Add me to team "Everyone has issues". I look at EVERYONE and know they have emotional issues.
I believe that ALL people have emotional issues. I believe that, for some overweight people as well as some normal-weight people, the coping mechanism those folks use for DEALING with those emotional issues revolves around food (either too much, causing overweight or at extremes, causing bulimia, or too little, causing underweight and anorexia).
Other people (normal, overweight, underweight) have different coping mechanisms, which may be more or less healthy. An overweight person CAN just eat more than they need for non-emotional reasons and gain weight over time, while simultaneously coping with their stress and emotions using non-food related mechanisms. Just being overweight doesn't make someone an emotional eater...emotional overeating is just ONE reason someone might get more calories than they need for their body.
As a long-time emotional eater, I'll tell you what, with my weight loss, my "issues" didn't go away, I just came up with other ways of dealing with them.
I also have to agree that it's hard to be overweight in a society that is negative about it and not have ADDITIONAL emotional issues from that. There are some exceptions to this - people who embrace their bodies for what they are and move on. But most people feel some of the sting of embarrassment for overweight, which can give them different issues to deal with.
I'm overweight because of many reasons. But has anyone thought about the way the world is today? One hundred years ago it wasn't drive thru's, pre-cooked, pre-made, easy, quick and fast. You had to grow it and make it which took time and energy. It was hard work to eat. We also didn't have 500 types of cookies, 200 types of lunchmeat, 40 different types of desert pies ready to eat. Our problem today is too much, too easy. Haven't you ever just been too tired to cook? Easier just to go hit the drive thru?
Society today is a serve me now society. Instant gratification. If we got away from that, I just bet that we wouldn't have half of the U.S. obese.
I think it is unfair for someone to just give a blanket assumption that we are fat JUST because of emotions. Yeah, they play a part of it. I'll give that. But it's not the biggest/only reason.
I'm overweight because of many reasons. But has anyone thought about the way the world is today? One hundred years ago it wasn't drive thru's, pre-cooked, pre-made, easy, quick and fast. You had to grow it and make it which took time and energy. It was hard work to eat. We also didn't have 500 types of cookies, 200 types of lunchmeat, 40 different types of desert pies ready to eat. Our problem today is too much, too easy. Haven't you ever just been too tired to cook? Easier just to go hit the drive thru?
Society today is a serve me now society. Instant gratification. If we got away from that, I just bet that we wouldn't have half of the U.S. obese.
I think it is unfair for someone to just give a blanket assumption that we are fat JUST because of emotions. Yeah, they play a part of it. I'll give that. But it's not the biggest/only reason.
I have to agree with the above ... but, I also think - at least for me - emotions and boredom play a big part of it.
For most of my life, I THOUGHT that emotional/mental health issues were responsible for my weight issues. I thought I was an "emotional-eater." However, I learned that crash dieting was more responsible for emotional eating than the emotions themselves.
When I gave up starvation diets, my binge-eating stopped. I didn't experience any mental health "breakthroughs," profound insight, or life-changing revelations. I didn't even notice for months that I hadn't had a single out-of-control binge. They just disappeared from my life. Did I suddenly and coincidentally become more mentally healthy? I don't think so.
Not long a go I read a study of calorie-restricted laboratory animals. Lab animals that have been food deprived, are more prone to eat in reaction to stress than lab animals who have unlimited feeding opportunities. Boredom generically increases the eating behavior of lab animals, but food-deprived animals are more prone to overeating regardless of the source of the stress, and eat more when they do eat than animals that have never been food-deprived.
So for those of us who are or were emotional eaters, has it been because we have more extreme emotions than "normal people," or did chronic dieting increase the likelihood that our response to stress is to eat?
I believe there are thousands of factors that can contribute to obesity, and each of us has a unique mix of those contributing factors. I believe it's why it can be so difficult for some people to find a plan that works in the long-term. I'm not saying you have to identify all of the factors before you can succeed. Trial and error is unfortunately the best method we've got.
Because I ate in response to emotion, I thought I had to address the emotional issues in order to lose weight, but I was wrong. I only accidentally found that crash diets were really the largest underlying trigger to emotional-eating.
I think that all of the "obesity is caused by ____" statements are at best a small part of the equation. Trying to reduce a complicated problem to a simple equation is largely a wasted effort.
Who doesn't have emotional issues? I'm a human being not a rock.
Exactly!
I didn't gain weight until I pregnant with my first child and I pretty much used being pregnant as an excuse to eat everything in sight I didn't have big time emotional issues until after I gained the weight!
I think it is stereotypical. Kind of like the whole image of a fat person getting upset and automatically hitting the Haagen Dazs. That isn't the truth for all people but there are some that do go to food for comfort.
'Overweight' = pretty broad term. No, I do agree. In our modern times (as Sexybak already described above) medically overweight is a new 'normal.' Also certain percentage of people will always be to the outside of any range, and I wouldn't want to surmise from that.
Now Class II Obesity or higher-- Sure, I think it is fair to say that a statistically significant amount of really obese people probably have emotional issues that correlate. Me, certainly. Nothing can be said of an entire group, but being so obese is very out of balance. Of course, duh, also pointed out all over this thread is that yes, people manifest these in different ways. It's just that you can see fat. You can't see a sex addiction in the guy at the grocery checkout. (I hope, anyway!) :-) :-)
Last edited by WhitePicketFences; 07-22-2009 at 04:59 PM.
For me, this is sadly true, but such a comment does not sit right with me. She is saying that everybody who is overweight has problems. Probably lots of people do - either because of their weight or they re that weight because of their problems, but I do not for a minute believe that this is true for everyone.
I didn't have big time emotional issues until after I gained the weight!
