Maher/Corden and obesity

[LadyForCamus]

Relevant article: Obesity Stigma And Yo-Yo Dieting, Not BMI, Are Behind Chronic Health Conditions, Dietitian Claims

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In my professional experience, most obese individuals today don’t come close to meeting even what the outdated pyramid from 30 years ago recommends, lol. It’s a total strawman.

Well they definitely eat more bread than vegetables

Sure, but you can’t really blame the food pyramid for that, considering that our most obese citizens are typically the poorest and least educated, and many of them have never even seen it. Most education materials developed by public health organizations sit at an 8th grade reading level for this reason. 

Do you know how many calories a 400 lb adult needs to consume simply to maintain that weight? For a male (depending on his age) it can be upwards of 4,000 kcals/day. Morbidly obese folks aren’t morbidly obese because the food pyramid told them to eat more rice than apples. They’re morbidly obese because they’re eating an entire 24 cut pizza in one sitting, and washing it down with a 2 liter of Pepsi. I’ve seen this with my own two eyes. The more you consume in one sitting, the larger your stomach capacity becomes over time. To compound the issue, chronic over-eating and excess body fat disrupt the signals of key hormones responsible for sensations of hunger and satiety. Our 400 lb man described above could eat that entire pizza and still feel hungry. To compound the issue even further, it is a scientifically demonstrable fact that obese people who lose a significant amount of body weight have a lower resting metabolism than people who weigh exactly the same, and have always weighed that much. It can be upwards of 500 kcals less per day. That’s an entire meal. I believe this fact plays a key role in why it’s so hard for people to sustain dramatic weight loss over time.

So, let’s take our patient and flesh him out a bit. I did my clinical rotation at the Albany VA hospital, and I worked for two years at an upscale nursing and rehab center, so I’ve seen people on every point of the spectrum. I’ll give you a picture of my average patient:

55 year old male
400 lbs, 5ft, 7”
Medical diagnosis: morbid obesity, type II diabetes (uncontrolled), coronary artery disease, sleep apnea, congestive heart failure, chronic kidney disease, dislipidemia, depression, right side below the knee amputation, cellulitis of the left leg with an open ulcer on the heel, PTSD.

Our patient lives alone in an apartment in a bad area of the city. He has no family locally. He dropped out of school in 7th grade, and did a stint in the military. He doesn’t drive. His wife (and care giver) died last year. He smokes two packs of cigarettes a day and eats mostly fried chicken and ice cream because those stores are the closest to his home, and he doesn’t feel safe going much further due to his PTSD. He often eats a half gallon of ice cream and a whole chicken in one sitting. He reports he started having weight problems as a child after he was molested by a friend of the family. He’s tried to lose weight in the past because he knows he’s unhealthy, but he feels hungry all the time. He also eats because he’s depressed over losing his wife. 

This man didn’t get in this condition because of the food pyramid. And, I’m not saying there’s no such thing as personal responsibility, or social programs that could provide aid to a person like this, (otherwise dietitians would be out of a job), but the people in this thread who have been insinuating that the solution to the maddeningly complex and multifaceted epidemic of obesity in America is: “fatties need to put down the fork” are demonstrating their bold-faced ignorance of the subject. You’re no better than the Trump supporters who say the solution to poverty in America is: “all the lazy people need to just get a job.” The guy I described above isn’t even the worst of what I’ve seen. Not even close.