Dear Andrew Lansley,
You really have to tear the Government to pieces over the outrageous proposals to pay people to lose weight. This is going to have disastrous consequences for people’s physical and mental health and I urge you to turn this against the Government.
Apparently, even the Conservatives have ‘healthy lifestyle reward vouchers’ in the pipeline, so it seems that you’re all getting this wrong. If you incentivise people to lose weight or even have people compete against each other to lose weight as the Government is proposing, people will crash- diet and could cause themselves serious damage. The psychological implications of getting paid to compete with each other to lose weight is frightening. Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, should eat a balanced diet every day of their lives and should do regular exercise. Instead of bribing people, how about making it perfectly clear that the Government is not going to interfere with their lives on a daily basis and goad them into shedding pounds - instead, obese people will have to contribute to their healthcare costs should they need any treatment for obesity-related disorders? Spell out the consequences loud and clear of people eating fatty foods and sitting on their backsides the whole day.
You, like the Government, also seem to have forgotten about the role of working hours, single parents, working parents, expensive gyms and a whole load of other factors in obesity which ensure that stupid little scheme like this will have minimal impact on people’s lives.
Yours despairingly,
A.Tory
17 responses so far ↓
Ban Wailing // January 24, 2008 at 10:41 am
I agree, it is completely pointless in paying people to try to discourage them from eating unhealthy foods and sitting on their extensive backsides.
But obesity, in most cases, is not a simple case of input and output. Think of how many people eat exactly the same foods and do the same amount of exersize and yet some remain as slim as ever and others will bloat out uncontrollably. An article in the latest ‘New Scientist’ debated these differences and how it is not helpful in the battle against obesity to merely put it down to input, output.
Genetic differences in metabolism and enzymes etc. were considered incredibly influencing in how our bodies use or store energy reserves. More research into this area is critical before we start paying fat people to lose weight.
But I do not agree that they should pay for there treatment in every case. People with other genetic disorders would be allowed free treatment, so if it is due to genes then surely fat people should get treatment.
Letters From A Tory // January 24, 2008 at 10:50 am
Genes don’t make people fat, eating lots of food makes people fat.
Ban Wailing // January 24, 2008 at 12:37 pm
That kind of generalisation would also stop anorexics having treatment, which I whole heartedly agree with - for god sake eat!
Letters From A Tory // January 24, 2008 at 12:40 pm
Anorexia nervosa is a clinical disorder which has extremely complicated and varied causes, hence the difficulty in successfully treating it.
Obesity has a simple cause - people eat too much and get very fat.
Ban Wailing // January 24, 2008 at 1:08 pm
It is not! The causes are far too complex and it is not just the symptoms that can be cured.
Just like people with mental disorders - obese people are just as stigmatised. I agree that in some cases people bring it upon themselves but genetics have a lot to answer for and the more we understand about them the more we can do to help these people.
People with mental disorders are treated with fear because the brain is so little understood - sympathy is easily doled out for problems we understand eg. a broken leg but not so for brain disorders or metabolic dysfunction (I made up metabolic dysfuntion, but I think it sounds good!)
Dream Weaver Bird // January 24, 2008 at 1:11 pm
Calories in, calories out. No need to waste money paying for this.
Harold Wade // January 24, 2008 at 3:03 pm
Of course obesity is caused by eating too much but the appetite is controlled by hormones especially leptin and insulin. Most dieting ends in failure. The solution is to keep blood glucose levels even and insulin levels low which in turn controls food cravings. The way to do this is to eat a low carbohydrate diet and to use the sort of psychological ploys advocated by Paul McKenna. The article in New Scientist is spot-on by the way.
Joseph Gibson // January 24, 2008 at 7:05 pm
It really is quite pathetic that we’re possibly going to pay people to lose weight, this will surely come from tax payers money if implemented, and why should anyone else have to pay for one persons diet? What next, paying people to get a hair cut? To have a shave? We really are becoming a joke nation.
Katie // January 25, 2008 at 10:03 am
“Genes don’t make people fat, eating lots of food makes people fat.”
Yeah. I thought it was as simple as that as well. I have arthritis so I can’t just go running or stuff and my weight built up a lot after I spent a couple of years recovering from surgeries for it.
So I just cut my calorie intake down. I figured I’d be needing 1800 a day. If I ate 1600, I’d lose weight right?
What I actually got was no weightloss, but I was exhausted the whole time. My life became a cycle of working (exhausted) and then sleeping from about 6pm when I got home to 6am the next morning when I’d get up to go to work.
After a couple of years of this, I finally talked a GP into running some tests and it transpires I’ve got some hormone imbalances and one of the consequences is that when I eat, my liver packs away a portion of it as fat, like normal. But when my blood sugar falls, it’s very loath to go and turn fat back into energy. It will do it, but not at normal rates.
The result is that simply cutting down my food intake meant I was wandering around with low blood sugar the whole time and still not losing much weight. I wasn’t burning fat, I was just sleeping more.
It is not necessarily as simple as “food in/work out”, because for some people the “work out” is determined by the food in.
The idea that we then discourage people from seeking medical help by (say) charging fat people for NHS treatment means that’s going to be a reinforcing cycle.
Fortunately, treating me should be a nice simple thing. Of course, I’m having to go private because I’d like to be treated this year - because otherwise when I need more surgery for the arthritis so I don’t slow down even more, I can’t have it because I’m too fat at the moment…
It’s particularly stupid to decide these things by BMI.
Although my BMI says I’m borderline obese, and I do admit I’m a bit tubby, it turns out I’m not *actually* that fat. When the gym did a proper analysis (measuring fat content vs muscle mass and so on), they said I need to lose 2 stone which will still leave me in the “overweight” BMI range — apparently any more than that would be cutting into fat reserves I’m supposed to have. (To say nothing of making it hard to buy clothes. I’m only a size 14 as it is.)
Meanwhile my sister has a higher BMI. And she’s a national league ice hockey player. There is no way at all she’s less fit than me, but the blunt instrument that is BMI says she is.
Letters From A Tory // January 25, 2008 at 10:25 am
BMI is obviously rubbish - apparently the England rugby team are all overweight according to BMI.
I would only ask people to contribute to their healthcare if they are obese through their own choices rather than through medical conditions, as in your case. Sorry to hear that things have been a struggle for you.
S Eastond // January 25, 2008 at 4:54 pm
This would be funny if the whole idea was not so pathetic. Paying to lose weight. What next. Paying to lose the drug habit, smoking and alcoholism. Why not pay the terrorists to stop terrorising and the drug-peddlers from peddling their stuff. Well, you asked for ridiculous stuff
totaltransformation // January 25, 2008 at 7:53 pm
Wow, imagine that, paying people to lose weight. You would think good health, more energy, and an increase libido (not to mention stamina) would be incentive enough. How sad.
Violette // January 26, 2008 at 9:09 am
How timely, I just wrote about the recent study from Monell Chemical Senses Center regarding the possibility that 6,000 genes determine an individual’s body weight. Of those genes 10 times as many may increase body weight than are able to decrease it.
I also just wrote about vitamin C referencing a study from a year ago how lack of vitamin C affects body weight.
While we’ve spent years trying to make food that can sit on store shelves for long periods of time we in turn have been depriving our bodies of the nutrients that are necessary for maintaining healthy weight. In addition in the late 60’s / early 70’s when I was growing up I remember the food pyramid catering to the meat and dairy industry. So all-in-all I think the government is responsible for this problem in the end. (Does anyone remember the number of servings of dairy that was recommended back then or the pictures of ice-cream? Oops maybe that was before my time.)
I will be the first to agree that the government’s money can be better spent. I will also say it is not necessary to deprive overweight individuals of health care in the process.
I also agree that it could be an error in judgement to pay people to lose weight as it will also be a greater error in judgement to grade children on their weight at school.
And referring to paying for drug habits, smoking and alcoholism…don’t you think the govenment already has enough money being thrown at these problems as well? At least you’re not feeding people in jail for obesity. (No, I didn’t just suggest that smokers should be thrown in jail, LOL).
Thank you for the engaging topic. I only popped in to see if I should set up a blog on wordpress….NOW I MIGHT HAVE TO SUBSCRIBE TO YOUR BLOG!
Violette // January 26, 2008 at 9:13 am
Oh yes I should mention that I picked up you were from Britain. So I must add that my government references are from a US POV. As you can see we have our own weight issues on this side of the pond as well.
Letters From A Tory // January 26, 2008 at 11:09 am
“we have our own weight issues on this side of the pond as well”
That’s putting it mildly!
Molly // April 21, 2008 at 1:55 pm
Okay…
I just finished writing and extensive proposal about exactly this: what the government can do to lower the cost of heath care.
One of the most important pieces of this proposal is yes, paying people to lose weight. IT HAS BEEN DONE SUCCESSFULLY BEFORE! In my opinion, those who should be paid to lose the weight are those who are obese, and obese only. These people would be paid my the government after a physical exam from their doctor assuring them that the person is yes, obese, and later they would undergo another physical exam, and the weight lost would be recorded, and sent to the government.
(In the past, a mayor in the Italian Alps tried this, and paid men 50 euros to lose 7 lbs and paid women 50 euros to lose 6lbs. )
AFTER this weight was lost, if they kept it off for 5 months, they would be awarded 200 euros.
NOW…I am not overweight, however I’m pretty sure if I was OBESE, I would not want to lose quite a bit of weight for a mere 75 bucks.
BUT…If i was paid a bit more ($250) to keep weight off for 5 months..I’m in.
So how do we know these people won’t crash diet? Because no one cares about the $75, they want the $250. And being a health freak myself, not to mentioned educated in nutrition as well as behavioral psychology, almost all of these people who would be getting paid to lose weight would KNOW that the weight will not come off with crash dieting for more than a month or so (If that). Thus, with the help of a doctor, these obese people would lose weight the right way, and keep it off.
DOING this will save ALL OF YOU money on taxes. Or did you NOT know that the government planned on saving money by implementing this plan?
FYI- Obesity is the number one killer in America. And did you know that Americans spend over $100 BILLION on needs related to health care every YEAR? That is $100 Billion dollars that we ALL split.
THINK about it.
Missy // June 25, 2008 at 1:17 am
You people out there are so uninformed!!! I had a son with end stage renal disease. Because of this and dyalasis? He became extremly obese 450#. He was not lazy, nor did he eat all the time, in fact he had no appetite. He was on all kinds of steroids that caused him to be as you would say (fat!) It was not his fault and I take offense to all of you out there that judge a person for how much they weigh. He had a kidney transplant (thanks to his kid brother) and he still struggled with his weight. I’m, sure you will all be happy to hear that his FAT person is no longer with us… He died at 28.. in a horrific accident along with his very skinny brother….. Stop Judging over weight people until you know the ablolute truth!!!!!!!
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