Is being fat a choice?

I recently watched a YouTube video called ‘Is being fat a choice?’ by the channel Jubilee. It showed me that so many people have a misunderstanding of how obesity works. I thought I’d write a blog post to clear some things up.

How do we gain weight?

Let’s start with how we gain weight and become overweight or obese first.

You may have heard the term ‘calories in versus calories out’ and that’s a simple way of explaining it. If you want to lose weight, your calories out are more than your calories in. And if you gain weight, your calories in are more than your calories out.

For example, if someone needs 2000 calories per day to sustain their body weight, then consuming 2500 calories each day would mean they're in an excess. This repeated excess of calories over time is what to leads to weight gain. When our bodies have excess energy, it’s stored as fat for another time.

It’s roughly 3500 calories in excess that equates to 1 pound or 0.5kg of fat. So, if someone that needs 2000 calories a day, but they were eating 2500 calories a day then it would take a week to gain a pound. 

It works the opposite way too. If someone needs 2000 calories but they consume 1500 calories a day, they’ll lose about a pound a week.

As I said, looking at calories in and calories out is a very simplified overview. There are multiple things that impact the calories we eat and the calories we use up.

I’ve got other blog posts about why I don’t think calorie counting is the most useful. Find it here and here.

The rest of the subheadings in this blog post will be inspired by the YouTube video, as I think it’s worth explaining them.

‘Does the UK have an obesity problem?’

It’s not a secret that rates of overweight and obesity are rising. They have been on an upward trend for over 20 years, despite government policies aimed to help reduce it.

Now over two-thirds of the adult population are overweight or obese.

As being overweight or obese can contribute to other health issues such as cancer or type 2 diabetes, it can be considered a problem. But I don’t like to label people as problems, especially as being overweight or obese isn’t always in someone’s control.

There are so many things that can contribute to someone gaining weight:

People from lower socio-economic backgrounds may not be able to afford more nutritious food. 

Some people may have genetic mutations that make them feel hungrier than others. 

Someone could have a disability that stops them from exercising. 

Certain medications can lead to weight gain. 

Others may work night shifts, which disrupts our bodies rhythm and encourages weight gain. 

Some people may be going through a traumatic time, and food is their only comfort.

It's not just calories in or calories out, there are so many components to overweight and obesity. This also means there’s lots of ways to manage it, which makes it more complex than people may initially think.

‘Is it better to be skinny than fat?’

I don’t really like the terms ‘skinny’ or ‘fat’ as they can be quite subjective.

If we’re using BMI as our basis for health, then a healthy weight is a BMI between 18.5kg/m2 and 24.9kg/m2. 

Underweight, or ‘skinny’ is less than 18.5kg/m2. 

Overweight is a BMI of 25kg/m2 to 29.9kg/m2. 

Obese is 30kg/m2 or more. 

BMI is a ratio of someone’s height to weight. It’s not the most accurate, but it’s a quick way to categorize people.

Some people may assume that less is more when it comes to body weight. But research has shown that being underweight is linked to a higher risk of death compared to being overweight. 

This doesn’t mean that it’s better to be overweight though. While the risk of death is lower if you're overweight, the risks to your health are still there. A person with overweight may end up living longer, but with a chronic disease for example.

This is where being ‘average’ or a healthy weight comes in as this has lower health risks. It’s important to remember that a healthy weight looks different for every person and every body.

‘Is fat shaming worse than skinny shaming?’

Shaming someone for their size isn’t acceptable, no matter what they look like.

People that are underweight may get comments from people along the lines of them needing to eat more or being compared to other objects. People that are overweight may face comments along the lines of needing to eat less and move more.

It’s also known that overweight and obese people face medical discrimination. Unfortunately, there are numerous cases of patients in larger bodies going to their doctors but being dismissed due to their size. They get told to lose weight as this will ‘fix’ all their symptoms, but this brushing off can lead to negative health consequences.

I’m not trying to pit people against each other as to who has it worse. Facing stigma just for existing in your body isn’t fair, no matter your weight.

It’s important to remember that there’s no need to make comments on someone’s body, even if you think it’s a compliment.   

Key points:

• Weight gain is caused by a calorie imbalance.
• Over two thirds of adults in the UK are overweight or obese. There are multiple reasons as to why someone could have excess weight.
• Maintaining a healthy weight helps to lower the risk of disease and death.
• There is social stigma associated with being overweight, and underweight.

 I hope you enjoyed this blog post and it’s given you some food for thought.

Bye for now 👋

References:

Statistics for overweight/obese adults: https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn03336/

BMI categories: https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/educational/lose_wt/BMI/bmicalc.htm

BMI and mortality: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3900866/ and https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10383423/

Fatphobia: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9957053/ and https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10996856/