OK, I am unable to devote the time to look into the literature right now and post a bunch of links, I’m sorry. But I want to talk about this anyway because I have been told this same thing by doctors. And my research has led me to be incredibly skeptical of this claim.
It is true that there is a correlation between fatness and acid reflux. This means that fatter people are more likely to suffer from this condition. But as I have said many times here, correlation is not the same thing as known causation. Most importantly, and observed correlation between two variables – in this case, fatness and reflux – could be caused by other, unmeasured variables.
This is so important for critically examining weight science because my experience reading through the literature concerning a host of health conditions tells me that these alternative explanations are very rarely considered or accounted for. Typically, when the correlation is observed, researchers cast about for some aspect of fatness that they think might be responsible for the outcome, and voila, a causal theory is born! In this case, the causal theory is that stomach fat pushes up on the stomach and causes reflux.
Now here is where we use this knowledge to critically examine the claim that your mother’s doctor is making.
Do thin people suffer from this condition? Yes. So if their stomach fat is not causing the reflux, then what is? And why is that same cause not also thought to cause reflux among fat people? One of the most infuriating habits of the medical research community is to decide that fatness causes a given condition when fat people develop the condition whereas some other factor causes it among thin people. This makes no sense. It is more reasonable to assume that the same factor causes the condition for both fat and thin people, and that fat people are more likely to suffer from or exhibit that particular factor than thin people.
Here is one theory that comes from following this line of thinking. Did you know that acid reflux is very common among people who are recovering from a restrictive eating disorder? Chronic undernourishment damages the digestive system so that gastric emptying is slower, among other issues. So when people in recovery start eating more food, their stomachs cannot handle it and they experience terrible reflux. Fat people are more likely to suffer from restrictive eating conditions than thin people, and to engage in chronic lifetime dieting (aka starvation). We don’t actually know what effect that has on fat people’s digestive tracks… but isn’t it reasonable to propose that if chronic undernourishment causes digestive issues among thin people, it would have the same negative effect on fat people? And so the cure might be the same as well: Adequately nourishing your body by eating enough food regularly.
And there are many other potential explanations for the correlation between fatness and reflux that simply are not being examined. My point is this: Be very wary when a doctor tells you your fat body is causing your issues or prescribes weight loss as a cure. I have yet to see a strong body of sound science to support this conclusion for any health condition I have researched.
Tag: save for later
Weight loss increases the risk of mortality for older people
Numerous longitudinal studies have observed that when older people lose weight, their risk of death in the following decades increases.
One such study began following a nationally representative sample of 7000 people when they averaged 65 years of age. In the following ten years, about 25% of the sample died.
The study revealed that fat participants (i.e., BMI > 30) who had lost more than 15% of their body weight at the start of the study experienced a nearly 300% increase in the risk of all-causes mortality. Researchers observed similar increases in mortality risk across the entire weight spectrum for women.
This means that weight loss is unhealthy and increases the risk of all-causes mortality for older fat people and for older women at all weights.
You’re supposed to gain weight as you age, it helps you survive if you fall ill, especially heart attacks if I remember correctly. And literally if you fall the chances of breaking something are lower.
Fat older people far better than thin older people when they contract pneumonia, when they have a heart attack, when they undergo chemotherapy, when they have an infection, when they undergo dialysis, and when they have diabetes. Oh, and fat older people have about half the risk of developing dementia, too. Basically, fatness seems to offer protection from basically every disease of older age.
Dieting is unhealthy for children and adolescents
There is no ambiguity in the research literature on this topic: Dieting and intentional weight-loss efforts are harmful for young people’s health.
When children and adolescents diet to lose weight they experience higher rates of depression, negative body image, disordered eating, and end up weighing more as adults than they would have weighed had they never dieted at all:
Another study demonstrates that dieting causes lower body satisfaction, and lower body satisfaction predicts the use of behaviors that place adolescents at risk for weight gain and poorer overall health.
And parents’ dieting behavior can also harm their kids: Mothers’ negative body image and dieting behavior predicts their adolescent daughter’s disordered eating and negative body image.
Instead of dieting and intentional weight-loss, researchers recommend lots of fun physical activity, family meals, increasing fruit and vegetable intake, and promoting a positive body image as the best means of supporting adolescents’ long-term health and well-being.
– Mod D
so basically im cursed to remain fat forever? jesus christ i did not need to hear that today.
There is no permanent and safe way to intentionally lose weight. This is true.
And that means that if you want to truly live a fulfilling and meaningful life, you will need to let go of the fantasy of being thin. You will need to do the difficult self-work needed to unlearn your internalized fat phobia. You may also need to learn how to eat normally without restriction and shame. All of this is difficult. But a lifetime of self-hate, restriction, repeated cycles of weight gains and weight losses, and declining health from the damage caused by under-nourishing your body is far far worse.
And I know you are in pain right now, so I am being gentle with you, but I need you to think about what you said in your ask, and think about who you said it to. I am fat and my life is not a cursed existence. It is never okay to say such hateful things about fat people, including yourself. Don’t do it anymore.
What is the evidence supporting my conclusion that there is no permanent and safe way to intentionally lose weight?
Over fifty years of research conclusively demonstrates that virtually everyone who intentionally loses weight by manipulating their eating and exercise habits will regain the weight they lost within three to five years. And the vast majority will actually regain more weight than they lost. [sources]
In fact, the results of a 10-year study of over 275000 people revealed that the annual odds of a fat person attaining a so-called “normal” weight and maintaining that for five years is approximately 1 in 1000. [source]
And those very few people who do maintain a significant weight-loss for more than five years do so by engaging in unhealthy, disordered eating and exercise. Consuming just 1300 calories per day, recording everything you eat, and exercising for one hour per day is not healthy, and in another context, would be considered evidence of an eating disorder rather than behavior worth emulating. [source]
[source]
“Well I lost weight so anyone can!”
Nope. One individual’s experiences do not negate 50 years of scientific research with thousands and thousands of people.
“Just change your *lifestyle* by doing blah blah blah and then anyone can lose weight!”
Nope. Any attempts to intentionally lose weight by manipulating food intake and exercise have the same result. Scientists have tried it all! The result it always the same. Weight regain.
(PS: As stated in my FAQ, weight loss tips and pro-dieting talk are not welcome on my posts. There are many other spaces where such talk it welcome. Post there instead.)
“Actually, 1300 calories per day is totally enough!”
No. A systematic review of research using the doubly-labeled water method to assess people’s energy needs revealed that healthy adults over age 25 need between 2500 and 3000 kilocalories per day on average. People under the age of 25 need about 500 calories more per day than their adult counterparts. People who are bigger than average (including fat people) also need more energy than average to thrive, as do people who are very physically active. [source] [source]
“Buuuut the nutrition guidelines say we only need 2000 kilocalories per day!”
Those guidelines are wrong. They were developed on the basis of faulty science that used self-reports to assess people’s energy intake. And it turns out people habitually underestimate their energy intake by about 25%, most likely to bring their intakes in line with the perceived norms. When energy needs are assessed objectively, the results I described above emerge. [source]
Another study that is open access demonstrates similar results.
[source; results in Table 4 in the row labeled “TEE”; 1 KJ = 0.24 kcal]
Objective assessment using the doubly-labeled water method demonstrates that adult women with a BMI in the “normal” range require about 2400 kcal per day on average, whereas women with a BMI in the “overweight” range require about 2750 kcal per day on average. However, individual needs also vary by about 400 kcal in either direction depending on height, age, and activity level. So if you are a young, tall, fat, active women, this study suggests that you may require well over 3000 kcals per day to meet your energy needs.
fadeslikewhispers 