I’m sure you have all seen cases of severe morbid obesity.
My question is assuming a person was 200 or more pounds overweight and then then lost the excess weight and got to a normal size for their frame,would they ever fully recover?
So say 5 years down the road a physician wouldn’t be able to tell they had ever been obese,and with no outward physical signs(excess skin etc.).
And no for the record i am not morbidly obese ,this is not a cry for help,just something i have sometimes been curious about.
Having been a member of OA (Overeater’s annonymous) years ago, I observed that people who lost a great deal of weight always had odd body shapes afterwards. Their remaining fat was distributed differently. I could always tell.
I’ve lost 200 before and didn’t really have ‘extra skin’, although I have mild/subtle stretch makes. But I was young (17-18), and that might account for it.
One of the class athletes in my area was an overweight chain smoker 20 years ago. He fell into running then and then fell into triathlons. He has made the USA team in triathlons and has always placed high in those events. Ten years ago you could still see some stretch marks on the skin of his legs, when I last saw him in the shower. (We worked out at the same club then.) I haven’t seen him nude in 10 years, but the last time I saw him (in running shorts) you could never tell that he was an overweight slob at one time.
So, yes. they can fully recover, but it takes time and it takes exercise. I assume his innards are similar to any other athlete’s now (probably better), but I really don’t know. However, I don’t see why not. I was never overweight, but I wasn’t into exercise 30 years ago, and my cardiovascular system is much better now than it was then.
Morbid obesity may leave telltale signs internally. For example, one might reasonably expect a higher incidence of atherosclerosis. As for external signs, stretch marks would be likely. Body form might be unusual, as the musculature would have adapted to carrying extra weight. One wouldn’t expect the muscular development to be proportioned “normally” as it is in reaction to the specific demands of carrying excess adiposity. I’d wager that a year or two of a proper exercise program would make any discernable abnormality disappear.
A past history of morbid obesity will leave some kind of mark, seen or unseen. One cannot undo what was done. Now if a person adopts a healthy lifestyle and sticks with it, they may well end up healthier than a sedentary individual who was never obese. But morbid obesity represents a chronic disease, which can never be cured, only managed.
Sir William Osler, MD who was one of the founders of the Johns Hopkins Hospital said the way to live long was to get a chronic disease and then take care of it.
Morbid obesity is the condition where fat tissue load is so great, that it creates problems for other organ systems. Remove the morbid obesity, and some changes in other organ systems will persist, and fundamental physiologic changes to the system will not be completely reversed. Just like virginity can’t be restored. One may live chastely afterwards, but one won’t be a virgin again.
OK, I’ve stretched the analogy with the virginity thing, but I hope you can see my point.
,this is not a cry for help,just something i have sometimes been curious about.