Poll: Obesity as a Disease.

[Vankraken]

Obesity may be a disease but its caused by an addiction. Fatty foods trigger the reward center in the brain which is why people crave these types of foods which results in the development of an addiction. The bad part about food addiction is that its a natural part of your body's function and the drive to eat food is hard wired into the brain for survival. It makes it very hard to deny yourself from eating fatty foods (when you have a food addiction) because you have to make yourself endure a "starving" state because when your body wants those foods it releases the chemicals in your brain that makes you crave food and feel hungry.

People need to understand that from a biological/survival standpoint your brain WANTS you to eat super fatty foods because it is how we survive in nature and we are hard wired to gain pleasure from consuming these types of foods (same way we gain pleasure from sex to ensure we reproduce). Problem is our brains don't understand the concept of having too much food so you keep eating and packing on those pounds because in our minds its vital for survival to ensure we can continue to live in the case that we can't secure as much food in the future.

If you want to stop obesity then it needs to be approached in a similar manner to other addictions and victims of this addiction needs to understand that this is an ongoing struggle and not just a simple case of "i just need to get use to eating healthier foods".

Just to give an example I weigh 125 lbs and yet I feel an addicted to fatty foods. If i go a day or two without french fries or a cheeseburger i really start to crave it. Honestly im lucky because my metabolism is very high and i can keep the weight off but while im not 250+ lbs im still struggling with this addiction. I struggle to eat healthier and its an ongoing battle to cut out the fast food, soda, raisin bread (my ultimate weakness). While weight loss isn't a goal of mine, just having a healthier diet with proper nutrition is very important to my mental and physical health. (hell when i eat a cheeseburger i get that reward center hit which makes it taste really good but then shortly after i feel like shit because its unhealthy and gives me indigestion)

Also to people who say its because fat people are just "lazy" need to reevaluate that logic. In nature if an animal is able to get all the food they want and all the sex they want (fast food and internet porn can easily fulfill this in humans) then they are winning at life and have no need to do anything else so the brain kinda just shuts down to an extent. Why would an animal need to do more when it can easily get all the food and sex it can ever want? Same thing happens in humans which results in a lower drive to achieve, work, or even care about anything. Also the constant flood from the reward center in the brain results in the need for more rewards to feel the same amount enjoyment (same as when you need to take more drugs to get the same high), it makes the rewards in life feel insignificant which results in a state of depression. If your depressed and your motivation to do anything is diminished then its that much harder to make the changes in diet and fight off those urges to eat a whopper.

Proper diet and exercise are vital to a healthy lifestyle but we also need to look at WHY people are eating unhealthy foods and find better methods to support people trying to stop eating this addicting unhealthy junk.

 

[MelasZepheos_v1legacy]

Yes, but with a huge conditional.

Genetics/disease/whatever might cause you to put on more weight. But other conditions such as diabetes can be found and diagnosed, and it is fairly obvious when people have them. So far as I am aware there has not been one single utterly conclusive study that proves there is a genetic component to obesity (ie, finding the faulty chromosome which causes it) Instead there is a whole lot of circumstancial evidence that might suggest genetic causes.

Next point: Fat people are messing up the studies. For the purposes of this point the overweight will be labelled in two categories: The Fat, and the Obese. The Obese have a genetic condition (supposedly) that unless they spend their entire life on an extreme diet, always hungry, they will be overweight. The Fat just need to get up, stop eating so much, and maybe employ some light exercise. As long as there are more Fat people than genetically Obese people then sorting the Obese from the Fat will be impossible.

Conclusion and rebuttal to the 'get off your fat ass' people: Obesity may or may not be a disease, I don't study it and I don't know enough about the biology to really understand the arguments. However, there are some people for whom it is not an excuse. Like how there are a lot of real people with autism or aspergers, and then a whole lot of assholes on the internet who don't want to own up to how desolate and empty their lives are.

Which sort of links in to my next point. I think a lot of people who are self righteous about being in shape really don't get it sometimes. There are two things that can help you lose weight, eating less and exercising more, so let's run through my typical day.

Spoiler

I wake up at 7:15, I leave the house by 8:30, I am at work by 9am. I work solidly though until 5:30-6:00pm and have an hour for lunch. When I get home I have extra e-mails to deal with, and since I am trying to get published I have to write my novel. At what point am I supposed to have time for exercising in that day? Some of us don't work 10-5 and then come home and get straight onto the X-Box, we have jobs that take up a lot of our time and commitments outside those jobs which then take up more. If I wanted to get fit, I would have to give up having a social life outside of the internet, and I'm not willing to make that sacrifice. Given the choice between fitness and friends, I choose friends, and I know that most regular human beings would.

So let's look at eating. I spend almost all of my income on rent, leaving me sometimes very little for food (thankfully now supplemented a little more by getting some regular gigs which pay reasonably well). Everyone always says 'oh, buying healthy isn't as prohibitively expensive anymore.' Really? I would just love to know where you shop because I can get 40 chicken nuggets for the same price as one onion, and I can get a lot more meals out of the 40 chicken nuggets. I have spaghetti bolognase once a month as a treat to myself, and even though it is the cheapest healthy meal I can make it still costs more than a burger-chips and beans meal would. I buy low quality 'value' food because it is all I can afford and it is cheaper and easier to store than fresh food. I can buy a 4 burger pack for 49p and freeze it for over a month, I can't do that with a bunch of carrots.

So now I can't exercise and I can't eat healthily. So maybe I should eat less? This is another one that people who don't work high stress high intensity jobs don't get. You often can't go without meals, because then you'll find yourself with a report due in half an hour and absolutely no energy to finish it. If I don't have breakfast, I won't be any use in the mornings, and I have to deal with about fifty students and all of my own work before lunch. Then in the afternoon it's rounds of meetings and yet more student dealings and visits from international agents. You try working my day without eating full meals.

And the best thing of all? Even if you read all that you won't get it. You'll suggest that surely I could do without breakfast, I've just got myself into the mindset that I need it. Surely I could go for a run after work instead of doing my e-mails, I just haven't got the motivation. And that's why me lecturing you or you lecturing me is pointless, because as I said, you just don't understand until you live my exact life, like I won't understand your life until I live it exactly.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

However, it can be a SYMPTOM or side effect of a disease. There are MANY listed diseases related to obesity. Many drugs designed to deal with unrelated problems also contribute to obesity.

Yeah, came in here to say this. Obesity is a symptom, not a disease.

Perhaps it's a symptom of a thyroid disorder.

Or a medication you're taking over-stimulating your appetite.

Or as the OP states, a difficulty the body is having processing fats/sugars.

Or simply a symptom of too many pies in the diet.

I can buy into the mutation idea considering I have been eating like a shameless pig my entire life and am the skinniest of my friends. The media says I should be fat but I am not. Fancy that.

How old are you? I was this way until my mid-late twenties. Then my metabolism said "Okay, I'm out! Good luck with that shameless pig routine!" and it was like someone pulled the rip cord on an inflatable raft.

10 years later and I need to exercise regularly and at least semi-watch what I eat if I expect to stay a reasonable weight.

 

[malestrithe]

My diet is generally healthy. It is mostly frozen foods. While not ideal, its certainly better than fast food 5 times a day like before. I probably eat a little more than I should, but it's still a lot less than I did last year at this time. Last year at this time, I was close to 4000 calories a day. Now, its more like 2500 a day.

I've lost about 30 pounds in the last year.

Eating too much is a by product of depression. There is something missing in my brain and I eat to try and fill the gap in them. When I learned to combat the depression, the overeating stopped.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

My diet is generally healthy. It is mostly frozen foods. While not ideal, its certainly better than fast food 5 times a day like before.

Not really, it's not. Processed food is still terrible for you. You should be eating whole, unprocessed foods.

Don't worry though, it's not like I do it either. I just know I SHOULD be.

 

[malestrithe]

My diet is generally healthy. It is mostly frozen foods. While not ideal, its certainly better than fast food 5 times a day like before.

Not really, it's not. Processed food is still terrible for you. You should be eating whole, unprocessed foods.

Don't worry though, it's not like I do it either. I just know I SHOULD be.

You're right I should be too. Like I said, it's not idea, but healthier than how I was before.

The thing is, I'm not worried about all the chemicals because they tend not to linger in the body. There is a reason why shit stinks. That is the body getting rid of the stuff it does not need.

 

[Yan007]

Yes, but with a huge conditional.

Genetics/disease/whatever might cause you to put on more weight. But other conditions such as diabetes can be found and diagnosed, and it is fairly obvious when people have them. So far as I am aware there has not been one single utterly conclusive study that proves there is a genetic component to obesity (ie, finding the faulty chromosome which causes it) Instead there is a whole lot of circumstancial evidence that might suggest genetic causes.

Next point: Fat people are messing up the studies. For the purposes of this point the overweight will be labelled in two categories: The Fat, and the Obese. The Obese have a genetic condition (supposedly) that unless they spend their entire life on an extreme diet, always hungry, they will be overweight. The Fat just need to get up, stop eating so much, and maybe employ some light exercise. As long as there are more Fat people than genetically Obese people then sorting the Obese from the Fat will be impossible.

Conclusion and rebuttal to the 'get off your fat ass' people: Obesity may or may not be a disease, I don't study it and I don't know enough about the biology to really understand the arguments. However, there are some people for whom it is not an excuse. Like how there are a lot of real people with autism or aspergers, and then a whole lot of assholes on the internet who don't want to own up to how desolate and empty their lives are.

Which sort of links in to my next point. I think a lot of people who are self righteous about being in shape really don't get it sometimes. There are two things that can help you lose weight, eating less and exercising more, so let's run through my typical day.

Spoiler

I wake up at 7:15, I leave the house by 8:30, I am at work by 9am. I work solidly though until 5:30-6:00pm and have an hour for lunch. When I get home I have extra e-mails to deal with, and since I am trying to get published I have to write my novel. At what point am I supposed to have time for exercising in that day? Some of us don't work 10-5 and then come home and get straight onto the X-Box, we have jobs that take up a lot of our time and commitments outside those jobs which then take up more. If I wanted to get fit, I would have to give up having a social life outside of the internet, and I'm not willing to make that sacrifice. Given the choice between fitness and friends, I choose friends, and I know that most regular human beings would.

So let's look at eating. I spend almost all of my income on rent, leaving me sometimes very little for food (thankfully now supplemented a little more by getting some regular gigs which pay reasonably well). Everyone always says 'oh, buying healthy isn't as prohibitively expensive anymore.' Really? I would just love to know where you shop because I can get 40 chicken nuggets for the same price as one onion, and I can get a lot more meals out of the 40 chicken nuggets. I have spaghetti bolognase once a month as a treat to myself, and even though it is the cheapest healthy meal I can make it still costs more than a burger-chips and beans meal would. I buy low quality 'value' food because it is all I can afford and it is cheaper and easier to store than fresh food. I can buy a 4 burger pack for 49p and freeze it for over a month, I can't do that with a bunch of carrots.

So now I can't exercise and I can't eat healthily. So maybe I should eat less? This is another one that people who don't work high stress high intensity jobs don't get. You often can't go without meals, because then you'll find yourself with a report due in half an hour and absolutely no energy to finish it. If I don't have breakfast, I won't be any use in the mornings, and I have to deal with about fifty students and all of my own work before lunch. Then in the afternoon it's rounds of meetings and yet more student dealings and visits from international agents. You try working my day without eating full meals.

And the best thing of all? Even if you read all that you won't get it. You'll suggest that surely I could do without breakfast, I've just got myself into the mindset that I need it. Surely I could go for a run after work instead of doing my e-mails, I just haven't got the motivation. And that's why me lecturing you or you lecturing me is pointless, because as I said, you just don't understand until you live my exact life, like I won't understand your life until I live it exactly.

Sorry, but eating less is a ridiculous way to lose weight and WILL backfire. If you are already fat, just cutting your calories arbitrarily won't help you much unless you know your BMR for example. I'm also sorry to hear about your situation but then again, how sorry your life is is of no concern to mother nature and your body. Whine less, find more solutions.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

You're right I should be too. Like I said, it's not idea, but healthier than how I was before.

The thing is, I'm not worried about all the chemicals because they tend not to linger in the body. There is a reason why shit stinks. That is the body getting rid of the stuff it does not need.

That process eventually breaks down though. Think of your liver like a filter. Pass enough shit through it, and eventually that filter starts to look pretty disgusting, and more and more crud starts making it through and into your system.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

You find me an obese person that lives on a diet of exercise an salads? You wont, they eat 10,000 calories a day while sat in front of the tv and then blame "illness" as a reason.

 

[malestrithe]

You're right I should be too. Like I said, it's not idea, but healthier than how I was before.

The thing is, I'm not worried about all the chemicals because they tend not to linger in the body. There is a reason why shit stinks. That is the body getting rid of the stuff it does not need.

That process eventually breaks down though. Think of your liver like a filter. Pass enough shit through it, and eventually that filter starts to look pretty disgusting, and more and more crud starts making it through and into your system.

Aware of that too. Again not really worried about it. The amounts are small enough that it is not affecting me. More worried about the anti depressants I'm currently taking doing irreversible harm than anything in the frozen foods. Sorry, but I need to go with the greater of the two evils.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Aware of that too. Again not really worried about it. The amounts are small enough that it is not affecting me. More worried about the anti depressants I'm currently taking doing irreversible harm than anything in the frozen foods. Sorry, but I need to go with the greater of the two evils.

It's all good. Bad nutrition didn't really effect me until my mid thirties. It's a gong show when it finally happens, but you've probably got many years of enjoying frozen pizzas ahead of you before your body says "fuck it" and explodes.

 

[Fasckira]

At best I'd say its a mental health problem manifesting indirectly as obesity. For example, depression leading to comfort eating, that kind of thing.

Obesity in itself though is not a disease, its the consequence of not eating a balanced diet in accordance with your body. The idea that certain bodies process food differently is correct but that just means that that person needs to work out a diet that keeps them within healthy levels.

And of course, a little humour on the subject:

http://youtu.be/mgU6Hvb8AXY

Ricky Gervais explaining its not a disease.

 

[IndomitableSam]

You find me an obese person that lives on a diet of exercise an salads? You wont, they eat 10,000 calories a day while sat in front of the tv and then blame "illness" as a reason.

I'm considered obese - my diet is listed above. I don't exercise like I should - but I don't eat 10,000 calories a day. Less than half that, probably. And I've been obese since about age 12.

The guage on whether someone has genetic issues or not can be decided by how well they lose weight when put on a proper food and exercise program. People on The Biggest Loser? Most of them aren't genetically inclined to be big. The ones who get booted early, even though they work just as hard but can't lose the weight? They probably have some genetic issues.

A few years ago when I was in Library School I had to come downtown to go to classes - so I would walk 10 minutes to a bus stop, ride the bus, get off and walk 20 minutes to my building. Then walk to and from different classes. All with a properly fitted backpack and 30+ pounds of books/computers/etc inside. I lost a size, but didn't lose any weight.

When I worked at a private school which fed everyone only healthy foods and I supervised children - chased after them and played with them 3 hours a day, taking them outside and playing on the play structure. I wore out a pair of shoes. I lost a size... but no weight.

I can touch my toes easily - put my palms flush on the floor. Put my foot behind my ear. Carry kids around. Go up a flight of stairs without losing my breath. Go for long walks without being winded.

I usually fluctuate between a size 16 and 18 Canadian - Extra Large, not XXL or bigger. I can shop in normal people stores (provided they have a plus size section) - My favorite store is Ricki's. I weigh about 270 pounds.

Everyone's weight issues are different.

 

[Ranorak]

0% of human obesity is caused by genetics. As per your example: if you eat a bag of chips, you might convert a % to fat, someone else might convert a different % to fat. The fat still comes from eating that pack of chips. That is environment not genetics.

This is false, the way your entire metabolism works is run by genetics, in fact, we can induce obesity in animals by knocking out a single gene, and on the same diet they get remarkably more obese.
The fat doesn't come from the chips alone, it comes from your metabolism.
carbohydrates are usually converted into energy, genetic disorders can shift this balance significantly and send most carbohydrates straight to the fatty acid production cycle.

[

If the word 'influenced' rather than 'caused' was used then I'm sure I could agree with this.

You are right, my bad.

That's not what you said. You said obese. Overweight is not the same thing as obese.

Obesity is defined as:
Obesity is an abnormal accumulation of body fat, usually 20% or more over an individual's ideal body weight. Obesity is associated with increased risk of illness, disability, and death.

I guess overweight is used more for the 20% or less type, I figure.

So how do you catch obesity? Is it a air borne virus? Blood borne? If a fat person bites me do I get obesity? Should I use a condom... Yeah sorry, it's a sore point with me that things are being labelled as "diseases" when they are really just a lack of self control.

By having a genetic defect in one of your many, many metabolic enzymes.

My point is not that "It's a disease, they can't help it."

My point is, some people have a genetic disorder that makes a regular diet enough to make them obese.
Diabetes type II, for example, can be caused by obesity, but can also lead to obesity.

A mutation in mice's insulin receptor gene will cause almost all of their food intake to be directly synthesized into fatty acids.
They will not produce energy, thus cannot "work" it off.

Again, not saying this is the case in all, or even most, obesity cases.
A lot of times it really is just a matter of not working out and bad diets.

But there are numerous cases of obesity induced by genetics.

 

[Nimzabaat]

My diet is generally healthy. It is mostly frozen foods. While not ideal, its certainly better than fast food 5 times a day like before. I probably eat a little more than I should, but it's still a lot less than I did last year at this time. Last year at this time, I was close to 4000 calories a day. Now, its more like 2500 a day.

I've lost about 30 pounds in the last year.

Eating too much is a by product of depression. There is something missing in my brain and I eat to try and fill the gap in them. When I learned to combat the depression, the overeating stopped.

Congrats!

0% of human obesity is caused by genetics. As per your example: if you eat a bag of chips, you might convert a % to fat, someone else might convert a different % to fat. The fat still comes from eating that pack of chips. That is environment not genetics.

This is false, the way your entire metabolism works is run by genetics, in fact, we can induce obesity in animals by knocking out a single gene, and on the same diet they get remarkably more obese.
The fat doesn't come from the chips alone, it comes from your metabolism.
carbohydrates are usually converted into energy, genetic disorders can shift this balance significantly and send most carbohydrates straight to the fatty acid production cycle.

[

If the word 'influenced' rather than 'caused' was used then I'm sure I could agree with this.

You are right, my bad.

That's not what you said. You said obese. Overweight is not the same thing as obese.

Obesity is defined as:
Obesity is an abnormal accumulation of body fat, usually 20% or more over an individual's ideal body weight. Obesity is associated with increased risk of illness, disability, and death.

I guess overweight is used more for the 20% or less type, I figure.

So how do you catch obesity? Is it a air borne virus? Blood borne? If a fat person bites me do I get obesity? Should I use a condom... Yeah sorry, it's a sore point with me that things are being labelled as "diseases" when they are really just a lack of self control.

By having a genetic defect in one of your many, many metabolic enzymes.

My point is not that "It's a disease, they can't help it."

My point is, some people have a genetic disorder that makes a regular diet enough to make them obese.
Diabetes type II, for example, can be caused by obesity, but can also lead to obesity.

A mutation in mice's insulin receptor gene will cause almost all of their food intake to be directly synthesized into fatty acids.
They will not produce energy, thus cannot "work" it off.

Again, not saying this is the case in all, or even most, obesity cases.
A lot of times it really is just a matter of not working out and bad diets.

But there are numerous cases of obesity induced by genetics.

Okay it's a disease. The cure is healthy eating and excercise. The cure will take time. In some cases it will take a lot of time. But it can be cured if people want it bad enough.

My point is by giving people a cop-out and letting them not take responsibility for their own lifestyle you are NOT HELPING THEM. If you cared about these people at all you'd encourage them to become healthier and happier, not give them a made up excuse not to be. There's been a few posters here who have had weight problems and have addressed them by eating better and exercising more and that's awesome. Good for them. Denial, on the other hand, helps no one.

 

[RJ 17]

I'd imagine there's already been some comments to this effect posted before me, but let me say this:

If obesity is a disease, I already know the cure for it: put down the god damn fork.

 

[NightHawk21]

First a couple questions and sorry in advance since this isn't exactly about the thread:
1) What class and at what level are you writing this paper for, because that first source might not fly at a university level.
2) Granted I haven't done direct research into the subject, but strictly speaking you can't say that 40-70% of "fatness" is caused by genetics. There are a lot of things controlling the genetic code, and not every gene is expressed or expressed to the same extent. There are a lot of other factors that affect how, and which genes are expressed in what amounts, and you can't make assumptions on any population from a small group (not to mention one of those sources is one a bacteria).
3) The part about conversion. There are a lot of factors that can influence how much of the energy in your food is stored, not just some variations with proteins. Among these factors, how much you store will be related to age, height, and lean muscle mass.

^All that being said if you are writing on a high school level, ignore that cause you wouldn't be expected to know it, but if your writing on a university level for a biology/science course, be careful how and what you say, and I'd try to find a better source for human obesity than that C. elegans website (try google scholar and punch in human obesity genetic causes).

On-topic: Yes, I consider obesity a disease. More often than not obesity has some sort of underlying factor whether it is physiological or physical. Now granted, this doesn't mean that anyone who is overweight is so because its out of their hands.

 

[Amarok]

I wouldn't call it a disease but contrary to the prevailing opinion of this thread so far it's not something that is a "lifestyle choice" and isn't preventable by "getting some fucking exercise" or "putting down the god damn fork".

"People come in all shapes and sizes" is a phrase we used to get taught but which got hushed up a little when it was discovered that creating a society which stigmitises and shames the "overweight" is profitable.

Studies as early as 1959 have shown that eating less and exercising more only works in 5% of people. And I don't mean the other 95% give up or do it wrong or something, I mean for 95% of people that just plain doesn't work. Several studies have shown that dieting, while causing initial weight-loss, almost always leads to the patient regaining their weight within 5 years, if not gaining more, even if they still persist with the diet.

Now I'm not saying for a second that exercising and eating right aren't healthy - in fact, that's just the thing: engaging in a healthy lifestyle leads to health. BUT weight and health are two totally different things, that have been lumped together despite overwhelming evidence that they shouldn't be. More studies have shown that obese people who engage in the same healthy lifestyles as "ideal weight" people have, get this, the exact shame chances of various illnesses as each other. And obese people and "ideal weight" people who engage in the same UNhealthy lifestyle choices share the exact same elevated risk.

The $68bn weightloss industry, and governments keen to scapegoat, have fed the media machine and lead to obesity hysteria, the tragic results of which are, among other things, a 112% increase in eating disorders in children under 12. As well as anxiety, stress and depression over being stigmitised on a daily basis leading to increased suicide and stress-related illnesses in the overweight, thus making the whole mortality thing a grim, self-realising prophecy.

Shaming and ridiculing fat people with comments like "put down the fucking fork" is bad for psychological health and this translates into bad physical health. Not just eating disorders, but also the rejection of a healthy lifestyle because it "clearly isn't working." It is, it is working for their health. But the human body is so much more complex than just "its size is determined by calorific exchange", and we all seem to have forgotten that, because a society that hates the fat is a society that makes weightloss industries a whole lot of money.

Here's some research, feel free to ignore it and, like the guy above me, claim to know the "cure" for obesity without any evidence.

Bibliography:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez/1580453
http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/Dieting-Does-Not-Work-UCLA-Researchers-7832.aspx
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez/17469900
http://www.nutritionj.com/content/10/1/9
http://www.rxpgnews.com/obesity/Adolescent_Dieting_May_Predict_Obesity_and_Eating__3907_3907.shtml
pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/112/4/900.short
http://danceswithfat.wordpress.com/2012/04/19/study-healthy-habits-make-healthy-fatties/
http://thinkexist.com/quotes/steven_blair/
http://thinkmuscle.com/health/obesity-health-metabolic-fitness/
http://www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1056/NEJM198603063141003
http://jama.ama-assn.org/content/282/16/1547.short

 

[Brutal Peanut]

I believe it can easily be an self-imposed addiction. I believe a minority really can't help it, usually those with medical problems that makes it extremely difficult. However, I believe for a majority eating right, exercising, and just generally leading a healthy life-style will help them in losing weight, whether it's 100lbs or just 20lbs, they earned it and should be proud of themselves; regardless of what anyone else says. You can still be hefty, stocky, and a thicker person while living that healthy lifestyle. However, I believe a majority of people tend to put way too much emphasis into; "It's my genes!", "It's my bones!", "It's my body structure!" and they end up not even trying.

I myself was addicted to food and I'd use it to self-medicate myself (ALONG with drinking and smoking). Like some people do with cigarettes, drugs, and alcohol. I was 100lbs overweight by being 245lbs, at the height of 5'5". I banged all of the same drums. Genetics, bones, body-structure. I am now 168lbs and closing in on the personal goal I set for myself (145lbs), which means I've managed to lose 77lbs. I quit smoking and drinking. No gym, no crazy workout fads or diet crazes. I worked out at home, studied plant-based nutrition, and used that as a guide to eat as healthy as I possibly could. I still do. "You can have just one, you've been so good!" is a constantly repeated phrase that ends up haunting me. I find that I can't indulge like other people even with a simple snack-sized bag of chips even having just one beer or two beers with friends is something that requires a dedicated workout later, however I can also be personally blamed for running my metabolism right into the ground, even if it wasn't that fast to begin with.

I caught a lot of hate from my family, who also always blamed genetics for their physical appearance; because I asked them to please lead healthier lifestyles. My family (besides my dad who has always been healthy) are yo-yo dieters. If something doesn't work to their expectations that week, they'll move on to some other crazy diet phase. Eventually they gain whatever they did manage to lose back and say, "See, it's my genes! Exercise and eating right doesn't work!" Except it actually can, if you can muster the self-control. As my cousin and sister proved to themselves.

As long as you eat right, exercise, and generally live a healthy life-style your body will reflect that, size 0 to 12.

 

[Hagi]

I would say that yes, it's a disease. But no, that's not an excuse.

I'd compare it to something like ADHD (genuine ADHD, not "I have bad parents"). It's something that makes life a bit more complicated and makes you deserving of some aid in managing your life. But it's no excuse to utterly destroy your own life (like cardiovascular diseases would do).

There's a difference between being chubby, bigger or whatever you want to call it and being obese. The first is perfectly fine. The latter is inexcusable unless there's something really serious going on.

Everyone has difficulties in their life. As an adult you're meant to face your difficulties and live with them. Bad metabolism is just another of life's troubles.