People suffering from obesity face a real life threatening health challenge. What's more, most of them know this and have come to accept this as a condition about which they can do very little or nothing. This is not necessarily true, but many obese people perceive themselves as powerless when it comes to tackling this problematic condition.
There are, of course exceptions. The unfortunate individual obsessity is the result of a physical dysfunction will have to learn to cope with the condition as best as possible to alleviate the suffering that is caused by it.
There is also a large part of this group that can do something about their obesity, alas, this is easier said (or written) than done.
A rising number of people suffer from obesity. If we look at obesity statistics, and I quote "data collected by the National Center for Health Statistics showed that the percentage of obese people (body mass index [BMI]> 30) in the United States has risen to 33.5 percent in the 1999 to 2000 survey ", this would indicate epidemic proportions. (Source: utdol.com)
This would probably point to a causal link between eating habits, lifestyle, convenience, emotional state and a lack of self empowerment. Human beings are creatures of habit and routine. Once a habit routine has been locked in, it is quite the challenge to break it, even for healthy people. Moreover, obesity is a condition that requires individuals who suffer from it to have to spend more energy for daily tasks.
If on top of that an obese person has to invest yet more energy in breaking an unproductive habit to create a new more productive one, the bar is set so high, that many feel it is impossible to reach. They become stuck in this vicious circle, so that conditions are now set to make a bad situation even worse.
Breaking the habits that create obesity can be done, taking little steps at a time. This puts the finishing line far into the future, creating yet more challenges, because everyone, obese or not, has to factor into the fact that all events in life are cyclic. In a period of lower energy levels, it takes but a small emotional accident to break ones' resolve.
To understand the challenge an obese person has to face, one would have to imagine something absurd. For example, let's ask Carl Lewis to win the olympic long jump discipline with a bag of 50 kilos strapped to his back. That's impossible !, most of us would say. Well, now you are just a little closer to the mindset most obese people have to deal with when it comes to trying to get back to health.