[Thor]

Originally Posted by PsYcNeT

See this is what I'm talking about, it's a massive dense depository of technical papers that take at least an hour each to sift through (and some require fore-knowledge of biology, biochemistry, genetics, metabolic systems, historical nutrition, psychology, etc. etc. etc.)

True, science is hard. Which is why there is so many science denialists, climate denialists, anti vaxxers, anti gmo'ers...

What I'm asking is, what does the modern science currently boil down to? There is always a short version that lays out the pertinent points, as well as a summary article that has references to sort through if you so choose to pursue them.

Hate to play this card again, but start with the BBC series, I linked to before. Then once you finish that series, you can read anything related to the gut biome and obesity research out there, which is in its early stages, but has a lot of promise.

From what I'm gathering here, related to hyper-obesity, and of course correct me if I'm wrong, you are saying that the responsibility lies mostly in genetics/metabolic systems and there is a not insignificant percentage of the Western population who suffer from this.

I don't know why you would suggest that, have you read anything of mine and others so far in this discussion? The responsibility has almost nothing to do with genetics, that would represent a tiny % of people suffering from obesity. There is however a number of studies that look at feast&famine and how that if your Grandparents where in feast you would be more likely to gain weight, and/or the reverse.

What I want to know is percentages. What relevance do these people have within the greater population. You are very concerned with educating us, that much is obvious, but the gist of your rebuttals is generic claims and links to long videos or dense article compilations.

"Generic claims" and "long videos".. which you have clearly not read or watched. Which is fine by me, not all of us care to spend the time to learn this stuff, but then why comment on it, is my counter argument.

Not sure what you want to know % wise, I keep repeating the numerous studies that show obese and severely obese have a success rate under 2%.

So, long story short, lets pick a country, say Canada as a reference point.What percentage of Canada is overweight? How is overweight classified?What percentage of Canada is obese? How is obese classified?

Other people should not have to do this research or spend the effort for you dude. If you want to know any of these answers, you can google it..

What percentage of obese persons in Canada suffer from obesity due to inactivity and poor nutrition? If neither of these things are the primary cause (and as you've mentioned, obesity is moving more towards being treated as a mental disorder first and foremost), then what percentage suffer psychologically that puts them at risk?

Not quite sure the question here. All Canadian's, American's, Europeans suffer from less activity. Poor nutrition? Well typically the poor can only afford high calorie, low nutrient density foods...

Again not exactly sure what you are asking here, does obesity have a mental component, yes, in fact the key to success from obesity is 95% mental.

What percentage of obese persons in Canada have a glandular issue?

No idea honestly, probably a very tiny number, less than 1% I would hazard a guess.

And I guess the million dollar question is, and pardon me for being gauche and asking it, is how much of obesity can be quantified as the fault/responsibility of the person?

How much is alcoholism the responsibility of the person.
How much is gambling the responsibility of the person.

I am not quite sure how you are asking these questions, as they have been addressed before earlier. Not even talking about the video or links to articles either.

If the literature is again moving towards mental illness/deficiency, are we moving towards obesity treatments that are more in-line with how we treat drug addiction? Are there any studies that show that treating obesity like a drug addiction is successful? Are there studies refuting that treatment?

In Iceland, a group I work with which treat's food addiction the same as other drug addictions does have a decent bit of success. There are worldwide food addict groups, the same as AA, ALANON, etc..

There are so many questions here, and repeatedly saying "THE SCIENCE SAYS THAT PEOPLE AREN'T FAT BECAUSE THEY ARE LAZY/EAT CRAP ALL THE TIME!" sounds terribly defensive.

Never said that, and the fact you did and did it in all caps says quite a bit about how you view the issue.. So far there has been a lot of answers to your questions, articles, studies, videos... But as most people do they skip them and continue to hold on to their dearly held beliefs as you seem to have done, but I hope at least you give that BBC series a watch as it will if nothing open your mind to some new ideas.

It's a complicated issue, and I think you are just as guilty of trying to oversimplify (or at least, deflect to massive massive body of research that is difficult for a layman to read through, let alone understand) as anyone who says "calories in, calories out".

I have from the start said, it is a very complex issue. The vast majority of my effort has been to call out those who simplify and demonize obesity in a way that counters the science and knowledge that we have on the subject.