What do you consider obesity?

[FatZillllla]

I was talking to a few people in another website and someone brought up the obesity subject

Now the majority of the people that I was talking to blamed the person for being lazy and becoming obese

Others said that Obesity was a disorder / illness / addiction and the person who is obese has no control over it

What do you guys and gals consider obesity? laziness or illness? Both?


Edit: if you were/are obese; what do you think caused it?

[Mrredundant]

several factors, in general the people who will call obesity simply being lazy are thin people who have never been there.

it's easy to judge someone when you don't know what happened in their life... obesity happens for a variety of reasons, regardless of why it does it is incredibly hard to take that first step even if you KNOW you can lose weight.

what do I personally think? I am still considered at the cusp of overweight, I used to be really obese soooo, I believe anyone CAN do it if I am doing it.... but it's easy to say that, I have loved ones who are obese and cannot for the life of me change, but I have been there, it's easy to judge someone but it's their lives.

[MCrow]

For most people it's a combination of things.

It starts with lazyness to some extent in most people. There are some who eat to feel better about other things going wrong in their lives. A very few people have an actual disorder that makes them obese.

For me, it started with rough patch in my life when my Dad was murdered, then I broke my back, then I had to have heart surgery. It was just a ton of **** to happen all in a short time. So, I wasn't able to move much for the better part of a year and a half. Got a bit depressed on top of it. Ate horribly and then when I was finally able to be active again I was too lazy to go to the gym or eat properly.

So, IMO, it's not a simple answer.

I think that those that say all obese people are just lazy are ignorant but all obese people who think it's really think it's a disorder are equally ignorant.

[Linzzz]

Multiple factors, of course there always personal issues. But I have hard time blaming it on lack of will power. My neighbor for example is 500 pounds but has a masters degree from one of the top colleges in the country will power is OBVIOUSLY lingering in that woman some where.

But honestly, everyone in this country is so misinformed about health in general. Our sex ed programs are still centered around abstinence only for christ sake! Our food pyramid directly reflects the interests of big corporations.

What makes me sad is there millions of people who DO make genuine steps to get healthy and still get it all wrong. It took me a FULL YEAR to learn how to weed out the bad fitness and diet advice from the stuff that works.

Knowledge is power, man.

[CarlMcGuirk]

For me it was a combination of:

1) Being addicted to sugary foods. It's an addiction but it's one that YOU CONTROL. Sure there are really strong urges sometimes, but ultimately YOU have the free will to control what goes in your mouth.

2) Being poorly informed about the food choices I made. Once I educated myself it completely changed my outlook on what I eat and how I eat.

3) Not accepting personal responsibility. I wanted to blame Restaurant X and Supermarket Y for selling me the bad foods, not realize that this entire time I was able to control what I ate and I could have just as easily gotten GOOD food instead of visiting Burger King 5 times a week. I think this is the biggest issue, and I think it's the reason people get so upset at obese people -- they don't understand why the obese person doesn't excersize self control and accept responsibility for how their body got the way it did.

I know I got fat because of what I did -- but I didn't necessarly KNOW it at the time.

[FrosteaTT]

give me a fu@king break ... obesity is not an illness, it may be circumstantial to how a person can get there, but ULTIMATELY its a lack of will power. bottom line.

[FrosteaTT]

*** edit. Its "can" power.

[OhioStateBucki]

I was there at 5' 10" 295lbs a year ago. I was even still there two and a half months ago at 264lbs. Pretty sure that until now (225lbs, still fat but not obese anymore) I have been obese for the past 5 or 6 years. So I come with some first hand experience here, and let me tell you that it is our fault.

For some people(this is my scenario) it is much easier to become obese just because you have a lot more food to eat, I grew up in a house of 8 (mom, dad, 2 bros, 3 sis), and my mom is an awesome cook so the fridge was stocked 100% of the time, and there were always cookies/brownies etc. But I knew it was bad to eat too much, I did it anyways. Not because it was uncontrollable and some illness, I just didnt care. I was OK with being fat.

Once you get higher up, it is kind of harder to stop the lifestyle, but it just takes a week or two of not being a lazy fu*k to adjust. I had plenty of control, it was just that I was comfortable with being fat which was what made it hard to stop. I had plenty of friends, even a pretty gf for a while, I didnt think it was affecting me. But after I lost the gf, got in a fight with most of my friends and realized I go to college in 5 months I became very uncomfortable with my body.

I think that obese people almost have an advantage at weight loss once they truly become uncomfortable with their looks, I have developed extreme discipline towards my diet, I pass up offers to grab fast food all the time which I never use to do. I hate taking days off of exercising. Man this turned out to be long, but I just really dont believe the whole its an illness BS, its our fault.

[ShaneT]

I was talking to a few people in another website and someone brought up the obesity subject

Now the majority of the people that I was talking to blamed the person for being lazy and becoming obese

Others said that Obesity was a disorder / illness / addiction and the person who is obese has no control over it

What do you guys and gals consider obesity? laziness or illness? Both?


Edit: if you were/are obese; what do you think caused it?

Self-discipline...or lack thereof. Yes, genetics or life circumstances may play a part in some cases, but the bottom line is that people become obese because they make bad choices in life. I was obese...and may still be depending on who you ask...and I'll tell you with 100% certainty that it was absolutely my fault that I got that way. I believe that's always the case except in the case of childhood obesity (parents get the blame for that one for letting their kids eat stuff they shouldn't).

[LikeAMachine]

It's not a disease and if it is a disease, it's a mental disease.

Once you stop nomming $1 totino's pizza's 3 at a time the fat goes away.


I am down from an epic 250lbs about 3 years ago. It wasn't a disease, it was me putting down a 12 pack and nomming pizza with Ranch dressing. Then eating a bag of Doritos's before bed. Waking up and eating cereal for breakfast......then drinking 3 red bulls / day.

Fat people are fuking liars, trust me, I was one. I would hide food, I would sneak food past my GF into the second bedroom. I would eat an entire bag of something, and go out buy another, eat some more of it, so it looked like it was the same bag.

[MCrow]

It's not a disease and if it is a disease, it's a mental disease.

Once you stop nomming $1 totino's pizza's 3 at a time the fat goes away.


I am down from an epic 250lbs about 3 years ago. It wasn't a disease, it was me putting down a 12 pack and nomming pizza with Ranch dressing. Then eating a bag of Doritos's before bed. Waking up and eating cereal for breakfast......then drinking 3 red bulls / day.

Fat people are fuking liars, trust me, I was one. I would hide food, I would sneak food past my GF into the second bedroom. I would eat an entire bag of something, and go out buy another, eat some more of it, so it looked like it was the same bag.

Can't say I ever did that.

[Linzzz]

I used to sneak food as well...I admit that I am a former food addict (and occasionally, I'm reminded of that )

[CarlMcGuirk]

Fat people are fuking liars, trust me, I was one. I would hide food, I would sneak food past my GF into the second bedroom. I would eat an entire bag of something, and go out buy another, eat some more of it, so it looked like it was the same bag.

Which brings into focus that eating becomes a psychological issue for people - not an EXCUSABLE one, but it's one that people need to fix before they'll make any actual progress eating healthy. Hiding what you eat, lying about it, things like that - those are the exact behaviors of someone addicted to a substance. In this case, the substance is food.

Let me be clear though: this is still an addiction they choose to support and the power is entirely in their hands to make the difference.

[4073]

For me, I think that for a good while I just didn't care enough. Whilst unhappy about my appearance, I liked bad foods too much to even consider doing anything about it. It was a trade off of sorts, whilst no expert I knew that if I ate loads and didn't move around enough I'd continue to be big for the rest of my life. Cutting back on my calories and making better food choices seemed like a worse option than being thinner/healthier so I grudgingly accepted it.

Something switched on to make me want to try to change things. Not sure what, partly the challenge, partly because I got to a weight that just sounded plain wrong. Still a long way to go but do feel proud to a degree of what I've done so far and it's a good thing, feeling better about myself in general.

[LikeAMachine]

I still binge eat, I can't help it sometimes. I just have my lifestyle setup so that even the worst binge doesn't set me back into "I don't give a fuk" mode.



I think that we as American's (and it is spreading to other countries) have gotten into this habit of having every single meal be absolutely delicious, the most savory, sodium and calorie packed meal we can ingest. In reality, meals like that should be few and far between. Every restaurants is in competition for the business of predominately....fat people, people who eat out allot. So what do they do, they cook with tons of salt and butter and sugar.


In the past I couldn't taste anything in foods, I just nommed it. Now I can taste SUGAR is pizza sauce, I am disgusted when my veggies come out soaked in butter and I almost NEVER use "dipping sauce". Every little thing adds up to a grand total of some retarded calorie amount, just so the fatty eating it will want to come back for moar.

It's a cycle, it's a cash cow and people in the end HAVE to eat. So they cook everything to be as delicious (fattening) as possible, then turn around and tell you that you need to look like Brad Pitt and try to peddle some surgery or pills on you to lose weight. I mean seriously sit down one day and COUNT how many food commercials there are, then count how many of them are the LEAST bit healthy options.

They sell candy to children and call it cereal!!



I think they need to do a better job of teaching nutrition in schools. I had no clue about proper nutrition until I came to this site and honestly, my family didn't know any better either.

[cyco85]

give me a fu@king break ... obesity is not an illness, it may be circumstantial to how a person can get there, but ULTIMATELY its a lack of will power. bottom line.

^^^ This. Complacency and laziness is what got me to where I was. When I was a teenager and skateboarding/martial arts literally all day I was able to take in 4k calories and still maintain ~180 pounds at < 14% BF. Well, I hit my 20s and the activity level dropped instantly and I was still eating the same. Boom insta-fatass. It's good to know that 5 years of damage can be basically undone with about 5 months of focused dedication. Once I get back to where I was, I'm NEVER gonna go back to a fat ass again. I'm actually glad that, if I had to learn the "obesity lesson", it was while I was still relatively young.

[Kelvandros]

It's really easy to start to gain, even more so after a stressful situation. You think "I'll get up and workout tomorrow."

Then people will eventually hit a point where it's actually very difficult to do the things they used to do. That's when the "I can't run a mile" feeling starts the depression, leading to embarrassment about going and trying to excersize. That leads to more sitting on the couch and eating.

Then there comes a point when even normal, everyday things are hard. That's when it really seems hopeless to them, because they get winded walking up the stairs, how could someone expect them to go into a gym and get on a treadmill.

The "it's too late for me" attitude comes on strong and people give up before they start. They will also try crazy crash diets and pills (things that don't take much effort) and after not losing anything, or gaining it all back, they think it's just the way it is for them.

[Kjerski]

give me a fu@king break ... obesity is not an illness, it may be circumstantial to how a person can get there, but ULTIMATELY its a lack of will power. bottom line.

I think a lot of it has to do with under educated people on health and nutrition and bad parenting, at least in the young guys. Its lack of will power when you know how to prevent it and you choose not to.

I got to where I am much like cyco85. After I stopped sports in high school I didnt change the way I ate.

[Jerok88]

I think a lot of it has to do with under educated people on health and nutrition and bad parenting, at least in the young guys. Its lack of will power when you know how to prevent it and you choose not to.

I got to where I am much like cyco85. After I stopped sports in high school I didnt change the way I ate.

Bad parenting is how my nephews are fat - I cannot say that I blame them as their mom encourages them to eat a lot, will get mad if they don't.

My Mom has depression and is overweight because of this mostly, after Dad died.

Most obese people don't have physical issues, though there are a few I'm sure. If it's because of an illness it's likely mental.

Others are obese because the **** they took from their childhood, well they're on their own now and they don't try to fix it.

[FatZillllla]

seems like a few us became obese after High School LOL

I injured my knee really bad, I was told after getting my surgery I can be back on my feet within 6 months so I used that as an excuse

I said well, im gonna eat the same way as I did for the next 6 months and then I will lose it all after I fully recover from the surgery

well guess what? the surgery didnt fix the problem and I had to get the second one...
but meanwhile I had already ballooned up... now add to a messed up knee, a messed up head after all the emotional crap a person goes through after gaining a **** load of weight

Anyways, I got the second surgery and I dont have any more excuses

Looking back, I blame myself for being lazy but also I agree w/ those who say obesity is a mental disorder - I might not agree with you on when the disorder starts but i definitely think that it exist

[FatZillllla]

Also a few of you mentioned an interesting topic

Education


Now I didnt go through the elementary school system in North America and back where I lived nobody ever told me watch out for the calories or the rest of the crap

Then I moved to Canada and in the 4 years of HS I dont ever remember having been lectured on the topic of nutrition

also

"Bad Parenting"

hmmm, As a kid I wasnt fat (i've pictures to prove it LOL) then throughout elementary school I was 10-15lbs overweight but nothing serious since I was super active and preferred sports over video games

Now my parents tried to control my diet so I dont see how I got overweight... O_o

[FrosteaTT]

I sincerely think most issues, in general, and obesity/weight in particular, is an issue of choices. We often look for external excuses rather than internal responsibility and initiative to correct. It may be psychological, but to an effect, its the lack of initiative to correct that thinking.

There could be 2 schools of thoughts on this subject, but i stand on the power of will/choice instead of excuses.

[c00kiee]

It's no wonder extreme obesity comes with a share of mental problems but I think people generally mistake correlation for causation- In order to suffer from a particular "disease" or "illness", rather than just be much fatter than everyone else, there's got to be something specially wrong with you, y'know, the disease. A certain condition or illness which makes weight gain and weight loss for you different than weight gain and weight loss for disease-free people.

If someone who is obese can theoretically lose weight, fat, etc like a regular person, there's no need to cite a disease, right. But if there is some sort of sugar sensitivity for example which makes losing weight extremely difficult, then yeah, something like that can be considered a handicap which makes that person more vulnerable; a disease.

You can't just slap the "mental disease" tagline everywhere as well, there needs to be empirical data to call something a mental disease. Plenty of disease-free people are capable of eating themselves obese without having real mental disorders, maybe just milder personality faults like poor self-esteem, loneliness, mild depression/anger, etc.. which lead to bad eating habits

I really do not expect the amount of "diseased" obese people to be anywhere near what others claim. There's an intense need for justification here, because the conditions are so extreme. 10, 15, even 50 lbs are excusable and all but imagine having to accept that the 3, 4, or 500 extra lbs of fat you've put on weren't due to some special disease; just like any other healthy person can, you just ate and ate and ate and years later, look like this. Kinda scary.. ah this is getting long, sorry.

[Mrredundant]

I sincerely think most issues, in general, and obesity/weight in particular, is an issue of choices. We often look for external excuses rather than internal responsibility and initiative to correct. It may be psychological, but to an effect, its the lack of initiative to correct that thinking.

There could be 2 schools of thoughts on this subject, but i stand on the power of will/choice instead of excuses.

well said.

[metroins]

Obesity = lack of information or misinformation imo. If somebody is still obese after learning the science then they have deeper issues. Nobody in their right mind would choose to be obese after learning how easy it is to maintain a better body.

[TheComebackKidd]

Unless you have some sort of medical issue that has weight gain as a side effect, obesity is a definite bi-product of poor decision making that stems from developing/being taught poor eating habits growing up and/or emotional issues wreaking havoc in your mind.

[B. Roth]

I think in most cases it is a combination of misinformation, poor eating habits passed down from parents, and emotional/psychological issues. I was never obese but I have struggled with being overweight for most of my life. I started getting chubby when I was about 13 because we stopped eating at home so much and started eating fast food a lot more. My sister and I both had extracurricular activities we wanted to attend after school and usually mom would pick us up with fast food in the car, we'd eat in the car, and then we'd go to whatever we had going on. I grew to love that fast food stuff and when I got out on my own fast food was my food of choice because it was comforting.

Eventually the activities stopped but my eating habits never did. The extent of my "nutritional knowledge" was that I should order the chicken fingers instead of a hamburger with my combo because chicken is lower fat than beef. Talk about misinformation. But by then I had wired myself to crave fast food nonstop. I didn't know why I was fat because I had friends who were rail thin that ate the same stuff I did (as far as I could tell). I didn't think it was fair that they could eat whatever they wanted and not gain a pound but I couldn't. To be honest, I probably didn't REALLY look at what they were eating. For all I know they were eating half as much as me while I was destroying full super-sized combos and getting refills on my sodas. Also I was eating that stuff daily (sometimes for lunch AND dinner) and they might have just had that once a week when we were hanging out.

My personal struggles and those of the people in my family lead me to believe it is misinformation in most cases. I know people who are overweight now who complain to me that they "can't lose weight" and they "have tried EVERYTHING". Then I ask them if they've tried following a mostly whole foods diet that is high in protein; moderate in carbs, with only 1-2 cheat meals a week and vigorous exercise. Of COURSE they haven't tried that. That's crazy! None of their skinny friends have to do all that to be skinny! It's not FAIR that they should have to work so hard to look how they want! When it comes down to it there is a disconnect in their mind between diet, exercise, and how their body looks. They compare themselves to the one person they know who has hit the genetic lottery for metabolism. I used to be there myself.

When they DO try to lose weight, the task seems so overwhelming and insurmountable that they think there is no hope for them. They don't see immediate change so they give up after a few days or a week. It's actually a very sad, depressing, and lonely place to be. The only thing that makes them feel better is...surprise...those comfort foods that they developed a taste for through poor, emotional eating habits. So they turn to those foods. They feel like they are just cheating a little bit but they don't realize you CAN'T cheat virtually every day when you are trying to lose weight...not when you don't understand calories and portion control. Take me for example...I've had times in the past where I was at a party and I saw a thin friend eat a couple of potato chips so I figured it was ok for me to do it too. About 10 minutes later I realize I've been shoving potato chips into my mouth nonstop whereas they had 4-5 chips and stopped. I have to constantly connect diet, exercise and body in my mind because in my default/unthinking mode I just don't do that. Some people seem to do this unconsciously. I have friends who say they just don't really like sweet things. I have a HUGE sweet tooth. Obviously it is going to be more difficult for me to stay away from sweets than it is for them. But that's just how it is. You have to accept it and change your habits and mindset.

I really didn't mean to ramble on like that but it's something I've given a great deal of thought. Knowledge is power. Until people REALLY understand the relationship between the fuel you provide your body and the way you use it, they will continue to make poor choices. We need to do a much better job educating our children and instilling good eating and exercise habits in them. And we have to teach them that they must start taking personal responsibility. This goes for more than just eating habits.

[starstrukked]

i agree with some of the previous posts as being obese is a choice; however, its not a choice that everyone wants to choose obviously. nobody wants to be fat, but what makes being/becoming obese a choice ultimately ends up coming from the choices you make in your own life especially dealing with how active you are and what you eat. if you choose to sit around all day and you choose to eat whatever your heart desires in any amount whether it be the whole bag, or the whole box, etc then that leads to being obese. no one wants to be obese, but what happens is that sometimes you dont think your that bad until someone tells you, or you realize it and you do something about it. everything in life is a choice

[Gorath]

I was talking to a few people in another website and someone brought up the obesity subject

Now the majority of the people that I was talking to blamed the person for being lazy and becoming obese

Others said that Obesity was a disorder / illness / addiction and the person who is obese has no control over it

What do you guys and gals consider obesity? laziness or illness? Both?


Edit: if you were/are obese; what do you think caused it?

As an obese man I can tell you for certain that both are correct, and at the same time, completely wrong.

As an obese man I can also tell you that someone who has never been obese has no place to comment on this. Without being there, you can never truly know what it's like, what goes through our minds every day, how our bodies react, how our emotions play out. Those of us who are, or have been obese will have some idea of what I'm talking about.

Not everyone has the exact same issues, not everyone goes down the same path, but in almost every case, there are common factors, depression, fear and yes, low self esteem, lack of self confidence, and yes, idleness.

For me, it started probably in school, primary school. I wasn't ever overweight, looking back now I can see that, I was slim, very slim, just big and broad, but I was bullied relentlessly for being fat. That kind of thing never goes away until you face it down. Even then, it can still play on your subconcious. Throughout highschool and my early adult life I was fit and healthy, then I started working as a security guard. 16 hours a night sat on my arse doing nothing, yeah, its not an environment conducive to good health. But I've been out of security work for 2 1/2 years now, in that time I could have lost all my weight and genuinely been able to say 'it was just the job'. But it's not true, I got comfortable, then I fell into a rut and became depressed. Not clinically, but yes, I was certainly depressed, ashamed of myself, and that becomes a vicious, destructive spiral. Some people might say that it was undestandable, my father was diagnosed with cancer and I had to spend the last 2 years watching him whither and die, it's easy to become lost with something like that, and for some people it is a very real reason, but it wasn't for me. I deal with things with surprising equanimity, except when it comes to myself. I find a common theme amongst those of us who are obese is that we can't control our own lives and excessive eating and drinking is an expression of that. We can't face up to our own demons, have no self belief, so we can't drag ourselves to the gym, we eat because we're ashamed and we're ashamed because we eat.

Again, not everyone goes through this, this is my story, but there are a lot of factors which will ring true for every obese person.

Is it just lazyness? No, the emotional and psychological factors are very real.
Is it an illness? Perhaps, in some cases, it might be, there have been medical examples of this being the case, but generally speaking? No, it's not an illness, it is a state of being, a series of choices starting and ending with the persons choice not to face their demons and take control of their lives.

This is why those of use who finally lose weight feel and act almost arrogant, the feeling of pride in accomplishment, to show the world that you are proud to stand up and be seen is beyond contestation. And in many cases, mine certainly, the losing weight heralds more significant changes in an obese persons life, new girl/boyfriend, getting married, kids, new job, new home, going back to uni, all kinds. Losing weight sparks a great desire to improve our lives completely, not just shift a hundred or so lbs.

Bein obese is tough, and dragging yourself through the mire, making yourself change is the biggest challenge an obese man will likely ever face, but the pay off is extraordinary. Being able to walk a flight of stairs without stopping for breath, being able to stand up straight without crippling back pain, looking in the mirror and seeingyour body shape the right way day by day, yeah, these things are a tremendous pay off for making the choice to take control.

It's not just lazy, it's not an illness, it's just a lack of strength and control.

[FatZillllla]

For me, it started probably in school, primary school. I wasn't ever overweight, looking back now I can see that, I was slim, very slim, just big and broad, but I was bullied relentlessly for being fat. That kind of thing never goes away until you face it down. Even then, it can still play on your subconcious.

I know what you mean, I was picked on for a good part of elementary school because of my look - Not my weight or anything else but purely because I looked different from 99.9999% of other kids in the entire god damn city - I guess thats a ****ty part about being bi-racial in a country where foreigners are seen rarely

Of course, being a big kid I bullied others so they wouldnt bully me and through the process I guess I really did hurt some kids