A campaign of a brand of energetics has caused controversy in social networks recently, when publishing the video of two obese women, questioning the dictatorship of the thinness. Every day is a new day to fight outdated ideas that only make women trapped in an ideal of surreal perfection, says one. It is a battle to see beauty in differences. The campaign became virulent and several netizens came to criticize the models, saying they were not healthy. Which raises the question: after all, is it possible to be overweight and still have good health?

Nowadays, we know that there are those who are metabolically lean and those who are metabolically obese. There are people with a BMI (Body Mass Index) considered normal but who have the metabolic profile similar to that of an obese person.

According to the endocrinologist, this occurs because obesity is a heterogeneous disease, that is, it is not enough to calculate the BMI to determine the health of the individual. There is a type of obesity that is not associated with cardiovascular risk. Therefore, the blood fat, triglyceride, cholesterol, and insulin resistance tests of these patients appear normal and they are considered healthy.

Although obesity increases the chances of having metabolic changes, it is foolish who thinks that the amount of metabolically healthy obese is small. The people is 6 to 35% of the obese population in the world. What favors this metabolism not to be altered, even with the overweight, is the genetic factor. Some people have no tendency to accumulate visceral fat [which increases the risk of cardiovascular disease]. And the healthy, when compared to other obese ones, have smaller adipocytes [cells that store fats].

If the obese person practices physical activity then the chance to be healthy is even greater. The sedentary lifestyle is a risk factor for diseases greater than obesity itself. Obese people who are physically active have lower mortality than thin sedentary individuals. Obesity is complex and it is often difficult for a person to lose weight, so it is important that doctors encourage the practice of physical exercise, as not being sedentary greatly reduces the risk of disease.

Discrimination

Society has always understood that obesity is synonymous with being gluttonous and sloppy. By 2016 people still think that everyone who is obese eats a lot and does not do activity, while every thin person eats little and is active.

If a person goes to a party and tells someone who has diabetes, she is welcomed, they will recommend a soda without sugar, for example. But if the obese starts a diet and talks to someone at a party, he listens to having to leave the diet for another day.

The same prejudice holds for those who need medicine to treat obesity. When a person needs medicine for hypertension or diabetes, no one does any questioning. But society criticizes those who need medicine to lose weight.

In the campaign of advertising the girls of the campaign were criticized because, in the head of these people, an overweight model can not be pretty and be in advertising. They live this issue of bullying, the lack of respect with those who have obesity. These people need to understand that one must treat the obese with respect because, obesity is often not a matter of individual choice.

Treatment

Although being overweight is not synonymous with poor health, obesity increases, rather, the risk of certain diseases such as cardiovascular and bone and joint. Because they are more likely to develop these diseases, these patients need to be constantly evaluated through tests. There is no rule of how often they should be done, but if the patient already has a history of some disease in the family, such as diabetes, he needs to assess insulin resistance at least once a year.

If there is any change in these tests, then the recommended treatment is to lose weight. If the cause of that is excess weight, rather than giving medicine for diabetes or cholesterol, is to lose weight.

The recommended treatment varies from case to case, but the first approach, according to the president of Abeso, is the change in lifestyle, which consists of a diet allied to the practice of physical activity. In the case of an obese patient who already has some comorbidity [diseases that appear or intensify with obesity], we can use pharmacological treatments.

In cases of extreme obesity and patients unable to lose weight with pharmacological and lifestyle changes, the endocrinologist states that there is a possibility of having a bariatric surgery.