what does being overweight mean?

[Plenum]

this is going to sound like a silly question,

but what does being overweight mean?

does it just mean you eat too much, and its as simple as that?

is it perhaps even simpler than that, and some people have a faster base metabolism rate (mine is fast for example) and that others have a slower metabolic rate, and so the food burns slower?

no judgement of course, there are an infinite number of various body types and configurations.

but there is definitely a bias towards being 'lean and trim' as a sign of 'healthiness' rather than being the medical definition (weight based) of being, what do they call it, 'obese'. (which has risk factors for circulation and heart disease).

- -

tangentially related quote:

83.2 It is fortunate for the outlook of this contact and the incarnation of this entity that it is not distorted towards the overeating as the overloading of this much distorted physical complex would override even the most fervent affirmations of health/illness and turn the instrument towards the distortions of illness/health or, in the extreme case, the physical death.

thanks for your thoughts as I explore this topic

[AnthroHeart]

I'm a little on the heavy side, but I do exercise very little. Once a week or so I will walk on a treadmill for about 1.5 miles. Takes 30 mins. I don't break a sweat. I had a minor stroke some years back due to a gymnastics accident, and the doctor won't let me go beyond 140bpm heartrate. So I'm limited to light workouts.

[BrownEye]

Some weight can be an analog for refusing to release things.

Some weight can be an analog of taking more than you need.

[Melissa]

What does underweight mean?

[xise]

I've often wondered if the activity of the red ray is interrelated to metabolism. Unfortunately, I have no data points other than myself - I tend to have a somewhat under-active red ray, and a somewhat slow metabolism, relatively speaking. Though my metabolism does speed up with exercise, it remains somewhat relatively lower than others who do the same exercise. I typically go months without doing exercise when I'm around the weight I want to be at, and then when I've slowly inched to maybe 10 pounds over I usually start running 4-5 times a week, 1-2 miles a run, for 3 months, and that resolves things. I should definitely get back into a routine of always exercising, but in the past my busy and time-consuming job I used as an excuse. I'm currently running 8 minute miles 4-5 times a week so it would be nice to continue this for rest of my life as it feels great to be fit and toned!

And of course throw in the factor that sometimes people have different relationships to stress related eating (some eat more under stress, some eat less - I eat more under stress generally, though I am not hungry while stressed), and I find its hard to determine if there are any correlations.

[ricky]

Hi Xise
Well i think being overweight is really disgusting although am also healthy. Its really have a bad effects directly or indirectly on our mind .And am also eat more in stress the way you do

[Marc]

I was overweight last year and eventually I learned about the benefits of eating a whole foods, plant-based diet and lost thirty pounds and feel amazing.

Being overweight to me, meant that I was unbalanced in my lower chakras and had a porely developed will. It was also an analog of my ignorance of the things I consumed and its effects on myself and the earth. Everyone is different though and if you seek within you find the answer for yourself. I find it interesting how the most ethical diet happens to be the healthiest...

Before and after:

[isis]

[deleted / swiss cheese]

[Guardian]

Toxicity and malnutrition. I recommend everyone watch the movie fat, sick and nearly dead.

[Brittany]

I was always extremely skinny growing up (super fast metabolism), then when I was in college I got put on pills that made me gain 80 pounds. My all out low point was a doctor talking to me in the hospital and basically saying "You're fat. You should eat better." As if I hadn't noticed I was overweight. It made me feel like she saw me as a bad person just because of the weight. Like I was doing something wrong.

When I went off the pills I lost most of the weight, but about 20 pounds it refused to go and I'm still working with it. It is a constant way to judge my level of discipline and motivation in a very real way. The weight caused me a lot of shame and depression and I feel like there is definitely a metaphysical principle behind the lot of it. If anything it has made me look at the respect or lack thereof I have for my body. I feel one reason I've kept the weight on is due to blockages in lower rays involving depression, suicidal thoughts and thoughts of low self-worth. As these blockages clear, I feel more motivated to work out and eat healthy and cause my outside to mirror my inside.

---

And just to clarify, I am aware of what a healthy body weight for my height is. I'm not trying to get down to 90 pounds again. I just want to feel healthy.

[ChickenInSpace]

As you enter your mid to late 20's you will generally gain/keep 20 pounds because you're female and this causes many women great pains due to general sexism and weird preconceptions. Please keep in mind!

Probably you're at healthy weight and if you would push the body in exercise you'd find yourself at an all time high for strength/flexibility.

Please exercise for the right reason, though.

[Guardian]

There's a lot of evidence now showing that being overweight is actually a symptom of a deeper problem.

The typical healthy person eats until they are full and won't get hungry again until their body needs fuel. Even healthy people with normal BMI's forced to eat 3,000+ calories a day have difficulty gaining weight. The appropriate response in a healthy body is to burn off that extra intake by increasing metabolism.

In an unhealthy person, weight gain becomes a concern. The mechanisms by which weight gain occurs are an insensitivity to leptin (the hormone that makes you feel full) or imbalances with thyroid/adrenal hormones.

It is speculated that the hormones lose homeostasis with nutritional deficiency, excessive toxicity, or an inability to eliminate waste.

In terms of nutritional deficiency the mechanism is clear. Your body will tell you to keep eating until its dietary requirements for vitamins and minerals is met. It's funny to think that an obese person could be malnourished but it is extremely common. A testament to this fact is that by going on a purely organic fresh-squeezed fruit/vegetable juice diet quickly reverses this leptin insensitivity and allows obese people to feel full.

In terms of excessive toxicity, the body needs to eliminate waste. The liver, in order to convert fat soluble toxins into water soluble toxins that can be eliminated in the kidney, requires a series of nutrients and amino acids. This is called phase 2 liver detoxification. If phase 2 isn't working properly, the liver has no choice but to store these fat-soluble toxins into fat stores. Thus, we see the growth of "central obesity". Central obesity is dangerous because it is a signal that you are overloaded with toxins and unable to process them.

Finally, is the inability to eliminate waste. The bowel is our sewage pipe and should be activated every time you eat. If you are not passing a well formed bowel motion 2-3 times per day, your colon is not working well enough. As a result, not only is the waste unable to be eliminated from the liver, but waste from the colon will reenter your blood stream making you more toxic. This is called leaky gut syndrome, or intestinal hyperpermeability. The same occurs with kidney failure, obesity occurs as the body has nowhere else to put the toxins.

So, the solution for weight loss is simple - go on a juice fast and get enemas / colonics. A wonderful documentary called "Fat, sick, and nearly dead" demonstrates the healing power of this protocol on some incredibly sick people.

[Marc]

Good stuff, guardian. Also watch "Hungry for Change" and "Forks over Knives"

[kainous]

Plenum, I think that a good question would follow as to what spiritual significance obesity has, having developed within the industrialized population?
Is it karma for being in starving situations for several lifetimes? Is it a catalyst for looking at the whole of the body (including organisms that you share your body with)? Is it an effect of the harvest? What thoughts do you get when you ponder and meditate on it?

[Aureus]

Apparently, bacteria plays a large role.. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/06/health...ience&_r=0

[Guardian]

Fortunately, what we eat and how well we detoxify determines which gut bacteria flourish.

[caycegal]

It means many different things for me. Some people use it as a way of avoiding certain parts of life, and use food as a drug to escape "NOW." It can mean (to me) holding onto and storing up "energy" instead of using it for the projects I want to manifest. The storing up and holding on is because of fear. It can be used to avoid the opposite sex and whatever anxieties are involved with relationships with opposite sex. There is probably a lot more - this is just a partial list.

[Monica]

Some people are lucky. They just cut out junk food and walk a mile every day, and the weight drops off. Others just start drinking alkaline water and the weight drops off like magic, even without exercise. Others can try every diet and every trick in the book, and still can't lose the weight. Sometimes there is an emotional component; weight can be a buffer that the person uses to protect themselves from being hurt by others.

It's not always a case of overindulgence!

Here are some other physical causes:

Animal 'foods' clogging up the system. Most vegans are thin, so going vegan will result in weight loss for most people.
Eating too little - not enough calories can actually slow down the metabolism.
Too much dieting or fasting - slows down the metabolism. This happened to me.
Too acidic - try eliminating sodas and switching to alkaline water - this will flush the acidic waste in the cells which are being buffered by fat.
All sodas, including diet sodas, cause acidity and actually cause weight gain in the long run. Sodas are the absolute worst thing you can put in your body! Anyone with any health condition - whether it be excess weight, cancer, chronic pain, or whatever - cannot expect to get better if they are still drinking sodas. They really are that bad.
Shallow breathing - this can be addressed with exercise. Even when you're not exercising, make a point to breathe more deeply.
Any sort of chronic infection can affect the metabolism. Get all the toxic mercury out of your mouth, and have all root canaled teeth extracted. This eliminates the infection and the weight may start dropping off!
Mineral deficiency - if your calcium/magnesium are too low, that can cause weight gain. Quit drinking milk - that actually causes more calcium loss from the bones. (Proven in the China Study) Switch to fresh green vegetable juices.
Poor sleep or lack of sleep - this alone can cause weight gain.
Inadequate elimination - again, something easily addressed by a plant-based diet.
Gluten intolerance - try eliminating wheat and other sources of gluten, or get your blood checked to see if you're gluten intolerant.
Cheese - it pretty much turns into cement mixer in the gut. Try eliminating all dairy and see if the weight doesn't drop off.
Lack of fiber - easily addressed by switching to a plant-based diet.

Any one of these can be a root cause. In my case, I had already addressed most of them, but still wasn't losing weight. Then, I found out I had 2 dead teeth hiding behind botched fillings, which never showed up on x-rays. Only a 3D cone-beam x-ray revealed that they were dead. I got those teeth extracted and the weight started dropping off!

[Bat]

Being over weight isn't automatically some negative thing , it could above all be a catalytic per incarnation lesson. For me being over weight, i have been eating better and losing weight but when i really thought about it, all i was saying was i am not worthy of the creators love in my current form, i need to change and conform before i can reach enlightenment and i think that is a lot of crap, plus some of the posts on this thread are laughable at best.

[Karl]

Most people are over or under weight as a symptom of a deep seated malignant belief. They're over or under weight because of their eating habits, which are a symptom of their thoughts/beliefs.

"If I was skinny I'd be happy". Usually the answer is no, if you were happy you would be your ideal weight.

Stop using external factors to 'become happy'. Be happy now, everything else will follow.

[AnthroHeart]

We bought a new tap to replace our kitchen, and my water alkalizer no longer fits. It's in my room collecting dust. And the meds I'm on are causing weight gain. I went from 180 to about 235.

[Plenum]

And the meds I'm on are causing weight gain. I went from 180 to about 235.

holy moly!!

[Sagittarius]

Some motivation for anyone looking to start exercising.

[Monica]

Most people are over or under weight as a symptom of a deep seated malignant belief. They're over or under weight because of their eating habits, which are a symptom of their thoughts/beliefs.

"If I was skinny I'd be happy". Usually the answer is no, if you were happy you would be your ideal weight.

Stop using external factors to 'become happy'. Be happy now, everything else will follow.

I agree that there are probably deep-seated negative beliefs that must be addressed, which lead many people to unhealthy eating habits. But, it's not always a case of bad eating habits! There are myriad factors which can affect metabolism. I was the poster child for a clean, healthy, vegan diet yet I had some weight that stubbornly refused to budge, no matter how much I exercised. Did I have some subconscious issues? Undoubtedly! I think when we finally address the emotional issues, we will find the physical answer, and the physical answer isn't always so simple as 'exercise more and quit eating junk food' - sometimes it's more complex than that, as I attempted to convey in my previous post.

[Karl]

Most people are over or under weight as a symptom of a deep seated malignant belief. They're over or under weight because of their eating habits, which are a symptom of their thoughts/beliefs.

"If I was skinny I'd be happy". Usually the answer is no, if you were happy you would be your ideal weight.

Stop using external factors to 'become happy'. Be happy now, everything else will follow.

I agree that there are probably deep-seated negative beliefs that must be addressed, which lead many people to unhealthy eating habits. But, it's not always a case of bad eating habits! There are myriad factors which can affect metabolism. I was the poster child for a clean, healthy, vegan diet yet I had some weight that stubbornly refused to budge, no matter how much I exercised. Did I have some subconscious issues? Undoubtedly! I think when we finally address the emotional issues, we will find the physical answer, and the physical answer isn't always so simple as 'exercise more and quit eating junk food' - sometimes it's more complex than that, as I attempted to convey in my previous post.

Agreed!

[Patrick]

I've read studies where they show convincing evidence that excessive fat accumulation is a protection mechanism. Toxins gets stored away with the fat.

[Guardian]

I've read studies where they show convincing evidence that excessive fat accumulation is a protection mechanism. Toxins gets stored away with the fat.

You are exactly correct Patrick.

[Monica]

I've read studies where they show convincing evidence that excessive fat accumulation is a protection mechanism. Toxins gets stored away with the fat.

Yes, very true. In addition to toxins, the body buffers excess acidity with fat. That's why, in my business, we see so many people saying "the weight just dropped off" when they dink our medical-grade alkaline water.

In fact, it is so common that we have brochures promoting it as a weight-loss tool, saying "You're not fat! You're acidic!"

I felt very annoyed when nearly every overweight person I sold a machine to lost weight, but it didn't work for me (though the water literally saved my life so I can't complain). In my case, it was those dead teeth at the root of my weight!

(Not just any alkaline water will work, though.)