It’s something that’s been on my mind a lot lately, as the past few years every single person I’ve individually helped to lose weight has started out morbidly obese. I know that’s not a good term to read, write or say – but it is how the medical community defines people who are 100 lbs. or more over their ideal body weight.
I used to be one of those people. At 305 pounds, I was morbidly obese and needed to lose about half my body weight to be at a healthy size for my height. The only time I ever saw that word applied to myself was on my medical chart. The nurse had checked the word “obese” and then next to the little box she wrote in her neat nurse handwriting “morbid.” I hated that word with all my being. I couldn’t get those two words out of my mind. Morbid obesity rang in my thoughts over and over for years.
There are some people who say that being overweight isn’t that big a deal if you are still able to be active, fit into clothes and don’t have any medical conditions. I’d say that for the most part – that’s putting our heads in the sand. Why? Because sometimes being overweight leads to morbid obesity, which leads to definite medical problems. Some of which I experienced myself and some of which I’d watched my weight loss clients suffer with. Here’s the not so pleasant, but true list.
♦High blood pressure
♦Sleep apnea requiring a CPAP machine and a special bed
♦Rolls of extra skin that require extra cleaning and often become infected.
♦Serious, life threatening problems with the deep veins in the legs
♦Cardiovascular disease
♦Type 2 Diabetes
♦Gallbladder disease
♦Low self-esteem
Granted, all of these diseases and health problems don’t happen to every person, and this is not an exhaustive list. However, these are the heart-breaking realities of the struggles in the people that I’ve worked with and I’ve experienced personally that their doctor’s attribute to being morbidly obese.
Losing weight doesn’t necessarily mean you won’t have health problems, but it certainly can reduce your risk of a lot of serious illnesses, from the ones I’ve listed above to some cancers and other diseases. Fortunately, the wonderful news is that by taking steps to lose weight and get more physically active can help you feel better about yourself – mentally and physically.
Do you ever think where you would be if you weren’t trying to make positive changes in your life? I often think that I might not be here at all. That’s the road I was headed down. Diane
Diane, that is exactly the reason why I work hard on keeping a healthy weight, exercise regularly and eat a vegetarian diet – for my long term health! I believe that it would be very easy for me to slip into a lifestyle that would quickly earn me the morbidly obese label, it is so easy to go “unconscious” and much harder to try to stay awake and aware of what I am putting in my mouth and doing with my body on a daily basis. It sometimes feels like a fight that never ends!
Yes, that is why I lost my weight. Having Type 1 diabetes, diabetes neuropathy in my feet, autonomic neuropathy in my digestive tract, hypo-thyroid disease and high blood pressure not to mention the anxiety attacks I had were all reasons I lost weight.
The biggest reason is because I wasn’t ready to die and that road was a lot closer when all those things were way out of control. Now, they have died down if not some gone away. I wish Type 1 and neuropathy go away, but their controlled.
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Its scary to think about where I would be weight wise by now if I hadn’t changed my ways. I always feel like there is still a “fat” person inside of me just waiting to get out if I take the controls off of my life. I would probably be way over 200 pounds by now who knows if I would still be alive?
I think it is very important to realize that obesity is NOT the cause of these things, but instead a symptom of the same problem. Many normal weight people experience these things as well. Their causes are all begin with nutrition, and if one simply focuses on getting the number on the scale to drop lower and NOT address the nutritional root behind these, one enters into a sense of false security about their overall health ( and in the process do a lot of metabolic damage , lose muscle tissue and organ tissue ). And as to the definition of obesity , do you realize that most football players are classified as obese ? I think rather than focusing on a number spewed out by a mechanical device such as a scale or a tape measure, our focus really must be on overall health, or we are simply robbing Peter to pay Paul. Eat real food- not a laboratory created nutritional dispensation vehicle .If we are in a state of real health, weight has a way of balancing out on its own.
Diane´s last fabulous musings ..Now this is interesting and could be the proof that conventional wisdom is totally wrong
Maybe true – however, medical research does show that a person who struggles with obesity is more likely to develop type 2 diabetes and heart disease. The weight of football players is mainly muscle, but if they don’t maintain their muscle after they stop playing, they are no longer the exception to the BMI type charts – but rather now at risk. I do agree 100 percent about eating real food, but there are true health risks of being overweight. Here’s an American Journal of Clinical Nutrition study on abdominal circumference and diabetes.
http://www.ajcn.org/content/81/3/555.full
I agree with Diane.
I was overweight since childhood and obese between the ages 12-17 (200lbs and 5ft2), and the only problem I had was low self-esteem. No health problems whatsoever.
Society seems to blame being fat on so many things, but fail to notice when slim or skinny people have the same issues. For example, saying people are fat because they overeat, but there are many slim and skinny people who overeat and stay slim.
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Most football players ARE obese, at least the defensive players. The receivers, kickers, and QBs are often slimmer. And if you see the tackles and linebackers when they are in their 40s and 50s, they are generally in bad shape, walking with canes, with double knee, hip, and valve replacements and all the other health problems attendant on their weight, plus more from having used overweight bodies in ways that put worse pressure on joints that were already past their tolerance. If active football players are obese and still athletic, it’s because they are young and can get away with it for a while until it catches up with them.
And I think the issue Diane was raising in this post isn’t that the occasional thin person will have one of these problems. It’s that morbidly obese people are highly likely to have many or all of them. I’m thin and have cardiovascular disease and a bad back, but sleep apnea, diabetes, and infected skin are probably not on my radar. My mom is thin and has high blood pressure, but no cardiovascular disease or any of the other things, and her back is fine.
But if you are morbidly obese, you are highly likely to check many more of the boxes on this list. It’s not a matter of blaming to say that. It just is what it is.
Diabetes/terrible consequences of diabetes,
immobile with major knee problems,
migraines,
major acne,
one big asthma attack/heavy chest,
is exactly where I was and would continue to be
good post
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I have never been obese despite all my years of struggling with my weight. But just being overweight carries risks that many people are not aware of!
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Great post Diane & yes, obese people have a higher likelihood of diseases.. that is proven.
I was never obese as Karen wrote too but just being overweight leads to joint issues, diabetes, high cholesterol & more…
Thx Diane!
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Watching my brother in law deteriorate, not moving anymore, losing part of his foot to type 2 diabetes, seeing how he is unable to make any changes in his life so he can actually start living makes me scared. I used to be obese myself and I don’t want to go back there again.
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Watching The Biggest Loser this morning and hearing the Dr talk to the obese people on show really gave me a wake up call as to how sick overweight people really are, its not just the fat they struggle with but all the rest without even knowing it most of the time.
I felt so claustrophobic watching the program and hearing the Dr tell one client that he had so much fat around his neck it was pushing in his airways to breath….thats so scary.
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Marcelle mentioned ‘claustrophobic’ and I really identify with that feeling. I remember when I hit the ‘just get it off me’ part of my weight loss process.
No one REALLY understands how bad they felt ‘before’ until the weight is ALL off and stays off.
Yes, we are usually left with some secondary conditions – damage we did to ourselves with all the excess fat, or sometimes things (like asthma) which are still there, but are better with the pressure off our body.
But so much of IT (pain, suffering, illness, disease, injury) is gone and/or better when we are down to the size body our systems can support, and we are eating/sleeping/watering/exercising in a healthy manner.
And Diane – I think you did a very good job of addressing reality with your comment above – it was a hard thing to say and you were warm and diplomatic about it (as always).
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Diane,
Thanks for the reminder of why we are on this journey.
I was beginning to have knee trouble, feeling like I couldn’t breathe well any time I happen to lie on my back in bed and hated that I sat with my arms laying on a large midsection. Had I gone to a doctor for a physical who knows if I would’ve been pre-diabetic or already had diabetes – most likely since it runs in my family.
This was a much needed read for me today.
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I was lucky in that I hadn’t yet developed most of those complications you list back when I was 302 pounds (though I did have low self esteem). However, I have no doubt that if I had stayed at that weight or, more likely, kept gaining, that more of those complications would have developed. I think if I hadn’t made the positive changes that I did back in November of 2009, I would be around 350 pounds now. I’m grateful that I did change.
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I think about this a lot. I would be bigger than I ever was, I’m sure, and would have diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and I’d be on a ton of meds…
I completely support your sentiment, Diane! I know too many people who have suffered the many problems associated with obesity. Too many are not willing to do what it takes to help themselves, in spite of this. I can’t stress enough how the problems will not only continue, but with aging, get worse! I’m glad that you and those like you keep working to try to reach those in need with a message, an example, and a way to free themselves.
A further comment:
Fat is metabolically active, and not in a Good way. No matter how “health” focused you think you are with your eating, etc, you are in denial of what is medically substantiated facts if you are obese. The absurd excuse about football players is a joke! Not only are they young, professional athletes, make up less than 0.1 percent of the obese population, but in reality they have been shown to have increased obesity related morbidities with their aging when compared to the normal population. Too much bulk is bad no matter what!
No question. Blood pressure is still my bane, and at my age, even with a normal weight, I might not be rid of that. But at least I can be at the lowest dose possible.
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Longtime lurker — and I have got to address the myth that there are skinny people who overeat and stay thin. There aren’t. Full disclosure: I’m a thin person who reads weight-loss blogs. I find many of the ideas batted around on them to be motivating and inspiring for other challenges.
But this myth has floated for too long. I can’t tell you how many times I have eaten a sugary snack or dessert once, after a day or weekend of light eating, and everyone around me remarks how unfair it is that I can eat that and not gain weight. They don’t see that I didn’t have breakfast that morning, or ate lightly the night before, or will be out of town the next day and probably won’t eat very much. They see me eating cake once, and in their mind I’m that skinny b*tch who lives on cake 24/7 and never gains an ounce.
I’m a musician and like to play at night when I get home from work. In order to do this and not starve, I will sometimes get a big order of french fries at lunch. People who complain about how I have a magic metabolism that lets me eat fries all the time will shut off their ears when I say that I do it because I don’t have time to cook dinner that night.
No one can overeat and not gain weight. Either you aren’t seeing the whole story, or they are training for a marathon.
So true. I was just explaning this concept to a person the other day. She said to me, “Well ‘Mary’ eats anything she wants and doesn’t gain weight.” I said, “Not true. Because I know Mary and know that if she eats a dessert one night, then she is careful the next day. She continually balances her calories and activity level.” The person I was talking to didn’t seem to understand that there are very few naturally thin people who really can “eat anything they want.”
Thanks for commenting Janis.
It’s also a matter of different definitions of “anything we want.” I don’t WANT to eat a half-dozen cupcakes … so I don’t eat them.
So I do eat “anything I want.” It’s just that what I want is usually a chicken caesar salad and a cup of coffee. I guess what it boils down to is, speaking to a hypothetical person who is battling their weight, I eat anything *I* want, but not anything *you* want.
Very well said, Janis! When people tell me the you can eat anything line, I often say,”Yes I can, but I’m not foolish enough to do it!”
I had no idea about #3.
I was feeling sad recently that it’s so cold out because I miss going for long, 7-hour hikes… and then it occurred to me that it’s amazing that my body is capable of walking for that long with a 20-lbs backpack on my back. It’s so easy to take our bodies for granted, but we have to take good care of them or so many opportunites will pass us by.
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Diane:
Thank you for writing this. On one hand, it’s not necessary to be aesthetically model thin to be healthy. But I also disagree with the “Health at Every Size” movement which is about people accepting ANYTHING they weigh. One can be slightly overweight and healthy–if one isn’t on an upward trend but kind of maintains that and doesn’t have health issues. Really, there is a range of healthy. I know I had health issues at what is a comparatively mild level of overweight, a BMI of 27–but for a small Asian frame, that was a lot. And I know people who are naturally, genetically, larger, who have a BMI higher than that who can be totally healthy. But odds are, the more you venture into overweight and obesity, the less likely you can stay healthy longterm.
I think we need to look at our grandmothers (or if you’re younger, great-grandmothers.) What did they look like, in an era of hard work, very little processed foods if any, etc.? Look at the women in your family in the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s… I had petite, skinny grandmas. My mom is 85 years old and weighs 90 pounds (she’s shorter than I am now, and I’m five feet tall.)
So I weigh 30 pounds lighter than I did at my peak and shed the health issues too. I do NOT have a flat stomach. I DO have cellulite. My hip measurement is larger than my bust measurement. And I want to say that because I don’t want people to think “oh I need to be skinny to be healthy.” You don’t. You need to be what your genetics says is healthy for you. I could be a little thinner–say, 5 or 10 pounds. I’d look fantastic–but I’d have to be SO hypervigilant about what I ate, even more than I am now, it’s just not worth it. Health should be the goal. So I have to balance what’s attractive and what’s healthy and how far I can go and be somewhat sane–I’d be pretty hard to live with if I tried to maintain a lower weight because a petite person already doesn’t have a lot of caloric wiggle room…
I also want to point out that weight isn’t everything. If you’re skinny because you have a “fast metabolism” and eat junk all day, that’s not healthy either. So I’d say, eat your lean proteins and your healthy fats and your fruits and veggies, limit refined carbs, exercise and try to look like your grandma’s body type and you should be healthy… and that means that two women at the same height might be twenty five pounds different and still healthy–but it doesn’t mean that two women at the same height would be 70 pounds different and still healthy–at least not longterm.
Also, I found the fast metabolism idea interesting. Yes, we balance calories and if we have a treat one day we cut back the next. My days of being able to eat whole bags of potato chips daily after school and maintain a weight of 95 lasted through high school–and then I gained weight in college–youthful metabolisms don’t last forever. It’s a good thing. Eating whole bags of potato chips in my 40s would NOT be a healthy thing so the fact that I can’t without gaining keeps portion control in place!
I believe once you’re used to a certain lifestyle, that if you indulge from time to time your body is more lenient with a temporary indulgence than someone who habitually overeats. I recently ate a lot of chocolate, emotionally, on a daily basis because of a lot of intense grief and personal stress. Not the best coping mechanism, admittedly but it did get me through the days for a few weeks and it was temporary. Did I gain a few pounds? Yes. Was it as much weight as I would have gained eating similarly when I was heavier? No–I’m not as insulin resistant at my healthy weight, and I exercise regularly and it makes a huge difference.
Anyway, thank you Diane for your inspiration and the call for all of us to be healthy.
I definitely had my head in the sand and I’m not even sure why I looked up but I’m glad that I did. With my family history of high blood pressure etc., I was headed for trouble.
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I’d still be on the couch every minute I was home! I definitely wouldn’t be trying to do 40 races this year..that’s for sure!
I have thought about this Diane. It is scary to say the least. I know that by eating healthy and exercising I have cut my risk of so many bad health issues that are possible given my family medical history.
Dr Oz says “To think of what we put in our mouth as a prescription for our health, ask yourself if your Dr would prescribe for you what you are about to eat.”