Good stuff Chris....

Then based on obesity statistics 2 out of 3 people in america were victims of childhood abuse? Or is it just half of obese people were abused, so 1 out of 3? And based on escalating obesity rates it also means that childhood abuse is accelerating at a rapid pace in america. The rest of the world must have much happier childhoods than us.

Perhaps it is the exception but my dad beat me and my brothers and we are fit because of fit. We all worked out and studied martial arts for that one day when there would be a reckoning...it never really came. Once we started getting big enough to fight back the beatings stopped.

I also know a girl that was beat by her dad. She was beat if she didn't do well enough in her sports...and she is uber fit today...and she has since mended the relationship with her dad.

So my theory isn't that the beating caused you to stuff your face with donuts. But perhaps the parents never started their children down the path of self-discipline...which in my opinion can be a far worse form of abuse. Parents that beat their kids tend not to care for, or parent them, in other ways. I think if the parent never beat their kids but neglected the fundamental parenting role - their kids would most likely be pathetic faties still.

I think that it is not just abuse that can lead to overeating but a myriad of emotional traumas that occure in childhood through even adulthood. I watch The Biggest Loser and have for several seasons now, and the key thing that I see with these extremely obese people, is some form of childhood trauma. This is especially prevelant in the younger contestants, but does appear in the older ones as well. These traumas have ranged from familial deaths to abuse and anything in between. And like Chris said, these people chose to comfort themselves with food. At an early age this is probably the easiest way to go, a ten year-old hitting the iron is not likely to happen. Plus as with most situatinos such as this its an aspect of there life they can "control". I put it in quotes because this control is an illusion, one that will bite them in the ass later. In the show, the "drama" comes with the dealing with of these issues. Becasue they have to be dealt with, or the person will be fat again.

Researchers have to find a reason in whatever they do, and it's always better to prove a hypothesis than not.
If they question a sample of obese people (they can't ask them all!) they aren't going to report that, while 13% of subjects where subjected to childhood trauma (what we would all consider abuse) and this has had a direct psychological effect, the other 87% though, are just lazy and weak-willed.
My Dad beat me senseless with a belt and all it did was teach me discipline, as with many people but, if I was obese and it was a result of an office job and a propensity for microwave dinners, and if I was included in a study; this would count as abuse and would be correlated to my obesity!

This philosophy is the very reason that I ALWAYS encourage frustrated teens, divorced men/women, people dealing with financial & career turbulence, and a whole host of others afflicted with personal maladies to take it to the gym and (preferably) get involved in natural bodybuilding. Surprisingly, they don't get the recommendation because they only see it a largely superficial and pointless "outer" goal - unless they seriously hit it and start seeing the physical (as well as the mental) results.

Which goes back to the psychological aspect of things, namely strengthing the mind as well as body. The self-control part of chiseling one's physique, through rigorous daily exercise and merticulous attention to diet, becomes ever empowering, and almost always changes people for the better. They may not "get it" at first, but if they stick with it they certainly do.

Conversely, folks that have been involved in the game long enough (and made significant progress becoming leaner, stronger and more muscular) don't seen to be overly bothered by anything anymore, past or present. The attitude becomes just the opposite: "I't no big issue, I'll deal with it." Once you overcome yourself, it's just hard to imagine something external capable of hindering or hurting you for too long...you become "head stron" as well as body-strong.

That's what it did for me, and I'm forever grateful for it. Today, stress is still present, by my clear headed mind certainly helps me confidently counter whatever life seems to through my way.

As a result, I've always believed in giving back what I owe, so I continuously refer others to the power of the iron and nutritional front...and let them win their own "inner war" with life.

I just hope everyone here is doing the same. Peace!

- Mike

I work really weird hours so when I do have time to catch some tv about all that's on are infomercials, bad movies, reruns of bad tv shows, and true crime dramas. I've seen all the TC dramas. One thing I noticed long ago is the correlation (visual, anyway) between obesity and women who've been raped. Watch any true crime serial rape story where the survivors tell their stories and it is so sad. When they flash photos of the women before their rapes they were beautiful, fit, and alive. After the rape? HUGE, no makeup, bad hair - as if by making themselves as unattractive as possible they'll inoculated themselves against ever being looked at by a rapist again. The women often bear no resemblance to their former selves.

The thing is, with people who've been victimized by someone more powerful obesity isn't their number one fear. Obesity PROTECTS them from their number one fear - they hope.

hey chris, why no article today?

as a CFF (current fat fuck) I have noticed that my ability to stay on a diet is directly attached to my self esteem. If my training is going well, then I feel good enough about myself to make the effort to take care of myself. If things are going wrong with training, work, or family, my self-esteem goes into the shitter, and I eat as if I am trying to kill myself.

People who are abused tend to have a lot of self esteem issues, as do fat folks. My theory is that overeating is a convenient way to punish yourself for not being worth anything.

I made this connection about a year ago (pretty smart since I've been a CFF for 46 years), when I was wondering why I felt so compelled to eat a half-gallon of ice cream in my car on my lunch break after an ugly conversation with my wife.

I notice a couple the posts above where people cite abuse as what made them fit, but I see a major thread of self esteem in there as well, deciding not that they would create an environment not where they feel protected from abuse, but by deciding that they won't be victims any more, which is a powerful commitment to make and a huge self esteem booster in my mind..

That's why I think its more a self esteem issue, which can frequently stem from abuse or not (I wasn't abused, just not particularly cared for, so I got the poor self esteem without the beatings).

sadly, and happily, the main thing that helps me stay on track with my diet is when I am tearing it up in the weight room. So, do what makes you feel like you are AWESOME

It is also worth noting that, in the literature Shugart is referring to, the authors have reason to believe that about one third of all women are sexually abused, and one eight of all men.

So, being that up to one half of obese women fall under this category, this trend is statistically significant being that obese women are 1.5-1.6 as likely (using the real numbers and deviations) to have experienced sexual abuse as their non-obese counterparts.

What all this means is that, while abuse is a significant factor in obesity (as well as more so in other areas of psychological distress, e.g. drug abuse, depression, etc.) sexual abuse and all forms of abuse are so common that it diminishes the significance of this finding.

The end message is that abuse destroys many people's lives, and one way it sometimes manifests is obesity.

As Chris said, abuse is a terrible thing, but metabolic syndrome, heart disease, and a slow, painful expensive death cannot help but make matters worse.

IMHO, with the right support (including profession psychologists), mindset, and motivation, nothing should stop people from staying away from obesity.

There are a myriad of strategies for dealing with abuse and trauma. Getting therapy is a good start. Some people eat stuff some people engage in drugs and alcohol and some people go on rampages shooting everyone they can saving one last bullet for themselves as a supplement to their therapy.

My childhood and teenage years are probably on a par with those of some members and unfortunately probably better than how some members had it and hopefully worse than the majority of members had it.

The behaviours for coping with stress and trauma that were modelled for me in my early stages of development were the shovelling of "special feel good" foods and treats into your gob or the ingestion of enough alcohol to change someone from everyday turn on you like a mad dog scary to hide somewhere that they cant fit to get you scary.

I have chosen to follow the path of the eating to feel good, rather than the numbing the pain with alcohol and being a horrible and scary person.

I'm not proud of how I look or the things i do, and Iâ??m ashamed of the things that happened to me. But I'm proud of the fact that I havenâ??t killed myself or anybody else in an attempt to get the anger out that boils away inside me, even though i have come very close to both of these on more than one occasion.

Yes I get help to cope with the daily turmoil in my mind, I have strategies to help me deal with things when it is all getting too much. The things that we talk about the most though are ways to change my psychological approach to food.

If it were as simple as just getting over it donâ??t you think I would?

Siren, I think you have it nailed. Psychological trauma can manifest in many different ways.

There's always been child abuse and sexual abuse, so why is it that it's so correlated with obesity these days and not pre-1970's or so? I think it has to do with convenient, cheap, fattening, and very addictive foods. It's just really easy to "medicate" today with junk foods, and the addictive nature of such foods just adds to that. (The book, "The End of Overeating" was really eye opening in that regard. Highly recommended.)

Obesity is a perfect storm of super-sized portions, addictive substances being added to foods in toxic combinations, moms working outside of the home, government subsidies, and about a dozen other factors that came together in the last 30 years or so. Food is just an "easy" drug to abuse today.

Nice post. Love this blog.

I often link your articles to things I send people, or like, my facebook profile. Great article.

While I personally find the title to be apt... ...but it's not PC enough for me to forward it on to the people I know who could benefit from it the most...

...would it be okay if I created a "PG" version, and sent it on? (Kidding, sort of)

I'll have to second the opinion that a lot of the abuse results in low self-esteem. You have to think of yourself as a worthy person to better yourself, otherwise you go for the easy route of food.

I don't think it's just physical abuse either. All sorts of emotional trauma can lead to avoidance behavior for a variety of reasons. In fact, doing a lot of directed self-introspection, I discovered I allowed myself to be fat in my 20's so I had an excuse to step out of the dating scene. Yep, all my dating up to that early point was such a horrible emotional experience that I wanted an excuse to not do it. So I got fat. Nobody expects a fat person to date, plus if you do try and are rejected the girl rejected your fatness, not you personally. Very convenient.

"Really, get over it.

You had a shitty childhood. That sucks. I'm sorry. Now can we stop with the egocentric pity party?"

Chris, I love your writing and the message of this.. but is this specific reiteration really necessary? I realize there are PLENTY of people who legitimately ARE wallowing in self-pity, consciously making it worse and making excuses for it... but there is also a large majority of people who are still in the ignorant / autonomous phase of their dysfunctional behavior. Do you think calling their behavior/trauma an egocentric pity party will really help them gain internal clarity instead of just feeling attacked by some shredded writer?

I'm not a fucking writer of COURSE and you're an amazing one. I give credit where credit is due. I just felt like that was actually working AGAINST your article's point. You can't expect everyone to be on the same level of "thick'd-skin'd-ness" as you; I'm genuinely posing a question here!

So my wife was abused as a child by her father and stepfather. Her mom was a model at one time, and taught her some weird eating habits. She's got some food issues, to the point where it's a three day fight if I ask her what she ate today. She gained a lot of weight with pregnancy, but I helped her lose it with a decent diet and going to the gym with her. Then I went to boot camp and school for a year, and she gained it all back.

She knows I can get her back in shape, but is basically refusing this time. She's started some light cardio, and is talking about improving her eating habits (ie, McD's, soda, Starbucks, wtf ever else). I can be patient with the weight loss, but it's her perception of food that really bothers me. I don't have any insight into what the fuck is going on in her head, and she won't talk. She goes to a therapist, is on meds, and only recently told her team about her eating problems. She bounces from not eating anything, like 700 cals or less, to having a value meal at some fast food place and maybe one other meal.


So, what the hell should I do? She knows what's wrong, she knows how to fix it. But she's not doing it.

Seriously, Chris, anybody, I need help with this. I hate fat people, and my wife is getting there fast.