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What does "treat obesity" even mean? Obesity is a self-inflicted issue. Consuming more calories than you burn is all it is. Nothing more. Obese people need to h

What does "treat obesity" even mean? Obesity is a self-inflicted issue. Consuming more calories than you burn is all it is. Nothing more. Obese people need to have their food intake restricted. There is nothing to treat.

Abraln 11y ago
Agreed. The ethical implications of this also need to be considered. As much as I hate the "think of the starving children in ___" trope, artificially increasing your matabolism is increasing the amount of calories humanity needs to produce, and if use becomes widespread, could add up to a significant amount.
fasteo 11y ago
>>>> Obesity is a self-inflicted issue.Consuming more calories than you burn is all it is. - Why is this restaurant always full of people ? - Because there are more people entering the exiting. Really ? Maybe it has to do with the food quality, price, customer care, the location of the place, etc, etc. See, explaining obesity with the simple calories-in, calories-out argument tell nothing about the root cause of this disease. Take a look at Dr. Guyenet blog[1] for a fascinating view of this issue. [1] http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com
- simplexion 11y ago
  Stop calling it a disease. It gives obese people an excuse.
  - fasteo 11y ago
    >>>> Stop calling it a disease Let me decide when I stop calling things. >>>> It gives obese people an excuse. Over-simplification of a complex issue. I have never been obese. I am 45 years old in a couple of days and I can see my abs. Unfortunately, I have a genetic defect that affects my metabolism, giving me a intermittent and profound fatigue every now and then. After reading, thinking and talking to dozens of doctors about the whole metabolic process, I have come to the conclusion that obesity is indeed a disease. In the same way, when fatigue kicks-in, I just cannot avoid being tired: I am not lazy, I exercise every day, I eat clean and sleep 7-8 hours every single night but I just cannot avoid being tired. For casual observers, they will think that I am a lazy, but the truth is quite different. This same analogy applies to obesity.
gnoway 11y ago
Well, I wrote 'help treat obesity'. There are existing drugs used alongside diet, exercise, counseling, etc. to help treat obesity, and this compound could potentially be an alternative to those. It's also not certain that obesity is self-inflicted 100% of the time. Google 'obesity microbiome' and you will find research showing particular gut flora which triggers obesity in mice. Consider that e.g. gut flora are often transferred from mother to child, and that in general the bacteria in your gut have to come from somewhere. Regardless, there's no reason to deny an avenue of assistance to an obese person who wants to lose weight. Simply asserting that they need to stop eating so much is very similar to asserting that an an addict (which is what this actually is, IMO) should just consume less. It usually doesn't work, we know it usually doesn't work, and continuing to just assert that it's that simple is, at best, ignorant.
- simplexion 11y ago
  It is self-inflicted. Does this magical "obesity microbiome" ignore physics and make you fatter without energy going in?
  - TJSomething 11y ago
    No, but "An obesity-associated gut microbiome with increased capacity for energy harvest" by Turnbaugh, et al. (which has been cited over 2,000 times) shows that it decreases energy going out in feces.
DiabloD3 11y ago
Although I don't agree with you, the way you put this is unnecessarily antagonistic. I'm 6 foot tall, I used to weigh, at peak, 340 pounds. After exactly one year of diet modification alone (I chronically under-exercise), I weighed 214 pounds, and now weigh about 190. I did not reduce my caloric intake, instead I removed all foods that are known to screw with human biology, and decided to follow the Paleo diet: no grains (pasta, bread, cereal, corn, etc), no legumes (peanuts, peas, beans, soy, etc), no seed oils (vegetable oil, corn, canola, soy), no refined sugars, no dairy (to reduce hormone and lactose intake; I limit myself to small amounts cheese and full fat greek yogurt only). What I do eat? Meat, vegetables, fruits, the aforementioned limited fermented dairy, mushrooms, and if I weren't allergic to them, I could add nuts to that list as well. I use healthy fats like bacon fat, coconut oil, and olive oil instead of seed oils. I also limit myself to one cup of coffee a day, and sometimes even then I don't feel like one, I don't really need it anymore. My caloric intake has not really changed (it has always been between 1500 and 2000 a day), yet the fat just melted right off. The whole obsession with caloric intake (unless you're clearing 3000 calories with low physical activity) doesn't fix obesity: chronically low caloric intake (below 1500 calories for an extended period) makes your body think it's starving to death, and it will refuse to release energy from your fat cells and start hoarding it instead. In other words, unsafe caloric reduction for long periods may cause weight gain in some individuals already suffering from some form of metabolic disorder (including prediabetes and diabetes and just being morbidly obese). Yes, I agree there is nothing to really treat: eat foods that promote the proper functioning of your body, drop the ones that are known to cause chronic inflammation, metabolic disorders, and with grains in particular, the fact they contain phytates and protease inhibitors in very unsafe amounts (both cause malabsorption of nutrients).
- Ueland 11y ago
  This kind of post is something i usually read at Reddit when something related to fat people are being discussed. And of course, many of them appear to have "a metabolic disorder". A post with a whole bunch of undocumented claims is something i do not expect here at HN. You lost weight, therefore you either reduced calorie intake, or you burned more calories. If you somehow broke the laws regarding energy, you have discovered some magic formula that will make you rich.I am going to assume that you did not discover the magic formula as there is none as per now. No wonder people have issues figuring out how to loose weight when they find claims like: - "foods that are known to screw with human biology" - "My caloric intake has not really changed, yet the fat just melted right off." -"... caloric intake doesn't fix obesity" - "chronically low caloric intake .. makes your body think it's starving to death" " unsafe caloric reduction for long periods may cause weight gain in some individuals ..." " ...foods that promote the proper functioning of your body" ".. drop the ones that are known to cause chronic inflammation, metabolic disorders"

Abraln 11y ago

Agreed. The ethical implications of this also need to be considered. As much as I hate the "think of the starving children in ___" trope, artificially increasing your matabolism is increasing the amount of calories humanity needs to produce, and if use becomes widespread, could add up to a significant amount.

fasteo 11y ago

>>>> Obesity is a self-inflicted issue.Consuming more calories than you burn is all it is. - Why is this restaurant always full of people ? - Because there are more people entering the exiting. Really ? Maybe it has to do with the food quality, price, customer care, the location of the place, etc, etc. See, explaining obesity with the simple calories-in, calories-out argument tell nothing about the root cause of this disease. Take a look at Dr. Guyenet blog[1] for a fascinating view of this issue. [1] http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com

simplexion 11y ago
Stop calling it a disease. It gives obese people an excuse.
- fasteo 11y ago
  >>>> Stop calling it a disease Let me decide when I stop calling things. >>>> It gives obese people an excuse. Over-simplification of a complex issue. I have never been obese. I am 45 years old in a couple of days and I can see my abs. Unfortunately, I have a genetic defect that affects my metabolism, giving me a intermittent and profound fatigue every now and then. After reading, thinking and talking to dozens of doctors about the whole metabolic process, I have come to the conclusion that obesity is indeed a disease. In the same way, when fatigue kicks-in, I just cannot avoid being tired: I am not lazy, I exercise every day, I eat clean and sleep 7-8 hours every single night but I just cannot avoid being tired. For casual observers, they will think that I am a lazy, but the truth is quite different. This same analogy applies to obesity.

gnoway 11y ago

Well, I wrote 'help treat obesity'. There are existing drugs used alongside diet, exercise, counseling, etc. to help treat obesity, and this compound could potentially be an alternative to those. It's also not certain that obesity is self-inflicted 100% of the time. Google 'obesity microbiome' and you will find research showing particular gut flora which triggers obesity in mice. Consider that e.g. gut flora are often transferred from mother to child, and that in general the bacteria in your gut have to come from somewhere. Regardless, there's no reason to deny an avenue of assistance to an obese person who wants to lose weight. Simply asserting that they need to stop eating so much is very similar to asserting that an an addict (which is what this actually is, IMO) should just consume less. It usually doesn't work, we know it usually doesn't work, and continuing to just assert that it's that simple is, at best, ignorant.

simplexion 11y ago
It is self-inflicted. Does this magical "obesity microbiome" ignore physics and make you fatter without energy going in?
- TJSomething 11y ago
  No, but "An obesity-associated gut microbiome with increased capacity for energy harvest" by Turnbaugh, et al. (which has been cited over 2,000 times) shows that it decreases energy going out in feces.

DiabloD3 11y ago

Although I don't agree with you, the way you put this is unnecessarily antagonistic. I'm 6 foot tall, I used to weigh, at peak, 340 pounds. After exactly one year of diet modification alone (I chronically under-exercise), I weighed 214 pounds, and now weigh about 190. I did not reduce my caloric intake, instead I removed all foods that are known to screw with human biology, and decided to follow the Paleo diet: no grains (pasta, bread, cereal, corn, etc), no legumes (peanuts, peas, beans, soy, etc), no seed oils (vegetable oil, corn, canola, soy), no refined sugars, no dairy (to reduce hormone and lactose intake; I limit myself to small amounts cheese and full fat greek yogurt only). What I do eat? Meat, vegetables, fruits, the aforementioned limited fermented dairy, mushrooms, and if I weren't allergic to them, I could add nuts to that list as well. I use healthy fats like bacon fat, coconut oil, and olive oil instead of seed oils. I also limit myself to one cup of coffee a day, and sometimes even then I don't feel like one, I don't really need it anymore. My caloric intake has not really changed (it has always been between 1500 and 2000 a day), yet the fat just melted right off. The whole obsession with caloric intake (unless you're clearing 3000 calories with low physical activity) doesn't fix obesity: chronically low caloric intake (below 1500 calories for an extended period) makes your body think it's starving to death, and it will refuse to release energy from your fat cells and start hoarding it instead. In other words, unsafe caloric reduction for long periods may cause weight gain in some individuals already suffering from some form of metabolic disorder (including prediabetes and diabetes and just being morbidly obese). Yes, I agree there is nothing to really treat: eat foods that promote the proper functioning of your body, drop the ones that are known to cause chronic inflammation, metabolic disorders, and with grains in particular, the fact they contain phytates and protease inhibitors in very unsafe amounts (both cause malabsorption of nutrients).

Ueland 11y ago
This kind of post is something i usually read at Reddit when something related to fat people are being discussed. And of course, many of them appear to have "a metabolic disorder". A post with a whole bunch of undocumented claims is something i do not expect here at HN. You lost weight, therefore you either reduced calorie intake, or you burned more calories. If you somehow broke the laws regarding energy, you have discovered some magic formula that will make you rich.I am going to assume that you did not discover the magic formula as there is none as per now. No wonder people have issues figuring out how to loose weight when they find claims like: - "foods that are known to screw with human biology" - "My caloric intake has not really changed, yet the fat just melted right off." -"... caloric intake doesn't fix obesity" - "chronically low caloric intake .. makes your body think it's starving to death" " unsafe caloric reduction for long periods may cause weight gain in some individuals ..." " ...foods that promote the proper functioning of your body" ".. drop the ones that are known to cause chronic inflammation, metabolic disorders"