Is obesity the responsibility of the NHS?

[snookspooks]

I've read a few posts lately where posters say the NHS isn't doing enough to combat obesity. As far as I am aware people are taught from pre-school age upwards about healthy eating and the importance of exercise and a healthy lifestyle. This continues through secondary school. I don't know about in further education but I don't remember any from my own FE days. We have access to NHS information online about healthy lifestyles, and the information is repeated in pregnancy and post-natal days by midwives and health visitors (that was my experience but I appreciate it might not be the same for others). We are given the information and it's up to us as individuals what we do with that information. The idea is we use it to prevent getting obese in the first place.

If people do get obese, through whatever factors, and there are many that contribute to this, is it up to the NHS to fix this or should the onus be on individuals? What happened in countries without an NHS style system?

Cancers are mainly preventable but the NHS provides treatment for those but then we can't fix cancers by ourselves, or heart disease, or strokes, but obesity is something we can treat ourselves. I'm not saying it's easy but it is possible. Of course obesity is linked to those diseases/conditions so it's not straightforward.

Is too little responsibility put on those who are obese?

I don't think it's straightforward and I think it's impossible to give treatment for some partially or completely self-inflicted conditions but not others. It's an ethical nightmare. What do other countries do?

Same @ConstableGoody

I got about 3 hours sleep last night. I've just done a pretty full day at work and I'm not done yet.

I am having issues with my hands today so I'm not safe to chop things or work with boiling water so I'll have to have an easy dinner from the freezer.

Yes they say its what people with ED are told about. I'm the highest weight I've ever been but not doing the massive extremes of restricting or binging I used to do. I'm also the most active since getting peloton bike. Which I use most days. I'm finding exercise enjoyable for first time ever. Not something I need to do to loose weight which I felt I've my while life. but something I look forward to because I enjoy the buzz it gives me. I wish I'd found intuitive eating in my 20s instead of endless diets. I wouldn't have so much to unlearn being in my 40s now. I belive this should he taught in schools and diet culture should be gotten rid of.

@pncr its a proper bag of shit isn’t it

@ConstableGoody it is proper shit.

My consultants are happy that I'm doing as much as I can but apparently according to know it alls here who for a medical degree off google I'm just not trying hard enough.

@pncr I hear you. People tell me I should exercise, I explain that I’ve been told I shouldn’t because it causes chemical reactions in my brain that reduce brain function and… people don’t believe me! Like I spend my time making up excuses not to do stuff.

Made all the more aggravating because until I got ill I was a size 6/8 fitness freak! Not that that should matter- people should keep their neb out. Who cares how far or thin other people are?!

Yip same @ConstableGoody

I was a size 6 and played a sport competitively. My (adult) kids all play sport to a decent standard.

But I'm fat and lazy and my kids must be too 🙄 because I feed them junk.

This is a similar scenario to me with having ME/CFS. Some days I hardly have the energy to get out of bed. If I do anything, it affects me. We went for a meal on Friday night and afterwards I was in agony because of being sat on a dining chair for a couple of hours. And on Saturday I slept most of the day to recover.

This is a far cry from my previous life where I swam 5/6 times a week (for leisure, not competitively or anything). I played football, walked a lot. I’d give anything to be able to go back to that.

It would be great if we could bring back Sure Start centres and keep them going for at least two generations. It would be wonderful if we could find ways to prevent excess weight in children. If only we could undo the starve binge cycle of the diet industry and encourage intuitive eating. But we can't even have the conversation.

The NHS will (of course) continue to treat as many people as it can, for as many thing as it has to.

@pncr oh yeah, the fat parents always have fat kids yada yada yada… the long skinny kid here must not be mine! Or the healthy dog.

@BeretRaspberry I have M.E too. It’s as if people think you prefer being ill/disabled instead of desperately wishing you could still get on with your life… and all these judgey people think it’s a choice and it will never happen to them.

Until I became physically disabled I was fit and active and slim.

Funny how lots of disabilities mean I have meds that have a side effect of weight gain and also can't exercise due to pain and it not being recommended - and now I'm fat.

But that must be my FAULT. I SHOULD. JUST. TRY. HARDER.

Have I tried this or that. I must be lying about what I eat. I can't possibly have been told that I shouldn't exercise as it will wreck my leg and hip. Nope. Couldn't have been told that by a consultant. Not at all.

Why is it so prevalent to not believe disabled people?

Makes me so angry.

This is what I find so baffling, when I started looking into intuitive eating I was like why isn't this like the standard. If I went to doctors about my weight, they would tell me to go on (another) diet. And i think they were giving free slimming world sessions. And the cycle would continue. Why isn't healthy relationship with food what the goal is. Why is restricting the normal and then ur called lazy and a failure when it doesn't work. Why are children taught about good and bad food when the natural way of eating food doesn't have good or bad it's just food. It's so hard to be in the intuitive eating space. When it isn't seen as normal. Disordered eating is seen as normal and diets cycles are seen as normal. No wonder there is a weight problem .

@pncr presumably we are all a) liars and b) a bit dim as well as being disabled.

People don’t tend to use the word invalid anymore, but clearly they think of us as in-valid.

Oh this. Yes. This. IN - valid.

Also wanted to add. Not only is the guilt and shame from yourself at failing a diet u have society in general guit and shaming u for just the Audacity to be in a bigger body. I don't actually belive being in a bigger body is nessasery healthy but I belive when I was intuitively eating I was loosing weight (unfortunately diet culture thinking stepped in and I ended up putting on weight due to restricting and binging again) but I do belive when I've been in thinner body I havent been healthy either because I was in extremely disordered eating. Thin does not equal good and fat bad. People need to get that, unfortunately years and years of diet culture has ingrained that into us

I'm large and it's so disheartening knowing there isn't a real solution.

There absolutely is a real solution that works for the vast majority of people - eat less and exercise more. As long as you consume fewer calories than you use in the course of a day, the vast majority of people will lose weight. It really is that simple.

It realy isn’t that simple. This explains why.

Take heart, my MiL was obese, she is also in her 70s, she was waiting for knee surgery but after losing a significant amount of weight & physio, she no longer does need a new knee.

She has also kept it off too, diet and an indoor exercise bike, which she uses daily.

It can be done but its not easy at all.

But it isn't that simple for everyone it isn't for me.

@theGooHasGone studies show it works for about 5% of people.
Can you imagine anything else where we say "do this it works!!!" Where there is only a 5% success rate?!

And to those above I have ME/cfs too and currently feeling so debilitated by it. I am scared what my future will look like. Before ME/cfs I used to belong to a walking group and walk coastal paths in particular. I really did like walking so it wasn't hard to "exercise." Now I can't its so hard when people suggest it as it isn't for want of trying!

And yes of course I've tried diets...

It might be more accurate to say they work but if people go back to eating too much and doing little exercise then of course it won't work long term. That's why changes need to be be lifelong not just for a few weeks. Healthy lifestyle, not a healthy few weeks or months or whatever. Medical issues aside of course.

Some obese people don't know how to eat healthily, some have mental health issues or eating disorders and some people just don't care.

The NHS does support obese people but if the underlying reason isn't tackled it fails

So the consensus is, that the UK should give up and be fat and unhealthy?

Despite other countries having lower rates of obesity and much better health outcomes generally?

Exercise doesn't just protect against obesity but also dementia, heart disease, mental degradation, the ageing process (actually true- Google it) depression, anxiety, joint pain, arthritis...

But fat and unhealthy don’t always go hand in hand. People can exercise, eat well, not smoke or drink and still be fat.

Just like people can eat shit, not exercise, smoke like a chimney, drink like a sailor and still be thin.