> If only 1 or 2 people were struggling with obesity then sure maybe it would be a them issue, but this issue effects so many people that it’s got to be something far deeper than there being some sort of moral failing of the individual suffering from obesity.
I don't understand why we just take anecdotes seriously in conversations about weight, in a way that we simply would not anywhere else. We have data about this. There's boatloads of studies over decades and decades.
Obesity is genetic and epigenetic, and it's a chronic condition. Most people when exposed to an environment with lots of food/stress/etc will gain weight. Some will become obese. Some will not. Those that don't, will increase their energy expenditure and return to roughly normal in time. Those that become obese will not. [1]
We know those who become obese have an insanely hard time losing the weight because when they try, their metabolism slows down and their hunger goes up well in excess of what would be expected based on their reduction in fat mass. As you were beginning to experience, substantially everyone who loses a clinically significant amount of weight will return to roughly where they started over a few years without meaningful intervention.
I don't understand why we just take anecdotes seriously in conversations about weight, in a way that we simply would not anywhere else. We have data about this. There's boatloads of studies over decades and decades.
Obesity is genetic and epigenetic, and it's a chronic condition. Most people when exposed to an environment with lots of food/stress/etc will gain weight. Some will become obese. Some will not. Those that don't, will increase their energy expenditure and return to roughly normal in time. Those that become obese will not. [1]
We know those who become obese have an insanely hard time losing the weight because when they try, their metabolism slows down and their hunger goes up well in excess of what would be expected based on their reduction in fat mass. As you were beginning to experience, substantially everyone who loses a clinically significant amount of weight will return to roughly where they started over a few years without meaningful intervention.
[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6226269/