Why fatties say everyone's to blame but themselves

Daily Mail ^ | August 22, 2007 | Daniel Martin

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Being unhappy. Being happy. Friends who eat like a horse and never put on weight. Childhood admonishments to think of the starving in Africa.

These are some of the reasons the overweight give to explain their size because they are too ashamed to admit they simply eat too much, according to a study.

Researchers found there is such a stigma attached to being overweight that over-eaters are desperate to find something - or someone - else to blame.

The findings mirror comments by Hamish Meldrum, the head of the British Medical Association, who said patients were increasingly seeking weight-loss pills and surgery rather than trying to change their diet and do more exercise.

Karen Throsby of Warwick University questioned 35 patients who applied for such surgery on the NHS to discover why they felt it was the only solution.

She found there were three main types of excuses used by the overweight, according to a report published in the journal Social Science and Medicine.

The first was genetic, with many claiming they had a "fat gene" or that being big ran in their family. Others said they knew others who ate more than they did but never put on weight.

The second most common excuse was that the problem stemmed from their childhood. Many claimed relatives gave them food as a reward and others said their parents told them to eat up and think of the starving in Africa.

The third reason was that a stressful lifestyle had led to weight gain. Illness, divorce, bereavement and parenthood were all blamed for over-eating.

Women cited both happy and unhappy events as reasons for eating more and men said stressful occasions gave them a longing for beer, curry and fast food.

Miss Throsby said the excuses were the result of the way overweight people were pilloried by society.

"Those who become fat often find themselves needing to account for their size in order to refute the suggestion of moral failure that attaches itself easily to the fat body."

Colin Waine, chair of the National Obesity Forum, added: "Many patients seek explanations that absolve them, saying it's their genes or their glands. But in fact it's 99 per cent to do with food intake and lack of physical activity.

"Our genes haven't changed since before the Stone Age - yet obesity has escalated in the last 30 years."

[freepertoo]

Of course obesity had grown in the last thirty years! Duh, there are NOW two or three fast food restaurants on every corner!

[taxcontrol]

Must be nice for this author to be holier than thou.

[theDentist]

Hey, I eat salad for breakfast and lunch. dinner is veggies and chicken or fish. no chocolates. 2 beers on the weekend. exercise daily. I’m still well above what my doctor wants. put most of it on thru meds. i’ll take it off, but it’s much slower than it went on. the trick is: exercise daily, no exceptions, and resist overindulging.

[rock_lobsta]

Which reminds me... it’s time for my hourly Triple Whopper, Super Size Onion Rings and bladder-buster Coke.

With one of those hot-fudge sundaes...

And a cookie...

To go...

Damn skinny people...

[/s]

[John Jorsett]

This article makes me hungry. Damn you!

[dragonblustar]

Yeah, no kidding. His chit must smell like roses too.

[LanPB01]

I once worked with a girl who constantly complained about her inability to lose weight. She had recently seen a doctor about getting some “skinny pills,” which I watched her take at lunch along with a fried chicken platter and huge slice of peanut butter pie. Her lack of weight loss was a total mystery. . .

[x_plus_one]

And there are more food commercials per hour on TV than anything else.

[Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus]

Of course obesity had grown in the last thirty years! Duh, there are NOW two or three fast food restaurants on every corner!

That's not the only explanation. I eat fast food at least three times a week, and even when I eat at home, it's usually stuff out of a box that isn't very "good" for me. I drink slightly less than a 2-litre of pop a day, on average. I get a fair amount of exercise, however, even though I'm not hitting the gym. Yet, I'm not overweight. I think a person's genetics, and their propensity to exercise have as much to do with it as merely the food they eat.

[Calpernia]

I hate these articles. They never touch upon instant foods. Instant foods have no nutritional value and conga lines of ingredience that do nothing but make you fat and unhealthy.

And the nutritional value charts on the sides of the boxes can list vitamin info if supplements are added. Guess what? The supplements will not be processed without other components found in raw foods.

So, people not only gain weight; they become malnutritioned.

[guppas]

I wish these dumb ass scientists would quit telling me what I should and shouldn’t be doing and invent no calorie bacon! It’s easy to say the consumer is ignorant - that must be the problem. And, you can always get more grant money to study it! Where’s the no calorie cream cheese?

[Artemis Webb]

I remember when I was in my late 20’s I went on a 1500 calorie a day diet. I did aerobic exercise five days a week and kept a heart monitor on me to make sure I stayed in the “aerobic zone”. After four months I had lost not one pound.

I am currently on the Southbeach Diet and losing weight.

It is very easy to say everyone (99% according to the article) who is fat is just a pig. The truth is that it’s more complicated than that.

[Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus]

The supplements will not be processed without other components found in raw foods.

That depends on what you mean.

[brannon]

my chit smells like chit. I am a bad person. probably worse than you.
it doesn’t change the fact that fat people are fat because of a high calorie/exercise ratio.

[Old Grumpy]

I’ve been fighting the “battle of the bulge” for too many years to count. My excuse: I just love food.

[tioga]

I am having a miserable day that started with a call from my doctor’s office........I hear you.

[CarrotAndStick]

Our bodies are genetically adapted to a starvation diet. Even when food is no longer a scarcity to most, the body’s mechanisms still functions to store/convert to fat as much of food as possible.

The only ways this system can be changed are either through drastic diet control coupled with strict, rigorous exercise(not the 20-minute-walk-per-day nonsense), artificial gene/body manipulation, or wait for natural selection to start taking out the morbidly obese ones before they reproduce, leaving the lean ones to be allowed to have more offspring.

[Calpernia]

>>>That depends on what you mean.

????

[JenBrower]

A lot depends on what you eat. For me, cutting out processed foods did the trick. You also have to increase your fiber intake and eat a reasonable amount of fat - both of these help you feel fuller for a longer period of time.