How Do We Solve a Problem Like Obesity?

[hk blues]

2 minutes ago, D.A.F.C said:

Will probably get bad rep for this but theres a massive problem in society health wise in general.

Working long hours in stressful jobs

Dealing with stress by over eating, eating shite and drinking excessively

Being tired and worn down by the above so can't exercise

Those three things create a perfect recipe for getting overweight.

Then add on the ease to buy junk food and alcohol and how people make money out of it all. 

No wonder people find it difficult, they also see social media fitness people trying to sell them quick fix pills or fad diets and get depressed when they don't look like a supermodel or arnie overnight. 

That said the only real way to change is to see all this and fight against it. Find a motivation that's life long, not a fad. 

Small steps like drinking less, stopping crisps, only one takeaway. Go for a small walk. Over a year that makes a huge difference then push harder.

To change things I would make all exercise subsidised, keep gyms, fives and classes dirt cheap. 

Stop building fast food shops everywhere. Ban just eat and delivery services.

Educate kids to eat well and cook properly. Not just a few weeks of home economics. Get them almost brainwashed into eating healthily. Expand programs like jamie Oliver did.

There's going to be a health crisis with this and doing the above is far cheaper than a massive nhs bill.

Society needs to change though, going back to the first point. 

Work too long hours, eat shit, don't exercise and repeat = unhealthy 

 

There must be more to it than that though.  People in countries like Japan and Korea work longer than most .  They have an abundance of fast food options, and convenience stores are on every corner.  They consume alcohol liberally.  Yet obesity isn't as much of  a problem as it is in the UK.

[Bairnardo]

1 minute ago, Todd_is_God said:

It's not, though. We now see "big is beautiful too" type magazine covers and articles which, whilst not promoting an unhealthy lifestyle as such, do nothing to prompt people to lose weight.

We live in a world now where we are terrified to point out something as obvious as "being overweight is unhealthy" in case we offend people. Until that changes, we are pissing into the wind.

Those magazine covers are aimed at undoing the damage caused to women by literally decades if not centuries of being battered by body image stereotypes that destroy their self esteem tbf

[HibsFan]

1 minute ago, Todd_is_God said:

We live in a world now where we are terrified to point out something as obvious as "being overweight is unhealthy" in case we offend people. Until that changes, we are pissing into the wind.

Nobody seems terrified of pointing that out in this thread, in fact many people have gone far, far further than that and indulged in outright abuse towards overweight people.

[G51]

1 minute ago, hk blues said:

There must be more to it than that though.  People in countries like Japan and Korea work longer than most .  They have an abundance of fast food options, and convenience stores are on every corner.  They consume alcohol liberally.  Yet obesity isn't as much of  a problem as it is in the UK.

I'd wager that more people in Japan and Korea are physically active at their work, whereas work in the UK tends to mean sitting in front of a computer all day pissing the time away on a task that doesn't really matter.

[Genuine Hibs Fan]

4 minutes ago, Todd_is_God said:

 

We live in a world now where we are terrified to point out something as obvious as "being overweight is unhealthy" in case we offend people. Until that changes, we are pissing into the wind.

No we don't, stop being hysterical

[Bairnardo]

3 minutes ago, HibsFan said:

Nobody seems terrified of pointing that out in this thread, in fact many people have gone far, far further than that and indulged in outright abuse towards overweight people.

Also, doctors do not hesitate in the slightest. They produce a simple chart based on height and weight and routinely brand folk obese who we might take one glance at and call them healthy. This is a popular opinion you have posted but as far as I can see, its not actually true

 

eta brand maybe not the right word, but the health service in general, absolutely tell folk to lose weight

Edited March 4, 2021 by Bairnardo

[Todd_is_God]

1 minute ago, Bairnardo said:

Those magazine covers are aimed at undoing the damage caused to women by literally decades if not centuries of being battered by body image stereotypes that destroy their self esteem tbf

That's a fair point (and I remember not so long ago what seemed like a huge eating disorder issue for younger girls as a result), but you can do so without going in completely the opposite direction.

Too thin is just as unhealthy as too big.

[Todd_is_God]

1 minute ago, Genuine Hibs Fan said:

No we don't, stop being hysterical

We quite literally rename things because someome says they are offended.

[Billy Jean King]

Banning 500ml plus sized cans and bottles of " energy drinks" would be a start. Number of kids never mind adults you see with a can of that calorie laden shit permanently glued to their hand is unbelievable.

[hk blues]

1 minute ago, G51 said:

I'd wager that more people in Japan and Korea are physically active at their work, whereas work in the UK tends to mean sitting in front of a computer all day pissing the time away on a task that doesn't really matter.

I reckon most Japanese and Koreans have the same level of sedentary work as the UK does.  Japanese working culture is known for it's lifetime employment system which ends to breed inefficiency and time-wasting.  

[HibsFan]

2 minutes ago, Todd_is_God said:

We quite literally rename things because someome says they are offended.

Last time I checked the BMI charts were still named overweight, obese and (I think?) clinically obese?

[Michael W]

2 minutes ago, Genuine Hibs Fan said:

No we don't, stop being hysterical

I dunno. This poster campaign from Cancer Research prompted a backlash. 

Overlooking of course that smokers and drinkers have been subject to criticism and 'shaming' over their habits in health campaigns over the years. 

https://metro.co.uk/2018/03/01/cancer-research-uk-accused-fatshaming-obesity-poster-7353080/

[The Moonster]

I wasn't expecting a "can't even say you're skinny these days" type argument. Next level from Todd there. 

[Bairnardo]

1 minute ago, HibsFan said:

Last time I checked the BMI charts were still named overweight, obese and (I think?) clinically obese?

I look forward to the great #woke renaming campaign and would like to put forward svelte, hench and swole as the categories.

[Genuine Hibs Fan]

1 minute ago, Todd_is_God said:

We quite literally rename things because someome says they are offended.

That's not what you said though is it?

"We live in a world now where we are terrified to point out something as obvious as "being overweight is unhealthy" in case we offend people"

This is completely untrue and turning it into some "PC gone mad" issue doesn't help anything or do your argument any favours. It's a common tactic used to make an argument seem stronger - it is no longer allowed because it is a dangerous truth! - but no, people are not terrified to point out that being overweight is unhealthy, and in fact this message is still probably more prominent than any "big is beautiful" articles in Marie Claire

[Dons_1988]

10 minutes ago, G51 said:

 pissing the time away on a task that doesn't really matter.

How dare you say that about P&B

[coprolite]

3 minutes ago, Gaz said:

TDEE is the number of calories your body needs in an average day just to "stay the same". It stands for your total daily energy expenditure. It's made up of three things:

1) Your Basic Metabolic Rate (BMR) - this is how many calories your body needs a day just to stay alive. Imagine lying in your bed all day without moving, your body would still need calories to keep your cardiovascular, nervous, digestive systems etc. all going.

2) The calories you need for day-to-day living - walking around the house, getting to work, working, sitting watching TV.

3) The calories you need for any additional exercise.

I'd be astonished if more than a couple of percent of the population know a figure for that, or what the initialism stands for. 

I know averages and can estimate what calories i need to lose weight. 

Surely most people work on the basis that if they're putting on weight they need to eat less and less commonly losing weight, eat more. 

I think throwing jargon around makes it sound difficult and will put people off engaging. 

[Todd_is_God]

Just now, Genuine Hibs Fan said:

That's not what you said though is it?

"We live in a world now where we are terrified to point out something as obvious as "being overweight is unhealthy" in case we offend people"

We are, though. The article Michael W posted sums it up perfectly.

[Bairnardo]

1 minute ago, Genuine Hibs Fan said:

That's not what you said though is it?

"We live in a world now where we are terrified to point out something as obvious as "being overweight is unhealthy" in case we offend people"

This is completely untrue and turning it into some "PC gone mad" issue doesn't help anything or do your argument any favours. It's a common tactic used to make an argument seem stronger - it is no longer allowed because it is a dangerous truth! - but no, people are not terrified to point out that being overweight is unhealthy, and in fact this message is still probably more prominent than any "big is beautiful" articles in Marie Claire

Which, again worth pointing out, is more about telling women they don't have to hate themselves for not being built like a snipers nightmare, than actually trying to convince anyone that its somehow healthy to be overweight.

[G51]

1 minute ago, hk blues said:

I reckon most Japanese and Koreans have the same level of sedentary work as the UK does.  Japanese working culture is known for it's lifetime employment system which ends to breed inefficiency and time-wasting.  

I'll take your word for it. I can't claim to know very much about work cultures in the Far East.

What I will say though is that the culture in the West is that we get up, we go to work, we come home and then we make our main meal for the day. That was fine when there was only one member of the household working, and most households were the "traditional family" model of two adults in a relationship. One of you went to work, the other had the time to make meals from scratch.

But that's no longer really the case. There are far more single person households, and two adult households nowadays tend to have both adults working. Consequently, there are much less households that have the time to actually prepare meals. Given pre-prepared meals are also cheaper and significantly unhealthier, this is clearly an enormous contributory factor to the obesity epidemic. We can't beat it while we live like this.