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?

I think they eat food which makes it biologically difficult to control their appetite, food which interrupts how the hunger hormones work.

I don't agree. I just loved to eat. I would happily have binged on broccoli. Just wanted to eat and eat. I didn't eat your traditional "junk" food. Never had a McDonald's in my life. All my food home made from scratch, plenty of green veg.

Only stopped when my ADHD was treated. There's nothing really I don't eat. Carbs, sugar, fruit, veg. But I'm slim now, because I eat a lot less than I used to. The solution was, as it always is, to eat less food. But the solution was only reached when the underlying problem was treated.

Do you think people with binge eating disorder would have their problem solved if only they stopped eating bread?

Reductionist, naive viewpoint.

BTW keto/low carb/IF works
because of calorie deficit. Along with every single other diet in existence.

There is definitely a link between being very overweight, especially if you have diabetes, and have covid. There is no denying it! My sibling works in a covid ward and has noticed this too.

But, with respect, if it was as easy as the op thinks to "just be thin", then everyone would obviously choose that.

So, it's nice that you want to bring it to everyone's attention, but it doesn't mean people will suddenly be able to lose a tonne of weight if they are say 4, 5 stone overweight. How quickly can they realistically lose that amount?

Do you also support the very overweight being prioritised for vaccination or would you support them if they were furloughed so they could shield? If so, that's lovely. If not, then maybe you need to examine where your concern is coming from.

Apologies if I sound sceptical, but I have seen a lot of 'concern' for the overweight, which is in fact just prejudice dressed up to look more socially acceptable.

Full disclosure; I am a little overweight and working on it in my own way. It is an issue people struggle with all of their loves. Some well meaning (I'm sure) random on the internet saying "why are you fat? Can't you fix that?" honestly makes me want to laugh though. Don't you think most overweight people are trying to fix it regardless?

It's like telling someone with MH problems to just sort it out and enjoy life more. "Ooooooooh, now YOU'VE told me to...".

Thanks for the public message though buddy!

@ChimaeraEgg

I’m not sure why you are on a discussion board when you don’t like discussing things 🤷‍♀️
You come across as very aggressive

"...and having worse outcomes if you have covid"

Meant to say^^

I don't mean to be aggressive, it is just how I write I'm afraid. I don't agree that there is a one size fits all approach to weight loss (although yes, of course, the final solution is ALWAYS to eat less). I simply believe that you have to address the reasons you eat too much first, or ultimately the weight will not stay off.

If that is an aggressive opinion, I am sorry. I was not trying to insult anyone.

It's like telling someone with MH problems to just sort it out and enjoy life more.

Plenty of that on MN at the moment too sadly.

@ChimaeraEgg

BTW keto/low carb/IF works because of calorie deficit. Along with every single other diet in existence.

Calorie deficit is only part of why they work

But they do work

And there are many other health benefits from them, not just losing weight.

You won’t be skinny fat on keto/lc/IF as it resolves the visceral fat issue

Oh yes, just seen the BMI conversation; sibling (doctor, aforementioned) said actually BMI as we know it has little to do with medical measures of obesity. Sibling laughed when other sibling said he was obese, (he was really worried, because he is technically obese but very active with a big frame). Dr Sibling said, as if we were total idiots, that BMI worked out with the usual ratio obviously is meaningless medically.

@ChimaeraEgg

It's like telling someone with MH problems to just sort it out and enjoy life more.

Plenty of that on MN at the moment too sadly.

True! Thought that as I wrote it actually

But they do work

Naturally they do. All diets work.

It's the long term maintenance that is the problem, and the data on that is clear.

Obese people would rather take the quick fix of getting vaccinated than lose weight.

@ChimaeraEgg

But they do work

Naturally they do. All diets work.

It's the long term maintenance that is the problem, and the data on that is clear.

Yes, you're right. The odds of anyone sticking to a diet longterm are very low. After they come off the diet, their chances of regaining weight are very high.

Also, if you lose weight very quickly, as people do on very low carb or very low calorie diets, they lose lean protein. There was an issue with cast members on The Biggest Loser US, regaining all their weight losses and their metabolism being less efficient because their lean muscle mass still had not come back after the initial massive losses. If you start jumping up and down demanding a source, I'm sure I can find it, but i honestly cba.

@ChimaeraEgg

But they do work

Naturally they do. All diets work.

It's the long term maintenance that is the problem, and the data on that is clear.

I actually don’t think all diets do work

So many people who just count calories make very little progress. And certainly not to the extent they ‘should’

It matters what is in the calories and when you eat them.....for most people. 99% of people who are obese has a metabolism that has been ruined by eating the wrong foods at the wrong times. And calorie control on its own will be extremely unpleasant, difficult and ultimately impossible

There is a rise in functional medicine in the US, to try and treat the root cause of health issues. That's all well and good, but it seems the root cause for most people is just modern life. Too much sat on your arse in front of a computer and processed food for dinner. Throw booze, fags, coffee and the plethora of sweet treats that get constantly marketed to us into the mix, it's not hard to see how most people are struggling.

I think pretty much everyone knows what to do, but it's hard!

I have had a much better relationship with food since I stopped thinking anything was off limits or bad. I know how to eat and do that 80% of the time and eat shit food when I feel like it, without guilt. That has made my cravings for bad food much less prominent, and if I do have a day of eating crap I'm desperate to have some salad and porridge etc again.

@FreshFreesias

Obese people would rather take the quick fix of getting vaccinated than lose weight.

Well, probably. If I was obese and the choice was lose 4 or 5 stones + in what? 6 months or so? Death or vaccination. I would say option A) is nigh on impossible, I don't fancy B), so yes please to C). You'd have to be a bit strange not to prefer that.

@Rowenasemolina

There is no real dispute about this. Most obese people are obese because of lack of self discipline. That’s all there is to it. A lot of obese people get very defensive, and are full of excuses. I used to be. And we were allowed to get away with it for decades. Nows the time to put an end to this massive ‘emporer has got no clothes’ scenario that we have been comfortable with for so long. It’s a selfish luxury we can no longer afford. We have been in this situation for a year. No excuse for any obese person not to be 3 stone lighter than they were this time last year, and to be 3 stone lighter again this time next year

Completely agree.

🙄🙄🙄
You are coning across as quite judgemental OP.
Most people who are overweight would like not to be. If it was that simple we wouldn't have a multi-mullion £££ diet industry would we?
Some people eat too much because they are stressed or sad. Some drink too much because it's very addictive and we also have a multi million £££ alcohol industry.
Some people just naturally have a tendency to put on weight & get hungry.
It must be nice to be so perfect.
You need to accept that it's more complicated than "just loose weight"
🤷‍♀️

Because it's so incredibly hard to lose weight. Add to that the restrictions and mental health crisis we're going through and nobody is in a losing weight frame of mind.

I know four people, all under 50, who've put 3 stone or more on in the last ten months. Lockdown is having a detrimental effect on a lot of people.

I dunno...I have been all sorts of weights. I'm a soupcon overweight at the mo, but have been underweight and (obviously) everything in between. I don't know if I think it's people making excuses, or enjoying the luxury of being obese. I also think it's really funny that, some people reading this will think "huh well she would say that as she is overweight", but actually, I am the same person I was when I was underweight...I only got overweight in the last few years. It didn't make me into a different person who "just makes excuses and..." blah, blah, blah. I'm the same, just fatter 🤷‍♀️.

I think the desperation to assign negative personality traits to overweight people is quite telling really. Especially from a former obese person who now feels as if they are in the thin club and therefore has the right to verbally push obese people around. I don't think I've ever been obese (according to BMI), FWIW. Maybe when pregnant, but not sure that counts.

So many people who just count calories make very little progress.

Yes, largely because they don't calculate calculate correctly.

You will always get people waxing lyrical about the diet that worked for them. I have a colleague who lost 6 stone on Slimming World and she doesn't shut up about them. Yet SW are the absolute devil in the keto world, are they not.

Over the years I have:
Lost 2 stone on keto. Put it back on because frankly it wasn't realistic (and fucking miserable) to never eat bread again. Made me into a loon frankly, obsessing over how many g carbs were in a poxy sweet potato. Lost a stone doing IF. That was OK for a bit but ended up massively overeating on the non fast days. Yo yo'd up and down for a long time calorie counting- when I did it properly I'd always lose but like keto it made me obsessive. Hate low fat dairy so never bothered with SW and the like.

Only lost weight and kept it off when the underlying issue behind my overeating was addressed.

Obese people would rather take the quick fix of getting vaccinated than lose weight.

Amazed you've managed to be in touch with all obese people and are confidently speaking on behalf of the lot of them. Well done you.

Sorry that was to @Fr0thandBubble

And there's nothing I don't eat now. It doesn't matter if I'm eating chocolate fudge cake or a plate of spinach, when I'm full up I stop eating and I don't even think about it.

I think the desperation to assign negative personality traits to overweight people is quite telling really.

Comes from wanting to feel superior and also eager people who have lost weight believing their particular diet is the One True Diet. Anyone with an iota of sense realises that overeating happens for a variety of reasons and therefore you have to deal with those reasons to sort the overeating. The solution for someone with ADHD is going to be very different to the solution for someone who uses food as an emotional crutch.

@ChimaeraEgg

I think the desperation to assign negative personality traits to overweight people is quite telling really.

Comes from wanting to feel superior and also eager people who have lost weight believing their particular diet is the One True Diet. Anyone with an iota of sense realises that overeating happens for a variety of reasons and therefore you have to deal with those reasons to sort the overeating. The solution for someone with ADHD is going to be very different to the solution for someone who uses food as an emotional crutch.

Exactly! And also makes people who have lost weight believe they are now better people . Some of the best people I know are very overweight or obese according to BMI. Including a very prominent surgeon who you would be begging did your surgery if you had certain types of horrible cancers (which he specialises in). These people are not lacking in discipline. Have a word with yourselves. You lost a few stone? I mean, well done and all that, but if I have an aggressive lung cancer, I'll take the obese surgeon ta! (Tongue in cheek obviously).