To ask why it is that it is accepted that people can be naturally thin, but not naturally fat?

[MrsShawnHatosy]

Just that really. It seems to me that if one can be true so can the other. But fat is seen as something blameworthy, always.

And I should have known better than to expect you to understand the difference between understanding and disagreeing.

I think you're right to an extent, people's natural healthy weight varies. Some people are certainly stockier and broader so look larger. And some people store weight more easily than others, meaning they are more predisposed to gaining weight.

But I don't think anyone's natural healthy weight is obese. That requires eating more calories than you need over a period of time which is unhealthy.

That being said, I don't think anyone should be judged for being overweight. There are so many mental, physical, and social factors that contribute to weight gain and no one knows anyone else's full circumstances (plus it's just not anyone else's business 🤷‍♀️).

I think pp is asking if you think we are solely responsible? Or if you will allow for the idea that circumstances outside of our control may impact what we consume and how much we excercise.
That it's quite a different matter for a person with a lot of autonomy, time on their hands and financial means to eat well and excercise than it is for people balancing multiple priorities.
And that knowing this, its unhelpful that the options most easily accessible to us are not the healthiest.

Ummm. They do. And thin bones are a known risk factor for osteoporosis.

Some people have cart horse bones and some people are built like thoroughbreds. People with racehorse bones will have much thinner wrists and ankles and give a first impression of carrying less fat than someone with thicker wrists and ankles when they aren't.

Yes, we're solely responsible unless we're children being fed by our parents.

Yes I was very slim all through my 20s even though I ate mostly crap and didn’t exercise much. I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism in my late 30s. It makes it twice as easy to gain weight and twice as hard to lose it/keep it off.

this is an odd thing to say. Of course being within a healthy BMI carries far fewer health risks than being overweight. Being underweight is actually much more dangerous than being overweight.

This. Absolutely ridiculous to suggest that everyone has the same size frame. Far Eastern women for example mostly have tiny birdlike frames.

Being underweight can have worse outcomes when it comes to surviving cancer.

There are without doubt "naturally slim" people. People whose metabolism is really efficient and takes care of it if they go a little over their ideal calories for a day or two. I know an awful lot of people (just because I'm in my 60s) and I have definitely met at least two people in my life (one man, one woman) who really do eat a lot, don't move much, and never gain weight. So it's a tiny percentage but they do exist. I'm a bit sceptical that such a very high proportion of women in the public eye claim to be naturally slim . But they do exist.

Any sceptics out there should seek out that fecal transplant documentary. There was a recipient cured of their infection (c dificile in the case I'm thinking of) but rapidly gained 30lb in weight and became obese for the first time in their lives. The donor was obese.

I’m disabled. I don’t overeat. I can’t afford to buy extra even if I was inclined to, I’m not a huge fan of sweets or chocolate only very occasionally and I am vegetarian and as we are a veg farm eat way more than 5 a day as it’s my cheapest option. However I’m on several types of medication that cause weight gain and my mobility is very limited. I wish I could afford to take weight loss jags or go on a VLCD as my weight is upsetting me greatly and I worry it will add to my already poor health, however it’s not something I choose.

There is variation around “normal weight” for individuals. So people can be naturally thin to naturally chubby based on their individual bodies, build and metabolism. I am one of three sister. Growing up we all ate the same diet- I’ve always been slim, one of my sister’s was always chubbier, and one of my sister’s was always skinnier. As adults we’re all a similar height (give or take a couple of inches) and we’ve all naturally settled as size 10, size 12 and size 8, and have been these sizes for the past 30 years.

However, if you’re taking about extremes outside of “the norm” then no, neither end is natural, whether we are talking about being so thin bones are sticking out and a person is suffering from malnutrition, or whether we go the other end and we’re talking obesity. Neither of those are natural states and both are caused by either excessive over- or under- eating.

Read what I said.

Being naturally thin at the lowest level of a healthy weight.

Being overweighnt is the second biggest cause of cancer after smoking.

And implicated in many, many other diseases besides.

The fact that people actually believe this really worries me. Where does this nonsense come from??

It is totally possible to be overweight and very healthy. It is absolutely not the case that if you are overweight you automatically have health risks and there is no reason to believe this would be the case.

What I find more worrying is how little people understand the risks of being thin. If you are at the lowest level of healthy weight - which for women is very low - you have little to no buffer. If you develop any illness that causes you to lose weight, or restricts your eating for a period of time, you will struggle far more than someone that has some fat to lose. Weirdly this is very well recognised in older people but totally overlooked in younger people. The only drum that's constantly banged is 'overweight = bad' which is so silly and simplistic I have to wonder what the thinking is behind it.

Incidentally, the only people in my family who've had serious ongoing health issues related to weight have had them due to being too thin.

Whereas I've struggled all my life, starved myself to the point of eating disorders from the age of 11, and was finally diagnosed with PMOS and stage 3 lipoedema so therefore have two genetic metabolic diseases. I am not fat because I eat too much, FFS, and anyone telling me I am is firstly wrong and secondly quite dim. Give your head a wobble (FFS 🙄.)

The 'obesity causes cancer' claim has always baffled me due to the total lack of nuanced thinking behind it. It like a claim a child makes - you're fat so you got a disease. What??

People who have ovarian cancer tend to be very thin, because ovarian cancer makes them thin. Anyone claiming that thinness causes ovarian cancer would be treated like the idiot they are.

What is going on??

It carries the risk of osteopenia and osteoporosis, for starters.

Being overweight does not "always" carry health risks. I think the range where weight carries health risks is class 2 obesity and above.

Fat causes inflammation just by existing.

Inflammation is now known to be implicated in an absolute mass of problems, recently discovered to include depression.

I do not believe that it is possible to be truly healthy and carry excess fat at the same time. Some fat may help an older person live longer if they get ill. Being fat in younger people generally reduces life expectancy.

Fat is associated with higher rates of illness, so you cannot count the protective effects of fat in surviving illness at face value.

Fat does not cause inflammation just by existing. It is vital for a body to have fat, it is part of the normal structure a functioning human.

I agree with you op. I’m naturally thin, struggled to keep enough weight on during pregnancy and breastfeeding, and to restore a healthy weight after a hospital stay. I spent my childhood with people unsuccessfully trying to fatten me up. My df and ds are similar. If I were to be tmi, I’d guess we poo it all out.

Dd, dh and dm are the opposite and seem to turn all food to fat. They also think about food much more. If I had an option to take a nutrition pill instead of eating, I’d find it much more convenient, and not overly miss the pleasure of eating. I’d save it for birthdays and Christmas.

They don’t have the off switch when they’re full, so it’s true they eat more. I can’t stand the feeling of a full stomach. But we’re all eating the same sort of food and they exercise significantly more and harder than we do. Dh and dm watch their weight like hawks and are always weighing up their options.

If being thin correlated with effort, they’d be skinny.

Yes it’s worrying that people think being thin will protect you from certain diseases. I’ve known several younger people get colorectal cancer who were thin (always were, didn’t become thin as a result of the cancer). None survived, sadly.

It's worth remembering also that BMI and other measures of weight are quite arbitrary - there is very little structured research to pinpoint how and why weight (or the lack of it) impacts health.

The research around being thin tends to centre on extreme thinness - which of course can be fatal - but there is little to no research on the impact of being underweight or being at the lower end of 'healthy.' IME weight tends to be ignored until the person is overweight - no one looks at whether a persons lack of weight was the cause of their illness. It just isn't considered.

Again, in my family, a few different people have had issues directly related to being underweight (which is not deliberate on their part - they don't put on weight no matter what they try). Nothing is ever said about those issues, in fact I'd wager most people don't even know they exist. My BIL's lung collapsed because he's so thin. I didn't even know what was a thing.

If you're getting osteoporosis due to your weight, you're not healthy then, are you?

Carrying too much fat creates inflammation. Inflammation carries health risks.

There is so much denial going on on this thread about the dangers of being fat.

Younger people today are facing a drop in their healthy life expectancy from their parents for the first time in recorded history.

That is principally because of increasing body weight.

I don't think anyone's in denial. Being very overweight has obvious health implications - not least of which being damage to the joints.

The point that I and others are making is that it's not as simple as fat=bad and I would argue that putting such a simplistic message out is irresponsible and damaging.