No Animated GIFs What causes obesity?

[peeonme]

@ aristomaniac,
You have put some real thought in to your post, I never had weight gain to speak of until I was in my late 60's. As a boy in the residential school I ate a lot, at 13-15 I was at about 105 lbs. and around 5'2" tall. At 21 I was 5'7" and 130 lbs. I stayed in that range until my 50's.
But back to my point, at 13-15 all of us boys ate the same. We were very active with work and exercise. There were no snack foods to speak of, no soda pop. I never saw a fat kid lose weight in the 18 months that I was there. Not one. There were 180 of us there, the fat guys stuck out like a sore thumb.

No one was cheating or goofing off, it was a controlled environment. I grew much stronger while there, but didn't accumulate body mass. I was bench pressing 120 lbs, I weighed 105. My body responded well to the good diet and activity. Some were not that fortunate.

I knew one guy at that place who weighed 145, he was benching over 200 lbs. I saw a recent pic of him some 50 years later and he is fat, he is about 68 now. I am sure that his metabolism has slowed down but his eating habits have not changed.
So it seems that genetics plays a role, just as it does with some disease. Outside of epilepsy I have never has any health issues outside of some worn out joints from years of work, that is excluding mental health problems.

When one is prone to obesity I believe that it should not be ignored, but controlled. For some it is easier than others.

 

[Dominus]

@ aristomaniac,
You have put some real thought in to your post, I never had weight gain to speak of until I was in my late 60's. As a boy in the residential school I ate a lot, at 13-15 I was at about 105 lbs. and around 5'2" tall. At 21 I was 5'7" and 130 lbs. I stayed in that range until my 50's.
But back to my point, at 13-15 all of us boys ate the same. We were very active with work and exercise. There were no snack foods to speak of, no soda pop. I never saw a fat kid lose weight in the 18 months that I was there. Not one. There were 180 of us there, the fat guys stuck out like a sore thumb.

No one was cheating or goofing off, it was a controlled environment. I grew much stronger while there, but didn't accumulate body mass. I was bench pressing 120 lbs, I weighed 105. My body responded well to the good diet and activity. Some were not that fortunate.

I knew one guy at that place who weighed 145, he was benching over 200 lbs. I saw a recent pic of him some 50 years later and he is fat, he is about 68 now. I am sure that his metabolism has slowed down but his eating habits have not changed.
So it seems that genetics plays a role, just as it does with some disease. Outside of epilepsy I have never has any health issues outside of some worn out joints from years of work, that is excluding mental health problems.

When one is prone to obesity I believe that it should not be ignored, but controlled. For some it is easier than others.

Thank you for your answer.

First of all, let me be clear that I don't think I was clear enough of what I think in my previous post. So, let me further clarify.

Notice that I never said it is not about genetics or other factors. What I meant to say was regardless of whether it is a matter of genetics or not, at the end of the day one will simply have to push past the limitations.

Permit me to bring up an example in my personal life to make a point.

Back in college, I knew this guy. Blond hair, blue eyes, a gorgeous of a guy. He was also insanely smart. He and I took many classes together, including calculus and other advance math classes. He never did his homework. How do I know this? Because I let him copy my homework every time. Before every class, he always asked me to let him copy my homework. I always agreed. He was also a party animal. I knew quite a few people around, and from my sources, he seemed to be at every party drinking and having sex with the girls. Even the nights before midterms, he was always partying. Every once in a while, he would call me up and asked for my help to go over what went on in the class.

Got the picture? On every midterm as well as the final, he always scored significantly higher than I did. He was also always the first to finish those tests. Always the first to get up and leave.

In one of the math classes that I took with him, I got a B while he ended up with an A even though it was I who tutored him at times. Was it genetics? Probably. Did it ever matter that genetically speaking he was better than me at everything, including looks? NO! What really mattered was I did not dwell on my shortcomings due to genetics and fought the good fight.

Let me tell you this. How will keep insisting that an obese person is obese because of genetics help the obese person not be obese anymore? I know we live in a PC world where we have to recognize people for their victimhood. But wouldn't it make more sense if these obese people fight to overcome the shitty hand (genetics) that they were dealt with? Rather than keep bringing it up that they are the victims of genetics, why not encourage them to fight through it and become better versions of themselves?

Everyone is different. For that gorgeous guy from college, copying my homework right before class and getting a couple tutoring sessions with me was enough to get him straight A's. For me, it took many hours on a daily basis to get the same results, most of the time slightly less.

Same with physical fitness. Some people have been blessed with good genes for physical fitness. My husband is one of them. He's always been fit in his life. He consistently measures body fat percentage at 14% or so, and he works out twice or so a week. He had his physical last month and they said he was in perfect health. I, on the other hand, got all kinds of problems.

Which makes more sense? Me crying all the time that I got dealt with shitty genes or me trying out different things and try to be the best version of myself?

Like I said, pointing out shitty genetics is a cop-out answer. Why? Even if it is true, it does absolutely nothing (NOTHING) to better one's situation. Let me repeat that. NOTHING. What it does is give people the justification to remain fat and obese without really trying anything. Why try anything if they got shitty genes?

 

[Latimer]

It seems that restaurant portions in America have increased in size over the years--in line with houses, automobiles, televisions, stock clothing sizes...just about everything but airline seats. When my partner and I eat out we generally order 3 courses and split them all.

 

[Latimer]

For some people, putting on weight is so gradual they hardly notice. Gain 3 lbs every year after 20 and by 50 you weigh 90 lbs more.

 

[Cormac135]

Greed...

 

[unloadonme]

Greed...

Sloth..

 

[Dominus]

@peonme I just re-read my previous post and realized I sounded like I was yelling at times. Sorry about that. It is a subject that I am passionate about because I truly believe telling people they are victims of [insert cause that is out of their control here] does nothing to help and in fact would cause them more harm.

 

[lefingum]

I don't deny that an active lifestyle and healthy diet can keep you off from going obese, but there does seem like some biological component in a person being obese.

I was extremely thin and lanky all my life -- I was at least 10 kgs underweight despite eating all I wanted (coke, any cold drinks, sugary juices, unhealthy junk foods on a daily basis). Then I started on Mirtazapine/Remeron (an antidepressant), and bam -- I gained 15 kgs in less than 2 months. It wasn't just my eating habit -- I wasn't eating more than before, but I kept on growing despite very moderate eating. This med is notorious for weight gain regardless of how little you eat. It basically slows down metabolism, and through many complex biological processes stores fat in the body. Today I am doing intense exercises, I gave up all cold drinks and sugary foods, I reduced my carb intake, try to eat lean meats and very small portion sizes, but to no avail. I managed to keep my weight down a little, but not by much.

Last year, when my dosage was decreased, I lost a few kgs in an instant...

So yes, there is a biological component to obesity. Just changing drugs that mess up with your metabolism and a few things here and there can totally change your body structure. So someo people can be born or genetically be predisposed to obesity.