Seems like a mental illness rather than a physical illness to me. Anyone who allows themselves to exceed 300, 400 and on up is not thinking clearly.
J
Bedridden morbidly obese people
by Elsewhere 29 Replies latest jw friends
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Lilycurly
niceguy..
yeah, I guess I should have know that! (Followed a couple of diets) but I thought, maybe, just maybe...because I really can`t understand why I person would just let themselves go so completly. There *has* to be some problem.
But now that I`ve read the other posts...well, I guess it might be some kind of a mental problem, right? Not to be rude...
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MsMcDucket
SNG, ok, here's my story. I'm not morbidly obese, but I ain't skinny either. I have numerous endocrine disorders. Hypothyroidism, hyperparathyroidism, diabetes, ... and some others. It really messes with my mind and my metabolism. It is hard as hell for me to lose weight. I'm dieting now because my previously diet controlled diabetes went out of control after I went off my diet, which caused me to have to be hospitalized (long sentence, whew). Goiters and diabetes run in the family. My mother had a goiter, one of my sisters, and myself had a goiter. I had a disastrous thyroidectomy, which caused me to have a tracheostomy for five months. Anyway, I'm on a diet AGAIN. My blood sugars are under control, but the weight is coming off slower than molasses. I have to try to keep myself motivated by thinking about the positive effects that it has on my blood sugars.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it!
Look up hyperparathyroidism. You'll see why I'm crazier than a Betsy Bug at times!
SYMPTOMS OF HYPERPARATHYROIDISM.
Since hyperparathyroidism was first described in 1925, the symptoms have become known as "moans, groans, stones, and bones". Although most people with primary hyperparathyroidism claim to feel well when the diagnosis is made, the majority of these will actually say they feel better after the problem has been cured. This can only be known retrospectively when patients are allowed to comment on how they feel several months after the operation. Many patients who thought they were asymptomatic preoperatively will claim to sleep better at night, be less irritable, and find that they remember things much easier than they could when their calcium levels were high (nervous system problems). In some studies, as many as 92% of patients claim to feel better after removal of a diseased parathyroid gland, even when only 75% claim they felt "bad" before the operation. Patients with persistently elevated calcium levels due to overproduction of parathyroid hormone also can have complaints of bone pain. In the severe form, bones can give up so much of their calcium that the bones become brittle and break (osteoporosis and osteopenia). This problem is even more of a concern in older patients. Bones can also have small hemorrhages within their center which will cause bone pain. -
wednesday
IT is true that generally these people eat in large excess . However, it is really hard to eat enough to weigh over 300-400 pounds. I suspect what happens is by the time they get to 300-400 they cease any activity, perhaps due to depression or a physical problems,. whatever, and then with no activity, it takes fewer calories to add pounds. The bodies metabolism slows down and then eating just about anything causes you to gain weight. Once the fat is there, the body hangs on to it for dear life. With less activity, what once took 3000 calories to maintain a weight, now takes a lot less. And to lose, well, it then gets next to impossible. And it is true some people gain weight easier than others. My cousin and I both have documented thyroid conditions and we have to eat a lot less than your average person to maintain a normal weight. Heredity does play a part, It is just not true that all obese persons are gluttons. The bodies metabolism is more complicated than that, and we have not done enough research on this to understand what goes wrong with these individuals bodies use of fuel .Also, many medications, ie diabetes meds, depression, psychosis meds, and a host of others can add quite a bit of weight gain. Sometimes they do it by increasing your appetite and other times by slowing your metabolism.. Zyprxa, seroquel, and other such meds, can caue enormous weight gain. 100 pounds is not at all uncommon, and 30-50 is very common. Weight problems of this kind are not easily fixed.
I am not saying they should not eat less food. . It is just more complicated .
weds
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lonelysheep
A bedridden lump cannot possibly round up the 30- to 60-thousand calories a day some of these behemoths ingest
are you serious?
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jeanniebeanz
Apparently, humans are not exclusively enabled in this way...
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FlyingHighNow
Most people, even fat ones cannot eat those enormous amounts of food. I always say in this kind of situation, thank goodness none of us have such severe problems. I have empathy for someone whose life has spiraled so out of control.
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seattleniceguy
I understand that some people have conditions that make their bodies run at less-than-optimal efficiencies. Like I said, if someone has a rip-roarin' metabolism, so walking for 30 minutes burns 1000 calories, it's going to be tough for them to gain weight. If you have a barely glowing metabolim, it'll be tough to come up with the energy to take the walk at all.
What I was trying to correct was the strange hypothesis I see whenever this topic comes up that it is somehow possible to add weight that you do not take in. This simply is physically impossible. If you take in 2000 calories and burn only 1000 (for whatever reason: inactivity, low metabolism, ultra-yoga-meditation, what-have-you), you end up with 1000 calories of "profit" on the balance sheet, which is liable to be stored as fat. But there is no way whatsoever that a diet that consistently matches your caloric expenditures can add fat (except temporarily, if your body burns muscle for energy, but this obviously cannot happen indefinitely).
SNG -
Apostanator
You got a point there Elsewhere. Maybe the enabler has stock in Keebler or Sara Lee.
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CountryGuy
How is it possible for someone to get to that state?
I've wondered the same thing everytime I see a news story about someone over 500 lbs.
I've always been a bigger guy. Not really morbidly obese, but "healthy." At least that's what we call it hear in the South. "You're not fat, you're healthy!" Or, "You're not fat, you're just solid." Or, my personal favorite, "You're not fat, you're just stout."
Then about four years ago, a series of events set into motion. I lost my job when the economy went south. Then I wrecked my truck. Then my M-I-L had two strokes and was no longer able to live on her own. Add to that the fact that we were set to adopt a baby and the birth-mother decided that she couldn't give up her baby (I can't blame her, I never would be able to.) about a month before the little girl arrived. Any of these things alone were minor setbacks, together, they were totally devastating. And, let's not forget the emotional baggage being a recovering JW saddles you with. Not knowing where to turn, I turned to food.
I know that when you hear interviews with a lot of overweight (morbidly obese) people, you always hear them say that they ate because they were depressed, or lonely, or happy or sad... Food became that "crutch" that I needed to get through my life. Even though I had a nice home, a loving spouse, my family out of the JWs, and caring friends, I still had my issues. I remember sitting in front of the television with a tube of cookie dough and eatting the whole damn thing! Or a whole bag of cheetos. Or drinking two 3-liter bottles of Dr. Pepper a day! All the while, I couldn't understand WHY I was gaining weight. Yes, it seems pretty simple to me now, but then, I didn't want to see.
At my heaviest, I was 350 lbs. That was in December of 2003. That was right before I was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. (No wonder!) I did lose about 60 lbs right before being diagnosed. (Sudden weight change, loss or gain, is one of the symptoms.) When my doctor put me on Avandia in February of 2004, I started gaining weight again and plateaued at about 330-340. I stayed there until July of this year. Even though I cut my sugar intake I did not exercise like I needed to. I did not (and this is the biggie) monitor my portion size.
In July, I made up my mind that I had had enough. Wayne and I started going to the gym that we actually joined in February. We also started taking a nutrition class that was being offered there. I learned soooo much from those 45mins each week. From July to September 17, I lost 15lbs and I felt better. On September 17th of this year, I joined Weight Watchers. I did have some family members and coworkers make snide comments, but after losing 3 lbs the first week I decided to give it a couple more. (I only did the program for four days that first week because we were going on vacation to the casinos in Mississippi that weekend.) The next week, I lost 9 lbs. And, for the thirteen weeks since joining, I have lost weight every week, including through Thanksgiving. To date, I have lost 62 lbs since July: 15 before WW and 47 since WW. I feel so much better. I have lost three pants sizes. I am able to take the stairs at work instead of the elevator. My blood-pressure is much better. I no longer have to take my diabetes meds. My diabetes is controled entirely by diet and exercise. And, if I feel this much better being 100lbs overweight, I can't imagine how you skinny folks feel! Since I still have about a 100 lbs to lose, I'm still in the morbidly obese category, but I am confident that by this time next year, I will not be. I will never get that heavy again. I will never allow anything control my life like that again, whether it be food or a cult.
Okay, I realize that I've almost turned this post into a commercial for WW (seriously, if you have questions, or even recipies, PM me!) and while I love the program, I don't want to lose the point. My point is that for a person to let themselves go that much, they often don't realize they've crossed the line where a normal person would have said "Whoa!" until it's about three miles back. While it may be obvious to the world that there is a problem, sometimes, it just does not occur to the obese individual that there is a problem. When I look at the pictures from this spring, I can not believe that I was that big. When I looked in the mirror, I didn't see myself being that big. I saw a skinnier version of myself. I would hope that had I not been able to get out of bed, or even out of the door, I would have realized it.
It's a sad and lonely world when you perceive that you are living in a culture that values skinny people over fat people. And, when you're sad or you're lonely, you turn to food. That puts on more weight which makes you more depressed. So, once again, you turn to.... You get the idea.
CountryGuy
