I will accept that it's a good idea when I see evidence of an obesity intervention that proves to be successful (especially in the long term), as yet I haven't seen one. If you actually told them the scientific facts about weight loss in this course you'd be telling them that less than .0009% of obese people that try and become normal weight fail to do so in the long term, that twin and adoption studies show that by far the most powerful determinant of body size is your genes. It would tell them that science doesn't actually have empirically proven methods for safe, lasting and significant weight loss and that these people are basically on their own and got to figure it out themselves.
http://hyper.ahajournals.org/cgi/content/full/51/6/1426
When you wage a war on obesity and 95% of them fail to acheive weight loss (and science can't even tell them how to anyway), then ultimately you're just waging a war on the obese.
The problem with obesity is that, once you are obese, it's becomes EXTREMELY hard to lose it. In fact, prevention really is the only real great strategy. Once a body produces fat cells, those cells never go away again. If someone who is obese wants to become healthy again, they must make CONSISTENT lifestyle and diet changes, and maintain them. That's hugely difficult. But that's what people need to understand; that's where the education would be. It's better to do that at a BMI closer to 30 than over that, because once you start getting much higher than that it gets more and more difficult.
As for the genetic side of it -- there'd have to be some sort of mass genetic mutation to create such a strong insurgence of obesity in only one generation. Genetics do play a part, but they are not an excuse. There are those that literally can't help it; that's not the majority, though, and people do need to take responsibility for that. Genetics is a factor; it is not often the cause.
I've seen skinny friends and family destroy their health too, it's not something exclusive to fat people.
No, it's not. They should take care of themselves too. The problem at hand, though, is the much more wide-spread problem of obesity.
Well I believe as adults it should be a choice.
It is a choice. Lifestyle will be a choice before and after. However, if they are attending the university on their own free will, they are subject to its requirements. That, in itself, is a choice.
BMI itself is only a probability, or more accurately a possibility of health problems, a slightly greater possibility than the possibility that skinny people will have health problems but still not a probability that they will have health problems.
The greatest causes of death of people in the United States are heart disease, cancer, stroke, and in place 6, diabetes. Obesity
greatly increases the risk for all or most of these.
Yes they are at greater risk for some things, so are poor people, stressed people, very tall people and short people, so are minorities and people of low social status, that doesn't give us license to start trying to make decisions for them. The assumptions that bother me is that we assume that just because someone is fat then they're not eating well, not exercising and are uneducated about health. You can eat healthy and exercise often and still be fat. I think it's insulting to assume otherwise. After bariatric surgery an obese person can be eating only 700 calories a day and still be maintaining an obese body size, how low do you want these people to go?
It's not common for someone who is eating well and exercising to become obese, unless there is a physiological disorder of some sort. If someone is a bit overweight or even moderately overweight, this might be the case. However, that is not normal for obese individuals, unless they started these programs after becoming obese. These things do increase the health of the individual, but risks are still present.
And most people do go down in size with such a surgery. Two of my aunts have done so successfully.
