Uproar about new CancerResearchUK posters

Just my opinion, I am sure I have opened a can of worms here

The anti-fat shaming movement, I get. Many overweight children are severely bullied at school and suffer depression as a result, and what do overweight people do when they are feeling low? Continue to eat.

If solving the obesity crisis were as simple as telling people not to eat, it wouldn't be a problem currently affecting 62% of the UK population who are classified as overweight or obese. Losing weight is a hard thing to stick at, as anyone who's ever tried dieting will tell you. Overweight people know that it is affecting their health, but flipping your current lifestyle on its head is easier said than done.

However, this Sofie woman takes it one step further and says she is fat and doesn't care/will keep making herself bigger. Scientists unanimously agree that being overweight causes a whole host of health problems, and cancer is just one of them.

I don't fundamentally disagree with the ad campaign from Cancer Research UK, but I think it could be worded differently as it is such a sensitive subject for people who are affected by it. For example, losing weight can improve life expectancy and reduce your risk of cancer by more than half. Labeling people will come off as a personal attack and not have the desired effect. At the end of the day, we don't live in confinement where you can control people's behaviours. They will continue to do as they please, and all you can do is inform people using appropriate methods.

Just my opinion, I am sure I have opened a can of worms here

Dieting is a fad as even if your dieting if you are still consuming more calories than you are burning, you wont lose any weight.

To be clear, I agree with the sentiment of the quote, as indeed the entire post. However, and it might seem pedantic to many, my borderline OCD stops me from failing to comment whenever I see that word misused like that.

No-one means lose weight, when they say lose weight. They invariably mean lose bodyfat. So say bodyfat, if you mean bodyfat!!!

It's hard to lose bodyfat, and calorie restrictive (ie starvation) diets are not the best option, in many professional experts opinion. Losing weight is easy. Anyone can lose two stone in under two seconds. With a chainsaw. Cut a leg off. They'd weigh less!

Skeletal muscle weighs more than bodyfat, for the equivalent volume. One of the best ways to lose bodyfat is a combination of improved nutrition and exercise.

In particular, quitting, or at least vastly reducing, alcohol, refined carbohydrate (eg white sugar, white flour) and processed and junk food. Replace with, as much as possible, home cooked meals (made in bulk, the majority frozen in portion sizes) made from fresh, raw, nutritious ingredients. It can work out substantially cheaper too.

Exercise properly. Strength training like a non-pro power-lifter or bodybuilder. Compound, whole body work outs, with free weights, preferable dumbbells, when appropriate. This helps to develop stabalising muscles, which would overall increase rate of progress. Machines should only be used by the infirm, disabled or recovering patients, imho.

But the key thing to bare in mind, and why I go off on one about weight =/= bodyfat. It you do the above, since muscle weighs more than bodyfat, bodyfat % could go down, whilst the number on the scales rises!

If all the feedback is simple what is your mass, rather than what are the relative percentages bodyfat to skeletal muscle, it's impossible to accurately gauge improvement.

Buy a cheap set of body composition scales. The numeric values will not be accurate, but the trends up or down will be.

You dont have to flip your lifestyle though. Just eat less and exercise more. Its not that hard. Dieting is a fad as even if your dieting if you are still consuming more calories than you are burning, you wont lose any weight.You need a calorie deficit .

I dont blame overweight children for it, I blame their parents and imo it should be classed as Child Abuse.

Just to clarify, when I say 'dieting' I mean any form of creating a calorie deficit. I'm not sure what you mean when you say dieting still means you are consuming more calories than you are burning? Doesn't sound like a very efficient diet!

For people to become obese in the first place, it means breaking a cycle of years of bad eating and lack of physical activity. Often when people increase exercise and reduce calorie consumption, they can only keep this up for a short time before they regain all of the weight lost, plus extra.

Absolutely I agree, parents are responsible when children are overweight. Children are the ones suffering at both ends though, when they are overweight and bullied as a result.

I dont find it hard to do, and guess what? Ive never been fat/overweight

In terms of adults though, Im sorry there is no excuse. All the information is freely available and it is a myth that healthy food is more expensive.

You are coming across as judgemental tbh. just because you havent experienced something doesn't mean it's not valid. I think fat acceptance is ludicrious but at the same time you and others on this thread seem to think that you can magically click your fingers and become thin. I am pudgy, I know this. I became pudgy partly because i comfort ate during a levels when i had undiagnosed depression (Have since been diagnosed and either dont eat enough or overeat now which is something im trying hard not to do) and because of PCOS which makes losing weight especially around your middle (where most of mine is) very hard and gaining it very easy. Other people gain weight because of antipsycotic medication or other medication (am still waiting to see if that will happen to me cos only recently started them) so it is not as simple as you make out. And before you say yes i am trying very hard to eat minimally and eat healthy things and finally got past the social anxiety of joining the gym.
Yes some people are genuinely lazy and complicit but a lot of people are trying hard despite circumstances, these posters just make those sorts of people feel worse (everyone knows being overweight is bad) and wont do anything to change the minds of people who are genuinely lazy and cba.

"(..)
Cancer Research UK is a research and awareness charity based out of the United Kingdom. It also happens to be the world’s largest independent cancer charity and conducts research into the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of the disease. In other words, you can trust these people to be experts on all things cancer.(..)"

https://squawker.org/culture-wars/fatcancer/

warning- graphic photos.

what are your thoughts about it?

I havent meant to come across as judgemental, so I do apologise.Of course not everyone who is overweight is a lazy layabout. I shouldve been more careful with my words so again, I do apologise.

Im glad you've made steps forward in that regard.

However, on the poster, what else do you want CancerResearch to do? They havent lied. As some smokers have said, smokers dont react the same to posters of this ilk, that say the same thing about smoking.

That's ok, thanks for saying that

and nothing really, i just dont think it is a good use of their money because if people are trying to lose weight who are overweight (there are a surprising number of those people at the gym which is admirable) they already know it's bad to be overweight and doctor's are always talking about BMI and stuff and the people like those in the article aren't going to change their ways cos they are lazy and set in their ways

Ugh.

Another charity that pays its CEO 200k+ and pleads for money in adverts.

Shocking how people continue to donate to them.

I don’t believe CRUK has any motive other than to bring in more cash for themselves. I don’t think a charity (that spent millions on having a garden at Chelsea flower show) should be deciding on priorities for cancer research. There’s plenty of science showing that fat shaming campaigns are ineffective at changing behaviour...they’ve just paid an advertising agency to come up with something to make them look like they’re doing something.

Give to macmillan instead of these chumps.