The truth about obesity and why saying nothing is doing more harm than good

I don't like starting blogs in a cliched way that other writers do, but there is something we need to talk about and actually listen when we talk about it.

If you grew up in the 90s then you probably grew up in a time when people still played outside and when it wasn't cool to be overweight or obese. Schools encouraged physical activity and magazines exclusively used thin models to promote clothing.

We then fast forwarded a few years and things had changed. Instead of thin models, we started to see overweight and obese models pitched as "healthy" and "real". Magazine editors became worried that people would have eating disorders if they were only exposed to thin models and that "big is beautiful". Basically they started promoting a message that you can still be obese and good looking.

Then in came vanity sizing where a size 6 is really a size 10 and a size 2 is what a size 6 used to be. Basically nobody actually knows what size they are anymore and people feel better when they fit into a smaller size. Of course, with vanity sizing people started to lose the perception of what healthy was and started to believe they were a small size when in reality they may not be.

Newspaper editors, politicians and activists started to whinge and get behind this message that, "the average is size 16 so models should be that size too".

Okay, here's the thing. Size 16 is obese, if not morbidly obese. Just because 60% of the population in Australia and New Zealand is overweight or obese doesn't make it healthy. It just means that 60% of the population are not looking after their health.

When you talk to obese people they tend to complain that everyone in a gym is staring at them (for the record, we're not. We don't care about your workout. We're focused on ourselves) and that they'd feel self conscious. This sounds like excuses to me, but let's say it's true that they do feel self conscious, what's stopping them from walking outside? Okay, so obese people also say that they can't do strenuous exercise and that they'd struggle? So why don't they start off with low intensity exercise until they've lost a few kilos and can do more?

The fact of the matter is that there is actually no such thing as fat and fit. It is a myth. If fat and fit existed then why is it that you never see fat people in gyms? Why is it that they never run marathons? It's because honestly they can't and they are lazy. That in itself is a huge problem. If someone can't run then that is a sign of poor health.

People may still be good looking when they're obese and some people can pull off obesity from a visual perspective, but that does not mean they're healthy. Most obese people are setting themselves up for a lifetime of health problems and they'll find their heart is strained. That puts them at risk of a heart attack or other health conditions.

People don't talk about the health effects of obesity. Even losing five or ten kilos can actually help.

The fact is that while trying to prevent Anorexia and Bulimia people are actually creating another eating disorder. Yes. I would sya that overeating and obesity is an eating disorder just like Anorexia and Bulimia and that it needs to be treated as a mental health issue rather than just a physical condition.

I'd love to know why people think obesity is okay but Anorexia and Bulimia aren't. None of these eating disorders are good and they all lead to health complications.

People may think they're being kind by not telling people that they're an unhealthy weight but they're acutally not being kind. By not telling someone they need to lose weight that only contributes to their bad health and ignorance that their size isn't okay.

it's time that people started being honest and took responsibility for reducing the rate of obesity.

I don't believe that a sugar tax will help though because just like smoking, people have reasons for overeating. It could be that they're stressed or working long hours. If that is the case then people need to be educated to make better choices and they need to become informed that exercise actually reduces stress levels and can increase energy. it also becomes addictive.

I'm not saying there is a quick fix to solving the issue of obesity, because there isn't but until people admit it's a problem and stop trying to justify it, things will never change and people will be eating and sitting their way to an early grave.