Moments of Permanence - Ponderance: Ways of Being and Perceiving with a Socially-Unacceptable Body Type

From: tevriel.livejournal.com Date: March 18th, 2009 12:02 pm (UTC) (Link)

Your question rather assumes that any overweight person has somehow not noticed they're overweight, or has not heard that there are potential negative health consequences for being overweight, or is aware of these things and yet just not considered the possibility of losing weight as an option.

You are also, perhaps, missing the context of the stereotype she was referring to, in which the doctor reacts unhelpfully to an immediate medical problem because all they can say is "lose some weight", even if the patient's weight has no possible bearing on the reason why they're seeing the doctor.

Added to that:

There are many people who are overweight due to circumstances that are (to varying extents) out of their control, but they do not form the majority of overweight people.

Prove it.

No-one chooses to be fat. The reasons why someone might be are variable, and yes, many people could lose weight if they made major lifestyle changes, but major lifestyle changes are in a sense a luxury; if someone doesn't have the resources, be they physical, mental, financial, or otherwise, then they're not going to be able to lose weight.

And for the record? Being overweight is not automatically unhealthy. There are a LOT of other factors involved in "unhealthy".

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

From: splintax.livejournal.com Date: March 19th, 2009 05:39 am (UTC) (Link)

I'll address this first because the rest of my argument depends on it:

Being overweight is not automatically unhealthy.
Doesn't 'overweight' mean 'outside (ie. above) the healthy weight range for your body type'? I thought being overweight was, by definition, unhealthy. In any case, we're talking here about somebody being told to lose weight by a doctor; I think in these circumstances it's fairly safe to assume that the person's weight is unhealthy.

Your question rather assumes that any overweight person has somehow not noticed they're overweight, or has not heard that there are potential negative health consequences for being overweight, or is aware of these things and yet just not considered the possibility of losing weight as an option.
I'm sure most overweight people know that they are overweight and that it's unhealthy -- however, a doctor's recommendation might reveal to them that their weight is so unhealthy that they should do something about it. I'm ready to admit that a doctor recommending that someone lose weight is probably not going to change anything most of the time, but when the potential consequences of telling someone they need to lose weight are just hurt feelings, I don't think it's responsible for a doctor to do anything but recommend that a person with an unhealthily high weight try to reduce it.

You are also, perhaps, missing the context of the stereotype she was referring to, in which the doctor reacts unhelpfully to an immediate medical problem because all they can say is "lose some weight", even if the patient's weight has no possible bearing on the reason why they're seeing the doctor.
Yes, I did miss this stereotype. However, medicine, especially the type that GPs practise, is a rather inexact science, and the health consequences of being overweight are many and various. Though it would be wrong for a doctor to say 'just lose weight' and send a patient on their way when more suitable treatments for the patient's condition exist, I think there are very few circumstances in which you can definitively say that someone's weight has no possible bearing on the reason they're seeing the doctor. Again, since losing weight is always a healthy thing for an overweight person to do, I think doctors should recommend that overweight people lose weight even if the issue they've come to see the doctor about is not weight-related.

Finally:
Prove it. No-one chooses to be fat. The reasons why someone might be are variable, and yes, many people could lose weight if they made major lifestyle changes, but major lifestyle changes are in a sense a luxury; if someone doesn't have the resources, be they physical, mental, financial, or otherwise, then they're not going to be able to lose weight.
Well, I can't prove this (easily, at least). However, I believe the vast majority of the non-overweight population thinks that for most overweight people, losing weight is well within their means. If you think this is an inaccurate stereotype, I think the burden to provide evidence challenging that stereotype falls on you.

'Lacking the mental resources [needed for exercise]' is commonly referred to as 'being lazy'. If you can provide an example of how a mere lack of money makes it impossible for somebody to lose weight, I'd like to see it; exercise doesn't cost money. Of course, I'm willing to accept that some people lack the 'physical resources' to lose weight -- though I'd rather describe those people as having a 'medical condition', because the former term seems to include those who are just physically unfit (ie. a superset of 'overweight people').

(Reply) (Parent)