Obesity Epidemic

There is a really good article on how to safely lose weight, written by NetDoctor.co.uk here.

Yesterday I was researching obesity charities with the view of using my skills (as a journalist/communications/pr assistant/web designer) to help the charity. I came across Toast-UK, which is quite interesting. Reading their about us page I was really impressed with how they approached obesity.

People told us that they were finding the key message of just eat less and exercise more unhelpful, and that they didn’t find that they were getting the support and information they needed. Twenty years ago, anorexia was treated as a matter of under-eating and the first line treatment was force-feeding; it is now recognised that this condition is a serious and complex illness requiring psychological as well as physiological input.

Similarly, we recognise that obesity, rather than being just a matter of taking less food in, is a complex, multifaceted problem and that there is no one-size-fits-all solution.

Over recent years our governments have wised up to the fact that obesity is a Western epidemic and are, thankfully, making moves to reduce it in society. The problem they seem not to grasp is that its not the science of weightloss people struggle with but the psychology. I have always maintained that weightloss is a psychological problem. Actually obesity is not a psychological problem: binge eating is a psychological problem and obesity is the side effects of that disorder.

So why has obesity is such global numbers arisen? I guess there are no straight-forward answers but I have a number of theories why. I think its instant gratification, greed, not taking responsibility for ones own actions and lack of pro-active energy in today’s culture that has grown a body of people who feel this crazy world has taken their control away from them as people. But it is a fallacy, society only thinks control has been taken away. It’s still there for the taking, if one wants it. The individual needs to want to help themselves, however.

But then there are always going to be people who do not want to put themselves first and think about what they are putting in their mouths. And there will be people who physically feel out of control emotionally. This is where government decisions come in. They have made a lot of progress thus far. Every medical surgery in the UK has a ‘weightloss clinic’, which is essentially a nurse who will see you once a month to record your weightloss progress. There are two types of weightloss tablets on the market here, Reductil and Xenical. You can also get a prescription to the gym (this used to be free but is now £3 per session). This is all fantastic news and if you are up for helping yourself and have the right attitude to weightloss then there is no reason why, with these additional aids, you cannot achieve a significant amount of weightloss.

Where the government and it’s advisors seem to be falling down, however, is in not understanding that while many people have a vague want to lose weight, many feel that their obesity is too far out of control and for whatever reason cannot manage a weightloss programme. I, certainly, felt this before I developed a real need to regain my health. This is where counselling comes in. Severely obese people need emotional support. They became obese as a reaction to not handling life situations and they cannot just magically get back on the wagon and lose weight. Unfortunately the NHS seems reluctant to offer counselling in the UK, I certainly failed in my attempts to get it. But I consider myself one of the lucky ones. I eventually found the strength within myself to lose weight with the support available, and by creating my own support network here. Not everyone is as lucky as me, though. And unless the government starts addressing the reasons why people put on weight in the first place instead of just trying to treat an illness they don’t understand by sprouting the mantra ‘exercise more, eat less’ then the obesity epidemic is going to go from worse to worse.