Eli5: When humans get too fat or obese there is a high risk of heart related issues. But in nature for example Walrus is or hippos are so fat in shape almost their body is consists of fat and are they same sick like humans?
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Animal species (including humans) have a narrow range of healthy weights. Only humans exhibit such a wide range of weights within fully grown and developed adults of the species.
It’s not uncommon to find a 150 pound man sitting next to a 300 pound man. But you will not find fully grown and developed wild boar that is double the weight of other fully grown and developed wild boars. Same with walrus and hippos in the wild.
(You can take that wild boar and put it in a pen, and feed it an excess of food, and it will become much fatter – a meat pig….but that’s neither natural or healthy for the wild pig.)
The problem is the 300 pound man exists only because modern society provides him with cheap, plentiful, and calorie rich food and does not require much in the way of energy expenditure. It is virtually impossible to exists in nature (where food is scarce and people must spend time working, standing and moving). To live at 300 pounds is very unhealthy because you are twice the average healthy weight for humans. Humans were not designed to be this weight.
Excess fat and weight in general puts additional stress on the muscular and skeletal systems, resulting in health issues with mobility and movement. A 300 lb man has a muscular / skeletal system evolved to handle 150 lb….but one which is forced to carry an excess 150 lb.
Excess fat causes problems with hormonal and endocrine system.
Excess fat and the lifestyle factors that contribute to it also contribute to a whole host of other diseases, such as cancer, diabetes, and heart disease.
If you take an animal in a laboratory and double it’s calorie intake and restrict its movement, you significantly decrease it’s lifespan, just like we have done to ourselves.
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