Covid and Obesity

Flimsy_Boat

There is an interesting way to test our biases. Look at pictures of people and decide if they are underweight, normal/average, overweight, obese, morbidly obese. I found it shocking, the women whom I thought were too thin were actually normal. The obese ones looked like half the women I see daily on my 2km walk. Unfortunately there are no men on this website or I would have been able to use male examples.

Obese women who look 'normal' - https://app.mybodygallery.com/#/?height=175&weight=91

Normal weight women who are not in danger of anorexia (20 BMI) who look 'skinny' - https://app.mybodygallery.com/#/?height=175&weight=64

RandomName2

I was waiting for the guilt trip to happen.

You can't blame people for their age, the most important risk factor. It's hard to blame people for underlying conditions like diabetes or cardiovascular diseases, the next most important risk factors. It's almost impossible to blame people for underlying conditions like asthma, cystic fibrosis, or recovery from cancer.

But obesity, yeah I suppose it's possible to do a guilt trip about that.

JP Liz V1

Stheno wrote: »

There are plenty of extremely overweight people walking around my local area and there doesn't seem to be an issue for them

What weight is considered overweight now, I thought size 12 to 14 was good but now that is seen as overweight

Covid is attacking healthy thin young individuals too

The One Doctor

I'm quite obese and the crisis has made me lighter and fitter... not by intense exercise but by being mildly breathless a few times s day and cutting out some fatty foods. Much easier than I thought.

The One Doctor

The One Doctor wrote: »

I'm quite obese and the crisis has made me lighter and fitter... not by intense exercise but by being mildly breathless a few times s day and cutting out some fatty foods. Much easier than I thought.

That’s the thing though, if you’re still quite obese then you’re ****ed according to the article so it’s far too late. If the newspaper had a crystal ball and told you 12 months ago then maybe.

jam_mac_jam

JP Liz V1 wrote: »

What weight is considered overweight now, I thought size 12 to 14 was good but now that is seen as overweight

Covid is attacking healthy thin young individuals too

It's not clothes size. If you are tall a size twelve could be slim. It's a high body fat percentage or a Bmi over twenty five.

jam_mac_jam

The One Doctor wrote: »

I'm quite obese and the crisis has made me lighter and fitter... not by intense exercise but by being mildly breathless a few times s day and cutting out some fatty foods. Much easier than I thought.

Well done.

The One Doctor

ReginaldSmythV wrote: »

That’s the thing though, if you’re still quite obese then you’re ****ed according to the article so it’s far too late. If the newspaper had a crystal ball and told you 12 months ago then maybe.

I wouldn't believe the IT if it told me that ice was cold. Or the Indo for that matter.

What Username Guidelines

radiotrickster wrote: »

Depends on how fast you walk and for how long. I was a consultants secretary for a short while and she’d often roll her eyes when she heard of patients who needed to do exercise saying they walk for exercise.

It’s known as an excuse/panic-reply for someone wants to pretend they exercise regularly, even if they’re just trying to trick themselves.

I was 19 stone a few years ago and lost it mostly by walking and diet. Granted, I walked to and from work (11km each way) for a long time, but running was out of the question at that size. I’m now 11.5 stone and wondering how covid would impact me as an ex-fat person. Is the internal damage done, etc.

Rodin

ampleforth wrote: »

Why? I think she shows the world that everybody --- yes, ABSOLUTELY EVERYBODY --- can become health minister. The same counts for president of the so-called 'best economy of the world'. Hope is what the world runs on...

To wilfully let your body get in that state...
That's neglect on a grand scale.

Rodin

RandomName2 wrote: »

I was waiting for the guilt trip to happen.

You can't blame people for their age, the most important risk factor. It's hard to blame people for underlying conditions like diabetes or cardiovascular diseases, the next most important risk factors. It's almost impossible to blame people for underlying conditions like asthma, cystic fibrosis, or recovery from cancer.

But obesity, yeah I suppose it's possible to do a guilt trip about that.

Asthma and CF are blameless.
People with asthma who smoke however...

ampleforth

Rodin wrote: »

Asthma and CF are blameless.
People with asthma who smoke however...

Diabetes II ... yes, i think so
Astma when you smoke...yes, i guess.

A bit of honesty helps --- if there is something you could have done earlier, or can do now, you have the absolute liberty to take responsibility and that is a great thing. Nothing sucks more when you are a victim of your environment...or the false doing of others.

ednwireland

my bmi is just over 30. I can ride my bike for a 100km climb hills without stopping . I've climbed 20km climbs in the Alps.

marilynrr

ReginaldSmythV wrote: »

Why though? COVID isn’t coming, it’s here, so there’s zero point in doing it now.

It's not true that there is zero point.

The health benefits or the improvement in health problems can become apparent in the body long before the bulk of weight is lost.

i've seen this numerous times on many health and lifestyle or diet programmes. Normally when they check certain things after 2 or 3 months there are lots of improvements in fitness or blood pressure is a lot lower etc.

It's still going to be here in 3 months, if an obese person started a healthy lifestyle program now then more than likely they'll still be obese in 3 months, but inside their body will be healthier and running more effectively. I would bet those people would stand a better chance fighting off covid-19 then an obese person with an unhealthy lifestyle who made no changes during this time!

marilynrr

marilynrr wrote: »

It's not true that there is zero point.

The health benefits or the improvement in health problems can become apparent in the body long before the bulk of weight is lost.

i've seen this numerous times on many health and lifestyle or diet programmes. Normally when they check certain things after 2 or 3 months there are lots of improvements in fitness or blood pressure is a lot lower etc.

It's still going to be here in 3 months, if an obese person started a healthy lifestyle program now then more than likely they'll still be obese in 3 months, but inside their body will be healthier and running more effectively. I would bet those people would stand a better chance fighting off covid-19 then an obese person with an unhealthy lifestyle who made no changes during this time!

The way they’re opening up everything already and the Gardai being so lackadaisical we’ll all have it in one month, let alone 3.

Plus I think the story is a load of bollocks anyway. It can’t help but to say it’s worse for a lung attacking virus than smoking is just basically whoring for clicks.

s1ippy

endacl wrote: »

Maggie deBlock O’Lard?

Surely Mary Harney's Belgian cousin.

John Ryan isn't exactly a spring chicken either.

Taking care of your body through regular exercise and portion control is something everyone should be doing anyway and there are very few excuses for not doing it. You can even reward your good behaviour with treats now and again if you're sticking to a good routine of fitness where your resting and active heart rates are at a healthy level. Like the fisht of pints or big slice of cake I allow myself every now and again.

Might as well experience some of the delights this earth as too offer while we're on this side of the surface.

It's completely an attitude-based issue. Do you enjoy your diet and exercise routine and is it keeping you healthy? You have to weigh up how much you are risking your health against how much you're willing to compromise your lifestyle now.

Personally I won't do without a lot of activities which are high intensity, so my fitness never takes a significant drop. A cycle, jog and a kick-around can get the heart rate up easily and you can get really into them. Regular sex is fantastic for health as well, so finding someone to do that with regularly is definitely a good way to maintain a healthy weight. A good incentive to keep the weight off as well!

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts

Flimsy_Boat wrote: »

There is an interesting way to test our biases. Look at pictures of people and decide if they are underweight, normal/average, overweight, obese, morbidly obese. I found it shocking, the women whom I thought were too thin were actually normal. The obese ones looked like half the women I see daily on my 2km walk. Unfortunately there are no men on this website or I would have been able to use male examples.

Obese women who look 'normal' - https://app.mybodygallery.com/#/?height=175&weight=91

Normal weight women who are not in danger of anorexia (20 BMI) who look 'skinny' - https://app.mybodygallery.com/#/?height=175&weight=64

I actually think they all look pretty overweight. I would not have said any of them were healthy weight. I maybe wouldn’t have said they were all over BMI 30 but I do think they all look clearly overweight.

The girls in the lower link look healthy weight. I see lots of people like that around personally.

wadacrack

https://twitter.com/DrAseemMalhotra/status/1262624826348523521

seamus

ReginaldSmythV wrote: »

Maybe in some magical make believe land. Animosity towards them has grown hugely lately too, as threads like this show.

As a former megafatty I know first-hand that obesity loves to be able to justify its continued existence.

There is no end of excuses that it will use to avoid exercising or healthy eating.

They're all excuses, none of them are barriers to change. This is a monster that exists entirely in the obese person's head urging them to sink further and further into the mire.

The first step is realising this and breaking the cycle.

In terms of exercise, you can if you want. Weight is lost at the table, not in the gym. You don't even have to leave the house to lose weight. You can literally sit on your hole all day and get skinny so long as you consume the appropriate amount of food.

Count calories. Count them honesly and consistently, eat less than you need, and you will lose weight.

Whatever argument you can come up with for why you can't/won't count calories, is just an excuse for laziness. Fight back.

Wibbs

What Username Guidelines wrote: »

I was 19 stone a few years ago and lost it mostly by walking and diet. Granted, I walked to and from work (11km each way) for a long time, but running was out of the question at that size. I’m now 11.5 stone and wondering how covid would impact me as an ex-fat person. Is the internal damage done, etc.

From what I've read a lot of it seems to be a physical thing. That the more abdominal fat someone has the harder it is for the lungs to work, so if you've lost that fat then game ball I'd imagine? IIRC too the fatter someone is the more overall inflammation in the body which causes problems as well.

ReginaldSmythV wrote: »

Plus I think the story is a load of bollocks anyway. It can’t help but to say it’s worse for a lung attacking virus than smoking is just basically whoring for clicks.

The joke about this dose is smokers seem much less likely to catch it in the first place and less likely to need medical treatment of they do, though if they hit the ICU stage their outcomes are worse. Which you would expect. What is having researchers scratching their heads is the low percentage of smokers coming to medical attention with Covid19. In some studies it's over five times fewer. Outside of being under 50 it's one of the biggest apparent protectants. Mad. Hypothesises have nicotine interfering with the ACE receptors in some way and/or reducing inflammation and the rick of cytokine storms.

Another notion I thought of is that maybe because smokers are ordinarily more likely to catch respiratory infections(lowered immune response, weaker lungs and touch their hands to their mouths far more than non smokers) that maybe more of them have caught a "common cold" that was a coronavirus(which a few are) in the last few years and that is acting as a "vaccine" of sorts?

I suspect the current trials into nicotine patches as possible risk reducers won't work, or work very little. Smokers are firing nicotine directly into lung tissue rather than via the bloodstream, so a patch might not have the same effect on whatever is protecting them. Though if someone was a smoker and did end up in hospital with this dose I'd be sticking nicotine patches on them. That might be why they have bad outcomes if they do end up there, the protective element is suddenly cut off cold turkey.


Interestingly asthmatics aren't being any harder hit either.

AllForIt

Back when this pandemic was beginning to take hold in the UK I was listening to a first hand account from a proud farther who was talking about his son who was struck down with the virus. He described his son as a young strapping lad of 39, but despite this he's in intensive case. Later in the day I looked at the website of the radio station and it featured this story with a picture of the father with his son in happier times. The son did not fit the description of a young strapping lad rather he was so overweight you could hardly see his neck for the fat. Strapping young lad my backside. I wouldn't mind but the gist of the radio interview was 'this virus can strike anyone down', which is completely false.

It is now time to get tough on this issue. Actually it's way way overdue. It is time to stop treating overweight people as if they have the mentality of an 8 yo where you mustn't mention the weight in case you hurt their feelings.

You know what, if we didn't have a socialist health service I'd say do what like, you're the one that is going to suffer the most, you are the one who is going to have to pay higher rates in health insurance. But that is not the way it is and pressures on the health service is just going to get worse and worse if something isn't done.

silverharp

Your rights to eat unlimited crispycremes stops my economy crashing because of it

cian68

AllForIt wrote: »

It is now time to get tough on this issue. Actually it's way way overdue. It is time to stop treating overweight people as if they have the mentality of an 8 yo where you mustn't mention the weight in case you hurt their feelings.

You know what, if we didn't have a socialist health service I'd say do what like, you're the one that is going to suffer the most, you are the one who is going to have to pay higher rates in health insurance. But that is not the way it is and pressures on the health service is just going to get worse and worse if something isn't done.

I'm not exactly sure what you're suggesting here. Just being rude to overweight people who definitely already know they are overweight, probably think about it every day and may even be taking steps to lose weight that you don't know about?

Mad_Dave

There's been a growing trend recently of people claiming that you can be whatever size you want and still be healthy - as an example Cosmo UK published an article last year title 'Tess Holliday - Strong, Fit and 300 Pounds'
(although interestingly this only seems to apply to people who are overweight and not those who are underweight.)

I have no problem with people choosing to live and look how ever makes them feel most comfortable, however I do have a huge problem with propagating the myth that there are no increased health risks as a result of their decision.

Hopefully this pandemic will help to highlight this.

Ballso

ReginaldSmythV wrote: »

Whatever about the latter you’d want to have seen some fortune teller to base any life choice on Covid.

Being fat leaves you more exposed to all illnesses surely. This is not news.

Cobalt17

I’ve lost about 15lbs since it started. Working from home, no pubs or restaurants open, I’ve had plenty of time on my hands to prepare healthy meals and exercise.

silverharp

Kylmore Road if I read it right, McDs Q going back out on to the street. What a sad way of spending your lunchtime

https://twitter.com/newschambers/status/1263075457274085383

_Brian

What a thread.

People who are overweight know that they're overweight. You don't have to tell a black person they're black. You don't need to tell a blonde woman she's blonde. They know. It's already something they're aware of.

I'd be quite heavy myself (though thankfully I'm still relatively fit-ish) but jesus christ, when you read some of the posts on here, you can see why no one in Ireland talks about mental health. Literally ridiculing people for their weight, even though it's been long since accepted that the physical side of it is rarely why people gain substantial weight, and it's almost always directly related to mental issues or difficult prolonged life situations (hence "comfort" eating).

_Brian wrote: »

Obesity is far too accepted in society now...ridiculed for their laziness.

Planet X wrote: »

But......everyone is going around in Tracksuits (sorry...Active Wear)????
Must be the fittest nation around....

endacl wrote: »

Maggie deBlock O’Lard?

AllForIt wrote: »

It is time to stop treating overweight people as if they have the mentality of an 8 yo

Rodin wrote: »

To wilfully let your body get in that state...
That's neglect on a grand scale.

Have any of ye considered signing up to The Samaritans? You seem like naturals. :rolleyes:

Cobalt17

[Deleted User] wrote: »

What a thread.

People who are overweight know that they're overweight. You don't have to tell a black person they're black. You don't need to tell a blonde woman she's blonde. They know. It's already something they're aware of.

I'd be quite heavy myself (though thankfully I'm still relatively fit-ish) but jesus christ, when you read some of the posts on here, you can see why no one in Ireland talks about mental health. Literally ridiculing people for their weight, even though it's been long since accepted that the physical side of it is rarely why people gain substantial weight, and it's almost always directly related to mental issues or difficult prolonged life situations (hence "comfort" eating).














Have any of ye considered signing up to The Samaritans? You seem like naturals. :rolleyes:

Agreed, people need to acknowledge that fatism is real, and should be punishable by law. Unfortunately, we’re living in times where plus-sized people are living in the same world black people where living in during Jim Crow laws.

Sad that we don’t learn from our mistakes.

seamus

seamus wrote: »

As a former megafatty I know first-hand that obesity loves to be able to justify its continued existence.

There is no end of excuses that it will use to avoid exercising or healthy eating.

They're all excuses, none of them are barriers to change. This is a monster that exists entirely in the obese person's head urging them to sink further and further into the mire.

The first step is realising this and breaking the cycle.

In terms of exercise, you can if you want. Weight is lost at the table, not in the gym. You don't even have to leave the house to lose weight. You can literally sit on your hole all day and get skinny so long as you consume the appropriate amount of food.

Count calories. Count them honesly and consistently, eat less than you need, and you will lose weight.

Whatever argument you can come up with for why you can't/won't count calories, is just an excuse for laziness. Fight back.

If you’ve lost weight by not exercising then you’re smaller but not necessarily all that healthier.