The Fallacy of 'It's Okay to Be Overweight
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Over the last few years in weight loss, the idea that being overweight is okay has begun to get traction. The problem with this idea is that it is not based on factual cognizance of the health risks of being overweight, or the health benefits of weight loss. The ‘I’m fat and it’s okay’ mentality is in one sense, a reaction to the modern fitness and weight loss movement that often puts appearance in front of health in the pursuit of weight loss and looking good. It’s the opposite value with the same result – acceptance of appearance becomes more important than health.
The purpose of this article is to set the appearance motive aside. In this article we set the record straight with the health risks that being overweight poses. The idea that being overweight is okay is one of the most misguided and ultimately dangerous notions a person could take towards their health and longevity. We have come to look at being overweight as an acceptable lifestyle and quality of life choice; that it’s better to live a few less years and enjoy yourself than worry about your weight. Let’s begin with some facts about being overweight...
Body fat in the midsection is the single best predictor of type 2 diabetes and many forms of heart disease.
Excess Weight is implicated as a key trigger in asthma attacks
Being overweight is directly associated to a greater rate of cognitive decline and a greater risk factor for dementia
Abdominal obesity directly contributes to osteoarthritis of the knee joints.
Men with excess bodyweight are at increased risk of INFERTILITY!
Excess Weight is strongly associated with sleep apnea
Overweight males 11 years and older have a higher incidence of high blood pressure and cardiovascular risk factors
In children, there is a direct correlation to being overweight and the prevalence of insulin resistance
Being overweight is correlated with low testosterone in men
Being overweight is strongly correlated with leptin resistance and high levels of serum leptin. Leptin is the key hypothalamic hormone controlling feeding behavior.
I could go on and list another 50 health related items that being overweight either directly causes or is associated with. The point is this – being overweight is a distinct state of rapid physiological decline. Here is something to think about…
The latest research into weight loss and obesity firmly establishes that your body fat acts as a single, giant endocrine organ!
The endocrine system is what governs your metabolism. When we think of our endocrine system we tend to think of our thyroid or pituitary What is not widely known is that your body fat taken as a whole, is every bit as vital an endocrine organ. Specifically, your body fat is a key regulator of hormones such as cortisol, estrogen and leptin. These hormones are vital to the way you use and store energy.
What this means is that the sheer amount of fat you carry has a tremendous amount of HORMONAL control over your metabolism and utilization of energy. In simplest terms, the more body fat you have, the more you are hormonally predisposed to get fatter.
The most common objection to weight loss is with regard to the pleasure from eating and the discipline required to eat correctly. In other words, this is the ‘life’s too short, food is too good to pass up, I’d rather be fat and enjoy food’ argument.
I would like to give you a way of thinking about this argument that perhaps you have never before considered.
Have you ever had a REAL tomato? I’m not referring to the perfectly round and polished watery orbs you find at the supermarket, I’m talking about an honest to gosh, garden raised, fresh tomato? The taste is mind boggling, almost overwhelming. What about a strawberry? Have you ever had a farm fresh strawberry from a grower’s co-op or a farmers market? Let me tell you I’ve had some that rival the richest chocolates for a flavor experience.
If you ask anyone over 60 years old, they will tell you a funny thing has gone on with our food over the last 40 or 50 years. We have seen a decrease in the intensity of flavor from whole foods. You don’t have to go back in time to verify this. You just have to find a good farmers market where you can get natural food from fresh soil. You will taste the difference. At the same time, we have seen an explosion in the intensity of flavor from processed foods rich in concentrated sugars, white flour, and hydrogenated oils.
In short, we have seen a decrease in flavor intensity from foods with low caloric density, whole foods, and a dramatic increase in the flavor intensity from foods with high caloric density – processed foods.
What I would like to suggest here is that perhaps our slavish need for pleasure from processed food doesn’t have to be that way. Nature has provided for intense pleasure from food that is not inherently fattening and unhealthy. Most of us have just never experienced it.
In fact, the latest research in to weight loss behavior utilizes drug modeling. That is, behavior models that were developed to deal with drug use, work quite well with food substituted as the drug. Behaviorally speaking, food acts exactly like a drug for many people.
In summary, the ‘it’s okay to be overweight’ notion is a very bad idea. It is essentially acquiescence to an accelerated rate of physical decay in exchange for pleasure from what amounts to an unhealthy drug - processed food.
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Reference:
Exercise and diet induced weight loss improves measures of oxidative stress and insulin sensitivity in adults with characteristics of the metabolic syndrome.
Rector RS, Warner SO, Liu Y, Hinton PS, Sun GY, Cox RH, Stump CS, Laughlin MH, Dellsperger KC, Thomas TR.
Increased visceral adipose tissue rather than BMI as a risk factor for dementia.
Cereda E, Sansone V, Meola G, Malavazos AE.
An investigation of hormone and lipid associations after weight loss in women.
Santosa S, Demonty I, Lichtenstein AH, Cianflone K, Jones PJ.
Nguyen RH, Wilcox AJ, Skjaerven R, Baird DD.,
Men's body mass index and infertility.
Effect of body mass index on insulin resistance and lipids in prepubertal and postpubertal children:
Murdock DK, Olson KJ, Juza RM, Hendricks BL.
[Abdominal obesity as a factor contributing to osteoarthrosis of the knee joints]
Adiposity in relation to age as predictor of severity of sleep apnea in children with snoring.
Kaditis AG, Alexopoulos EI, Hatzi F, Karadonta I, Chaidas K, Gourgoulianis K, Zintzaras E, Syrogiannopoulos GA.
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