With diet, exercise and discipline, most obesity problems of all people would be cured. but it is more comfortable to do nothing and blame genetics

  • RBWells@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    I am over 50 so have watched America get fat - when I was in grade school we had one fat girl , Tanya. I’m sure she had some metabolic issue, and I’ve since met a few other people like that, athletic but obese.

    My kids go to school with so many fat kids that they don’t even notice it.

    It’s more complicated than willpower, systems here are set up to almost enforce inactivity, and obesity is epigenetic, if you are born to a skinny mom but get fat, a genetic switch flips and your children (even if you don’t raise them in an obese household - for example you die and they grow up with skinny grandma) are very likely to struggle with obesity.

    But it’s also true that you, as an individual, have the biggest impact on your body size. It’s just not true that everyone’s appetite and metabolism are the same. I come from a thin mom who herself had thin parents, and I’m taller than average, my body is easy to keep slender even now.

    And I’d describe the problem as habits not willpower, nobody has enough willpower to fight an appetite for a lifetime. Habits are what matter, and in places where there are many obese people, they sort of distort society, making it more difficult to be active (car centric cities, elevators for everyone, desk jobs).

  • Norgur@kbin.social
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    6 months ago

    So, imagine you need 7 willpower to do an exercise and someone on the way to obesity needs 11 to do the same exercises. You roll an 8, do the exercises, all is fine. The other person rolls a 9, higher than you, yet still fails the willpower check. You standing there laughing how they lack willpower comes off as a little ignorant now, doesn’t it?

  • person@lemm.ee
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    6 months ago

    I don’t know why some people are so preoccupied with fat people. I’m not inhaling their cancer fumes. I don’t care what they do.

    There are systemic issues to address, but saying “get more discipline” is not helpful.

    • paddirn@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      I think there is a trend in the US to treat obesity with kid gloves and try to make everyone feel accepted and beautiful, no matter what. You’ll have things like drinking and smoking demonized for their negative health effects, but overeating and obesity is just sort of hand-waved away or even glorified. The closest thing to “All About That Bass” for smokers or drinkers is “Rehab” by Amy Winehouse. Americans want quick fixes for everything, when we can’t find one, we just normalize the thing as just a fact of life.

      • eskimofry@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        You should blame the food producers, not consumers. There is a thing as psychological exploitation of dopamine pathways in the brain to achieve sales of your newest sugar laden breakfast cereals.

        I believe overeating would be solved simply as a side-effect of bringing back healthy food options and banning sugar products.

        • viking@infosec.pub
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          6 months ago

          Just like banning drugs and alcohol has been so effective, you mean?

          You can’t protect people from themselves by force. Education is the only thing that works long-term.

          • eskimofry@lemmy.world
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            6 months ago

            Banning drugs and alcohol doesn’t work… but restricting them does work. Do you think everyone around is a cocaine addict? Alcohol is culturally acceptable hence it cannot be banned until it is culturally shunned. You only need to make sugar products inconvenient to get and unpopular; while also pushing for education.

  • ImplyingImplications@lemmy.ca
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    6 months ago

    Definitely unpopular lol. I like to think of it as an addiction. Saying an alcoholic doesn’t have enough willpower to put down the bottle is kind of true, but it’s not very helpful. Alcoholics have a much better chance at recovery with a strong support system.

    I think the same is true for obesity. An obese person has a food addiction. No one becomes 400 pounds without having an unhealthy obsession with food. Food addiction should have more recognition and support, but it really feels like everyone simply blames the addict when it’s food instead of drugs.

    • HelixDab2@lemm.ee
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      6 months ago

      People often do interventions for alcoholics, up until the point where no one can deal with them anymore. People that are obese often get a pass; few people aside from their doctor will talk about their weight, and their unhealthy life. There’s also the problem that a lot of people think they know what they need to do, but don’t really know.

  • jet@hackertalks.com
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    6 months ago

    Modern global society, not just any specific country, is suffering from epidemic levels of metabolic dysfunction. Obesity is only one symptom of metabolic syndrome. There are many people who are also metabolically unhealthy, and thin. The “skinny fats” you may have heard of.

    Obesity, high blood pressure, cardiovascular problems, PCOS, diabetes, dementia… all stem from the same root. The metabolic system is not functioning properly. Due to an hormonal imbalance that is recent in human history.

    Insulin levels have been higher in people for the last hundred years due to a change in diets. Sugar, processed foods, seed oils. These are the modern changes in diet, and the modern problems are a function of these. People are addicted to sugar, or carbohydrates, and they eat processed food which is designed to be addictive.

    Highly recommend the book “why we get sick”. https://goodreads.com/book/show/49207255-why-we-get-sick

    Blaming people as weak willed, when we’re facing a new, and very stark change in diet, and obesity… It’s just a cop out. People did not change in the last 100 years, The foods people eat changed in the last hundred years.

    • Forester@yiffit.net
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      6 months ago

      Just a cavit you might want to clarify type 2 diabetes just saying diabetes will piss off quite a few type 1 diabetics who suffer through no fault of their own only shitty genetics.

  • Remmock@kbin.social
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    6 months ago

    My wife eats a little healthier than I do. She drinks more water than I do. We eat the same quantity of food. We have the same exercise level. She’s notably heavier than I am. Please explain how there’s such a substantial difference in the end result. You aren’t allowed to use genetics in your answer.

  • pixxelkick@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    to do nothing and blame genetics

    You are doing the same, just a layer of abstraction and human constructing out.

    Addiction, and the willpower struggle, are genetic. You are aware things like ADHD exist, yes? Abd that ADHD is genetic?

    Willpower is inherent to psychological topology, which is an abstracted idea overtop of the physical makeup of your brain, which is heavily genetically influenced.

    The other half is environment.

    Primarily speaking, the combination of a poor environment (which most people suffer nowadays in the west) and a “bad roll” on genetics for what brain you end up with, and you become heavily predisposed towards addictive behavior patterns.

    And while eating and obesity aren’t the only addictive behaviors, of course, they are both legal and highly available making them very common.

    What I’d be curious about is how you think “willpower” isnt genetic. Are you suggesting it’s somehow an external force outside the human body…? That’d make no sense.

    Largely speaking this sort of statement is just an attempt to discard establish science by just smothering a layer of abstraction overtop and pretend it’s something else.

    “Willpower” is not a quantitative established metric, OP. How do you measure it? How do you quantify it?

    Dopamine exhaustion, decision fatigue, and executive function however are established concepts that are easier to discuss in a serious manner.

    Would I agree that obesity has a comorbodity with poor executive function? Yes, 100%!

    Would I say that executive function isn’t genetic? God no, it’s heavily genetic, when it is particularly bad that’s literally called ADHD.

  • xep@kbin.social
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    6 months ago

    Things like Fat Acceptance and trying to normalize being obese are part of the issue. Being obese is not physically healthy and there should be appropriate social pressure to counteract that.

  • thesporkeffect@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    I’m in pretty good shape currently thanks to being appropriately medicated for executive dysfunction, but in my stock physical configuration I experience constant gnawing hunger that can sometimes reduce my ability to make appropriate decisions or hear myself think. This doesn’t just impact my weight, but also my ability to maintain gainful employment and take care of my stupid body.

    Once you are overweight, everything is harder to do. Existence is painful and it’s hard to put together motivation to improve things. You want people to lose weight? Work on getting rid of societal stressors. Tax unhealthy food and incentivize farmers markets. Create walkable neighborhoods.

    What doesn’t help is telling people to man up and stop being so poor overweight.

  • blahsay@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    There’s a little truth to it. People can just choose omad or low calorie diets.

    You’re ignoring the fact the deck is increasingly stacked against people.

    • Food is packed with fructose and sugar
    • Lifestyles are more sedentary.
    • Better food costs more and people are poorer than they’ve been in ages.
    • There’s also a mental health component. It’s easy to show willpower when you’re crushing it but difficult lives lead to people to easy choices.
  • MxM111@kbin.social
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    6 months ago

    I am on strict keto diet. I exercise 4 times per week more than 1 hour each time (half is high intensity cardio, half is weight lifting and a bit of stretching) I am doing 44 hour fasting each week and I am window eating each day (6-8 hour window). I do all that FOR YEARS, despite of the fact that I naturally do not like exercise, and of course, I rather eat, including sweet fruits, than fasting or being on keto. And I am overweight and borderline obese. So, with all my respect, sir or ma’am, fuck you for trolling! You do that before you call someone without discipline or will power.

    • S1CK___0F___Society@lemmy.todayOP
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      6 months ago

      I am on strict keto diet.

      First problem. That’s a trash diet

      Second problem: you are doing it for years? You should notice results within weeks with a decent diet lol

      • MxM111@kbin.social
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        6 months ago

        There were results, I lost some weight but then it stabilized on a new level.

        As for “trash diet” - that’s the only diet that allows me not to increase weight.

      • S1CK___0F___Society@lemmy.todayOP
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        6 months ago

        Have your metrics improved since starting your ketogenic diet?

        Can’t you read? He has been doing it for years and he’s still obese

        • jet@hackertalks.com
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          6 months ago

          I can read. Thank you very much for being concerned for my literacy!

          There are more metrics than just abdominal size. Resting heart rate, blood pressure, blood glucose levels, HDL and triglyceride levels…

          Perhaps this person is on a long journey, and they’re only part way there? We don’t have all the data hence my question

  • sartalon@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    I used to agree with this until I got hit with PTSD.

    Then I had cravings that were next to impossible to say no to.

    I wouldn’t even be hungry and I’d be screaming at myself internally that I didn’t even need this, and yet I wouldn’t be able to stop.

    Ultimately my therapy and medication was able to help stabilize and, almost like magic, I could say no again. My Dr said it it is literally an addiction.

    People will always judge and OP is ignorant AF.

    It also doesn’t help that modern diets are built on mass production and mass consumption of sugars which isn’t good for us.

  • TheKMAP@lemmynsfw.com
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    6 months ago

    Technically true but it’s messed up that it requires that much willpower in the first place. Food pyramid, garbage like high fructose corn syrup, using cars for everything, all contribute to it being way too easy to be fat. We should strive for a society where you don’t need to have to put in special effort such as going to a gym or go on a special diet to be healthy. Being healthy should be seamless.

    It is much harder than necessary to be healthy. If you wanna get paranoid about it, a fat/lethargic populace is less likely to successfully rebel.