glutony and ignorance

I`ve watched this post with personal interest . My son overeats at times and has had massive eating problems for many years, he is now 33 years old . Last year, he was diagnosed at hospital as having BIPolar disorder, otherwise known as Manic Depression , this puts many answers in place that were previously missing . We now understand the overeating, he was ill . Never ever once would I or my husband have dreamed of commenting on his eating habbits, no matter how worried/concerned we were , we just ensure that we are there for him, no matter what he weighs .

suzi,
although you most likely meant well and thought you were helping the girl, did you consider her feelings and how she would feel after your comments?
she probably went to the chippy for that burger and chips to comfort eat becuase of what you said.
im sorry but just who gives you the right to judge someone you dont even know it amounts to little more than bullying.

also It seems to me that you are implying all type 2 are caused by gluttony and overating and I can tell you that is not true even though im 1 stone overweight that down to other medical issues that means I take alot of steroids that tend to bloat me. I harldy think that being one stone overwieght puts me in the obese catagory and glutonous and ignorant I have a healthy balanced diet of about 1400 cal per day and im type 2 diabetic. incidently so is most of my siblings and so was my father and some of them are actually underwieght.
I understand obesity, sedinary lifestyle and poor diet can lead to diabetes BUT it is not always the cause there is a genetic element also even somebody who excercise reguarly, eat healthy and healthy weight can still develop type 2 becuase genetic factors

suzi said:

Val, Patch, thats hurtful.

I never set out to intentionally hurt that young girls feelings.

I can't say the same for you both in the way youv'e acted towards me.

Goodbye,
Suzi x

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Sorry Suzi - I guess I just didn't consider your feelings before I let you know mine. :wink:

Diabetics are touchy...

Suzi - what you observed is very common. I get alot of food diaries from pts and I still look at them in amazement - and think how can any one eat that much food.

I guess I try not be judgemental and work around what they are eating and change it slowly!

I think that a lot of frustrations have come out in this thread, some of us have learned (or perhaps been reminded )about the feelings of people who are overweight and feel judged by society. I agree this happens and I'm guilty of judging. I do it everytime I go back to the UK, simply because I see far more very overweight people than I see here.
Suzi was trying to help this young girl who seems by her eating patterns on a path bound to make things worse. Her motives were entirely kind and I think I might well have tried to say something myself . Most of you seem to think she should have just ignored the overeating but are there any constructive suggestions as to other/ better approaches?

From my point of view I really do feel for that youngster. I was well overweight due to a lot of inactivity (horrid arthritis pain) and overeating. Not only at meal times but also from snacking as I would feel hungry within 3/4 of an hour of a meal unless that meal was super-sized!
I lost the ability to feel full after a meal when I suffered with a series of TIAs (mini strokes) many years ago and the weight slowly piled on. In the end I was eating at least enough to thoroughly nourish two people and despite many warnings from the osteo clinic and my cardiologist as well as my diabetes care team, I could not help myself .. eating was not by choice but by force of irresistible internal urges. I would eat anything and everything ... a bowl of cold cabbage would do just so long as it had bulk because my stomach would empty far too quickly.

My saviour has been Victoza in that at last I get a full feeling back and only after a smallish to normal sized meal AND my BG has been falling steady to give my last HbA1c of 7.0 ...something I have not achieved for a long time... AND my weight is falling little by little week upon week.
It was a fast and large loss at first but now it has stabilised and my health teams are amazed at the changes all brought about by Victoza.
Victoza works in several ways and every way is beneficial to me. It has even given me back a normal heart rate (slow before) driving my swollen legs back to normal, where the drugs they tried me on before I could not tolerate.

So yes, I understand about being vastly overweight and I also understand there can be many and varied underlying causes.

phoenix said:

Most of you seem to think she should have just ignored the overeating but are there any constructive suggestions as to other/ better approaches?

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This is such a difficult subject! I agree that Suzi was trying to help this girl and I feel for the girl as she is probably acutely aware of her size but perhaps she hasn't made the link between that and her eating habits! or maybe, she takes such comfort from the food she doesn't really care? Suzi, sometimes people just won't listen! I don't always (not about food, I mean about all kinds of stuff!) even though I know the advise is 'good'. I think the best approach when you see someone who you could try and help is to do just that, with caution, approach them and talk, see what they say and perhaps offer advice. So many factors need to be taken into consideration, do you know the person well, how long have you known them, do you have enough experience with the advice you would like to give, etc, etc.

Suzi, bottom line I agree with your opening post, what the girl was eating was huge!! I know I would have struggled to see beyond that and consider what was causing it. although perhaps she was just hungry

How many of us have a double identity?
Firstly, I am very overweight and struggle to maintain a proper healthy eating regime. Having come from a very disfunctional family, evicted from my home at sixteen, lived in lodgings with uncaring people and eventually ending up with a very violent husband, I ate my way through the turmoil. Now at 75 I can look back and say I was so ignorant of what harm it was doing me, but that's life! However, I hate it if anybody mentions anything about my weight to me, even my doctor I wrote to forbidding them to mention it again!

Secondly, I'm the first one to look at someone else who is very overweight and say OMG what do they look like?!!!!

Own up, you lot!