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Comment by User23 | Hacker News Reader

What baffles me is the total failure to highlight one of the best ways to mitigate the risk of severe covid complications: don’t be obese[1]. It’s also a good life choice for those who also prefer not to die of non-covid conditions.

Edit: And it increases your risk for long covid[2].

[1] https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/latest-evidence-on...

[2] https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20210608/obesity-increases-r...

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The, uh, tone of your comment suggests that there is this epidemic of obese people who simply have neglected to press the STOP BEING OBESE button. "All you have to do is ..." "Can't you just ..." In technology, we hate hearing that from people who do not have a grasp of the situation -- why are you doing it here?

That button doesn't exist. That's the source of your bafflement.

Perhaps we should have nutrition passports. People wouldn’t be allowed to visit fast food restaurants until they have sub-30 BMI.

If I could short stock in this idea, well, it would be like getting in early on crypto.

You could same about "Can't you just take the jab?" and "Can't you just wear a mask?". If you want to be the one deciding who has to do something, then that's called authoritarianism and it's the reason why so many people are pissed off about the all of the covid restrictions.

Obesity is something that can take quite a while to address. What baffles me is the total failure of some people to see one of the best ways to mitigate the risk of severe covid complications; TAKE THE VACCINE

A person could lose a lot of weight in the 2 years of covid-19.

Assuming US' context, this is very politically incorrect and Americans would rather die than make someone uncomfortable.

Do you really think there are a lot of obese people around that can simply stop being obese but just haven't had a reason to yet?

Where do people come up with this stuff?

Unfortunately, it would seem the data would suggest yes.

Per the CDC:

From 1999 –2000 through 2017 –2018, US obesity prevalence increased from 30.5% to 42.4%. During the same time, the prevalence of severe obesity increased from 4.7% to 9.2%.

https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html

Obesity has also increased among wild animals https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28261232

While dieting can control obesity, we have decades of evidence to show it isn’t easy. Bariatric surgery does seem to work but is invasive and dangerous.

I was 35 pounds overweight. Saw the writing on the wall and in three months I'm down 25-30 pounds. Stopped eating sugar and bread and only eat one meal 2-4 times a week.

The trick is to keep that going in the longterm. I did manage to lose that amount of weight in the same amount of time as well, but ended up gaining it back in under 5 years, which I hear is the fate of most people who lose weight.

So true!

I think most people can stop.

I also think most people lack the resolve to stop.

Those are opposite statements.

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