Is being Obese an illness?

[agel]

Yes or No
Im really not trying to start an argument. I want to understand what people actually think/know/believe about this.

I am obese and am trying to gain some sort of control over my eating through therapy at the moment. I’ve tried diets and exercising that do work but long term I don’t seem to be able to change my lifestyle enough to keep the weight off. I hate living like this and how people treat me differently because of my size. My family don’t understand at all. My partner is not understanding and it’s seriously affecting our relationship in many ways. It seems unfair because I don’t feel I have much control over this. It’s actually very lonely being in this situation. I rarely mention the topic of my health or weight to others because pardon the pun it’s always the elephant in the room! But you can almost hear what people are thinking. I hate the judgemental looks and comments. I rarely go out now because of anxiety and panic attacks brought on by this situation.

Absolutely!

Maybe that's the case for some people but like lots of things, I think there are multiple different potential causes. For me I know it's a hormone imbalance, I'm well versed in nutrition, can and do cook well, our diet is good. I exercise- lots of hiking, horse riding,.walking and some weight training.

What I don't know is what set off the hormonal issue - is it autoimmune, was it viral? I do have an under active thyroid (well managed with medication and no symptoms) and IBS which is reasonably well managed but increases the likelihood of a microbiome issue or viral cause. We do eat for gut health though. Id love to know what kicked it off! I find it a fascinating subject.

It is so funny you say this, when you refer to those taking WL medications as "lazy" who lack "self control" and "discipline" and are just looking for "quick fixes". It seems to me that you are the one making judgments rather than engaging in objective debate.

This. I have hypothyroidism which I’m sure also contributes to my obesity, even though it is managed with medication. I’m currently taking wegovy so I’m now overweight rather than obese. But once I come off the wegovy I will have to face the hunger and try to regulate my appetite again myself. As I can’t afford it for much longer.

Really? As you just did exactly fhat, accused me of personal attack as I disagreed with you,

Illustrating my point perfectly 👏

@ExpectMore and again the irony:

"Perhaps we need to include basics of debating on the national curriculum alongside healthy eating (or if it’s already there, understand why Charlenedickens skipped those modules)." You endlessly illustrate your own points so very well.

You are of course entirely free to judge away as much as you like, but it seems contradictory to make such judgements and name call yourself but not want others to do so. I believe it is perfectly possible to engage in debate without name calling.

The problem is that saying someone, or a group of people lack self control and discipline is a moral judgement of them as people and carries with it an implicit subtext of them being "less worthy" and others being "better".

I don't disagree that people have lost the art of debate, but weight is such a personal and touchy topic and lots of people with bigger bodies are often called lazy, which is has a moral value attached to it. Also the fact that individual people can demonstrate how those factors are not elements in their own weight issues and then are not believed. I also don't think it's helpful to group people with a singular common trait (like being obese) and attributing other traits to all of them as though they are a single homogeneous group, when in reality they are are individuals and lots of their experiences will be different. It's like saying someone who finds periods painful and debilitating is exaggerating or making a big deal of something most women experience, when they may be experiencing something very different to others experience of menstruation.

@ExpectMore Why do you assume I am offended - where have I said that? I'm not remotely offended, I am simply responding to your points and disagreeing.

You have referred to obese people as "lazy" "lacking self control" and "lacking discipline" and those taking weight loss medications as "looking for quick fixes". Those are your judgements about the characters of obese people. They are not facts, they are simply your opinion.

You seem to object to other people not engaging their critical thinking skills and engaging in what you refer to as personal attacks. You also object to people "pontificating" and yet are quite happy to pontificate yourself.

Why do you fall outside of your own requirements for others?

You seem to think that food is merely a source of fuel and that emotions and learned behaviours don’t come into eating at all. Or that anyone who does bring emotions into eating are just weak fools who need to get a grip?

I imagine you never eat the cake that a friend has made or have a bag of crisps with a pint on a social Friday night at the pub, or enjoy a rich Christmas dinner with friends and family or even scarf down a bar of chocolate because it’s been a shit day in the office, because those are all merely consuming unhealthy and unnecessary calories. You could enjoy those things and cut down later, but why put yourself through that deprivation for sake of an emotionally driven episode?

Come on. No-one is making it a moral judgement. It’s a pure observation. How else to make the statement so as to not offend in your book?

Yes there are quirks and nuances but the vast majority of the population (in the statistical sense) share the same common characteristics (again, not stating they’re positive or negative, purely objective) with some outliers (as my original post pointed out).

Following your logic, we couldn’t say the following for fear of offending people or missing out on the nuance:

1. sprinters are fast
2. academics are intelligent
3. mothers are caring etc etc

Yes there’ll be exceptions to the rule and yes there’s nuance but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t possible to, nor helpful to, discuss trends

I really think it is an illness and certainly the recent research in the production of GLP1 weight loss injections is showing that this is the case.

I imagine she does, she just knows to do so in moderation and to “balance the books” overall.

What makes you think she doesn’t? Have you never seen an athlete or model eat chocolate cake for example? Of course they do

Nonsense, they're not neutral comments.

For example, I am not lazy nor do I lack self control in all other aspects of my life, nor do I lack discipline. It is one (small) aspect of my life where I find it impossible to exercise the necessary "discipline/self control/willpower" and unfortunately for me that results in obesity.

Ah, I’m so sorry to read this OP. My understanding is that modern processed foods are to some degree addictive, and also that some people don’t have the gene that makes them feel full. So this is what enables it to be labeled an illness.

I’m sure you have had all sorts of good advice, but absent the new medications my approach would be to cut out all processed foods and drinks, rather than trying to eat less. This will be healthier and you will almost certainly see weight loss as a side effect. It is quite hard to eat enough whole foods to continue gaining weight, because they fill and satisfy you and don’t mix with your gut biome like the processed stuff does.

I’ve not referred to obese people as being lazy, please quote me where I have.

The closest I’ve come is stating the act of using injections (as opposed to the standard boring but harder work method) is a lazy approach as that would seem to fit the definition of lazy:

“Lazy is an adjective that primarily means unwilling to work, use effort, or expend energy”

Yes I’ve said lacking self control and discipline and I stand by those statements as I believe them to be an accurate reflection of the causes (as evidenced by for example the NHS website which notes it’s too much in and not enough out….).

I am happy to say that it was a “lazy” decision to use WLI as to me it would have been intensely stupid to remain at BMI 50 and try yet again to lose weight the “hard” way and yet again not succeed. I’ll take lazy over stupid and illogical any day! It was also incredibly effective. A lazy and very effective option seems ideal to me. Why make something hard and not likely to work when you don’t have to?!

I “owned” it by deciding that WLI were an effective treatment. Calling me lazy, lacking self control and self discipline etc etc is not accurate. I have a specific issue in one small area of my life.

Not true:

1. Sprinters are fast - fact. You could also say, some runners are slow - fact. Slow runners are lazy - opinion.

2 academics are intelligent - not necessarily true. Some have a passion for a subject but may be of average intelligence.

1. Mother's are caring - not a fact or even a necessary trait. Some mothers are abusive, some are perfunctory, some are loving but not caring.

Saying fat people are lazy and lack discipline, not a fact and not even a trend in obesity! Saying obese people typically eat more calories than they expend, is a fact and a trait. Attributing a moral reason for that (lazin and a lack of discipline) is not helpful or accurate. But at least you didn't call them greedy I guess.