Self Pity: the cause or effect of obesity?

Question

Kind of like the old 'Chicken and the Egg' question.
Do lots of fat people overeat because of self-pity, or are they filled with self-pity because they overeat?
Are you fat? Share your experience!
By the way, I'm not saying all obese people pity themselves, but I think a lot do.

Answer 1

As you say, its chicken and egg!
Yes Im fat, but I am losing it after getting a wake up call and being diagnosed as diabetic in June this year. I think being overweight you get a gradual erosion of self confidence and self respect, and it nose dives from there...;
Then of course there is GUILT....you dont want to go there...lol

Answer 2

It has nothing to do with self-pity but obesity has a lot to do with many other factors; some emotional.

I became overweight due to a medical condition: I was eating too many soy products that were blocking some thyroid medication I have to take.

There are so many reasons for weight gain.

Answer 3

I am going to go with effect. It definitely is a chicken/egg type thing though. I was much more insecure and upset with myself when I was overweight. Now that I am in much better shape and feel better about me, there isn't a whole lot I'm depressed about. Certain foods make you feel run down and depressed anyway.

Answer 4

I am overweight by 10 lbs. not obesity the Dr. says no.

But most Obesity people have a gland or thyroid problem. there are others that eat just to eat, never learned proper eating habits, eat due to nerves, stress, or just to have something to do.So they eat eat eat ......

Answer 5

Be nice and keep in mind the following about overeating:

Diets and changing your eating to healthy food choices can work but because we know so little about ourselves and our relationship with food, it makes it difficult to win the battle. A lot of us have problems with dieting because we have a problem called "emotional eating" we eat to comfort ourselves during difficult, stressful, sad, etc times in our lives.

You may experience all those emotions during dieting as we continuously get on the scale hoping to see a big difference in numbers after dieting only for a day or two. Also what is stressful when dieting is that we try to lose a large number of weight in such a short period of time which in most cases is unreasonable.

This all brings about stress, discomfort and sadness. When we feel this way, we turn to our best friend for help and support which for many of us is food. The diet is now broken and we feel that we can't stick to diets. We then try fad diet after fad diet hoping to lose the original 20 pounds and now we may have as much as 30 pounds to lose because we continue to put on weight as we continue to break these fad diets by binging before starting our next diet.

Please learn about your relationship with food before your next diet so that you may achieve your goals. To help a little, keep in mind the following:

You already know how to lose weight. You know that if you eat less and exercise more eventually you’ll see the pounds come off. What’s getting in your way? Why do you usually regain the weight you lost? The answer to all these questions is the same “Emotional Eating.” Simply defined, emotional eating means you eat to satisfy emotional hunger; it means you use food for comfort or as a way to cope with life; and it means you eat for reasons other than what your body needs. Whenever you reach for a boredom-breaking snack despite your commitment, or whenever you eat to quell anxiety, that’s emotional eating. Whenever you binge after a fight, or double up on portions because your day turned sour, that’s emotional eating. Whenever you feel that sharp craving for your favorite food, that’s emotional eating. When we eat during these times while on a diet, we believe the diet doesn’t work or that we lack self control and then look for the quickest way to lose weight (fasting/diet pills, ect) after eating all we can since we already messed the diet day up. Read the information below but remember that emotional eating plays a big part in why we don’t continue dieting and why we regain lost weight and why we binge today and start a new diet tomorrow. Best of Luck.

P.S. After learning about my relationship with food, I was able to drop my weight from 263 pounds down to 151 pounds which is a 112 pound weight lost.

Answer 6

im overweight due to alot of factors both my parents are over weight and most of my family is to i also gained alot of weight because im on alot of medication for depression and yes some of its self pitty but not all of it

Answer 7

It could originate from either.