# Morbidly obese in your 20s--lower life expectancy?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/morbidly-obese-in-your-20s-lower-life-expectancy/534282>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 30, 2010, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/morbidly-obese-in-your-20s-lower-life-expectancy/534282 "2010-03-30T00:56:14Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![blackhand1001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ba9def/32.png) [@blackhand1001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blackhand1001)\
**Post date:** [April 17, 2013, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/morbidly-obese-in-your-20s-lower-life-expectancy/534282/21 "2013-04-17T02:38:43Z")

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> [@phouka](#):
>
> I’m going to have to disagree, **don’t ask**.
> 
> I’ve been overweight since I was fourteen. Believe me, through the years, I’ve had all the motivation and will power in the world. I never lost any significant weight until this past year. What changed? I was formally diagnosed with ADD and given medication for it, and my GP recognized that my weight had impaired my body’s ability to respond to insulin. He prescribed an insulin resensitizer. I’m down 45 pounds at last weigh-in, and I have no more “willpower” than I did ten or twenty years ago.

Its also important to note that most ADD medications have a side effect of also being a hunger suppressant. That probably contributed to your weight loss as well if not more.

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**Author:** ![davekhps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a5b964/32.png) [@davekhps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davekhps)\
**Post date:** [April 17, 2013, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/morbidly-obese-in-your-20s-lower-life-expectancy/534282/22 "2013-04-17T18:14:02Z")

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> [@KarlGauss](#):
>
> **Crafter\_Man** : The evidence linking (massive) obesity to organic/physical causes, as opposed to psychological ones, is huge and consistent. If you insist I will find you a link but to anyone involved in the field, the question was asked and answered long ago: massive obesity is almost never due strictly to “psychological causes”. It is rooted in the interplay among genetics, hormones, metabolism, etc. (which includes their effect on behaviour, mind you, but that has a very, very different implication than saying obesity is primarily a psychological problem).

Explaining the chemistry behind fire doesn’t mean an arsonist is any less nuts.

Full disclosure: Successfully had WLS in 2011, since lost 160 lbs and at a normal BMI. I lost the weight because of physical restriction: fewer calories in, more calories out, voila, I lost weight.

But I also know that _before_ my surgery, psychologically I never would have been able to do what was necessary to restrict my diet to what it was after the surgery. Short of someone preparing all of my meals for me, or a prison camp of some sort, my own personal willpower would never have permitted me to restrain myself to the calories I eat now.

Yet, plenty of people manage to do just that.

Is it all just biology? Or is psychology part of it, too? If people can be “emotional eaters”-- and no one can scientifically deny there are such people-- there must be “emotional dieters” as well, people with the psychological ability to override the compulsions to overeat and indulge.

I just know I wasn’t one of those people. So I took the “easy way” out-- painful surgery permanently removing 90% of my stomach. Yeah, TOTALLY easy/ snarc

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