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 put it all back on.

@Iamsososoexcited

It's worth explaining as well that as someone who has been obese since childhood with a poor diet for years, going on a diet and losing weight entailed going through a physical withdrawal.

For the first 2 weeks of cutting the 'bad' foods - chocolate, crisps, pastries, refined carbs I experienced extreme hunger, my stomach was growling, my mouth watering, I could not eat enough food to get rid of it at all. I was exhausted but couldn't sleep as I felt so hungry, my energy was extremely low and I felt depressed.

During that 2 weeks I had to stick to the diet, push through the cravings and I couldn't even stay away from the source of my addiction as I still had to eat and cook and feed my child.

Many times in the past I've started diets with the best of intentions and then failed when it's got too hard.

What people who have never been obese don't realise is how incredibly hard it is to be moderate with food when you've never been before. It would be like saying to a drug addict, 'you must have some of your drug, but only enough to feel OK, not enough to feel good or so much that you get ill. Here you go, here's an unlimited amount of the drug you crave but be sure to limit it yourself.'.

OP I think that people have tried to “help you understand” but you still haven’t understood. A huge variety of issues have been stated on the thread. Perhaps you have a magic wand that could reverse my premature menopause for me? The one that crept up whilst my SN child was being assaulted and taunted every day at secondary school, whilst my husband was cheating on me and I had a parent in hospital. The wand? Wave it for me?

Because that’s when I piled on weight.

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.

It's hard to get the right mindset to lose weight.

Johnson never set an example did he. That campaign died a death.

The OP has only started one other thread which was about popping off on her holidays just before Christmas and how she absolutely couldn't wait!

I guess we all have different ways of coping with a pandemic.

Now more than ever is a perfect time to start a lifestyle change. Notice I don’t say ‘diet’ - lifestyle change.

I work 40 hours a week myself, in a mundane office job wfh atm where I get no steps in whereas normally in the office I would get more walking round. I hit 10k steps a day and do CrossFit because I choose to make that a priority. I normally love to train however this lockdown has totally blasted my routine, and most days I really cannot be bothered to exercise and work and live all in one room I just force myself to because I want to have a healthy life for my children and set a good example for them. I have struggled with an eating disorder myself for a lot of my life and I have been both overweight and underweight so I totally understand where people come from re their struggles with food addiction.

I got help and I’m now sitting at a healthy weight. We don’t like to think our health is associated with our weight and bmi but sadly it is. Risk of heart disease stroke diabetes is all higher when overweight obese. And it seems like a coincidence that all nations struggling with covid have the highest percentage of those suffering with obesity ?

Please don't assume what I understand or have any possibility of understanding umpteennamechanges.

I do understand perfectly well. However, the fact remains that some people are are being forced to do without their crutches, while you claim you can't live without yours: we have no choice.

However, it's obvious that being overweight is highly genetic, and there really is nothing that anyone can do about changing their set point for hunger, fullness or natural weight. (environment is obviously key too, but we cant change that easily).

Article from the BMJ - having a BMI of 35 - 40 increases chances of dying by 40%. Over 40 and it increases by 90%.

But if you have no other health issues the risk is minuscule in the first place. Around 0.1% if you catch it so that’s a 1 in 1000 risk versus a 1.9 in 1000 risk if your BMI is over 40.

So no not a drastic increase. I used the calculator for a healthy 35 year old woman, changing her from a healthy weight to morbidly . The risk change is tiny.

Weight is important for health of course. But don’t overinflate risks as a means to scare / insult people.

There may be a high level of obesity in those in hospital but that doesn’t translate to a high individual risk.

I’m a fat teacher. In the last year or so there have been so many hateful threads and posts on MN (and other places online) about fat people and teachers it’s left me feeling completely worthless. I know this is my issue, not anyone else’s, but I just thought I’d mention it on the off chance people will think about what they are saying and how they are saying it. I’ve never felt so shit about myself in my life. It’s relentless.

This has at last caused me to lose weight - i am now a healthy BMI having lost 3 stone since September. COVID and wanting to be around as long and as healthy as possible for my daughter was the push I needed.

Another point is that being overweight or having diabetes isnt the whole issue. Even then most people cope ok. It's likely that individual genetic differences are responsible. If you dont have certain genes you are probably going to be ok even if you are unhealthy and get covid. Sadly we dont know what they are yet, apart from blood group.

I’d be interested to see some papers showing increased death hazard ratios for people in the overweight category. Several studies have shown a slightly lower death hazard ratio for people in the 25-30 BMI category than in the 20-25 BMI category. So those of you who are so concerned about the health of obese people, I hope you’re encouraging both them and your ‘normal’ weight friends and family to get into the overweight category. After all, you’re only concerned about the risks.

@catonmylapcantmove

Article from the BMJ - having a BMI of 35 - 40 increases chances of dying by 40%. Over 40 and it increases by 90%.

But if you have no other health issues the risk is minuscule in the first place. Around 0.1% if you catch it so that’s a 1 in 1000 risk versus a 1.9 in 1000 risk if your BMI is over 40.

So no not a drastic increase. I used the calculator for a healthy 35 year old woman, changing her from a healthy weight to morbidly . The risk change is tiny.

Weight is important for health of course. But don’t overinflate risks as a means to scare / insult people.

There may be a high level of obesity in those in hospital but that doesn’t translate to a high individual risk.

I think it is just luck of the drawer to be honest. My husband is probably classed as obese no pre existing health conditions on BMI scale however exercises regularly and has muscle mass. He tested positive for covid however had no symptoms whatsoever and was not ill at all (was tested as he is a key worker). On the other hand, a close friend of mine who is a personal trainer tested positive and it knocked her out for a week with covid and achiness, but didn’t need hospital.

wow, just looked it up, and found that:

"The major genetic risk factor for severe COVID-19 is inherited from Neanderthals"

"The risk is conferred by a genomic segment and is inherited from Neanderthals and is carried by around 50% of people in south Asia and around 16% of people in Europe"

Do you think overweight people don't know that losing weight helps with cancer, heart, diabetes, general longevity healthy life span before Covid hit the shores?

Is what you really mean, sheesh if all these fat people weren't in hospital this pandemic wouldn't affect me? Me me amazing perfect me.

Fat people know weight loss is beneficial to their health.

Scaring people never works, it is said you find most cig butts outside a cancer ward. Go figure. Need more of a carrot than stick approach. A depressing, global pandemic leaves few windows for carrots.

But as things stand many humans who are loved by others even if they do like pies are in hospital. They are all still human beings needing medical care go live. It could happen to any of us, for any reason at any time.

But yes let's develop society that is happier to be healthier after this pandemic for everyone's sake.

@Esquire3

I'm obese but I'll tell you what if I fell down I'd bounce straight back up again,I don't complain when thin people fall n break a bone cause they've got no cushioning and keep bed blocking a&e,do us fatties a favour & eat a maccies stop taking up half an hospital bed with your bony ass!

Is there any need?

I did it. Covid shocked me into losing three stone in three months between May and July last year, then another stone. BMI now healthy. It’s a huge relief to have that risk factor dealt with.

@catonmylapcantmove

Article from the BMJ - having a BMI of 35 - 40 increases chances of dying by 40%. Over 40 and it increases by 90%.

But if you have no other health issues the risk is minuscule in the first place. Around 0.1% if you catch it so that’s a 1 in 1000 risk versus a 1.9 in 1000 risk if your BMI is over 40.

So no not a drastic increase. I used the calculator for a healthy 35 year old woman, changing her from a healthy weight to morbidly . The risk change is tiny.

Weight is important for health of course. But don’t overinflate risks as a means to scare / insult people.

There may be a high level of obesity in those in hospital but that doesn’t translate to a high individual risk.

I just tried the QCovid calculator and my risk is the same with a BMI of 18.4 as if I had a BMI of 34.9. That's without other risk factors though.

Why aren’t more people worried and instead on this thread they getting angry with me?

Because you're rather penis like.

You don't want to talk about weight and Covid.

What you're saying is "You're fat, covid is going on, why aren't you skinny yet?".

You have no idea who is trying,who isn't, who lost, who's still losing or why they are overweight. You just want them all to be skinny now!

Not gonna happen love..

Haven't read the whole thread but the thread title annoyed me so I'll bite.
I'm in my 30s and about 3 stone overweight, yeah thanks, I get it it affects health and I will probably have complications from other shitty disease. To anyone looking in I have a happy family life, good job, nice house blah blah blah but what you don't see is the stress my job causes, the stress of WFH with a toddler when nursery has been and is shut, not seeing family/friends and not seeing an end to this shit. So I turn to food for my comfort because honestly it's literally the only enjoyment right now. I'm trying to lose weight and had lost a stone before lock down started running and can comfortably run a half marathon but I like my food and eat too much....shoot me!
Oh had Covid and I had no real complications other than a cold but I'm probably lucky.

A. I haven't heard any statistics which link BMI to Covid mortality. There is some correlation which links with co-morbidities and Covid, but not directly.

B. You assume BMI is 100% linked to food consumption.

C. You presume following a restrictive diet is both healthy in itself or sustainable enough to facilitate life long weight loss.

D. You assume overweight people aren't trying to lose weight. Some are. Some are not because see above.

@kowari that’s probably because the risk curve is J shaped. There’s a slight risk to being underweight, a slight protective effect to being overweight and then increasing risks as level of obesity increases.