I don't know why is this even a question. Do people really think being overweight is a net positive?
Association of all-cause mortality with overweight and obesity using standard body mass index categories: a systematic review and meta-analysis
> Conclusions and Relevance: [...]overweight was associated with significantly lower all-cause mortality.
When you move toward obese or into underweight category, health problems kick in.
I find that when I point this out, people often get mad. They feel they aren't obese. But the research doesn't support them, if you are anywhere outside of the "healthy" categorization you are at the same risk (that we know of so far) as "clinically obese" people.
I tried adding 10kgs and it said "Overweight".
Seems ok to me.
They even warn that BMI should be used along with other indicators.
https://doi.org/10.4158/endp.19.1.50042678317gx698
The evidence that being overweight is healthier is a bit dubious, but the evidence that having a "normal" BMI is healthier than "overweight" is nonexistent.
IIRC mostly they had to do with seasonal sicknesses like the flu, the theory being that your body can burn the extra fat during periods you aren't able to eat well.
We’ve normalised being fat.
I saw more grossly obese people at that airport in the first ten minutes than I had back home in probably the previous year. It really stood out to me.
It must be your general dietary makeup and lifestyle. All that corn syrup. Also, I don't see any reason why it would have gotten better since then.
Just calling a spade a spade from an outsider's perspective..
It’s not just America [1].
Norway’s obesity rate runs at roughly half America’s [2]. But the trend across the world is increasing rates of overweightness, obesity and--most worryingly--child obesity.
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41634611
[2] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_obesity...
Having read (well, listened to) Attia's excellent OUTLIVE, I've reversed my own (slowly turned bad) trajectory by switching my diet to the basics - all home made meals, making my own breads, lots of milk and eggs, meats (not in excess), exclusively extra virgin oil and pure butter in my cooking (zero blends/veg oil etc), and not buying any (sugar) snacks - combined with exercise. Oh and no alcohol for the past few years either - sacrifices had to be made. :-)
Luckily my own kids are showing zero signs of obesity, they are very healthy.
Disordered eating is a norm and being ashamed is a norm.
As in, inability to keep them long term is biological defense of organism that does not have genetic predisposition toward anorexia.
We dance around it and call it 'obesity' but the real medical cause of obesity is an addiction to unhealthy food.
This is compounded by the fact that it is completely legal for people to make their food more addictive and therefore unhealthy and advertise it to addicted people with underhanded marketing techniques that take advantage of their addiction.
Until we recognize this as an addiction issue that is compounded by dealers being able to operate with impunity we won't make any headway -- short of technological advancements like Ozempic that allow people to side step their addiction.
Says who? Are you implying that true societal shame is still being enforced right now, without hundreds of refuges in the form of safe spaces and social justice advocacy groups? I'm pretty sure that such shame worked pretty well in the past, and still does in countries like Japan.
In the end, you'll just have to realize that the root issue you're facing is decadence, and that's there's no fighting it.
I'm a good example of how it fails. I have long arms and legs which causes my BMI to be fairly low. However, my body fat is fairly high. I need to lose fat but were I to rely solely on BMI I'd think I'm fine.
What I'd want instead of BMI is body fat percentage. I think that gives a much better measure of health problems.
"Overweight" is longer-lived than "Normal," and "Grade I Obesity" isn't significantly less longer lived than "Normal." So what you're pointing out is misinformation, which is why people are annoyed by it. There is a case that "Normal" includes more sick and dying people because sick people often lose weight, but the difference still can't be as stark as reddit knowledge makes it out to be.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23280227/
Conclusions and relevance: Relative to normal weight, both obesity (all grades) and grades 2 and 3 obesity were associated with significantly higher all-cause mortality. Grade 1 obesity overall was not associated with higher mortality, and overweight was associated with significantly lower all-cause mortality. The use of predefined standard BMI groupings can facilitate between-study comparisons.
No. If you fall above healthy, you are "overweight". You need a higher BMI to be classified as obese.
Depends. All cause mortality is notoriously lower for "overweight" people than "normal weight" people.
It is so pervasive though it is hard to tell until you go on a really boring and restrictive diet. It is just hard to not gain weight on average when the food tastes this good with such incredible variety.
That is even if you buy something at the store. With our "foodie" culture, restaurants are an entire other level of choice and taste on top of that.
Corporations have intentionally created incredibly addicting food.
That doesn't mean obese people are "to blame" for any medical complications they might suffer from obesity. It also doesn't mean that obesity is a death sentence; people's bodies function differently and we've all heard stories of pack a day smokers that lived into their 90s. But there is absolutely a connection between the two.