Help me find graphic details of health problems for overweight people

July 19, 2009 5:53 AM

To keep myself motivated to loose the extra pounds, I'm looking for links to videos (or image heavy articles) about health problems caused, or made worse, by being being overweight/obese.

Much like some of the anti drink-drive commercials, I want to get myself thinking "look how bad it could be if you don't sore yourself out". So the more graphic/detailed the better. I'm guessing that video will have a stronger emotional impact on me, but articles with a lot of images should be good as well.

posted by Gobo to health & fitness (7 comments total)

Gout (wiki) is pretty bad, and usually strikes the obese.
posted by phrontist at 7:34 AM on July 19

I'm under the impression that the anti drink-drive commercials have been shown to be ineffective.
posted by Obscure Reference at 8:21 AM on July 19

I second ObscureReference: the primary effect of all the public service announcements was to raise awareness that drinking and driving was something that should be thought about. People know that drunk driving kills now, sometimes seeing a wrecked car drives the point home for indestructible teens, but that's about it.

You know you want to lose weight, do you really think you can successfully scare yourself with images? Fear is a pretty lousy motivator: it rarely engenders positive acts and it wears off too quickly. Show smokers dead lungs and they keep on smoking. People watch family members die of liver failure and keep on drinking. People see their peers die painfully of heart attacks or pulmonary failure because of obesity and keep on eating.

If you desire extrinsic motivation, find a local "people losing weight" support group. Nothing else outside of yourself would be nearly as effective.
posted by fydfyd at 8:59 AM on July 19

Do a dedicated search on Medline Plus and you will find some really nice educational links on the down side of obesity. There's a lot of really interesting research on how fat cells play a really active part in ultimately undermining your health.

Second, and since you asked for the grotesque, check out some anatomy oriented sites like Body World. Seeing an anatomical cross section of fat to muscle ratio will definitely make a lasting impression, and I don't mean in a pleasant way.

Um, good luck, or fat chance, whatever.
posted by effluvia at 9:27 AM on July 19

Well, I don't buy this process, either. They say that the YOU WILL DIE warnings on cigarettes just play into a death wish mentality -- that smokers are more likely to have a blasé attitude about life-and-death questions.

My personal motivation is mostly positive -- such as the enjoyment and endorphin rush I get from bike riding. I will say that this recent headline gave me some pause: Obesity emerges as risk factor in severe flu

But frankly, the greatest motivation comes from the crappy feeling I get during a glucose crash. At about five pounds heavier than I am now, I could get one of those about once a day or so. Ten pounds heaver, and I was getting them several times a day. I was starting to feel mild neuropathy (tingling in the extremities, sometimes severe pain just from a bedsheet moving laterally across my toes), and my vision was getting blurry. I would become very irritable and impatient. And I would sweat like a racehorse. Now, about 10 months later and 20 pounds lighter, the only one of those that really still bugs me is the hyperhidrosis.

Please do something nice for yourself and lose weight before you become diabetic, because it's No. Fun. At. All.
posted by dhartung at 10:09 AM on July 19

I want to start by saying that you should weigh whatever you want, because it's your body.

But the whole OVERWEIGHT WILL KILL YOU thing seems to be pretty much fabricated. In study after study, the "overweight" as a group have the lowest morbidity/mortality risk. The "obese" as a group do have an increased morbidity/mortality risk, but it's still lower than the "underweight" group's morbidity mortality risk.

The thing is that some health risks, like insulin deficiency issues, can lead to both obesity and serious illnesses like diabetes.

But the weight doesn't cause the diabetes (though reducing weight can help some people treat the symptoms of diabetes quite effectively)--the weight and the diabetes are both caused by the insulin problems.
posted by Sidhedevil at 1:36 PM on July 19

Are you looking for thinsporation? If you are, here's an article on the "headless fatty" phenomenon. If this is what you're looking for (and forgive me if you're not), please consider the article's message before using the image of other people who haven't given permission for their bodies to be looked upon with disgust.
posted by theraflu at 2:10 PM on July 19