My question had nothing to do with MM, so not sure why it was brought up. BMI is a horrible indicator of health and generalizing that only a few people that are overweight or obese can be healthy is not true. Many fat people are very healthy. The attitude that fat people overeat their way to fatness is also quite damaging. If you haven't ever, I highly recommend you look at the blog dances with fat. Lots of good information on there about the misconceptions surrounding obesity.
The only reason I mention obesity is as an argument against Minnie Maud. Also, I am speaking specifically about obesity, not just being overweight. As I mentioned previously, I know several people who are overweight by BMI measures but are healthy and fit.
So, I am not sure why you are messaging me about obesity being healthy because I can find heaps of research that asserts that the obesity epidemic in America is correlated with a decline in overall health.
Also, to refute the fact that bigger people overeat their way to fatness is laughable. Unless you have some medical issue that causes you to gain an abnormal amount of weight, you gain weight by eating more calories than you are burning.
B…b…but…feels!!!! STAHP TRIGGERING EVERYONE
People can be fat at rather normal and low-normal Bmis. This is a topic I find fascinating - the studies about thin individuals with metabolic disorders. Why does this happen and why is this so common? Is it body composition? Or is body composition actually irrelevant? We still have very little idea about why.
My wife recently took part as an examiner in a study about metabolic syndrome in normal weight teenagers.
We know that the basic equation, calories in - calories out = weight gain, is correct. (This is clearly true even in the case of medical issues btw). The underlying mechanisms of the regulation of the balance of the equation of far more complex (as always in biological systems) and the evidence suggests lies, at least in part, beyond our conscious control. Equally laughable is the concept that allowing a small part of the brain to override a generally well regulated complex homeostatic mechanism in order to achieve/maintain a somewhat arbitrary body weight is beneficial to health. Also I am disappointed that as an educated biologist, elizabeth, you are equating correlation to causation. Just because an increase in obesity correlates to ill health does not mean obesity causes ill health. An equally valid (neither is valid) conclusion to draw from your evidence is that ill health causes obesity.
Yes and no. :) Obesity has such a strong correlation with metabolic disorders (I guess in the U.S the estimates are that a solid 2/3 of the obese have one or more metabolic disorders) that I guess it would be really unwise to simply discard it as a non-issue or something completely irrelevant in the etiology of such disorders.
I’m not saying that weight loss, dietary restriction or compulsive exercising are the solutions. Some studies seem to point out that moderate exercise coupled with some very small modifications on the diet are already enough to make a significant difference for the better.
Saying obesity may well be a cause of metabolic disorders does not mean that the obese individual can do anything significant about his weight on a permanent basis. Maybe he’s basically helpless in this regard. That’s why it’s important that they have access to good and non-prejudiced health care such that their disorders are properly treated and managed, thus leading to a better quality of life.
Of course shaming the obese is not the answer. Besides being cruel and wrong, it takes the focus off the relevant issues such as poverty, lack of access to good health care, job stress and very limited “free time”, food prices, environments that aren’t adequate for rewarding physical activity, family issues, etc.
I think I was not very clear. I meant that a study that finds correlation is not sufficient to say there is a causation. In a wildly, wildly oversimplified example it could be that the genes which causes obesity also causes a number of metabolic illnesses for example. Of course it should not be discarded as a non issue, correlation is an indication causation might be occurring, and further research should be done to see if there is causation.
