Message Boards› Debate: Health and Fitness
bathsheba_c
Member Posts: 1,874 Member
Member Posts: 1,874 Member
Is promoting weight loss dangerous?
bathsheba_c
Member Posts: 1,874 Member
Member Posts: 1,874 Member
Consider this:
-The human body has evolved to favor weight gain in order to avoid starvation.
-Calorie deprivation experiments have shown that even fairly small reductions in food intake can cause psychological distress, including hoarding behaviors.
-Eating disorders are the deadliest of all mental illnesses due to high rates of suicide and permanent damage to internal organs.
-Not eating enough stressed the body, which weakens the immune system and damages the cardiovascular system.
-Almost no one who loses weight keeps it off long-term.
-Being “overweight” after a certain age is protective against early death.
In light of the above, is it actually responsible to promote weight loss? Or would it be more responsible to encourage people to eat a balanced diet and exercise without looking at the scale?
-The human body has evolved to favor weight gain in order to avoid starvation.
-Calorie deprivation experiments have shown that even fairly small reductions in food intake can cause psychological distress, including hoarding behaviors.
-Eating disorders are the deadliest of all mental illnesses due to high rates of suicide and permanent damage to internal organs.
-Not eating enough stressed the body, which weakens the immune system and damages the cardiovascular system.
-Almost no one who loses weight keeps it off long-term.
-Being “overweight” after a certain age is protective against early death.
In light of the above, is it actually responsible to promote weight loss? Or would it be more responsible to encourage people to eat a balanced diet and exercise without looking at the scale?
Replies
-People can die from obesity related causes.
That is not how life works. Eating disorders are many and varied. One person advised to lose weight will do so sensibly reach a healthy weight and stay there, one will eat too little and burn out then regain the weight, one will take it to an extreme and develop an eating disorder, one will tell you to stuff your advice where the sun don't shine and continue to eat far too much and become morbidly obese and have a heart attack. We all react in different ways to the "promotion" of weight loss.
I don't think that just telling people to eat a balanced diet and do some excercise will reverse the explosion of obesity that we are seeing at the moment. Any more than telling people to eat less and move more 10 years ago has caused an explosion of Anorexia/bulimia. (It hasn't by the way) Eating disorders are way more complex than that.
Depends on what you mean by "Promoting"
Promoting faddy very low calorie diets is irresponsible but a doctor advising weight loss to a patient to help their health issues is not irresponsible.
I also don't think we evolved to favour weight gain I think we evolved to walk/run long distances to find our food that is why we are suffering an obesity crisis now. Too much food available without effort. Our bodies are certainly not evolved to deal with that kind of weight gain at all. Hence all the obesity related diseases and joint issues.
So promoting healthy weight loss yes and for some people a scale is not needed but for most of us it is a good tool to measure progress toward a healthy weight.
I think you're using a very blunt tool to work on a project that requires both fine tools and fine motor control.
* my formerly sky-high cholesterol and triglycerides are now solidly in the normal range,
* my formerly high blood pressure is now normal to low-normal
* the science-based "effective age" estimators I've used have put my age 20-30 years younger than I actually am (64 in a couple weeks, BTW),
* my osteoarthritis and torn meniscus that formerly were always uncomfortable and frequently actually painful are now occasionally uncomfortable and rarely actively painful,
* I can work alongside people 20 years or more younger (moving furniture, gardening, rowing) and keep up, often more than keep up
* my doctor is no longer advising me to take statins
* and more, but I'm tired of typing . . . .
Yup, super dangerous, weight loss.
P.S. Lost from obese - where I'd been for around 3 decades - to a healthy weight, and have stayed there for 4+ years now.
Are you worried that people will starve to death when they can have hot food delivered to them??
Consider this:
-The younger generation today will have shorter lives than their parents (on average) because of obesity related illness.
A statement like this: "The human body has evolved to favor weight gain in order to avoid starvation." really grinds my gears. The human body favors weight gain because for most of human history, food was extremely scarce and people were very active, which is why the body is geared towards fat stores. But that has changed very much in the last century or so, as food has become much more abundant and people have become much more sedentary. Our bodies haven't evolved further since then. That our bodies are geared towards a way of living that humans no longer due is precisely why obesity is such a huge issue.
Look, I am not glossing over the seriousness of eating disorders. They are certainly a serious problem. Which is why promoting healthy weight loss and body positivity are important things. But they are not mutually exclusive with weight loss.
I know in our medical centre we dont actually promote weight loss - we promote weight management - which means doing what you need to do to be a healthy weight for you.
For most people this is either lose weight or maintain current weight. For a few, it is gain weight.
Yes being SLIGHTLY over weight can be better for some older people and weight loss might not be the best goal for them
But we are talking there about a small demographic: people 70 + with a BMI of 26/27 ish - not being obese.
So, in short- yes, indvidualised goals.
But not avoid promoting weight loss for people who should lose weight - as your post seems to be suggesting
And now we are to the point that humans have to ride on scooters due to medical issues associated with weight gain. Doesn't seem like progress.
These all sound like justifications to stay fat
Source? I'd like to read it.
Again source? You don't need to have an eating disorder to be suicidal.
True, but IF someone were overweight or obese, there isn't a lack of calories to sustain cellular function. A high percentage regain weight, but that's more due to lack of consistency after reaching a goal weight. While I don't believe in dieting, it's necessary for many who have high risk health factors due to their being overweight.
Subjective. What age are you speaking of? Again, where's the source for this?
The NUMBER ONE indicator of health risk issues is weight. Common sense here would tell you that if one ate a balanced diet and exercised consistently, that there likely never would have been a weight issue in the first place. AND if one did that while overeweight, weight loss would happen if their calories consumed were less than they burned reducing their weight.
As a professional in the business and being directly involved with it for more than 30 years, I would definitely argue that it's NOT irresponsible to promote weight loss FOR THOSE WHO NEED IT. The problem is society today places so much importance on how someone looks that people go to extreme measures to attain that look and that's where problems happen with eating disorders, improper approach to weight loss, scam diet programs, etc.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
People who forget the past, are bound to repeat it.... looking back can help us look to the future. While we can not live like cave people. We can look at hunter gather groups and see how they live and take certain things and implement them.