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?

OK, I won't, cheers for that 👍😂

🤣👍

I don’t think it’s particularly helpful to say to someone who is obese that sugar isn’t a problem if they are struggling to control the cravings that occur because of it

It has addictive qualities re: dopamine in the same way sex, stroking a pet or moderate exercise does. In other words, not enough to cause an obesity epidemic on its own.

The subject of the cravings is pretty immaterial really. The fact that cravings are happening at all is what needs to be addressed.

Here's the point at which someone always pops up to say "but no one ever craves salad or peas or broccoli or apples". Well why would they. It is hard wired into our brains that those are "good" foods and chocolate and so on are "bad", "naughty" and so on. The human brain wants what it thinks it can't have. Most people feel like that about various things, food included.

What you want to be doing then is not "right, well give up all sugar then", but addressing why they need to overeat the sugar in the first place.

If it were as simple as you give up sugar and hooray! problem solved, then no one who went keto or sugar free would regain the weight. Sadly that is patently not the case. So again you have to come to the whys. Not the whats.

Stable blood sugars are very important when you want to be healthy.

You have to be eating a shitload of sugar to destabilise your BS levels (unless diabetic). If you're eating enough to do that, your problem is not sugar. Your problem is why you're compelled to eat so much of it.

I ate half a freddo the other day and left the rest because I didn't want it. Was a time I'd have eaten the whole pack.

Lordy half a Freddo.Off to don the sack cloth now

Pathetic isn't it!!!

Why can't the minority fat shaming posts be ignored/reported

With the caveat that it's HQ 's call, you'd have to define what "fat shaming" actually is first. I imagine we all recognise the more blatant posts, but for some any mention of obesity seems to qualify

GP says to lose weight? Fat shaming and not what I went about about
"That only goes up to a 16 madam"? Fat shaming and possible discrimination
Weigh-ins for schoolkids? Fat shaming and none of their business
Diet ads featuring the slim? Fat shaming and "nobody looks like that"
Objection to being squashed? Fat shaming and "they've got no empathy"

And so on ...

I don't object to diet ads because they're fat shaming. I do object to them for being pointless and misleading.

@ChimaeraEgg

It’s all very well saying that sugar shouldn’t be a problem because it isn’t for you, but many many people are stuck in the craving cycle and consuming far too much, and many people do need to break that cycle to really make meaningful impact on their health.

Back to the thread. Here’s the latest review in Nature about COVID and obesity / metabolic health

www.nature.com/articles/s41574-020-00462-1

It’s all very well saying that sugar shouldn’t be a problem because it isn’t for you

It used to be. It isn't now because I've solved the underlying issue which lead to the craving.

You can break the cycle all you want, but if you don't solve the underlying cause, it will restart again at some point.

“Evidence is accumulating about the beneficial cardiometabolic effects of a ketogenic (that is, high-fat and very-low-carbohydrate) diet. Ketones have very well-documented neuroprotective, hepatoprotective and cardioprotective effects160,161. Moreover, ketogenic diets were found to alter the human and mouse gut microbiome, distinct from a high-fat diet. Importantly, the ketogenic diet decreased the levels of intestinal pro-inflammatory TH17 cells in mice162, the cell type that is thought to largely contribute to the proinflammatory response observed in COVID-19 (refs104,105,106). Thus, it is worth investigating whether a ketogenic diet as a weight-loss strategy might be superior to other weight-loss strategies in the context of COVID-19.”

That is directly from the Nature review.

Advising people who are obese to carry on with their sugar treats really isn’t a great thing to be doing - they need to reduce inflammation. Sugar is inflammatory

@ChimaeraEgg

With that in mind, what is it about the extra weight that makes Covid strike harder?

Not sure they know really but I would assume that if you are obese your lungs and heart etc will be under more pressure. Things like heart rate don't always reflect that accurately (though that's way lower than mine is so I'm sure you're much fitter than I am!)

There's quite a few reasons. This article explains it quite well www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/09/why-covid-19-more-deadly-people-obesity-even-if-theyre-young

@FreshFreesias

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

These are not really the same things, and it's not a matter of doing one or the other. Losing weight won't protect you against getting infected, vaccines will (obviously not 100%). The best thing is to do both, lose weight and get vaccinated.

My brother did it. He was obese this time last year purely down to bad diet. He had a takeaway every night. Covid-19 frightened him. He dropped the takeaways and started eating healthily. He has got down to a healthy weight and looks and feels amazing. It can be done. Just takes restraint and self discipline.

There is a muted issue with vaccinations perhaps not being effective for morbidly obese people.

It’s the same issue...inflamed ill bodies

I hope it’s not the case, but it might be advisable not to rely on it and think about how you can improve your metabolic health and reduce inflammation (fasting, very low carb, exercise is the best combination)

Shocking how so many would rather defend being over weight and battle with covid instead of going
“Oh shit, I need to try harder”

And I’m 2 stone over weight and have am an alcoholic.

Yes losing weight is hard, but being on a ventilator is harder

@hamstersarse Can you not see what you’re saying? Type 2 diabetes is preventable and treatable, but it’s still killing people and causing them to have limbs amputated. Do you honestly, honestly believe that if it was as simple as just go on a diet people would still be losing limbs? You don’t think there’s anything slightly more complex going on there that means for a lot of people they are so unable to lose weight that they lose a limb instead?!

I get so bored and hungry. I'm not majorly overweight. In fact if you looked at me you'd probably say I'm slim as I'm tall, but I'm twice what I used to be. So my waist is over the max recommend 34.5 inches for women ( by the NHS) I don't weight myself at moment, but I eat a very good diet, but ruin it with added biscuits ( whole packets worth and chocolate and crisps)! For me the issue is finding something nice to eat that's not as bad for you, since I can't just cut everything at once .

[quote QuantumQuality]@hamstersarse Can you not see what you’re saying? Type 2 diabetes is preventable and treatable, but it’s still killing people and causing them to have limbs amputated. Do you honestly, honestly believe that if it was as simple as just go on a diet people would still be losing limbs? You don’t think there’s anything slightly more complex going on there that means for a lot of people they are so unable to lose weight that they lose a limb instead?![/quote]
I think they get bad advice and it’s scandalous. I don’t blame them for one second.

Excess sugar and carbohydrate literally causes T2 yet people aren’t even given clear advice about this. Instead they are put on drugs and told it is a progressive illness.

So it is mostly as simple as going on a diet for T2 diabetes, but not any diet. A ketogenic / very low carb diet. It’s not a hard diet to follow, much much easier than calorie counting.

Because, although this is just a hunch, I am pretty sure that if everyone were a healthy weight we wouldn't need to have these lockdowns.
Well that's a huge stretch @Fr0thandBubble

Well my inflamed ill body has in the past done 50KM walks. More recently it has been harder due to an injury on my last 25KM walk but I normally average about 250 miles per month
Bp,cholesterol, etc all ok and no diabetes. Last heart risk score extremely low .
I am disappointed I have gained weight recently and will lose it again once I can start training again.
Although I am not morbidly obese but BMI 35+
If dh and I got COVID I suspect he would be worse affected as due to medication he is ECV.

Oh do fuck off @Iamsososoexcited

It’s not a hard diet to follow, much much easier than calorie counting.

I've done it, and I found it both incredibly hard and incredibly restrictive.

@Northernsoulgirl45

Similar BMI and I was okay with covid. Just a cold. I think it has more to do with metabolic health than actual weight. Not all fat people are in poor metabolic health.

My Nan lived until she was 91. She was fat, smoked like a trooper, and took heavy psychiatric drugs her whole life (which usually do cause weight gain). Her diet consisted of potatoes mainly with loads, and I mean loads of fruit pastilles. Now I know this isn’t the case for everyone, and she could have just been one of life’s outliers but even right up until her 90s she was in good metabolic health. It just did not make sense. Not with the compulsive amount of fruit pastilles she ate in a single day 🤣 .Her siblings all lived until nearly 100.

Most of my family (and there is lots of us) are fat to be honest, not massively so, but defo too fat. none of us (even the older ones) have ever had any physical health complaints.

There’s still time of course, and healthy lifestyles should still be pursued.

@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.

This. And the fact that many people are lazy and instead of going for a walk/run (which is free) they'd rather eat crisps/chocolate or drink alcohol (neither free). It's not just about cheap food being unhealthy. It's a matter of choosing to be healthy/ier

There are very real reasons why people are overweight. The virus doesn't give a shit.