You are what you FEEL

[Quinlan]

I found this study and it supports some of the stuff I have said here in the past, so thought I would share it.

Obese persons experience a high degree of stress, and this stress plausibly explains a portion of the BMI-health association. Thus, the obesity epidemic may, in part, be driven by social constructs surrounding body image norms.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2386473/

Of particular interest is the finding that the desire to lose or gain weight is a better predictor of morbidity than the actual weight itself.

The mind is a powerful thing!

 

[sypri]

I'm not particularly educated about obesity. However that makes sense. The mind is a powerful thing, we just usually understimate it's affect over the body. That was interesting to read.

 

[enfp can be shy]

the desire to lose or gain weight is a better predictor of morbidity than the actual weight itself

Please think on this. Hell is other people. We make it for each other much worse than it actually is.

I'm not surprised. I wonder how many other health areas are affected mostly by social aspects of one's state, than by the real body parameters.

 

[Pristinegirl]

Ahh this kind of confirms what I've always thought!!

If you think it, want it, dream it, then it's real.
You are what you feel.

 

[Top cat]

It's such a long article...

Does it mean when you have a goal, you think from the end...
like your goal has already been completed?

 

[Quinlan]

It's such a long article...

Does it mean when you have a goal, you think from the end...
like your goal has already been completed?

I took it to mean that if you feel fat and get stressed out about being fat (even if by objective measures you're not actually fat) you'll be more unhealthy than someone who actually is fat but doesn't worry about it.

"Feeling fat" is stressful no matter what your weight is, and chronic stress actually makes you physically sick. When under chronic stress your body produces hormones like cortisol that in small doses are very helpful but if produced often is like poison for your body.

The stigma of being fat is worse for you than the actual weight.

Moral: Go easy on fat people.