Peace,
Shannon

The Internet is full of people who are clueless about obesity. They are seeling people their nonsense etc.

Take care,

Raz

Shannon: “Yeah, what’s the big deal with eating disorders. I mean, it only kills approximately 10,000 adolescents each year and is the deadliest mental illness, but who cares if a few kids starve themselves.”
Me: “Shannon, yeah, what’s the big deal with obesity? It only kills 300,000 people in the US every year. http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/topics/obesity/calltoaction/fact_consequences.htm.”
Shannon: “You’re beginning to betray your ignorance on the subject. First of all, that figure is for obesity AND overweight. But, more importantly, those figures have been revised by the CDC. Now, obesity is correlated with 112,000 deaths, while overweight has a NEGATIVE mortality rate of 86,000, giving a net mortality rate of 26,000, which is the most accurate figure, and ones which the CDC now accepts: http://www.cdc.gov/media/pressrel/r050615.htm”
Me: “Shannon, you’re beginning to betray your poor research skills and number manipulation. Your ‘most accurate figure’ that the CDC ‘now accepts’ are from 2005. The figures I quoted are from 2011; the 300k is for obesity. But the fact that you will stand by your claim by arguing that it is somehow not a bad thing that 112,000 obese people die from weight-related issues every year, because there is a “negative mortality rate” for overweight people? Are you kidding? 112,000 obese people still die every year because of weight-issues. That’s great the being overweight isn’t as bad as we thought, but you can’t simply subtract them.”

You body tries to maintain a certain balance or level for many different things. The point you body tries to maintain at for each of these different things is known as a set point. Perhaps your metabolism’s current set point is what draws you to that weight. I’m not as deep into the medical/biology as my wife and I’m sure she’d have a better answer. Genetics are a factor and perhaps all the hormones in our food are one of the culprits. (I know I spoke somewhat negatively on organic foods, but that does not mean our mainstream food supply does not need some fixing.)

I do agree that a healthy diet is important and that I do need to take my own advice in that matter. I have also learned that even moderate exercise is a big help–even without any noticeable weight loss. If you were doing some extensive exercise you should also consider that muscle is denser than fat and if you were ending up building some muscle and losing some volume of fat, your weight could still go up. BMI is pretty much junk science anyway.