There is no Obesity Crisis.

Very interesting article although being short, it covers a lot in not much detail.
I was a little disappointed that she does not distinguish between the different types of diabetes. Recently, I have been getting the feeling that the media has been doing better specifying "type 1" and "type 2" (although I haven't seen much mention of other types of diabetes).

Thanks for posting this.
The evidence that being fat is not the main risk (while being unfit and sedentary are the risks, with knock on health effects) has been around for so long that I have actually lost the links I collected years ago that showed the stats. lol)

I think a lot of it just boils down to scientists, the media and everyone taking shortcut after shortcut, and 'dumbing down' the message until it becomes the 'obesity = early death' sound bite.

Mind you, I do think that obese people need to think long and hard about how they get fit. High impact fitness regimes can do a great deal of harm to joints if there is extra weight, and pushing a sedentary body too far, too fast, can do all sorts of injuries. Supportive shoes, stretching, warm ups, and gradual increase in activity gets you there much better than too much, too soon, and months of recovery and physio after a strain or wrench.

Eating a low carb diet has helped me lose a lot of weight. Now I am overweight rather than obese. It has also lowered my blood pressure and when it was measured the other day was 110/70.

The problem with body fat is that there can a lot of fat in the liver. Visceral fat is associated with a higher mortality. Fasting for a short time can reduce the liver fat substantially, well before body weight decreases substantially. So exercise or fasting may improve health way before much of the excess weight has dropped off.

The problem with type 2 diabetes is that 90% who have this are obese or overweight and some medications increase insulin and this causes deposits of more fat in the liver. The increased weight can make people more lethargic which means they get less exercise. Being very overweight puts a lot of stress on your joints as I have found with my knees. This further limits mobility and exercise.

Sorry, this is why I tune out when health matters are featured in the news. It is so confusing to be told 'hey do this!' then 'My God, don't do that!'. Now, this is a serious question and I am by no means fat shaming here but do obese people not have visceral fat? Or is it a case of some people have it and some don't irrespective of body weight?
I understand that science is not a sedentary subject, the more we learn then the more the information changes but 'they' cannot blame some people who, like me, switch off to their research when we are told three or four things in a decade. And this especially when NHS guidelines take five years to catch up.

I am sure I read about some research just a few days ago that said there was no such thing as overweight but fit. We need something like the BBC's Reality Check to examine these type of contrasting health claims.

Most of the English Rugby team are clinically obese according to their BMI

It is starting to look like the measurement round someone’s waist is a much better predictor then their weight. (I fail on both count at present.) Visceral fat seems to be key to health outcome, but is hard to measure as part of large scale research.

What she is saying is that increasing exercise and getting fit is far more important than losing weight, I agree 100% with her on that. I would also added (unless Type1) that reducing BG by controlling what carbs we eat and hence reducing the insulin levels in our body is the single largest improvement we can make to our health.

ringi said:

Most of the English Rugby team are clinically obese according to their BMI

It is starting to look like the measurement round someone’s waist is a much better predictor then their weight. (I fail on both count at present.) Visceral fat seems to be key to health outcome, but is hard to measure as part of large scale research.

What she is saying is that increasing exercise and getting fit is far more important than losing weight, I agree 100% with her on that. I would also added (unless Type1) that reducing BG by controlling what carbs we eat and hence reducing the insulin levels in our body is the single largest improvement we can make to our health.

Click to expand...

It's also useful for T1s as too many carbs will cause weight gain if you simply match the insulin to too many carbs

ringi said:

Most of the English Rugby team are clinically obese according to their BMI

It is starting to look like the measurement round someone’s waist is a much better predictor then their weight. (I fail on both count at present.) Visceral fat seems to be key to health outcome, but is hard to measure as part of large scale research.

What she is saying is that increasing exercise and getting fit is far more important than losing weight, I agree 100% with her on that. I would also added (unless Type1) that reducing BG by controlling what carbs we eat and hence reducing the insulin levels in our body is the single largest improvement we can make to our health.

Click to expand...

It all depends. Do we look like Mr Blobby or like one of those smaller but substantial brick toilets that stood outside houses in my youth? Sadly I was a long streak when I was young, when I wished to be built like a rugby player!