Talking about weight and covid

[Iamsososoexcited]

In the 44-53 age group, 73% of people in the UK are overweight to obese. This is a government statistic according to the House of Commons library.

Does anyone else think this is massively concerning?

This awful virus arrived a year ago. It has a disproportionate effect on people who are overweight and obese.

People are washing hands, wearing masks, keeping their distance, isolating with families to stay safe. Why aren’t people losing weight to stay safe as well?

I don’t understand. It is like being told there is a course of action you can take (losing weight) that will drastically improve your chances of surviving this terrible virus, and yet people are not doing it?

Please help me understand?

Two very relevant paragraphs from the foreword of that report:

The project’s findings, summarised here, challenge the simple portrayal of obesity as an issue of personal willpower – eating too much and doing too little. Although, at the heart of the problem, there is an imbalance between energy intake and energy expenditure, the physical and psychological drivers inherent in human biology mean that the vast majority of us are predisposed to gaining weight. It’s not surprising that the median body mass index in the UK is now above that considered to be in the ‘healthy’ range. We evolved in a world of relative food scarcity and hard physical work – obesity is one of the penalties of the modern world, where energy-dense food is abundant and labour-saving technologies abound

Creating an environment that better suits our biology and supports us in developing and sustaining healthy eating and activity habits is a challenge for society and for policy makers. It’s not simply a health issue, nor a matter of individual choice. The current and likely future scale of the obesity problem is daunting, but the encouraging findings are that there is considerable scope to align policies to tackle climate change and sustainability, for example, with policies for public health

@BIWI

Two very relevant paragraphs from the foreword of that report:

The project’s findings, summarised here, challenge the simple portrayal of obesity as an issue of personal willpower – eating too much and doing too little. Although, at the heart of the problem, there is an imbalance between energy intake and energy expenditure, the physical and psychological drivers inherent in human biology mean that the vast majority of us are predisposed to gaining weight. It’s not surprising that the median body mass index in the UK is now above that considered to be in the ‘healthy’ range. We evolved in a world of relative food scarcity and hard physical work – obesity is one of the penalties of the modern world, where energy-dense food is abundant and labour-saving technologies abound

Creating an environment that better suits our biology and supports us in developing and sustaining healthy eating and activity habits is a challenge for society and for policy makers. It’s not simply a health issue, nor a matter of individual choice. The current and likely future scale of the obesity problem is daunting, but the encouraging findings are that there is considerable scope to align policies to tackle climate change and sustainability, for example, with policies for public health

The problem with that is no policies are going to make any impact on this. It would take generations of change and a complete ban on high calorie foods from the entire world to make a difference, which is never going to happen. All the time high calorie foods are available, people will eat too much of them. High calorie foods are never going to be made ‘unavailable’ unless you have a dictatorship style country and certain foods are completely banned from entering the country. Everyone needs to take personal responsibility. This is incredibly hard because as the above says, we are hard wired to eat high calorie foods.

[quote tootsytoo]@Yohoheaveho are you serious?[/quote]
Yes I am serious, when I go running I get terrified looks from everyone I pass, I try to be polite and stop slow down make sure no one gets near enough to me breathing eccetera
in the summer I was cycling quite a lot but again the routes that I have always used became much more crowded and difficult to navigate.

Maybe people are losing weight to stay safe?

I’ve just paid £12k and had weight loss surgery, such is my concern.

@Iamsososoexcited

In the 44-53 age group, 73% of people in the UK are overweight to obese. This is a government statistic according to the House of Commons library.

Does anyone else think this is massively concerning?

This awful virus arrived a year ago. It has a disproportionate effect on people who are overweight and obese.

People are washing hands, wearing masks, keeping their distance, isolating with families to stay safe. Why aren’t people losing weight to stay safe as well?

I don’t understand. It is like being told there is a course of action you can take (losing weight) that will drastically improve your chances of surviving this terrible virus, and yet people are not doing it?

Please help me understand?

Because we're too worried about offending people. Even if it saves lives.

@Franticbutterfly

I work on a red Covid ward and the people who aren't elderly and are dying, are generally overweight.

They say on the news there are loads of under 55s in hospital. They should be adding that there are loads of under 55s who take no care or responsibility for their health whatsoever, and already have a catalogue of health problems very often caused by poor lifestyle choices.

So many of my friends and family are so unfit and make no attempt to improve their health and fitness, it really worries me.

I agree

It's the elephant in the room that no one is alliwed to talk about.

@WhatKatyDidNxt

It is concerning. But now is a tough time to lose weight with no gyms open, no personal trainers, lots of people being more busy / stressed / under pressure etc. Personally l am more busy at work, we both do shifts and at the risk of sounding feeble l just want to have something to cheer me up e.g. a nice dinner, dessert etc. We are doing dry January and couch to 5k plus healthy eating but it’s slow going

There are loads of fitness videos on YouTube. No need to even leave the house.

I have brought my BMI down a lot over the last year but am still in the obese category (5ft 7 - BMI 36). Diagnosed BED so dieting isn’t really recommended but I was scared.

I then recently had a family member rant at me and listing all these studies that said I was going to die if I got covid.

I called my GP for some anti anxiety medication (autism) as this sent me on a spiral that me at my diet/exercise went out of the window for a few weeks and my weight started to creep back up.

She was really reassuring. She said it wasn’t my just the BMI number but the health conditions usually associated with it. As I have a higher muscle mass (weight lift six times a week), little abdominal fat, low blood pressure, resting heart rate and low cholesterol she assured me I’d most likely be fine.

I’ve never understood the lack of support given to obese people from general society. It is not acceptable to tell an anorexic person to ‘just eat more and move less - simple’ or an alcoholic ‘just don’t drink alcohol’. But for some reason all the complex factors that cause obesity (trauma, abuse, mh problems) are just ignored in favour of viewing us as a load of lazy idiots.

It is not acceptable to tell an anorexic person to ‘just eat more and move less - simple’ or an alcoholic ‘just don’t drink alcohol’. It is very difficult for an adult with anorexia to access help, waiting lists are long.

@GhoulWithADragonTattoo

Lost 2 stone in 2020 and now a healthy weight. Loads of people on the weight loss board are losing weight at least partly because of Covid. It’s not easy though especially at this time of year.

He's actually set a good example. He's lost a lot of weight since his scare. I read he favours running and cyycling He now needs to sort his hair out.

@kowari sadly there is little help for anything right now.
When my sister had anorexia there was definitely support available but that was a long time ago.
Although I was also turned away when I asked for help to lose weight way before the Pandemic.

[quote Northernsoulgirl45]@kowari sadly there is little help for anything right now.
When my sister had anorexia there was definitely support available but that was a long time ago.
Although I was also turned away when I asked for help to lose weight way before the Pandemic.[/quote]
I don't know how old your sister was but there are often very different waiting times for teens and young adults vs other adults, and a postcode lottery as well. I was on the waiting list for six months, at a BMI of 16, for others it can be years.

@kowari I know it is a struggle to get support for anything for many people (especially in the last few years).

I meant the attitude of society in general to obese people, a feeling of support that just isn’t there for them.

You don’t hear many people in general calling an anorexic person lazy for not ‘bothering’ to eat, or bemoaning their lack of will power to just eat food. People (I hope most) understand that it is a mental illness, not entirely dependant on a fault of that persons character.

I’m not saying willpower doesn’t come in to it al all, but I think it should be accepted that something in society has to change.

I don’t lack will power, I quit smoking cold turkey in 2012.

But there was not adverts everywhere (and I mean everywhere) involving people taking long luxurious drags of their cigarette (This isn’t just any cigarette - it’s a M&S cigarette) or huge images of cigarettes whenever I left my house, telling me how easy and cheap it would be to just come have a drag, go in, indulge yourself.

I think it would have been a hell of a lot harder than it was.

Most people who are overweight would like to not to be if it was that easy, you can't be ignorant enough to not have ever encountered the many reasons it doesn't happen, or happen quickly?

If people who are overweight ARE going to lose it, this is very unlikely to be the time it would happen, in any case, as people are working from home and going nowhere, so they aren't getting any natural exercise. Gyms are closed. Yes you can do exercise classes at home but that's not an especially practical or appealing solution for people that have busy/small houses, and you'd have to do a lot of it to lose weight with an otherwise sedentary lifestyle.

There are so many other factors like comfort eating due to stress/boredom, economic considerations etc. I'd be very unsurprised to learn people in general have put on weight during the pandemic, rather than lost it.

Why are people so quickly so angry and aggressive when asked to talk about weight?
Smokers were probably in the majority until 30 years ago. They used to be angry and defensive about smoking when anti smoking laws first became a thing. Claimed they couldn't possible stop smoking because x y z. Not any more.

There are a huge number of reasons why obesity occurs. Yes of course the essential basic reason is that people eat too much, but it is not going to be as easy as just telling people they need to cut back. People know what foods are "healthy". The NHS anti obesity drive isn't working precisely because it does nothing to get to the crux of the reason why people become overweight.

@BareGrylls I agree. This is what I think needs to change. There was uproar years ago to suggest you couldn’t smoke in a pub / on a plane. But now it would be considered weird to eat your dinner next to someone smoking. Obesity needs to be the new smoking.

I also think that something that is not really addressed is that for many of us who are overweight - eating is enjoyable. In all the years I was overweight, I just loved to eat. Adored it. Nothing else came close to it. My absolute favourite thing in life was to sit with my book and eat a delicious, large meal. Small meal, however delicious, didn't cut it - it was over too quickly!

When I started taking my ADHD meds and they stopped my appetite, honestly for the first month I was bereft. I was losing weight with zero effort because I simply didn't feel hungry and my impulse control was suddenly alive again, but there was a huge hole in my life. I had to find something else that I turned to for joy. People were like oh, bubble bath. Go for a run. Read a good book. These were all very poor substitutes for delicious food! I cook everything from scratch, cooking and feeding people including myself is a huge part of my life.

Now thanks to my meds I've been a healthy weight for years. But it was odd at the start.

I think people are more mindful, I know plenty of people who are exercising more and trying to be healthier. I exercise every day I’m reasonably fit but I’m overweight.
Plenty of people are slim but not fit and healthy so it’s a balance .

But now it would be considered weird to eat your dinner next to someone smoking. Obesity needs to be the new smoking.

That is because inhaling second hand smoke is dangerous and unpleasant, whereas eating a meal near to a fat person is neither dangerous nor unpleasant

I'd actually say my diet was healthier when I was fat. I always lots of fruit, veg and wholegrains, it was just that my portions were enormous and I smacked. Now I have little appetite I struggle to get the right nutrients in.

I haven't RTFT but I lived in France for five years and there was a really high proportion of people in my city who exercised. It seemed ingrained in the French psyche. And it was fun, and communal! The villages would have regular fetes with run, bike and walking races, a few euros to enter and then food and drink after, the whole village would be involved. Kids at school did really cool sports every Wednesday - they'd go snowboarding and paragliding and all sorts.

I think the government heavily subsidised sports. It was all really cheap. I was never as fit (or thin) in my life as when I lived there and I ate really well too. Amazing fresh produce.

The barrier to fitness in this country seems a lot higher and more daunting. It's much easier when everyone does it at all ages so the standard is very mixed.

I love parkrun for this reason - it's popular and there's a huge variety of fitness levels and it's really supportive and communal. I can't wait for it to start again.

We'd all be fitter and healthier if the government focus was on making sports more accessible to all and starting with improving things at school level.

I know being fat is unhealthy. But it's not easy to lose weight. In my 20s/30s it WAS easy to lose weight but post menopause it's definitely not.

I bloody hate exercise and I come from a very sporty family.

Find it tedious beyond words.

ChimaeraEgg Obese parents generally have obese children. Absolutely obesity impacts on others outside of the individual concerned.

It is perfectly possible to punitively tax junk and high fat foods, as well as apps like Deliveroo and Just Eat. We already heavily tax tobacco and, to a lesser extent, alcohol and the only barrier to taxing fat and sugar laden food is public opinion. The sugar tax has already made great strides in reducing sugar consumption - not sure if it applies to venti caramel double mocha lattes, but it should.