{"id":73800,"date":"2022-07-23T13:29:00","date_gmt":"2022-07-23T17:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=73800"},"modified":"2022-08-02T13:43:08","modified_gmt":"2022-08-02T17:43:08","slug":"is-obesity-a-choice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/is-obesity-a-choice\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Obesity a Choice or a Disease? Doctor Explains"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Why shouldn&#8217;t we blame obese patients for being dangerously overweight? Is obesity a choice or a disease?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To answer this question, we must first understand the root cause of obesity. If obesity is caused solely by eating too much, then we could indeed attribute it to personal choice. However, the prevailing view of obesity as a problem of uncontrolled eating is simplistic and limited. Ultimately, obesity is a hormonal disorder. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here&#8217;s why obesity is a disease rather than a problem of self-control. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-jason-fung-obesity-is-a-hormonal-problem\">Jason Fung: Obesity Is a Hormonal Problem <\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Is obesity a choice or a disease? In his book <em>The Obesity Code<\/em>, Jason Fung<em> <\/em>argues that obesity is a hormonal problem that causes overeating and weight gain, rather than a problem of willpower or self-control. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Today, the prevailing view holds that obesity is a problem of calories in, calories out. Established decades ago, this orthodox view suggests that weight gain results from eating too much and exercising too little. So, Fung says, experts pushed the \u201ceat less, move more\u201d program on the American public.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On a technical level, we define obesity according to body mass index (BMI). BMI is a ratio of your height compared to your weight\u2014that is, it approximates how wide you are compared to how tall you are. A ratio over 30 is considered obesity.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Shortform note: While BMI has its uses, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pmc\/articles\/PMC2930234\/\">it has also received criticism<\/a> for being an overly simplistic model of weight and health. Among other things, BMI measurements fail to account for body composition (how much fat versus muscle you have), age (it doesn\u2019t work for kids under age 20), and differences in bone mass. Additionally, BMI fails to account for ethnic differences\u2014for instance, South Asians tend to have a higher proportion of fat at a given BMI, while people of African heritage tend to have a higher proportion of muscle at that same BMI.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-the-prevailing-model-has-failed\"><strong>The Prevailing Model Has Failed<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Fung argues that the \u201ccalories in, calories out\u201d theory fails to capture the full picture of obesity. Excess calories play a part, but they aren\u2019t the root cause of obesity. More specifically, this theory fails to understand that <strong>obesity is a <\/strong><strong><em>hormonal disease<\/em><\/strong>, rather than a problem of willpower or bad eating habits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Shortform note: Fung is not the first person to point out that \u201ccalories in, calories out\u201d is flawed. In <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Why-We-Get-Fat-About\/dp\/0307474259#:~:text=%E2%80%9CThe%20fundamental%20cause%20of%20obesity,scientific%20terminology)%2C%20and%20we%20get\"><em>Why We Get Fat<\/em><\/a>, science journalist Gary Taubes argues that because it\u2019s an intuitive model\u2014eat more, get fat; eat less, lose weight\u2014we\u2019ve resisted the possibility that it\u2019s wrong. Taubes suggests that the medical establishment has failed the public by adhering to this paradigm and that people aren\u2019t to blame for struggling with obesity.)&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why shouldn&#8217;t we blame obese patients for being dangerously overweight? Is obesity a choice or a disease? To answer this question, we must first understand the root cause of obesity. If obesity is caused solely by eating too much, then we could indeed attribute it to personal choice. However, the prevailing view of obesity as a problem of uncontrolled eating is simplistic and limited. Ultimately, obesity is a hormonal disorder. Here&#8217;s why obesity is a disease rather than a problem of self-control.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":35441,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,160],"tags":[703],"class_list":["post-73800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-science","tag-the-obesity-code","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Is Obesity a Choice or a Disease? 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Here&#039;s why obesity is a disease, not a choice.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/is-obesity-a-choice\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-07-23T17:29:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-08-02T17:43:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/man-eating-burger-fast-food.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"533\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Darya Sinusoid\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Darya Sinusoid\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/is-obesity-a-choice\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/is-obesity-a-choice\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Darya Sinusoid\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46\"},\"headline\":\"Is Obesity a Choice or a Disease? 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