4 ms·

Simply put, it’s an enabling belief. Being obese isn’t a root cause. It is a symptom of something else. Particularly, when it is a symptom of depression, beli

Simply put, it’s an enabling belief. Being obese isn’t a root cause. It is a symptom of something else. Particularly, when it is a symptom of depression, believing in “healthy obesity” can be enabling even if it’s not the truth. That person (not statistic) needs to see themselves as healthy and loved to have a chance at being healthy. Telling them to eat better or exercise is thinking about yourself in a generic version of their circumstances rather than them in their actual circumstances.

stametseater 4y ago
> That person (not statistic) needs to see themselves as healthy and loved to have a chance at being healthy. I don't buy it. Tolerance towards fatness has risen since the 80s, as have weights; both have gone up at the same time. The more tolerance our society has for fatness, the fatter people get. If more tolerance for fat people were the key to getting people to lose weight then there should be an inverse relationship between the two, but that just hasn't happened.
- wanderingbort 4y ago
  I'm just going off the research, you can buy whatever you want. "Health obesity" isn't about staying obese, it is about shifting social stigmas as they seem to contribute (paradoxically) to obesity[1]. Why is this something you feel the need to support publicly and vocally instead of letting people's health be between them and their doctors (who also need to work on stigmas[2])? The more society makes this a social issue, the worse off people will be when external stressors land [3]. [1] https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12916-018-1116-5 https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s1291... [2] https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/oby.23266 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/oby.23266 [3] https://academic.oup.com/abm/article/54/10/738/5901900 https://academic.oup.com/abm/article/54/10/738/5901900
infogulch 4y ago
Lying to people about an objective perspective of their current state of being is good for them? Feeling better in the moment just enables people to ignore the root cause and thus fail to make progress. They need truth that their current state sucks, hope that it could be better, and to recognize that their own agency has an outsized effect on their future. And maybe they could use some help breaking down their problems into smaller more achievable steps.
bira 4y ago
It they see themselves just as healthy as obese, why would they want not to be obese? Sounds like enabling obesity to me. Telling them to eat better or exercise doesn't work because it's a pain in the ass to be in a caloric deficit. They have statistically low dopamine levels (among other markers being out of wack) so they just don't have the mental fuel to deal with doing what's hard. That's what lead them to be obese in the first place, seeking comfort in food, sitting on their butt and avoiding the harshness of their reality. Another key component are high cortisol levels (ie chronic stress due to past traumas causing depression and other mental illnesses), hindering the parasympathetic brain to switch on digestive metabolism. You don't solve all these underling issues by saying "hey fat isn't that bad, you can still be healthy being heavy". Like you wouldn't say to a drug addict "hey drugs aren't that bad for you" to make them feel less shitty about their situation.
- aquaticsunset 4y ago
  The key here is to encourage and promote healthy behaviors no matter what size you are, and to treat human beings like humans. I don't know why it became socially acceptable to treat others like absolute garbage in public, but it sure isn't going to help society become healthier. How do we know it isn't going to help? Because we've been trying it for decades. Thin people yelling at fat people to lose weight in public does nothing. Time to focus on the systemic unhealthy issues our culture has and stop treating someone's fatness as their own, individual failure.

stametseater 4y ago

> That person (not statistic) needs to see themselves as healthy and loved to have a chance at being healthy. I don't buy it. Tolerance towards fatness has risen since the 80s, as have weights; both have gone up at the same time. The more tolerance our society has for fatness, the fatter people get. If more tolerance for fat people were the key to getting people to lose weight then there should be an inverse relationship between the two, but that just hasn't happened.

wanderingbort 4y ago
I'm just going off the research, you can buy whatever you want. "Health obesity" isn't about staying obese, it is about shifting social stigmas as they seem to contribute (paradoxically) to obesity[1]. Why is this something you feel the need to support publicly and vocally instead of letting people's health be between them and their doctors (who also need to work on stigmas[2])? The more society makes this a social issue, the worse off people will be when external stressors land [3]. [1] https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12916-018-1116-5 https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s1291... [2] https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/oby.23266 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/oby.23266 [3] https://academic.oup.com/abm/article/54/10/738/5901900 https://academic.oup.com/abm/article/54/10/738/5901900

infogulch 4y ago

Lying to people about an objective perspective of their current state of being is good for them? Feeling better in the moment just enables people to ignore the root cause and thus fail to make progress. They need truth that their current state sucks, hope that it could be better, and to recognize that their own agency has an outsized effect on their future. And maybe they could use some help breaking down their problems into smaller more achievable steps.

bira 4y ago

It they see themselves just as healthy as obese, why would they want not to be obese? Sounds like enabling obesity to me. Telling them to eat better or exercise doesn't work because it's a pain in the ass to be in a caloric deficit. They have statistically low dopamine levels (among other markers being out of wack) so they just don't have the mental fuel to deal with doing what's hard. That's what lead them to be obese in the first place, seeking comfort in food, sitting on their butt and avoiding the harshness of their reality. Another key component are high cortisol levels (ie chronic stress due to past traumas causing depression and other mental illnesses), hindering the parasympathetic brain to switch on digestive metabolism. You don't solve all these underling issues by saying "hey fat isn't that bad, you can still be healthy being heavy". Like you wouldn't say to a drug addict "hey drugs aren't that bad for you" to make them feel less shitty about their situation.

aquaticsunset 4y ago
The key here is to encourage and promote healthy behaviors no matter what size you are, and to treat human beings like humans. I don't know why it became socially acceptable to treat others like absolute garbage in public, but it sure isn't going to help society become healthier. How do we know it isn't going to help? Because we've been trying it for decades. Thin people yelling at fat people to lose weight in public does nothing. Time to focus on the systemic unhealthy issues our culture has and stop treating someone's fatness as their own, individual failure.