You know me; I’m all about body positivity and loving your body no matter your size. However, there comes a time when you leave the healthy thick territory and can begin broaching morbidly obese territory instead. Which is which?
The following are signs that you might be obese:
· Snoring out of the blue
· Heartburn
· Odd skin problems
· Back and body aches
· Higher blood pressure
· Always out of breath
The goal of this article isn’t to body-shame anyone. Rather, I just want to make some health distinctions so that you can be a healthier, happier you!
The Differences Between Morbid Obesity and Healthy Thickness
Curves are all the rage these days. Most people go for the Kardashian-style curves, which feature impossibly skinny waists but bountifully round breasts, hips, and backsides.
How do you know if you fall into the healthy thick category or the morbidly obese category?
Well, most medical professionals would use the body mass index or BMI to decide, but the BMI system is terribly flawed.
It doesn’t account for differences in sex, race, body composition, bone density, and muscle mass.
The following differences will make for a more accurate gauge of whether you may be healthy thick, or morbidly obese.
Body Shape
While a healthy thick woman might not have the same body shape as another healthy thick woman, the general size of this body type is more pear-shaped.
A healthy thick woman will be thinner up top and become progressively wider around her midsection and especially around her derriere. Her thighs are often shapely as well.
A morbidly obese person is usually described as more apple-shaped.
Like the apple, they’re wider throughout, from the shoulders to the midsection, the hips, and the legs.
Presence of Excess Flesh
While even healthy thick women can have excess flesh, those who are morbidly obese tend to have this flesh in spades.
The excess flesh may form around the face and neck, the upper arms, the stomach, the back, the thighs, and the rear.
Connotations
If you call a woman thick, she’ll usually take it well.
Thick has become such a pervasive term in our modern vocabulary that it’s widely accepted as a compliment, just as calling a woman beautiful or athletic can be perceived the same.
However, if you were to turn around and call a woman (or a man!) morbidly obese, they will not have a good reaction. Whether they truly are that large or you’re just trying to be hurtful, saying that to someone is incredibly insulting.
8 Signs You May Be Morbidly Obese
There are yet more ways still than examining your body type in the mirror to gauge whether you may be morbidly obese. The following signs also indicate as much.
Irregular Periods
When you were a smaller size, you used to get your periods every month. It was like clockwork. Sure, maybe they didn’t come on the exact day you predicted from month to month, but it’d be darn near close.
Now, your periods don’t always come. Sometimes, when they show up, they last longer than the normal seven days.
The reason this happens is that your hormones have been thrown out of whack by the extra body fat you’re carrying around.
Varicose Veins
Varicose veins are enlarged and twisted compared to normal veins. Superficial veins nearer the surface of your skin are far likelier to become varicose veins.
The more you weigh, the greater your risk of developing varicose veins.
Snoring
You used to yell at your partner for keeping you awake with their incessant snoring when you never made a peep at night.
Now, the tables have turned. Well, your partner still snores, but so you do. You’re not sure why it is, because you never used to snore.
You’ve tried changing your sleeping positions, but nothing has seemed to help.
That’s because it’s not due to how you’re sleeping. Those who are morbidly obese have extra fat around the neck that can contribute to snoring.
Heartburn
You have to be very careful about what you eat now. Foods that never used to bother you before can leave you down and out with a terrible case of heartburn.
This is again contributed to being morbidly obese, as is any rise in your acid reflux. The added pressure in the throat and chest from your size sends the food in your stomach towards the esophagus.
Skin Changes
No, I’m not talking about acne or something like that. Morbidly obese people tend to develop their own unique skin issues.
As your body grows, your skin will stretch, leading to dark red or pink stretch marks across your body in areas such as your stomach, breasts, arms, and inner thighs.
Parts of your body can also develop darker skin with a velvety texture, especially near skin folds and the neck.
Back Pain
Unsurprisingly, back pain is a common complaint among the morbidly obese.
Your body has to carry an extra-heavy load around, and that’s difficult to do day in and day out with no breaks. The result is a painful back that can make engaging in physical activity difficult.
Knee Pain
It’s not only the backs of the morbidly obese that can ache but their knees as well. The additional weight pushes down on the knees, and it’s only a matter of time before your knees buckle under the pressure.
Getting up can be a struggle, as can walking for some people. As you could guess, that would make exercising very hard to do.
Shortness of Breath
If you feel like you can barely stand up and move around now without being out of breath, there’s a name for this, dyspnea.
The additional neck fat on your body can interrupt your airflow both into and out of your lungs, which can lead to that scary feeling that you can’t breathe. It’s best to see a doctor or other medical professional if this happens. Please don’t delay!
Health Complications of the Morbidly Obese
Unfortunately, it’s not only the above symptoms that can affect the morbidly obese. The following complications can all shorten what an otherwise beautiful life is.
High Blood Pressure
Obesity increases one’s risk of developing hypertension, which is known as high blood pressure.
Having unchecked high blood pressure elevates your chances of having a stroke and heart attack. Being obese also boosts your stroke risk and the chances of several heart-related conditions.
It’s all scary stuff for sure!
Diabetes
It’s not necessarily that the morbidly obese nosh on a lot of junk food and that’s what causes diabetes. Rather, diabetes occurs more frequently in obese people due to the excess glucose in the bloodstream.
According to the Cleveland Clinic, the morbidly obese are at a 6x risk for getting type 2 diabetes. There’s even a nickname for those with both obesity and diabetes, and it’s diabesity.
No, that’s not cute, but it shows what a growing problem obese people with type 2 diabetes have become.
Arthritis
It’s not only weight you put on your knees when you’re obese but pressure as well. Arthritis.org notes that being overweight by only 10 pounds increases the pressure on your knees by 15 to 50 pounds.
You can imagine how much extra pressure someone who’s morbidly obese has on their knees, which explains the elevated risk of arthritis.
Sleep Apnea
Remember how we discussed in the last section that obese people can start snoring more out of nowhere? Those fat deposits in the upper respiratory tract can also lead to sleep apnea.
The more fat deposits, the narrower the airways are, making it harder to breathe. Sleep apnea follows.
In fact, one of the symptoms of sleep apnea is snoring loudly. The others include gasping for breath while asleep, waking up with headaches and dry mouth, feeling exhausted all day, and finding it hard to stay asleep at night.
Stroke
It’s through a combination of high blood sugar, high triglycerides, and high cholesterol that a morbidly obese person puts themselves at risk of a stroke.
What may happen is that the blood vessels in the heart and brain sustain damage that could lead to the development of a clot. If that clot reaches the brain, then a stroke can follow, even if an obese person is younger.
Some Cancers
Texas Health and Human Services found that being obese raises one’s risk of these cancers:
· Meningioma
· Gallbladder cancer
· Pancreatic cancer
· Gastric cardia or upper stomach cancer
· Esophagus adenocarcinoma
· Ovarian cancer
· Liver cancer
· Multiple myeloma
· Pancreatic cancer
· Thyroid cancer
· Endometrial cancer
· Kidney cancer
· Colorectal cancer
· Post-menopausal breast cancer
Obesity Hypoventilation Syndrome
Obesity hypoventilation syndrome occurs when your blood lacks oxygen but has excess carbon dioxide.
The symptoms can include headaches, extreme fatigue, dizziness, and breathlessness, but don’t be fooled. Obesity hypoventilation syndrome can be a life-threatening condition!
Coronary Artery Disease
As one of the most common heart diseases among those in the United States, coronary artery disease is caused by fatty deposits known as plaque that prevent blood from getting to the heart.
What’s especially scary is that you can be asymptomatic or only have chest pain, or coronary artery disease could be so severe that you develop a heart attack.
Congestive Heart Failure
That’s not the only heart condition that the morbidly obese are at risk of. Congestive heart failure, which also prevents blood from reaching the heart, is another one.
Hopkins Medical found that the risk of heart failure in the severely obese is four times higher and that their risk of stroke and coronary artery disease is two times higher.
Conclusion
Those were a lot of sobering facts that I presented in this guide. Again, I’m not trying to attack the morbidly obese or anything of the sort. Instead, I’m merely trying to present the difference between morbid obesity and being healthy thick.
The keyword there is healthy. Thicker bodies, while may be considered overweight by the outdated and inaccurate BMI standards, are largely healthy. Someone who’s obese is not.
You know the signs that can indicate obesity besides an increasing number on the scale. You also know that a lot of complications can follow if you’re obese and that many of them–including stroke, heart conditions, and cancer–can be deadly.
I’m not here to tell you to lose weight or not lose weight, only to weigh the information that I presented to you very carefully!
