Obesity Poll

Classifying obesity as a disease is obscene. It's a willful decision, not a disease.

Say that when your thyroid bottoms out and you bounce up to over 200 pounds like I did after each child.

Classifying obesity as a disease is obscene. It's a willful decision, not a disease.

One.


Jobs that make you sit on your asss for 9 hours a day should help pay for obesity treatment/help.

I'm for all 3 to varying degrees....

The government and private sector should support the fight against obesity (8216) - 31%

In the sense that they promote health and wellness programs, and that employers provide incentives for employees. Lots of companies have their own gyms, or start groups that go walking on their lunch breaks, etc...
Not in the sense that they tell me what to do.
My company has a small gym upstairs.









This.
We also have a woman come in 1x/week to teach a yoga class. If you want to take yoga, you sign up and pay for the class. The company provides the space. But they aren't going to pay for your class. Besides, you are more inclined to go if you are paying for it. If it's free, then it's no big deal to you if you skip.

Employers shouldn't be required to cover obesity treatments (5796) - 22%

Agreed. In the sense that it's not THEIR fault someone gets obese. It's due to laziness, OR other emotional problems in that individual's life. They should seek help on their own in the form of therapy, if needed, and/or joining a gym. There are plenty of programs out there.
Also, one should define "obesity treatments". What exactly falls under that category?

I don't believe they should pay for things that aren't necessary. For example, they shouldn't have to pay for your gym classes.

You know where the gym is. Get a membership.
Can't afford memberships? Go buy a $5 workout dvd and follow along. I got my nifty little hand weights for $6. 2 sets of hand weights. Cheap. Also, jump ropes are not that expensive. You can get a good one for $7 on amazon.
Can't afford that either? You know where youtube is. Go use one of the 354318461438 videos there.
Don't have internet? GO OUTSIDE. There is grass, side walks, HS track fields, roads, etc. Go walk, jog, run, skip, whatever.

Policy makers need to stay out of people's personal lives (12824) - 47%

I do believe that GENERALLY speaking, people get obese on their own. Telling people that they can only buy certain things, or drink certain things, or that you are only allowed to buy sodas in 20 oz cups but no bigger than that, is not cool.
I take personal responsibility for letting myself get fat. And it's my responsibility to get healthy.
Taking away that personal responsibility TO ME is like telling me that I don't know how to do it myself. For me personally, it's a slap in the face. It is telling me that I am fat and I obviously don't know how to take care of myself.
I need that personal responsibility and I need the policy makers to let me have it.




Those are just my thoughts on all that....... :flowerforyou:
Granted, its what would work for me, but for others who have more issues with obesity than I do, they might feel differently.

Then it is actually 'thyroid disease' not obesity as the disease. Obesity is a SYMPTOM of many underlying diseases or conditions (whether it's stress, thryoid, food addictions, or pure laziness and gluttony) but calling the actual 'obesity' the disease is missing the point. If for instance, your thyroid wasn't checked out because the obesity itself is considered the disease, then you'd never get well. And before anyone jumps on me about the stress thing, yes, it is medically proven that constant stress can contribute to obesity (maybe not as much as sitting on the couch eating a tube of cookie dough, but it does make it hard to loose a belly!!!!) :blushing:

My doctor called it "adrenal burnout" for lack of a better term. Ten years ago, when I was first diagnosed with acute recurring pancreatitis and had NONE of the normal conditions (no congenital deformities and not alcoholic), my doctor ran a battery of tests, including cortisol level and other stress indicators. Mine were through the roof! She said this really did explain why I ballooned to 300 pounds despite not being able to eat anything of any substance most days and vomiting almost daily for two years. Made me feel even better that there was a cure for it She promptly wrote me two prescriptions. One was for an hour of exercise daily and the other was stress management purposes. (Really, she wrote a note to my mother that I had to have the time to exercise or I would die before she did! Then who was gonna take care of her?!?)

Before I get pounced about not taking care of my mother, there is wayyyyy more to that story than I care to share here.

wow that is really messed up, I bet if you did the same poll here in Canada more people would want better obesity care, we have a different mentality especially when it comes to health care.

Obesity is a condition. It is not a disease. There is no microbe or pathogen that causes this.

1. The government and private sector should support the fight against obesity (8216) - 31%
2. Employers shouldn't be required to cover obesity treatments (5796) - 22%
3. Policy makers need to stay out of people's personal lives (12824) - 47%

I'll vote for 1 when the government or the private sector are force feeding people into a calorie surplus.

I'll vote against 2 when employers force feed people into a calorie surplus.

I'm voting for 3 because at the moment, the decision to overeat is firmly in control of the individual as should their responsibility to fix the problem that is entirely their own doing.

Obesity is rarely CAUSED by a medical condition, it is usually caused by under-exercising and overeating.

However, once a person becomes obese, it definitely causes medical issues.

I know a woman who went to South America for surgery (gastric bypass maybe - not sure), then back twice more to have excess skin removed -- and did a bunch of FUND RAISING here at work to pay for her trips, but to this day, she takes the ELEVATOR down one floor to buy a chocolate bar twice a day from the stash for the "social" fund. She also has a "disabled" parking pass for her vehicle to get the best parking in the office. Now, I don't claim to know her medical history, but if what I think is the truth - that she became obese from overeating and not exercising -- I think she should get the parking space as far from the office as possible, and stop buying chocolate bars, and maybe go to the fully equipped, free gym we have at work, or take part in the free noon hour exercise classes. Our employer pays for a wellness coordinator to be here full time. There's no excuse for being fat where I work. None.

Oh, and before someone asks how I came to be able to lose weight, and was I overweight?

The answer is that I overate and didn't exercise, that it was my own fault, and it was due to bad habits & laziness and NOT a medical condition.