Everything You Know About Obesity Is Wrong

I have lost 30 lbs and 10% body fat in 54 days. I made a lifestyle change. Diets are for the short term. Lifestyle changes are for the long term. I currently weigh about 153 lbs and am at 12% body fat. Losing weight is possible if the person is dedicated and does not quit. I have chronic knee pain (fractured patella) and through my own rehab and weight training plus acupuncture I have been able to get myself back to my younger self.

I think they should change the title of the article. It didn't seem to offer any new information about obesity or dieting. It did however, reveal how obese people are treated within the medical community (and society in general), which is sad. No one should be bullied or mistreated for any reason. I get that losing weight is hard. I have family members that struggle greatly with it. They use food as a drug and it's killing them. I don't want them to be bullied but I don't want them to continue this pattern either. They need to lose weight. Maybe we need something along the lines of drug rehab for food to help with the emotional and psychological sides of this.

"Since 1959, research has shown that 95 to 98 percent of attempts to lose weight fail and that two-thirds of dieters gain back more than they lost. The reasons are biological and irreversible. As early as 1969, research showed that losing just 3 percent of your body weight resulted in a 17 percent slowdown in your metabolism—a body-wide starvation response that blasts you with hunger hormones and drops your internal temperature until you rise back to your highest weight. Keeping weight off means fighting your body’s energy-regulation system and battling hunger all day, every day, for the rest of your life."

"The second big lesson the medical establishment has learned and rejected over and over again is that weight and health are not perfect synonyms. Yes, nearly every population-level study finds that fat people have worse cardiovascular health than thin people. But individuals are not averages: Studies have found that anywhere from one-third to three-quarters of people classified as obese are metabolically healthy. They show no signs of elevated blood pressure, insulin resistance or high cholesterol. Meanwhile, about a quarter of non-overweight people are what epidemiologists call “the lean unhealthy.” A 2016 study that followed participants for an average of 19 years found that unfit skinny people were twice as likely to get diabetes as fit fat people. Habits, no matter your size, are what really matter. Dozens of indicators, from vegetable consumption to regular exercise to grip strength, provide a better snapshot of someone’s health than looking at her from across a room."

Yes someone who is morbidly obese has an obvious issue but instead of shaming people - find out how they got to that point. Also - the focus on the number on the scale in America is ridiculous. You can take five different people of the same gender, same weight, same height and they may have varying health diagnoses.

My dad is overweight. He didn't used to be - after five kids and raising us essentially on his own he stopped worrying about his weight. He can get around but age has caught up to him as well. But every time he goes to the doctor his BP and cholesterol are in normal ranges. The doctor just says lose some weight. He has recently - last time I saw him he looked like he lost a little. He retires in a year so hopefully he gets out and gets active (and makes my stepmom go with him too).

I think there could be more to address obesity in America than has been done and in a better way that yields results - and that includes in the military. I wonder how far that review on ABCP has gotten with the Army.