Quote:
Originally Posted by MeyerIsBack
I like to eat. So for me to maintain a healthy weight, I either have to monitor my eating or increase my activity. I really do a combination of both. If I had to say I had a 'natural weight', I would say it was the higher weight because that is the weight I ended up at without thinking about it. However, I don't really think there is a natural weight. I think there are bad eating habits and low activity. I think people may gravitate towards certain weights because of their habits but I don't believe that a person is born physiologically predetermined to be obese.
I actually kind of agree with you on this because of its documented failure rate. I believe people SHOULD be able to lose weight and maintain the loss. However, that is obviously not the case. I would hypothesize that it is more of a behavioral and psychological issue than physiological.
There are obviously weird body shapes but obesity (IMHO) is the result of a lifestyle. I have no sympathy for obesity. I have a weird soft spot for generational obesity because it is almost like that is all they ever knew. Almost like generational welfare. I think the saddest part is the constant conflicting information that gives fat people justification for being fat. It is now nearly impossible to argue that a person can lose weight because every fat person claims to have a slow 'metabolism'. Or uses 'starvation mode' as a reason to not eat too 'little'. When in reality the majority of these people are well over daily recommended values because they have no clue what 2,000 calories looks like. That is the saddest part to me.
The other extremely upsetting trend is that people get fat, get depressed (These first two may be reversed, there is a chicken and egg debate), end up on antidepressants, gain more weight, which heightens depression. The newer short life-cycle SSRIs are hard to discontinue so people spend a lifetime on these drugs that make weight loss even harder. I think I read that 11% of people over the age of 12 are on antidepressants. The effectiveness (especially of newer drugs) is also in serious question. Which is another question I have about weight gain. Does weight gain cause medical problems that require medicine that cause more medical problems?
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You're propensity to gain weight could well be behavioral and/or emotional. Most people aren't very active. Many if not most are emotional eaters. Add activity, eat when hungry, stop when satisfied, find other outlets for stress and boredom ... and I suspect many will settle into their happy, healthy weight.
BUT, your attitude on obesity needs some adjustment. We KNOW that obesity is genetic. There is no longer any question about this. And I myself had to overcome my inbred predjudices and reexamine the stereotypes about obese people. Ex: obese people I know are manifestly NOT lazy. Nor do they just shovel food down.
You might become more compassionate when you realize that attitudes like I used to harbor, like you still harbor, are likely at the root of why many obese people are actually deeply disenchanted with the way they look and are frequently trying (and failing) to get the weight off. It may also be at the root of why they medicate themselves. And the medications may also cause weight gain.
In point of fact, anti-anxiety meds and antidepressants my be THE primary cause of weight gain across the board. It's not like we've become less active since 1980. We haven't.