How come starvation isn’t used as a treatment for obesity, even though without food the body will consume fat reserves?
In: Biology
It is used but they call it fasting. There are subs dedicated to it: r/fasting and r/intermittentfasting
It’s very effective and mostly perfectly safe unless you have a pre-existing condition that makes it problematic.
Because obesity is first and foremost a mental health issue.
The physicality if it is a symptom.
It has been. There was a case where a man didn’t eat for about a year under doctor supervision. What he was given were supplements (vitamins and the like) because those are found in fat reserves but are still needed.
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That’s the only real treatment for obesity – to eat less fuel than you burn. An obese person can’t just stop eating food entirely because they need to constantly take in vitamins, minerals, and amino acids to keep living.
Starving yourself by eating just the bare minimum of nutrients to keep living isn’t generally successful because weight loss is a matter of changing habits and not relapsing. Starvation, like fad diets, is not a sustainable habit, feels terrible and usually results in the person givibg up and eating more.
First, starvation is extremely unhealthy. It’s extremely hard on your organs. You can cause permanent damage to your body. Your body will also go into survival mode and when the person starts eating food again will keep more fat in reserve to make up for the lost food.
Weight loss isn’t a one time event. For it to be lasting and effective behavioral change must occur or the person will just end up back in the same place.
Awww yes, torturing fat people. That’s a great plan. I’m sure life isn’t hard enough for them.
There are some programs that already do this. For example, some obese truck drivers can do a supervised water fasting program as a covered health benefit to help jump start their weight lose journey.
“Medical Starvation” has been done a few times where someone is given water and vitamin supplements but virtually nothing else and they do lose weight and remain otherwise healthy. But it has be be done under direct and constant doctor supervision with lost of testing to make sure you are still getting all the various vitamins and nutrients you need that are not stored in body fat. Someone doing it at their own home without supervision will most likely just die due to malnutrition.
[Angus would like a word:](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angus_Barbieri%27s_fast)
> Scottish man Angus Barbieri (1939 – 7 September 1990) fasted for 382 days, from June 1965 to July 1966. He lived on tea, coffee, soda water, and vitamins while living at home in Tayport, Scotland, and frequently visiting Maryfield Hospital for medical evaluation. He lost 276 pounds (125 kg) and set a record for the length of a fast.[1]
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