According to some sources, at least 1 in 8 of the world population is classified as ‘obese’. Since nobody in any government seems to have thought up a working solution, what do you believe can be done to solve the epidemic?

the alleged definition of obesity

Redefine obese.

Eating the rich has been shown to have a positive impact on weight loss and health in general.

Seriously though, this is the answer. Obesity is a systemic problem.

I think that the definition of it is a BMI over 25 (though I’ve also heard the BMI system is flawed in its own right)

This sounds a little… cannibalistic

1 fix bmi. Its completely wrong for people who are very tall or very Short making insurance more expensive among other things.

2 glp1 for all

Yeah the glp1 drugs are very promising for a number of things but absolutely clearly can solve the obesity epidemic.

But what does that mean in terms of real actionable steps though?

1 and very well-muscled people

BMI shouldn't be used to evaluate an individual, period. It's fine for populations, like when comparing correlations across groups.

If already measuring height and weight, adding waist circumference greatly improves ability to parse out visceral fat versus heavily muscled.

Two hundred years ago, you were considered smart if you could read. Now, it takes a lot more.

New day, new standard. 6' tall men between 200-300lbs will from henceforth be considered "Big guys" and 300+ shall be obese.

Ban all cell phone chargers except for human-powered generators. If you want to use a cell phone, you have to work for it by generating the power with your muscles.

Home / office hamster wheels, treadmills, etc - these would be the only things with a phone charger cable under my brilliant plan.

• Cheap access to fresh fruit and veg

• Education for healthy eating starting in childhood

• Public outdoor spaces that are enjoyable to exercise in

• Cheap, frequent public transit to allow everyone to access food and public spaces

If those don’t take care of most of it we can keep going from there.

It’s a very good suggestion, but do you think any government right now would push for that? Not disagreeing with you, just wondering about the feasibility of such ideas?

People have a choice. They don't want to choose to change their diets, embrace healthy eating, and learn to cook delicious vegetables. They want to keep eating a bunch of junky convenience foods, because it asks less of them. When they're ready to put the work in, they will lose weight.

Fair point

Organize, educate, advocate

There's not a single, one-size-fits-all solution, there's a lot of factors going into this

In no particular order, off the top of my head, a couple things that would need to change

1. Better nutrition/health education- a lot of people have almost no idea what eating healthy means
2. Better labeling requirements, there's a few weird loopholes in how food and such can be labeled, and companies get away with using some pretty misleading labeling, and we need to be tightening that down so that people can actually make better informed decisions about what they're eating.
3. Better pay and work/life balance- Planning and preparing a healthy diet takes time and money. Same with going to the gym. We need to free people up to be able to make those better, healthier choices for themselves
4. Addressing food deserts- In some places people just may not have easier access to healthy food. If you don't drive and public transit is spotty around you, and the only stores within walking distance of your home are gas stations and convenience stores, it's going to be hard to eat a healthy diet.
5. Pedestrian and bike friendly infrastructure- In a lot of cases, people don't walk or bike places because it's just not safe for them to do so. If you provide that opportunity for them, a lot of people will actually use it, they'll get more exercise, and save money on gas that can in turn be used for other healthier choices.
6. Healthcare- In some cases it may mean getting things like glp-1 drugs or surgeries to aid in weight loss, in other cases it might just be checking in with a doctor or nutritionist to come up with a weight loss plan to make sure you're going about it safely and effectively. Maybe you need blood work or other tests to identify other underlying health problems, maybe you have depression or anxiety that are making it difficult for you to be motivated to go to the gym or some sort of trauma you need to work through to address an eating disorder. Whatever the person's specific needs are, they need to be able to access them.

Can confirm. Been technically obese all my life, moaned about it but didn't really do anything about it. I started daily body weight exercise and watching what I eat recently and I've noticed a significant improvement.

If any of you are in the same boat, just start doing something, it's amazing how fast your body gets used to doing it and you can do more and more as time goes on. You feel so much better for it.

Kill corn subsidies.

what's your idea?

ignoring the cost question entirely i see

People don't realize* that processed food is engineered to make you eat more of it. You'll also feel like shit for at least 3 days if you start eating fresh foods and you will crave the junk (cuz it's made to be that way), but it's worth it. The price is about the same to eat if you make it from scratch, but it's so much easier than you think. Your body will thank you. Also, if you're craving something sweet, drink water.

Examples:

Soup

• boil a bunch of veggies and you get veggie stock.
• Boil the bones of your rotisserie chicken and you get chicken stock.
• Microwave a potato and put it in a pan with your sauteed veggies, then add milk. You now have cream of type soups

Grill

• veggies
• meat
• seafood

Baking

• cut up your veggies and put a whole chicken in there. Cook for awhile, then you have 3 or 4 meals of different varieties. Here's an example recipe, but you can do any herb or veggies you like. https://simply-delicious-food.com/oven-roasted-whole-chicken/

These are just few.

Why thanks for asking! :) (nobody ever asks me my view)

One idea I had (and they’ll never go for it) is a sort of food redistribution system: take excess from places with excess food and give it to where there is too little. Obviously, I believe in balanced diets, mandatory exercise, etc. as well, but I believe that food redistribution is also something that might be a good idea because it also helps the issue of food shortages. Obviously there would be logistics (storage, preservation, transportation, etc.) that would need to be worked out, but I believe it is possible.

Those are two separate questions, without a strong public push for those things it’s unlikely governments will do it of their own accord unless they’re specifically trying to cut healthcare costs. But there are places with the things listed; you can’t go anywhere in Central America without running into a fruit cart, cities with good public transit exist, and places with public spaces that encourage exercise exist, programs to educate the public about healthy eating exist. Each thing is individually accomplishable.

And not just fresh fruit and veg, but a variety of good quality fresh fruit and veg. Red delicious apples are cheap fresh fruit, zucchini is cheap fresh veg, but you won't enjoy eating your fruit and veg if all you're getting is nasty apples and zucchini.

✅ Degrade/dismantle/destroy modern food delivery and safety systems

There, now you can't get obese because we made america super great again! 50 billion trillion dimensional chess baby!

Sounds like the detox diet in that spurlock film

Meanwhile people working 10h shifts with 2h commute still having to find time to do laundry and take care of their homes which they barely have money to pay the rent find out the industry removed all nutrients from affordable food they have time and energy to prepare and turned them into basically fat, sugar and chemical preservatives... there was a time in history obesity was higher among the rich, it was linked to eating too much, but now obesity is higher among lower income, and it's linked to the available food being pure shit - not to mention purposely addictive.
Regardless if you agree or think I'm a full of shit, I recommend checking out this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqLPYQRs6Sk

Why GLP1 drugs though? I thought that was intentionally being pushed because food is intentionally being made unhealthy. It also doesn't address the root of the problem. Things can be done so that you don't need to take drugs in the first place.

Firstly, BMI only really works for people of otherwise average height and musculature. A bodybuilder could be seen as obese for example. So just fixing for that would help.

But more importantly, and perhaps unpopularly, I think people have gotten too used to feeling full all the time, and that the slightest feeling of hunger signals red alert.
I see people constantly grazing throughout the day the moment they get even slightly hungry, sometimes without evening noticing it themselves, then they'll still eat big meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Unless you're regularly getting a good amount of exercise from work or your personal lifestyle, then of course you're gonna put on weight cause those calories have got nowhere to go. Now while there are other factors that can tip the scales into or out of your favour, ultimately:

Daily Energy Input < Energy Output = Weight Loss

Now some will say they can't not eat, because they can't concentrate otherwise, it gives them the shakes, or something else.
But for 99% of people, that "need" is all psychological, and can be shaken off with time and patience.

I would know, cause I experienced this when I was younger changing my diet to help lose weight. Being purposefully intermittent about eating will suck at first as your body and mind adjust to the new status quo, but stick with it and your body and mind will be healthier for it.

((Just to be clear, I'm not promoting any kind of eating disorder or crash dieting. Losing weight sustainably is about small changes that you take with you into the future, not making huge changes that make you sick/depressed, or throwing your body around like a metabolic ragdoll. But I do mean it when I say putting more planning and restraint into when and what you eat will do you a world of wonder))

Nah. There's not really any significant benefit to making such changes from a government perspective.

And when that fails, kill.

I feel like we could do a lot by simply removing the sales taxes from raw vegetables and non-exotic fruits.

That would be a government subsidy, but it would be a subsidy primed to go towards the consumer.

What worked for me was living somewhere I could do a lot of outdoor labor. So I say replace all excavators with manual labor.

I had making food healthy like Europe all written out. But that was scoped more to the USA and mexico. So replaced it with glp1. That would at least help the world eat under the daily calorie limit of shitty food

To solve it we'd need to start with horrific public execution of every living member of the last 40 years CEOs and whole boards of the food industry...

Can't hurt. The state with the least obesity is Colorado, and they don't have a sales tax on groceries, but do with candy and stuff.

Do you mean the opposite? You must not have seen it.

lol. I meant his wife’s vegan detox diet at the end (the one above’s obviously not vegan, it just reminded me of the concept) obviously I didn’t mean the main diet of that film…

In any case, I much preferred Tom Naughton’s Fat Head

“Honey, I have chest pains! Quick! Get a tripod!!!” XD

Good comment - two notes only:

BMI misses in the other direction much more frequently - very few people are overweight without being overfat, but many are overfat within BMI guidelines.

And secondly I don't think we can judge the appetite of an obese person by what we of normal weight feel. I can forget to eat for hours, and can't eat when stressed, I cook good food and enjoy it but don't overeat because it feels bad and gives me anxiety. Going to bed full feels dreadful, empty but not hungry feels best. Other people may feel anxious when hungry and comfortable when too full. My husband bulked and ended up fat (ish) because he said he just felt So Strong and good while putting on weight.

Not to be poo-poo on your answer, but GLP1 for all has the same vibe as turning on your heating with all the windows open.
Its solves the issue today, but doesn't solve the problem.

Oh sorry, lol, I didn't understand what you were saying. You can have junk in moderation, but processed food companies make it really hard on everyone to do anything in moderation.

Waist to height is the only proven metric, but as I wrote above, BMI misses in the other direction much more frequently. You are not likely so muscular you are obese, but skinny-fat is common.

Have you seen Fat Head by Tom Naughton? If you liked the Spurlock one, watch that one (it’s kind of a refute with comedy)

No, we've been looking for new things to watch. I'll look for it. We just got done with Widow's Bay. Boy does that deserve the hype.

It’s on Tubi. Just stick an American VPN on (unless you live in America of course)

To add to this, it seems like a lot of people in the US have a problem with overeating at meals. We just continue to eat long after we're full. I used to do it too. Stopping eating when you're not hungry anymore is a foreign concept to some, but can actually make a big difference as far as weight goes. I also feel better, in general, since I started doing that.

Might not be the answer people want, but the most immediate fix is to increase the availability of GLP-1 drugs. They genuinely work well. It's not the "perfect world" solution, but it's looking at cutting the rate of heart disease dramatically, which means something.

The rest is systemic and will take a lot longer to fix. Not just making it easier to access quality healthy ingredients, but making it more advantageous to pick healthy options over junk. And part of it is also cultural, having to redefine an entire cuisine or adapt it to healthier formats. That type of change takes generations.

I'm not saying any of that isn't true.

But the government can't make you eat correctly. If you want to enjoy eating healthy, it has a cost. That cost includes learning how to cook affordable, delicious, and healthy food. It exists. It can even be made quickly. But you're not going to magically develop that skillset by osmosis. You have to seek out new information and try new things. If you want to keep doing the same thing over and over, nothing is going to change.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t the GLP-1 solution more of a ‘plaster’ (or band-aid if you’re American) kind of solution? (Not saying it doesn’t work, but is it just a plaster kind of way of working)?

The comfort-eating point you mentioned is why I stressed I've been there.
I used to have a really bad problem with overeating. Like to where I was classed as morbidly obese as a kid.

Which does add another difficult point I didn't mention. The motivation.

You need that to push through, cause it will suck to start with - and without motivation you're likely to go back to what comforts you, instead of forcing the change you want.

Again, I went from comfort eating to being able to being perfectly fine not eating for hours, and even being uncomfortable when full. It's doable, but you have to fully want to do it.