Obesity as a disease? Really?

thelordofcheese · 04-09-2008 08:44PM

ChewChew wrote: »

I'm so sorry for having an opinion!

That's ok.
Just don't let it happen again :P

kowloon · 04-09-2008 11:21PM

I'm just over 9 stone, not quite a dwarf and not obese. I'm a type 1 diabetic, nothing to do with being overweight, but it heavily affects what and when I can eat.
For every meal I eat I need to inject a hormone called Insulin. Insulin needs to be balanced to your food intake, so if I'm sick, stressed, tired or simply inject too much or eat too little my blood sugar goes low and can trigger a condition known as hypoglycaemia.
Hypoglycaemia isn't the same for everyone, but for me, I get hungry, extremely hungry. In that state if someone tried to withhold food from me I would probably attack them. The hunger is instinctual and well beyond the control of logic.
I don't know if the hunger obese people feel is similar, but if it is I would say they have a problem that has gone far beyond laying off the pies.

RealEstateKing · 04-09-2008 11:29PM

is a disease in the same way that being an alcoholic or a heroin addict is a disease.

Sure there is an element of personal choice involved, but once addiction takes hold, it begins to have a logic of it's own.

The difference is that while most people have begun to cop that alcoholism or smack addicts deserve pity and support/rehab , there are still some people who beleive that fat people are just lazy gits who cant control themselves.

In the same way that you can go down the pub and have two pints and go home, and your recovering alcoholic uncle just cant drink at all or he'll end up on a bender. Its isnt that you're morally superior to him and just know to say when, its that your brain is different to his, and doesnt respond to alcohol the same way. Obesity has a similar logic to it - the difference being that obese people are despised by practically everybody, nobody wants to sleep with them, and they dont ever get thought of as tragically, poetically cool (A la Pete Doherty)

I feel very sorry for them myself.

iTroll · 04-09-2008 11:30PM

Size 12+ are there for a reason.

We just don't know it yet.

Looby_Loo · 04-09-2008 11:49PM

Interesting topic.
Was talking to an anaesthetist today who was quite emphatic about the subject.
He believes that obesity is in no way a disease, that it has totally changed the type of patient he sees in the operating theatre.
He now gets sixteen year olds in for gall bladder operations (previously unheard of)
The rate of death under anaesthetic is one in a hundred thousand.
In the obese population, that rate rises hugely.
In an emergency situation aspiration is a danger that is lifethreatening. Obese people are almost guaranteed to aspirate and the mortality rate is 50% if that happens.

Australia now refuses elective surgery to the severely obese for that reason.

04-09-2008 11:52PM

kowloon wrote: »

I'm just over 9 stone and maybe 5 11, I'm not sure exactly, but I'm not huge. I'm a type 1 diabetic, nothing to do with being overweight, but it heavily affects what and when I can eat.
For every meal I eat I need to inject a hormone called Insulin. Insulin needs to be balanced to your food intake, so if I'm sick, stressed, tired or simply inject too much or eat too little my blood sugar goes low and can trigger a condition known as hypoglycaemia.
Hypoglycaemia isn't the same for everyone, but for me, I get hungry, extremely hungry. In that state if someone tried to withhold food from me I would probably attack them. The hunger is instinctual and well beyond the control of logic.
I don't know if the hunger obese people feel is similar, but if it is I would say they have a problem that has gone far beyond laying off the pies.

Jesus your very light for your height.

04-09-2008 11:57PM

kowloon wrote: »

I'm just over 9 stone and maybe 5 11

I think you'd be underweight, not overweight.

kowloon · 05-09-2008 12:08AM

Deleted User wrote: »

I think you'd be underweight, not overweight.

I guessed the conversion, looking at it typed, it's way off, I'm much shorter than 5 11

But my point is I'm not overweight so I can't speak from an overweight persons point of view.

indough · 05-09-2008 05:30AM

RealEstateKing wrote: »

is a disease in the same way that being an alcoholic or a heroin addict is a disease

obesity is not an addiction

hussey · 05-09-2008 05:45AM

Just order a diet coke with your Large Big Mac and you'll be fine.

amacachi · 05-09-2008 05:49AM

Looby_Loo wrote: »

Interesting topic.
Was talking to an anaesthetist today who was quite emphatic about the subject.
He believes that obesity is in no way a disease, that it has totally changed the type of patient he sees in the operating theatre.
He now gets sixteen year olds in for gall bladder operations (previously unheard of)
The rate of death under anaesthetic is one in a hundred thousand.
In the obese population, that rate rises hugely.
In an emergency situation aspiration is a danger that is lifethreatening. Obese people are almost guaranteed to aspirate and the mortality rate is 50% if that happens.

Australia now refuses elective surgery to the severely obese for that reason.

I was almost refused surgery a while back up North for having a BMI of over 35, there's a decent amount of fat on me but I'm certainly not super-morbidly obese as my BMI would supposedly indicate. Luckily the nurse had the cop-on to add an extra inch and a bit to my height and knocked a coupla pounds off my weight to get me under the number.

Other than about 2% of people, there's no excuse for getting so fat. I'm fat, whose fault is it? MINE! I eat too much, eat too much crap and sit around doing nothing all do, the same as most lard-asses. People can call it a disease all they want, I'm not gonna use it as an excuse.

amacachi · 05-09-2008 05:50AM

hussey wrote: »

Just order a diet coke with your Large Big Mac and you'll be fine.

Ironically that would make a massive difference in sugar/calorie intake for someone who wasn't super-obese. Obviously it sounds stupid when it's being ordered, but I prefer diet coke with my fried cholesterol, can't handle the 700mls of sugar:P

Rhinocharge · 05-09-2008 06:09AM

So where do we stand now?
Is it a disease or isn't it?
Or will we wait till time tells us otherwise?

Could we have a poll added please?

Overheal · 05-09-2008 06:11AM

American Coca-Cola Classic has 39 grams of sugar (12oz can): is it the same there in Ireland?

hussey · 05-09-2008 06:16AM

Overheal wrote: »

American Coca-Cola Classic has 39 grams of sugar (12oz can): is it the same there in Ireland?

12oz ... fail

Tar.Aldarion · 05-09-2008 06:33AM

Rhinocharge wrote: »

So where do we stand now?
Is it a disease or isn't it?

Well, is stupidity a disease?

Overheal · 05-09-2008 06:38AM

hussey wrote: »

12oz ... fail

I do honestly miss the metric system. Do you know how hard it is to find a double format measuring tape? Stupiiiiiid (The tape is DISEASED!).

Rhinocharge · 05-09-2008 06:41AM

Tara Le d'Arion wrote: »

Well, is stupidity a disease?

Stupidity: Probably the best disease in the world. :rolleyes:

hussey · 05-09-2008 06:45AM

Tara Le d'Arion wrote: »

Well, is stupidity a disease?

Stupider like a fox

Madame Razz · 05-09-2008 07:03AM

I was on an Aer Arann flight earlier this week, and there was a morbidly obese guy on the plane. Initially he was waiting to see if two seats would be free when everybody had boarded(he felt he should have been given two seats for free anyway), but the flight was full so that wasn't an option. He then made a big fuss about fitting into the seat, it took Him at least ten mins, all the while moaning to his wife, that the seats too small, that this wasn't fair blah blah blah. Hes practically hyperventilating by the time he actually manages to squeeze himself in(and squeeze he had to), and he was spilling out over the seat into the aisle(the trolley had difficulty passing him). He then had to get an extender belt which barely fit him, so he was moaning that about that also. En route he horsed into two Mars bars and a can of coke. When we landed he basically had to squeeze his way up the aisle, and it took him ages to negotiate the steps getting off. Now I know these planes are smaller than usual, but seriously, his attitide was hilarious; it was everybodies fault except his own. I know there are some legitimate factors that cause obesity, but in fairness, nobody held this guy down and force fed him the mars bars, and twas blatently clear that all that was needed was for him to get off his fat ass and lose a few stone.

If I notice myself getting a bit chunky i cut back on the crap and exercise more. For the majority of these people i really dont think theres any excuse for their obesity, apart from their own laziness!

mikemac · 05-09-2008 07:13AM

Overheal wrote: »

American Coca-Cola Classic has 39 grams of sugar (12oz can): is it the same there in Ireland?

I realy have no clue how much 12oz is. And that's fluoric oz which is different again.
Metric system ftw!

Mahatma coat · 05-09-2008 07:18AM

Obese (FAT) People disgust me.

actually hey lets stop this PC 'Obese' thing and just call them fat slobs.

If there are children around when I go out for a smoke they will rattle off the same speils they have been taught inschool and chastise me for killin myself witha disgusting habit.

its about time that we drilled the same mentality into them regarding Fattys, and before someone says something about bullying in the playground because little johnny is being taunted about his weight, if little Johnny is a fat Lazygit then he needs it, he needs a peer pressure kick up the arse at a young age, not some PC Dogooder tellin him its not his fault he ate an entire bag of marsbars for lunch he has a disease.

you are fat because you eat too much. address the issues that cause you to eat too much, dont use them as an excuse

Overheal · 05-09-2008 07:22AM

micmclo wrote: »

I realy have no clue how much 12oz is. And that's fluoric oz which is different again.
Metric system ftw!

I will translate: A fucking can of coke! seesh :pac: so how much sugar is in an irish can?

Overheal · 05-09-2008 07:24AM

Mahatma coat wrote: »

Obese (FAT) People disgust me.

actually hey lets stop this PC 'Obese' thing and just call them fat slobs.

If there are children around when I go out for a smoke they will rattle off the same speils they havebeentaught inschool and chastise me for killin myself witha disgusting habit.

its about time that we drilled the same mentality into them regarding Fattys, and before someone says something about bullying in the playground because little johnny is being taunted about his weight, if little Johnny is a fat Lazygit then he needs it, he needs a peer pressure kick up the arse at a young age, not some PC Dogooder tellin him its not his fault he ate an entire bag of marsbars for lunch he has a disease.

you are fat because you eat too much. address the issues that cause you to eat too much, dont use them as an excuse

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TuArFVdFLE

milod · 05-09-2008 09:09AM

The stairs thing is an interesting point. When I started to wheeze climbing three flights of stairs in the job, I lost some fu**ing weight.

Like how hard is it to figure out?

On the original point - I don't believe you call a condition brought about by stupidity, and curable by willpower, a disease...

Sherifu · 05-09-2008 09:39AM

*nyom* *nyom* *nyom*

fakearms123 · 05-09-2008 10:57AM

hit the threadmill and practice a sensible diet is the solution, there is obese people who do want to improve and get healthy but just don't know how to go about doing it. But then you have these stupid hick obese motherlickers lying down on the couch eating themselves to death and complaining about how people see them. What do you expect i mean its a slow suicide really, sitting there eating a cheeseburger while crying because some kid called you fat is pathetic.

Baby4 · 05-09-2008 11:04AM

This post has been deleted.

eveie · 05-09-2008 11:05AM

ok heres my 2 cents worth.
i do believe that obese people arte by and large lazy or have gotten into such a routine of doing nothing that they find it extremly difficult to get motivated, you must also realise that their matabolisms will not be in great shape and therefore their energy levels quite low. people over eat for lots of different reason the same way people starve themselves its usually connected to some emotional baggage. most of us would have no problem tucking into a tub of ice-cream if we werent in the best of moods.
its unfair and ignorant to say that they disgust you, and yes i do realise there are very obese people out there who need to change their lifestles, but what you have to realise is that its much easier said then done.

tallaght01 · 05-09-2008 11:06AM

Is lung cancer a disease if it affects a smoker?

Obesity as a disease? Really?

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