The world is affected by an obesity epidemic, but why is it that not everyone is succumbing?
Medical science has been obsessed with this subject and is coming up with some unexpected answers. As it turns out, it is not all about exercise and diet.
At the center of this programme is a controversial overeating experiment that aims to identify exactly what it is about some people that makes it hard for them to bulk up.
This is not true, when I eat I still gain weight.
This is not true, when I eat I still gain weight.
The documentary brought up some interesting issues but hardly went into any detail on them. For example, that doctor who talked about the virus came in out of nowhere and had about 5 minutes to say what he needed to before the programme went back on track.
I feel that can be quite misleading when documentaries (which are essentially extremely persuasive in nature) make very quick references about a lot of different things and never provide a proper conclusion.
What I’m most concerned about is obese people who are worried about their health might give up because they’ve come to the conclusion that their bodies are meant to be that way and there’s not a lot they can do about it. I find this highly probable as throughout the programme it has been mentioned that some people would find it “virtually impossible” to reduce the amount or size of fat cells.
In conclusion: Interesting, but likely to be very misleading.
The documentary brought up some interesting issues but hardly went into any detail on them. For example, that doctor who talked about the virus came in out of nowhere and had about 5 minutes to say what he needed to before the programme went back on track.
I feel that can be quite misleading when documentaries (which are essentially extremely persuasive in nature) make very quick references about a lot of different things and never provide a proper conclusion.
What I’m most concerned about is obese people who are worried about their health might give up because they’ve come to the conclusion that their bodies are meant to be that way and there’s not a lot they can do about it. I find this highly probable as throughout the programme it has been mentioned that some people would find it “virtually impossible” to reduce the amount or size of fat cells.
In conclusion: Interesting, but likely to be very misleading.
Thanks!
Hhm. Strange, this documentary seems to be presenting a number of pre-supposed theories that it doesn’t bother to prove. For instance, they repeatedly suggest that “obesity” (which they never really define) is epidemic, and negative.
I have never seen any studies suggesting that weight has a positive or negative impact on “health”. There have been studies showing that when people attempt to change their weight, the stress de-stabilizes their systems, but I have seen nothing to suggest that relative body fat or body mass has any effect on health.
The heavy use of pejorative terms suggests that this isn’t so much a documentary, as it is a propaganda piece.
MoralRelativity,
You say you have never seen any studies suggesting that weight has a positive or negative impact on health. This leads me to believe that you have never seen any studies at all. A short googling session turned up MANY articles on links between bodyweight and health.
Some quotes from studies:
“CONCLUSIONS. Body weight and mortality from all causes were directly related among these middle-aged women. Lean women did not have excess mortality. The lowest mortality rate was observed among women who weighed at least 15 percent less than the U.S. average for women of similar age and among those whose weight had been stable since early adulthood.”
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7637744?ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_SingleItemSupl.Pubmed_Discovery_RA&linkpos=2&log$=relatedarticles&logdbfrom=pubmed
“CONCLUSIONS–In these prospective data, body weight and mortality were directly related. After accounting for confounding by cigarette smoking and bias resulting from illness-related weight loss or inappropriate control for the biologic effects of obesity, we found no evidence of excess mortality among lean men. Indeed, lowest mortality was observed among men weighing, on average, 20% below the US average for men of comparable age and height.”
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8133621?ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_SingleItemSupl.Pubmed_Discovery_RA&linkpos=3&log$=relatedarticles&logdbfrom=pubmed
“CONCLUSIONS: Excess body weight during midlife, including overweight, is associated with an increased risk of death. ”
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16926275
There are of course other negative aspects to being overweight, besides physical health issues, but I won’t go into them here…