Childhood obesity

Some of us are obese in spite of good eating habits.

I'm having Bariatric surgery cause there is no other way for me to lose weight.

1) I've been on a diet most of my life, every time I lose weight, I end up gaining even more back.
2) Because of my pending surgery, my metabolism has been tested. It's high and according to that, I should be able to eat a normal amount of calories per day and still lose weight.
3) As part of this, I also maintain a food journal. A nutritionist saw mine and agreed something was wrong with me...my metabolism is broken, and has been all my life.
4) The average daily calorie intake for a female is 1800-2000 calories a day. Anything under 1800, weight should easily come off....but it doesn't. I was averaging 1100-1200 per day and in a month, had actually gained 2 lbs.

Surgery will help my body regain it's metabolism and be normal.

Generalizations can be dangerous. We're human, not statistics and we don't fit in neat little boxes.
 
Something else that is popping up in studies: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/721613
Overweight and Obese Children Eat Less Than Their Healthy Weight Peers
By Brian Hoyle for Medscape
May 11, 2010 (Vancouver, British Columbia) — A study on caloric intake in a large, nationwide population of children and adolescents has revealed the surprising finding that those who are clinically overweight and obese consume fewer calories than their healthy weight counterparts, beginning at around 7 years of age.
 
Whilst parents are the key to developing a healthy diet and lifestyle, there are a lot of other factors that go into making up the modern obesity epidemic; less manual labour (all sitting at desks in front of PCs), driving everywhere (less walking / cycling), high fat/sugar processed foods (as opposed to fresh meal and vegetables), both parents working (so less time to shop for / prepare fresh food), more fast-food outlets, mass-marketing of fast-food to children, parents who cannot / will not be firm with their children and tell them "no", sweets on display at tills (even in non-food shops), emotional trauma and stress (work/life/love/family etc.), lack of sleep, etc. etc.

It is very rare though for people to remain obese whilst eating less than their normal-weight piers. I'm not saying it doesn't happen, but a lot of obese people convince themselves they are "dieting" because they have reduced their food intake somewhat, when in actual fact the reduction still leaves them - overall - eating much more than their piers (and than is good for them), so they don't lose any weight. (This can also reinforce the idea that their "dieting" never seems to work).

No disrepect intended to those who struggle with their weight - it is a real problem and not something that is easy to deal with. I have personal experience of this within our family, but it is not something I wish to share on a public forum.

Society also plays its part too; really big overweight people are frowned upon, laughed at, and pitied in a way that must make the recipient of that "attention" feel pretty bloody awful - and, in part, go some way towards driving them to eat if only to comfort themselves from the hurtful things people say and do (sniggering and pointing!!).

In most cases diet and lifestyle are the key elements that go into making someone obese or not. Medical issues can arise - slow metabolism, side effects of medication, etc. - but in the main, I think it is simply poor diet and lack of exercise that are the two main contributors to becoming, and remaining obese.

What we can do about it as a society - I don't know - maybe in 20 years time there will be riots and everyone will be burning down their local MacDonalds or something (preferably after the staff have left for the day!) ... it'll be interesting to see where we are with it all in a couple of decades time!

Cheers,
Shaun :D
 
Depends on the type of obesity. It can be genetic related and there's the parents who feed their 3 year old children southern fried chicken, 10 cobs of corn, greasy potato and cakes that'll amount up to nothing short of child abuse.
 
It's often not only bad parenting. When I was in high school, you should have seen the garbage they served for lunch. Not only did it taste disgusting, it wasn't healthy. One example: Many kids would go through the lunch line, only to get a big helping of nasty, greasy, reheated fries (or chips for you English ;)).
 
Parents for not introducing positive eating habits in their children's lives.

Don't blame television or fast food when you have parents who refuse to do their jobs.

I agree. :) not much else I can say about that.
 
My obesity issue is genetics. No matter how nutritious the food is, or how well I eat or how little I eat, or how much I exercise (I use my treadmill and stationary bike every other day), I have always been, and always will be, overweight - or at least "chubby". Funny too, cuz I was the smallest baby out of the 4 of us.
 
My obesity issue is genetics. No matter how nutritious the food is, or how well I eat or how little I eat, or how much I exercise (I use my treadmill and stationary bike every other day), I have always been, and always will be, overweight - or at least "chubby". Funny too, cuz I was the smallest baby out of the 4 of us.

I'm the reverse. I could eat till the cows come home and not gain a single pound. I'm the same weight I am now since I was 16.

You are who you are and you just have to make the best of it. I'd prefer putting on a few pounds.
 
I'm the reverse. I could eat till the cows come home and not gain a single pound. I'm the same weight I am now since I was 16.

You are who you are and you just have to make the best of it. I'd prefer putting on a few pounds.

I always used to be this way... I used to go out to a pizza pallor and eat a large pizza nearly every day and never weigh more than 9stone and I was 6ft 1... these days, it doesn't matter how healthy or little I eat I am gaining about 1-2stone a year in weight... What changed? I moved in with my fiancee and had a little one and that is it.
 
I'm the reverse. I could eat till the cows come home and not gain a single pound. I'm the same weight I am now since I was 16.

You are who you are and you just have to make the best of it. I'd prefer putting on a few pounds.
My baby sister is exactly the same way. She can eat what she wants, when she wants, as much as she wants, and not gain an ounce.
All I have to do is LOOK at a slice of chocolate cake and gain 5 lbs. Ok ok so that's a bit of an exaggeration, but only a bit.
 
My obesity issue is genetics. No matter how nutritious the food is, or how well I eat or how little I eat, or how much I exercise (I use my treadmill and stationary bike every other day), I have always been, and always will be, overweight - or at least "chubby". Funny too, cuz I was the smallest baby out of the 4 of us.
Actually not so odd, Peggy...they have done studies that indicate the lower your birth weight, the more likely you are to be obese.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19820011
http://jcem.endojournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/90/4/2384
http://www.arcmedres.com/article/S0188-4409(08)00218-X/abstract
http://www.physorg.com/news/2010-11-birth-weight-lifelong-problems-medications.html

I also inherited a condition called PCOS (and there IS a male version called Metabolic Syndrome, so don't think you are off the hook, guys) that makes you even more prone to obesity/diabetes/heart issues, etc. In younger women, it also causes infertility. But it does affect you your entire life.
https://health.google.com/health/ref/Metabolic+syndrome
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/metabolicsyndrome.html
http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4756
My surgery is to resolve my diabetes (has a 98% rate of resolution), get rid of my cholesterol issues, and my PCOS. It is also to help resolve my sleep apnea, and it could help with my pain levels of my normal day to day living.
 
Liz, sounds like you have enough on your plate just getting through the day. Good luck, and I hope it's the long-term success you hope for.

Even if it makes life a little easier to manage it'll hopefully be worth it. Chin up :)

Cheers,
Shaun :D
 
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