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Diet and Exercise
Reply to "Can we have an honest, good faith conversation about fat acceptance and body positivity?"
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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]To answer OP's title question, no, we really can't have a productive conversation -- for reasons this thread has largely shown. Personally I think it's important to separate "body positivity" from "obesity." I admit some availabilty bias because this is just my own anecdata, but I came from an obese family. Meat and potatoes for every meal. A second helping with velveeta on top. Dessert with every meal. Not much exercise. Oh sure, because the boys in the family played football, we'd tell ourselves that although we were big at least we were "active," but we weren't, not really. And anyways, my brothers and cousins stopped football after high school but kept up the eating. And everyone in the family tells themselves it's "genetic" and there's nothing we could do about it. "We've always been big-boned." As an adult, though, I basically ended up testing the genetic hypothesis by committing to getting to a size and lifestyle that I viewed as healthy. Yes to vegetables, no to sweets. Consistent exercise, almost every day. And it worked. It turns out there was something we could do about it. Sure, there are genetic things that differentiate me from a supermodel. I have wide hips, chicken wing shoulders, and am self conscious about a dozen other things that I can't change. And I'm grateful for body positivity for helping me accept this about myself. But true obesity is rarely like that. With extremely few exceptions--like a rare medical condition actually diagnosed by a doctor, not just family lore--you simply do not find morbidly obese people, my relatives included, who are eating clean, tracking calories, regularly exercising, and only having sweets and booze in extreme moderation.[/quote] I agree with this. I cringe when people talk about how they are naturally thin. [b]Healthy, naturally thin people do not exist. These people eat much less and/or move much more. If we cannot even agree on this, then we are stuck.[/b] Obesity can be treaed by eating less and/or moving more. Our soceity has to find ways to make healthy eating and movement more attractive and accessible. Nobody wants to be obese. [/quote] Except that as per these scientific references (and there are others), the heritability of obesity is between 40 and 70%. Now, that's a wide range, but even if it's "just" 40%, that means that genes contribute close to half of the variability in determining obesity. That could very well mean things like predisposition to satiety and activity levels, but they're still genetically-mediated. So, if *you* and others who insist it's all environment can't acknowledge the role of genetics, then we are, indeed, stuck. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2955913/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3104766/[/quote] Thin people eat much less than obese people, and some obese people have some genetic predispositions that contribute to their obesity. I don't see the contradiction here at all. [/quote] The contradiction is the insistence that "naturally" thin people don't exist and frankly, yes, they do. There are people for whom it is MUCH easier to "eat less and move more" than others, and we need to acknowledge that. It's a privilege, and maybe people don't want to accept that, but it's there, all the same. That has to be the foundation for an honest conversation about obesity. It doesn't mean people can't do things to improve their health at any size, but it does mean some people have a real advantage in achieving the goal of not being obese. I say this as someone who builds muscle easily for a woman, and I know what an advantage that gives me, i.e., this issue is bigger than obesity, it's about acknowledging the advantages that genetics confer on some people for some traits.[/quote] This is accurate. I work out daily (multiple times a day on weekends), eat chia seeds, berries, salad with no cheese or dressing, don't drink calories (or anything sweetened), etc have one small dessert a day and have a bmi of 36. My husband eats all day long. Fried chicken, fast food, processed meats, soda, chips, juice, mayo on everything, ice cream whatever. In large portions. Never works out. Has a bmi of 23. [/quote] What’s the point of saying that you eat chia seeds, berries, etc? Is that all you eat? You mentioned your husband’s portions sizes but not your own. If you have a bmi of 36, you are clearly eating more calories than you need. [/quote]
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