service economy. They're viewed as 'good' and the blame shifted over to an individual.

It's funny that the impacts of an aging population are not considered unacceptable though.

May it be because everyone goes through all ages naturally so we can't really say "if you change your lifestyle a bit, you won't get older"?...

What you call blame I call responsibity.

The use of cars is not new, the previous generation was no better, at least by FT working people, yet the rise in obesity was nowhere where it is.

I walk 15k steps a day in average. I still need to serious restrict what I eat if I want to remain a healthy weight.

I’m just going to back away from the thread at this point because but OP possibly a part of the issue is a point blank refusal from a significant section of the population to believe that anything other than fat people being lazy/useless is part of the cause? As a result all we do is keep telling fat people “just eat less and move more it’s easy” and ignore all the reasons people aren’t managing to do that. If people won’t accept that the being obese can often be a symptom of something else and treat the actual cause you’ve no chance. So yes personal responsibility comes into it as you have to decide to change/get better but support is needed to help the people who are engaged or more of them are going to fail than succeed.

Fluffy cloud, yes that was my point, wanting a fit healthy long life is a fundamental shift in your mind and lifestyle rather than relying on an iron will

That was a stone heavier than before I lost the weight.

@whatkatydid2013 I agree, we have to be more open minded and realise there are many causes to obesity.

Although I still think intervention has to come from school age and be much more hard hitting - people need to be shown images of what being obese does to the body - just like they show images of lungs on cigarette packets.

The soft approach isn't working, I'm not saying we go extreme and start fat shaming either before anyone starts but surely there has to be a middle ground?

No ones holding a gun to my head and making me buy the wrong foods

This is one of the things that doesn't help.

What you are saying there is that this is all about discipline and willpower, and there is no doubt that plays a part. But the missing part of this statement is that the food that is peddled at you is literally designed to biologically make you crave more. If we considered the foods that have high sugar/high fat combined (ultra processed junk) as the addictive substances they are, we may be able to actually illicit our willpower to break the cravings/biological response.

It would be great if people viewed pizza, pasta, curly fries and crisps in the same way as they do tobacco - addictive, harmful to your health and something you need to apply willpower to while you break the cravings and addictive cycle.

This comes back to the point about the calorie dogma. No one gets addicted to eating eggs. No one says 'ah just one more egg'. The type of calories that you eat really matters.

Obesity can be due to chronic pain. My sister is a life long vegetarian who cooks her meals from scratch, has never drank alcohol, used to love yoga, swimming and hiking but developed Chronic Migraines in her late 20s. This left her bedridden at times, migraines were triggered just by going out for a walk. Her diet is still healthy and home cooked but things like Cola and salty crisps help with migraine and when your in so much pain you'll do anything you think might help in the moment. I get a lot of migranes myself and they make my life very difficult at times but I don't get half the migraines my sister gets.

She is constantly exhausted from bith the migraines and the medication. She gained a huge amount of weight on migraine prevention medications where weight gain is a common side effect.

They do not yet properly understand migraines yet but weight gain is common which raises inflammation and increases migraines.

Weight gain is complex and not always due to greed, laziness, lack of knowledge etc.

I think it is quite obvious that medical issues are a whole different kettle of fish and genral talk isn't aimed at them, because it is different matter losing weight when someone has disabilities or serious health issues.
In many cases it is still possible, but in many it would be too much. That's absolutely understandable.

@Glassythighs

Here's another hot potato...you are describing vegetarianism as something that is healthy. There is a lot of evidence to show that it is extremely unhealthy and nutritionally problematic, causing chronic conditions like migraines for example. But maybe let's no go there on this thread - that's a whole other debate and really for the purposes of this thread is another example of confusing and possibly incorrect advice

So it is just the lazy fat people?

How can you tell them apart from all of the others?

Although I still think intervention has to come from school age and be much more hard hitting

Kids aren't overweight, old people are, whilst yes school age interventions in healthy lifestyles are important, mitigating the actual harm to the country from obesity needs something done with the 50-60 and year olds, particularly the wealthy ones who are best able to make an actual change.

Some people on this thread are horrible and judgemental. Too mentally lazy to realise that reasons for weight gain are nuanced and individual rather than always down to happily scoffing 3 pasties at greggs for lunch everyday!

I think you all know that too but it suits you to be able to dismiss others as cretins.

Just because it’s sold doesn’t mean you have to buy it though, you have a choice. I have PCOS so according to this thread I should be overweight but I’m not because I know that if I gain weight my periods stop and that will raise my risk of endometrial cancer which I really don’t want.

When I was fat I knew that eating the wrong foods was the cause, I stopped eating them because I didn’t want to end up like my dad and grandma who are/were both overweight.

It’s a struggle for my dh to lose weight because he has an under active thyroid, he also has heart failure and knows he has to get the weight off to relieve the workload for his heart and to put him in a better place physically for the two heart ops he needs. So he’s eating healthily & the weights coming off. He’s lost 10lbs while being unable to climb the stairs without getting out of breath and spending a lot of time unable to do anything physical at all because he gets out of breath so easily. I did warn him that maybe eating like a teenager whose parents have gone away for the weekend and left £50 on the side was a bad idea but he never listened to me & at the end of the day it’s down to him. When he was at work there was always biscuits and cakes around & he’d be eating them despite knowing as a diabetic he shouldn’t.

A lot of these processed foods are also impacting wildlife, we all think it’s awful that the orangutans have less habitat due to palm oil production, that’s theres documented cases of orangutans being beaten to death by locals and their babies being kept malnourished as pets but it’s humans driving the market for palm oil, it’s going into our chocolate bars, cakes, biscuits, puddings & bread.

It’s down to us, no one can make you live healthily or exercise.

There was a mumsnetter on here recently who worked with patients with fatty liver disease, no treatment is available until you get transplant stage because it’s a lifestyle condition so if you don’t catch it early you are in trouble but she said woe betide her if she mentions diet.

Obesity is the second biggest cause of cancer in the uk but no one looks at the obese with the disgust they do at smokers

This. And smokers pay a fuck ton of tax to carry on with their ‘habit’ to at least balance it out.
The need for people to start addressing their weight is as much an advantage to the whole population as it is to each individual. And that goes for every other form of lifestyle related illness that their is. People in other places around the globe manage to live long and seemingly healthy lives - why can’t the UK do the same?? Why can’t people take responsibility for their own health to ‘protect the NHS’ rather than clapping on their fucking doorsteps.

*there not their. Autocorrect!!