Assalamualaikum & Salam Sejahtera...

Thanks to Br. June for posting his points regarding the obesity and self-esteem. I found the points presented very interesting. I'm not going to add facts to what had been posted, but here I think I would like to simplify what had been presented by Br. June.

I believe, the answer for research question whether obesity has impact on self-esteem is the "YES". Yes, obesity does give a negative impact on individual's self-esteem because individual's ability to satisfy with themself  is one of the components of self-esteem. In this issue, most of obese people do not satisfy with their physical outlook. Therefore, it resulted in low self-esteem within them.

Once again, thanks to Br. June for initiating the discussion on this research question. Well, my dear friend...Br. Hafizul and Hj. Nawawi... tell us what your saying about this issue!

Till then, bye.

Posted by:
Hairunnaja bin Hj. Najmuddin
G75754
CFS IIUM Petaling Jaya
2/12/2009, 10.57 a.m

hi guys.welcome back to our blog discussion.want we want to knows about obesity has impact on self esteem?what we've heard the word time again in almost all self-help texts self esteem.In the most simple understanding,self esteem is feeling good about yourself or liking yourself.

Broadly defined, self-esteem refers to the extent to which one values oneself as a person  ( Harter & Whitesell, 2003). Self –esteem is notable complication of pediatric overweight as previous research has linked low self-esteem in children with negative consequences such as behavioral disorders,negative or depressed mood,and other emotional concerns (Harter, 1993). Conversely, self-esteem improvements are associated with a decrease in externalizing behaviors ( Haney & Durlak, 1998).

One vital factor which can make or unmake a persons self-esteem is their physical appearance. People tend to acknowledge a person according to how they look and this is one of the major drawbacks of those suffering from weight problems. You can imagine how much the percentage of overweight people there is.

Especially as healthy lifestyle and healthy eating habits are most often neglected these days. But one of the fact determined regarding this is the role of self-esteem in the obesity condition. A vicious cycle is actually involved. It is called the obesity-self-esteem cycle. When a person is obese,chances are they would suffer from low self-esteem. And when a person has issues with how they perceive themselves, it is possible that they would suffer from weight problem as well.

It is apparent why an obese person would most likely dislike how they look, and so it results to them having a negative perception of themselves. But what of the person having issues with themselves developing a weight problems? Self-esteem issues fall under the category of emotional issues. And emotional issues can lead to a person engaging in emotional eating.

If a person happens to have suffered from bad experiences which significantly impacted their self-esteem,then the core of their personality may be negatively affected. And if somebody happens to have a problem from within,chances are, problems would manifest on the outside,too. Emotional issues can cause a person to live unhealthy lifestyle or neglect taking care of themselves.

If the problem or the negligence persists,then consequences can arise,possibly health-wise. And then again,obesity can be among these consequences. To prevent the vicious cycle,emotional traumas or issues have to be primarily addressed. It means a person should first strive to be emotionally healthy. Our emotions consist a major part of our personaliti. And if we care for our emotional well being,we care for an important aspect which contributes to our total well being.

Negative beliefs about ourselves have to be done away with,and emotional issues sorted out. There are several means for doing this,one which is the Mind Resonance Process or MRP. It is a relatively new kind of therapy process. Other than this,there are mind and emotional therapies which have their own approaches in inculcating healthy self esteem. If you happen to be resourceful enough, you might find the right therapy which could be the lfe-changing key to your happiness.

to more information log to :

obesity and Psychologist Problems dshs.state.tx.us/.../pdf/psychologist impact of obesity.pdf.

self esteem and success (or failure).by.Dr.Rose.www.healthzine.org/obesity/self esteem

The social impact of obesity www.hoodiagordoniipure.com/social_impact_obesity.htm

thank you .hopefully this information help a lot for those who are needed.

June ak Umar (G75767)

Assalamualaikum and Salam Sejahtera to all.

I believe we still have one more research question to be discuss in this blog. So, let me remind all of you that the remaining research question is ..

Does obesity have impact on individual's self-esteem?

This is of course a very good question to ask. I believe all of us have opinion on this. Let us discuss this issue before we conclude what we have found throughout this blogging activity. I will be back again with my points.

Till then. Bye...

Posted by :
Hairunnaja bin Hj. Najmuddin
G75754
CFS IIUM Petaling Jaya
1/12/2009 1.35 p.m

OBESITY AND DEATH

Assalamualaikum and Salam Sejahtera to all my friends.

Thanks to Hj. Nawawi for giving his points and views regarding the obesity and life expectancy. First of all, I would like to apologize to Hj. Nawawi and other friends for not being able to give my comment and view on this issue much more earlier.

After reading what had been posted by Hj. Nawawi and after looking for more information from the internet, I would like here to give my comments and views regarding the issue. I believe that obesity brings many bad news than good news. If we want to stay health and live a healthy life and live longer, we must give extra care of our body weight. We must avoid ourselves from becoming obese or overweight.

I found article in the internet with title “Obesity Causes Early Death”. In the article, there was statement from Dr. Sukumar Nadesan, ex-chief lecturer of UKM that says;

“...youngsters spending more time on the internet and watching television, should spare time for exercise. We should change our lifestyle. We should also avoid fast food as well as junk food to reduce obesity and have a healthy body. Obesity reduces life span.”

Please refer to http://www.dmni.com/obesity_causes_early_death.html for full text of the article.

From the article, the expert said that obesity reduces life span. Therefore, I believe what had been posted by Hj Nawawi is true and in line with many experts’ view about the issue.

I also found article in http://www.raymondtan.net/?p=610 which mention about obesity and death. The title of the article is “Obesity Opens Death’s Door”. The article was written by Dr. Albert Lim Kok Hooi and was first published in the New Straits Times (NST) on 7^th July 2008.

The author wanted to warn people that obesity can lead to cancer. He wrote this based on the report prepared jointly by the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) and the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) that details the findings of the most authoritative investigation ever undertaken into the link between lifestyle, diet and cancer.

From these 2 articles, and views posted by Hj Nawawi, I would like to conclude that obese people most probably unable to live longer compared to people with normal weight range.

That all from me.

Wassalam.

Posted by :

Hairunnaja bin Hj Najmuddin

G75754

CFS, IIUM Petaling Jaya.

30^th November 2009, 2.35 p.m.

   Hello my dear friends. We have not been on discussion for more than 1 week and let me remind you that our date line for this project almost near to the end. I know that we have so many commitment in our life compare with full time students but anyway, we must make this mission complete succesfully. So, let me proceed with our last research question which is - relationship between obesity and life expectancy.

   In earlier discussion, I have mention that, obesity is associated with significant morbidity and mortality and everybody of us seem agreed that obesity bring about more harm than good for our body. In this discussion, I want to bring some facts to support my statement. According to Sherina Mohd Sidik & Rozali Ahmad (2004) ( http://nutriweb.org.my/publications/mjn0010_1/mjn10n1_art3.pdf ), there are some consequences of obesity that effect our general health i.e asymptomatic atherosclerotic, high blood pressure, dyslipidaemia, risk of type II diabetis mellitus, newly diagnosed asthma, psychosocial problems and risk of metabolic syndrome. In short, Segal & Sanchez (2001) conclude that, obesity effect in our body system including cardiovascular, respiratory, orthopedic, gastrointestinal, endocrine and psychosocial morbidities. Futhermore, Nutrition Society of Malaysia president, Dr. Tee E Siong said that the chances of a person having related medical conditions increase among overweight and obese persons ( http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/11/1/focus/5019988&sec=focus ). So, in my opinion is, with so many ailment, it's clear that obesity will significantly reduce life expentancy. Let move to another fact to make it more clear...

   According to the National Center for Health Statistic in USA (NIH), the risk of an early death goes up as weight increases ( http://www.ehow.com/about_5470667_average-life-expectancy-obese-people.html ). A study found that obesity-related problems claim 112,000 lives each year in the United States. The NIH found even a 10 to 20 pound weight gain can increases the treat of premature death, especially in adults between the ages of 30 and 64. The findings were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

   Another article were published in the Journal Annals of Internal Medicine said that people who are obese at the age of 40, can expect their life expectancy to be shortened by up to seven years, compared with people of a healthy weight ( http://www.irishhealth.com/article.html?id=4531 ). This is due to obesity is already associated with a myriad of health complications including diabetes, heart disease and damage to the joints.

   According to an article published by Medical Research Council in United Kingdom (2009), almost one million people from around the world has shown that obesity can trim years off life expectancy ( http://www.mrc.ac.uk/Newspublications/News/MRC005722 ). They found that moderate obesity, which is now common, reduces life expectancy by about 3 years, and that severe obesity, which is still uncommon, can shorten a person’s life by 10 years. Obesity increases death rates for some types of cancer, but the main way it kills is by increasing risk of heart disease and stroke.

   Maybe the only good news is the finding from study by Sandra L. R et al. (2004) which found that obesity had little effect on life expectancy for either older men or women, once people had reached age 70 ( http://gerontologist.gerontologyjournals.org/cgi/content/full/45/4/438 ). But, usually the ‘fat’ phenomenon does not waiting until we are old to present.

  So, this is what I found from my searching for this topic. What are your opinions? Do you agree with me or maybe you have other facts that can contradict with my opinion? Until then, see you again.

Posted by Nawawi Samad (G75799)

Assalamualaikum.

Meet you all again. I agree with opinion from Br Hairunnaja about connection between obesity and intimacy. Look like he had a lot of personal experience. That why he can explain in detail.

            Maybe I want to add more about his claiming that female with obesity unable to get involve in an intimacy with man compare with opposite sex. There was a study done by  Mara S. Aruguete et al. (2008), which was published in Journal of Eating Behaviors Volume 10, Issue 3 . This study was aim to compare romantic interest in obese and non-obese for 1217 college students, self-perceptions about body image and romantic selectivity. In their abstract, they claim that obese people (especially women) showed strongly negative self-perceptions. Obese people and women were less likely to be selective about the physical traits of their potential partners than non-obese people and men. Obese women preferred overweight (but not obese) partners. Obese men preferred partners in the normal weight range. Their finding suggests that obesity is associated with predictable alterations in one's romantic attraction to others.

            Maybe it's true that obese people (especially women) showed strongly negative self-perceptions. However, to me this is a stigma that we gather since our childhood. It's all about upbringing by our parent and environment factors. This is not our fault at all. Again this is related with psychology point of view. Child with obesity always seen as attractive during childhood. As well, many parents don't recognize when their kids are overweight. Even when their child is obese, they assume that their child's weight as "about right." Some parents are reluctant to admit a weight problem in their children, because many are overweight themselves. Others think that with so many other people around them getting fatter, being overweight is normal. Another issue is self image concepts introduce by our community through many advertisement which is more concern about thinness rather than obese. Furthermore, body image and self perceptions were significant predictors of restrained eating and social functioning of youngsters. Again, I agree with opinion from Br Hairunnaja.

Posted by,

Nawawi bin Samad

G75799

6/11/09 @6.00 pm

Assalamualaikum & Selamat Sejahtera..

Dear friends, let me first do the discussion on this matter....  This is what I can conclude from my reading on matters pertaining to obesity and intimacy from the internet.

To the question on whether obese people able to have intimate relationship with others of opposite gender, I would like to give my answer based on my personal opinion and based on the fact.

Physical Appearance versus Inner Beauty :

As a person, I agree that it is not wise to like or dislike someone because of his or her physical appearance. What are most important are the heart and the kindness of other people. No matter if he or she fat or slim, the heart and kindness elements are the one that should be considered more than anything else. I agree with the saying that says the inner beauty is the thing that makes us appear to be beautiful in the eyes of other people. Inner beauty has its strength and it is so pure and clean until the beauty from within could be seen in ones physical outlook, behavior and action. If we have good heart towards others, able to accept who we are, able to respect the young and old person, do not have jealousy on others happy condition and etc., - these entire element will be reflected in our selves. This is what beauty is all about to me. Beautiful is so subjective. It is not measured by kilograms (kg) or meters (m) ones possess. It is not limited to the color of the skin – black, white.

The Situation of My Obese Close Friend :

Throughout my life, I met many obese people. I have a close friend that weigh about 130 kgs who is very active in sport. He is a teacher and he is a futsal coach at his school. Obviously, the big body that he has does not limit his ability. Recently, he got married to his fiancée. This is what I want to talk about here. Although his physical is so huge (his waistline is more than 50 inch), he manages to capture his wife's heart. This is what I mean by the beauty. It does not only measured by the physical, but also other element. Of course…, my friend has a kind heart. He likes his profession very much. Most of students in the school like him. I believe his kind heart and other inner beauty that I have mentioned earlier – has been reflected in his appearance, behavior and action. All these elements must then able to melt his wife's love and passionate towards him. Hehehe…

What The Experts Says….

From my experience with obese male friends who are close to me, I found out that they don't really face problems to have intimate relationship with others from opposite gender (female). However, from the articles that I browse in the internet, I found different situation for obese female. In other word, female with obesity having problems to get involve in an intimate relationship with male as compared to male with obesity to get involve in an intimate relationship with female.

In Wellsphere website (http://www.wellsphere.com/general-medicine-article/health-headlines-september-7/451676) there is a report with title : Obesity Harder on Women. The report says that Berit Heitmann, a nutritional and medical research advisor to the Danish government told delegates of the International Obesity Congress in Australia that obesity causes more physical and social harm to women than men. The expert own word on this matter as quoted by Agence France Presse was "obese and female is as bad as it gets". She elaborates further his point by saying that obese women suffer more social stigma than obese man. Her words on this to the delegate was "obese women are deprived of friendships, intimate relationships, social interactions, education, income and respect".

Heitmann points of view regarding the issue of intimate relationship of obese female must have come from her research and study on the matter.

If her research finding is correct and accepted, I can assume that female with obesity unable to get involve in an intimate relationship with man, but obese male able to get involve in an intimate relationship. When I further do the search for information on the matter, I found another article that explains the issue of intimacy of obese people that also emphasize on gender. The article with title Coping Behavior and Loneliness Among Obese Patients is a finding of comprehensive study conducted by Rogier Hörchner, Wim E. Tuinebreijer, Hans Kelder, and Elly van Urk from Nursing Research Institute, Beverwijk, The Netherlands. Please visit http://www.springerlink.com/content/c0337666nl50k058 for the full text of the article.

The study was conducted to 104 patients (94 female, 10 male) who came for an intake consultation to assess their suitability for treatment of moderate or severe obesity. These patients were obese people with a body mass index (BMI) 32-64 kg/m² and mean age 36 years old. They were presented with the Utrecht Coping List (UCL) and the Loneliness Scale during the consultation. Here, I would like to quote the conclusion made by the researchers in the research abstract that is; "Obese female patients displayed avoidance, wait-and-see and passive response pattern as coping behavior, experiencing their intimate relationships as relatively unreliable and not very intimate."

The discussion of the study by the researchers says that De Jong-Gierveld J – co author of the Manual of the Loneliness Scale 1990 – has set a value of the 1.9 – 2.1 for people who view their relationships as reliable and stable, and 2.8 – 3.4 for persons without such relationship.

The discussion also added that in another article written by Van Tilburg TG and De-Jong-Gierveld J. i.e., Reference Standard for the Loneliness Scale, suggested the threshold score of a value of  3 or higher as an indicator for loneliness . From the data of Loneliness Scale of respondents in the study, the researchers found a mean score of 3.4 which could indicate a lack of intimate relationship and social support. Therefore, the result can be assumed as explaining that female with obesity were unable to have an intimate relationship with others of opposite gender.

Conclusion :

With my own experience and the facts that I have presented above I believe that in general people have tendency to ignore obese person. The media has also contributed to this situation because they always promote slim and fit body shape as beautiful. As we can see, those model or artist that appears on television or magazines – most of them (male or female) are slim and fit. Obviously they were not fat, overweight or obese people. This might have instill a belief in many people that they should find slim or fit girlfriend or boyfriend because it suggested to them that they actually in companion with someone who is beautiful or handsome!

Assalamualaikum and Selamat Sejahtera...

Due to unavoidable circumstances, we have to skip the discussion on the research question number 2 and move to research question number 3, i.e.,                

Do obese people able to involve in intimate relationship with others from opposite gender?

As you are all aware, Br June anak Umar who is suppose to lead the discussion on the research question number 2 is currently not well and warded at one of hospital in Seremban. Therefore, we have to skip the discussion and move to the research question number 3.

Let us pray that he will be recoverd from his illness soon and be with us in this blog again.

I will be right back soon to give my points regarding this issue.

Till then, bye.

Wassalam.

Posted by :

Hairunnaja Hj Najmuddin

G75754

GCU, CFS IIUM Petaling Jaya

7.26 p.m 2/11/2009

Assalamualaikum and Salam Sejahtera..,

This blog has not been updated for such a long time. Maybe everybody was busy with work and family..or maybe was very busy with the middle of semester examination for subject SKPX 2063 Physiological Psychology. For me, I admit that I really have to divide my time to do work in the office and to read book for that though subject. The subject is very challenging and yet very interesting... Yesterday, the mid. semester was over and now I feel much better..

As for our discussion on obesity, I would like to give my points here. Thanks to Hj. Nawawi for his detail points and to Br. Hafizul for his elaborative and interesting writing. Let me share with you my points regarding the major factors that contribute to obesity. After browsing the internet, I found that explanation from the World Health Organization (WHO) about what causes obesity very thought provoking! The fact says

"The fundamental causes of obesity and overweight is an energy imbalance between calories consumed on one hand, and calories expended on the other hand".

Regardless of whatever psychological condition of individuals or any other causes line up earlier, posted by Hj. Nawawi or Br. Hafizul, the causes of obesity is the imbalance between the food that is taken and the energy that is used in individuals. To make my sentence simple to be understood, think about this idea. If we eat a lot, we must exercise and do work to burn the calories that is kept inside our body. If we don't use the calories, it will be changed into fat and therefore make us become overweight or obese.

The fact from WHO also says that factors for obesity and overweight are attributable to a number of factors including the following:

1. A global shift in diet towards increased intake of energy-dense foods that are high in fat and sugars but low in vitamins, minerals and other micronutrients; and

2. A trend towards decreased physical activity due to the increasingly sedentary nature of many forms of work, changing modes of transportation, and increasing urbanization.

What are said in these 2 points can clearly be understood that obesity and overweight are one of the result of modernization. In this modern era, our food is very different compared to the food in the era of our parents and grandparents. The time has changed. So has the food. As for example, the hamburger. It was not one of our local food (Malaysian food). But now, everybody knows what is it and like it more that any local food.

Apart from that, our lifestyle has also changed. Now, we have so many facilities around us which can help us in doing our work. To go to office, we use car or motorcycle. To wash cloth, we use washing machine. To make coffee, we use coffee make and etc.. All these facilities don't help us to burn the calories that is kept inside our body. As a result, we become fatter and fatter day by day.

For more detail about the fact about obesity, kindly visit this website. http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs311

That all for now. Thank you my friend for reading my points.

Wassalam.

Posted by:

Hairunnaja bin Hj Najmuddin

G75754

CFS IIUM Petaling Jaya

7.05 p.m 2/11/2009

           Assalamualaikum and have a nice day to all my friends. How are you, now we start to discuss our first topic about obesity and the factor that contribute to obesity. All of you had been read the notes from our friend Haji Nawawi, where he mentioned some factor which contribute to obesity. I agree with his notes and opinion that been given.

            I want to add other information, which is attitude of the human about the obesity in their life. In my opinion, attitude is the one of the important thing that can influence the level of our health and lifestyle of the human. If we always practise a good attitude where we are concerned and take good care in our health, we cannot neglect to do an exercise activity and eat balance diet everyday as a routine.

            We also cannot realized that our attitude always take easy about this problem that contribute ourselves into this disease that called obesity. As we know  that genetic factor and taking a lot of medicine in our diet also influence to the obesity. But, if we have a good attitude which is take good care and concerned about this problem, perhaps it cannot become worst as we discuss earlier.

            Obesity is becoming one of the major problem affecting people all over the world. I want to say that nowadays our lifestyle also occur to this problem. The children which is live in the urban spend more time watching television and play the video game . Differ to the people who lives in the village, where they spend their time with a lot of physical activity outside in the house such as sweep and clean the yard, plant the vegetables and flowers. This physical activity a lot of movement in our body. In the school, sport activity such as physical education and co- curriculum only held once a week. The teacher only focus in the classroom activity.

            In the other hands, parents also a lot of their time in the office and when they are at home they cannot bring their children to do some physical activity, they give a lot of excuses such as tired and didn’t have time for that activity. For the parents that live in the urban they spend a lot of time in the vehicle because everyday the must faces the traffic jam on the road.

            When they arrived at home, they are exhausted to prepare and cook the food to their children. The easy way to prepare the food is just buy or pick up the phone and dial and just order the fast food that give a service such as Pizzahut, Mc Donald or KFC. This eating habits can contribute the community exposed to unhealthy food diet and also can changed the physical size. All the people must take their role to avoid this critical problem among us not only from the family but also the country all over the world.

MOHD HAFIZUL HARUDDIN

G75790

21 OCT 2009 : 12.05 A.M