Is it immoral to be fat?

Society Religion & Philosophy
21

Re: Is it immoral to be fat?

I do agree with many of your points but obesity is the problem of affluent society as we all know. Countries which are relatively not so affluent do have food with high calorie and fat content but still we do not see obesity as a big problem there.
By education what I think is the health awareness and not just formal education.

Reasons for obesity are multifaceted.

Poor or rich, it boils down to the choices people make on their own.

The Perfect Weight Plan - Reasons for being overweight.

**BASIC REASONS FOR OVERWEIGHT **

             The                  World Health Organisation has now provided official credibility                  to the many National claims that the incidence of overweight,                  obesity, diabetes, heart disease, stroke and hypertension are**                  rapidly increasing in the prosperous western world**, particularly                  in the United States of America and in the United Kingdom. The                  official figures show that in the past 50 years obesity in the                  population - the precurser of many other health problems - has                  increased from about 7% of adults to about 35% and in 2001 over                  50% of the adult population in both countries are overweight.                  You are not alone.
            
            There are many complex reasons for this rise. Here, we are only                  concerned with issues of weight control, specifically with those                  which you as an individual will need to know so that you can identify                  the best strategy for your own weight control. The reasons for                  being over-weight or obese fall into two groups: social and personal.                  You need to know the social reasons to understand the advice you                  are given by your dietitian or doctor about your eating habits.                  You need to know the personal reasons so that you can check out                  how these play a part in your eating habits and your lifestyle. ............
pehali
22

Re: Is it immoral to be fat?

I'm not sure, but isn't there a hadith about this? I'm afraid to quote it though, because often people misuse hadith to make people do what they want or they misunderstand the hadith.

I don't know if I have understood that hadith well, but I think it implied that you should take care of your health, because if you become ill in one way or another due to you neglecting your health, then you can't pray as well as you normally could have.

I can't remember the exact words, but it said something like, you shouldn't completely fill your stomach. Let one third be the food, one third the drink and the rest remain empty. Well, something like that. Does anyone know which hadith that is and have I misunderstood what it implied or not?

23

Re: Is it immoral to be fat?

causes people to be lazy and slow. prevent people from sharing food, because being fat, they feel that they need more food, work efficiency is severely limited, people develop a decrease in self esteem & so foth. therefore, being fat is not a moral thing to do.

24

Re: Is it immoral to be fat?

^ So, you are accusing fat guys of being immoral? how ridiculous!

25

Re: Is it immoral to be fat?

I have read all the posts on the thread and here's my take on it:

  1. If you are over weight/fat/obese due to unhealthy eating habits/excessive eating, I consider it immoral because 25,000 children are dying daily due to hunger,malnutrition and related diseases. Please note that I said daily and not weekly, monthly or yearly. How would you be able to justify your gluttony under the circumstances? 2.Obesity now kills 300,000 Americans per year and health-care costs associated with the disease top $100 billion annually. The World Bank has estimated that 12 percent of the U.S. national health-care budget is spent treating obesity. 3.Consider the following:
  • Over 9 million people die worldwide each year because of hunger and malnutrition. 5 million are children.
  • Approximately 1.2 billion people suffer from hunger (deficiency of calories and protein);
  • Some 2 to 3.5 billion people have micronutrient deficiency (deficiency of vitamins and minerals);
  • Yet, some 1.2 billion suffer from obesity (excess of fats and salt, often accompanied by deficiency of vitamins and minerals);

Decide for yourself what is moral and what is immoral.

smiley wala thread!
26

Re: Is it immoral to be fat?

^ I don't know what suffering from obesity actually means. Obesity is the technical name for fatness. When a person suffers from being fat, what are they actually suffering from?

Quickly lose their breath?
Look unsightly?
Can't fit on a bus seat?

What does it actually mean to suffer from obesity? Note: It is a totally different thing to say that statistically obese people are more prone to heart disease and some other problems, but is obesity itself really something that we suffer?

The technical definition of obesity is that the waist line is larger than the hip line, in which case currently I am obese just about, but I am working on it. Consequently the only way I can see myself suffering from obesity is that is psychologically, but that is mostly due to trends in society, I probably would have no complex in ancient Egypt with my waist line because people would think me to be a pyramid architect - i.e. a rich person.

I stand by my guns that fatness itself is not immoral but gluttony and greed are, these are real dieases but fatness may be a symptom of these diseases or it may be a symptom of biological diseases.

27

Re: Is it immoral to be fat?

I am surprised to see such a narrow-minded statement from you!

28

Re: Is it immoral to be fat?

A simple answer to that would be that fatness due to overeating and not caring for yourself can be considered immoral; and due to any disease will not be.

Obese individuals have lower life expectancy also. Do they not love themselves more than their family or children?

Obese children develop diabetes at early age and hence many diseases that follow. Parents who encourage/or not discourage children to eat unhealthy and getting them to the point of obesity commit immorality.

Not everyone who overeats is obese either, its simple math. If one eats more, one has to do more activity/exercise to stay in ideal weight by burning extra calories. Not everyone who is obese has physical or mental disease either.

The medical definition of obesity does not account for waist line, it has to do with having more than 20% of ideal body weight. Some may call it just being overweight.

More precisely, its body mass index (BMI) of 30. (about 30% weight ove ideal weight.

Ideal weight is around BMI of 25.

I also don't think its moral for someone to cast judgment on obese people without knowing if they really have any medical/psychological reason for being obese. Respect for all obese or not obese.

29

Re: Is it immoral to be fat?

I think Dushwari had great points to think about.

30

Peace diwana

I was trivialising obesity by refering to one of the measurement indexes of it. You can check it up on if you like.

I still do not consider obesity immoral not even when it is caused by greed or gluttony. It is the greed or gluttony that is immoral not the obesity. This way even non-obese greedy/gluttonous people are included.

Even then you say respect for all obese or non-obese people, one can further to say respect for all people moral or immoral alike. The moment we fail to respect someone even if they are immoral we become immoral like them.

31

Re: Is it immoral to be fat?

It is immoral to see all the poverty and hunger all around you and do nothing about it.

Reducing your weight through exercising makes one more moral?

32

Peace to you too Psyah!

OK. :)

You have the right to have your opinion by all means. I showed you many reasons why obesity without a medical or psychological reasons should be considered immoral.

By the way, over eating cannot be defined by itself. it is defined in the context of body requirement. Excess consumption of food beyond body needs should be considered over-eating.

Let me explain a bit. I have seen many people eating like a horse and to an occasional observer they might be 'over eating' but these people do good physical activity/exercise either because of the nature of their job or recreationally. That kind of so called 'over eating' is not immoral per se.

On the other hand people who eat seemingly less or adequate looking amount of food, mostly high calorie diet and just sit around and be 'lazy' and non-productive and hence gain extra weight. (Again diseases affecting metabolism are excluded)

*One has to actively look for the reason of being obese and try to rectify it. Its a disease and a precursor of many many diseases. Caring for the body is a responsibility of each individual.
*
That's immorality that even noticing being obese, one just sits around and does nothing. I said this since I already said obesity without reasonable cause is immorality.

I see lots of threads of weight and obesity problems.

If I may, I can write simple formula here. Without making it too much complex.

*Calorie in/gain - Calorie out/expenditure = Body weight
*
(Certain diseases or metabolism disorders need to be taken in to account)

So in order to keep ideal body weight, left side of equation has to be worked on.

Sure. Respect for all and that includes even 'immoral' people. Immorality itself not need be respected though. ( I know that you know that). :)

Timepass - March 2013
33

Re: Is it immoral to be fat?

^ SubhanAllah Ya akh

Ideal Body Weight is a statistically induced index. It cannot determine for us what is moral and immoral. Some people who are completely healthy either side of ideal weight are moral.

Morality is far beyond what a person appears to be. If you think of a starving person or a person force fed. There are exceptions of people who are obese and never develop other medical conditions, also there are people bang on ideal weight who still develop diseases.

Disease itself or being prone to disease is not immoral either. Islam for example views a person who has become ill as a person in a state of forgiveness from Allah (SWT). Many people are born prone to disease and to be hygienic is one matter of common sense and ettiquette, but to call something immoral because it attracts disease is unfair to those people with weal immune systems.

Of course the equation you have put up is supposed to show the balance of energy in the human system.

What about the growing child?

Morality will need to be more sophisticated:

1) Type of food consumed - is it fast food or good food?
2) Is it halal (i.e. blood drained) or haram?
3) Is the food being eaten slowly and digested fully?
4) Is the body active and doing exercise together with being obedient to laws of God?
5) Is the rest that it takes permissible?
6) Is food being eaten with some hunger remaining?
7) Is food being wasted?
8) Is the body weight being maintained to show people how healthy one is or is it through obedience of moral eating habits?

Fatness may only be a symptom of some of these immoral things. And the statement is that although fatness is not immoral in itself but some things that lead to fatness are, but not all things that lead to fatness are immoral therefore fatness in itself cannot be immoral. And if it was, how does fatness prevent a person from doing good, or make a person do bad, in such a way that you could only blame the fat?

I don't see obesity as a suffering, it may be that an obese person is not suffering at all and if he is, he will be suffering from other medical conditions.

34

Thanks. You indeed gave very good points.

Lets make it simpler why I consider obesity can be immoral.

**Allowing body to become obese is immorality.

Its a myth to consider purely obese people are healthy.

**Obese people sooner or later develop common diseases including hypertension and diabetes. And unfortunately they may not even be aware of it till late in the stage of disease.

No matter how you look at it or how one achieves it, its not a good thing.

Obese people die sooner and develop more diseases or even make diseases more difficult to treat.

Hope you can search the diseases which are related to or caused by obesity. (Excluding the diseases which actually lead to obesity)

I will repeat: Taking care of the body is the responsibility of every individual.

Morality is a big term and perhaps needs to be defined.

Hint: Definition of morality is based on culture, time, place, scientific knowledge and religion etc.

Hint2: Not everything religious is 'morality' and not every 'moral' thing is religious.

Timepass - March 2013
35

Re: Is it immoral to be fat?

It's not immoral to be fat. I like fattus. They can be cool friends.

However, it is immoral to be obese. They absolutely disgust me. If there is an obese person anywhere around me when I am eating - I have to spit it out and throw away my food. I feel so grossed out looking at obese people.

There are many obese people in America. It's a disease. A disease that you bring on to yourself.

Timepass - March 2013
36

Re: Is it immoral to be fat?

I can only accept obesity to be immoral if it can be shown that a disease has developed as a result of the obesity alone.

  • That the disease identified is never found in non-obese people
  • That the obesity is not a result of pathological or prior biochemical reasons and purely due to lifestyle choice.
  • That the disease would cause the individual to suffer consciously, i.e. be aware of the suffering.
  • That this is always the case with obese people.

If these cannot be isolated to obesity but only said to be 'more likely' then I cannot accept obesity to be immoral, as and in of itself.

All you have to do is name the disease.

The Hi/Bye Thread
37

Re: Is it immoral to be fat?

^OK.

Obesity is a disease.

Forget about more likely. Its a disease by itself.

Its a disease which not only comes from a diseased mind state but also leads to many diseases.

Laziness, over-eating, gluttony, self loving, depression, false elation, and many medical problems are associated with it.

There is absolutely nothing positive one can find which is considered positive from being obese.

*Name anything which is good about being obese. Bet no one can.
*
Extra fat cells in the body nothing good but bring harm to the person.

DEDICATED TO ~*~HAKUNA MATATA~*~
38

Absolutely!

39

Re: Is it immoral to be fat?

Love who you are, just as you are and as your Heavenly Father has made you.

Live life well and in moderation; exercise and look to the composite development of your person: physical, mental and spiritual. Change what you can for the better, without violating the sanctity of your body and the image God has made you in. Above all, love those who are given to you, your nation and your people, and be happy in the knowledge that you have been given life here on earth, and are promised life in the heavenly after.

40

Re: Is it immoral to be fat?

Is obesity a disease or a symptom of a diseased person. Are the various diseases collected together to create obesity or is obesity a disease in it's own right, if so how is it contracted?

Be careful not to put the cart before the horse ...

A benefit of obesity is extra insulation from the cold, why is obesity itself a disease? Is it possible for any of the diseases associated with obesity to be in a non-obese person? If so surely the only immoral thing about obesity is that it is obscene.

That to others it is unsightly and that it why it is immoral, because it endangers their image of beautiful humanity. This is the only thing I can think of that obesity itself is immoral about. Otherwise all the other things we should blame the root causes and not the symptom. Otherwise it would be like saying that it is immoral to catch a cold.