If your fat your fat. If your short your short, if your ugly your ugly, there's just nothing you can do about prejudice.

Actually, for virtually all fat people, there IS something they can do: get off their fat butts, and eat a healthy diet.

There are almost no people who are fat for any other reason than poor habits....and there is nothing wrong with "discriminating" against people who practice them.

That's harsh. People don't get fat in a vacuum -- the Framingham Heart Study recently demonstrated that you "get it from your friends", meaning at least social pressure. That's not nothing; it takes effort to work against social pressure, we do not have endless reserves of effort, and we have many things to apply it to. See also _Mindless Eating_ by Brian Wansink -- we are influenced, unconsciously, by all sorts of cues, and companies in the business of selling food do everything they can to push those buttons (he won an Ignobel for the bottomless soup bowl -- yes, we will keep slurping it up, quart after quart). Government subsidies of walk/bike/transit-unfriendly housing and business development also make/made it harder to get exercise automatically or unconsciously; instead, we are encouraged to use the exercise-free default of drive-drive-drive.

(And no, I am not obese, and I get a pile of exercise every week commuting by bicycle. The social pressure is absolutely there -- I'm "that guy on the bicycle".)

There are almost no people who are fat for any other reason than poor habits....and there is nothing wrong with "discriminating" against people who practice them.

Well, I'm fat -- I'm 5'10" and weigh 298 pounds. I've fought the problem my entire adult life -- I can lose the weight, but it means being hungry every minute of every day. I did it for four years -- I lost down into the 180s and worked out, and listened to my stomach growl, and had no social life (can't have a beer, can't go to a restaurant), for four fucking years, and unsurprisingly, I couldn't stick with that regime forever. I looked great -- and I was miserable emotionally and uncomfortable physically and sick feeling a lot of the time.

Screw you, your discrimination, and your good luck in having a mesomorph body that society wants.

trapdoor:

There are almost no people who are fat for any other reason than poor habits....and there is nothing wrong with "discriminating" against people who practice them.

Well, I'm fat -- I'm 5'10" and weigh 298 pounds. I've fought the problem my entire adult life -- I can lose the weight, but it means being hungry every minute of every day. I did it for four years -- I lost down into the 180s and worked out, and listened to my stomach growl, and had no social life (can't have a beer, can't go to a restaurant), for four fucking years, and unsurprisingly, I couldn't stick with that regime forever. I looked great -- and I was miserable emotionally and uncomfortable physically and sick feeling a lot of the time.

Screw you, your discrimination, and your good luck in having a mesomorph body that society wants.

Why couldn't you go to a restaurant or have a beer? Because it might require exercise to burn off the calories? Most light beers are about 100 Calories, and from what I've found on the internet, a 30 minute walk will burn almost 200. So walk 15 minutes to a bar to meet your friends, have 2 beers, and walk home. I don't see the problem.

I was already working out every day, for an hour a day, just to maintain where I was. A beer, a couple of burritos, and my weight would go up three pounds.

My schedule simply didn't allow more exercise -- I was a newspaper reporter already working about 65 hours a week.

trapdoor, I absolutely believe your story because something similar has happened to me twice (though I never kept it off for four years). I think part of the problem with this issue is that most normal-weight and even slightly overweight people can't (or won't) understand that the appetite/satiety/calorie-burni­ng of an obese person trying to lose a significant amount of weight and keep it off is very different from that of someone who has never been obese. Hopefully scientists will keep researching things like leptin and grehlin and come up with some answers.

Sakura:

Actually, for virtually all fat people, there IS something they can do: get off their fat butts, and eat a healthy diet.

There are almost no people who are fat for any other reason than poor habits....and there is nothing wrong with "discriminating" against people who practice them.

Bull. You don't discriminate against the habits you discriminate against the effects. Two people very often can have the same behavior, diet, exercise, etc, and have a vast difference in weight.

Do you want to come cook for me while I'm at work drafting summary judgment briefs? I'll pay you.

Bull. You don't discriminate against the habits you discriminate against the effects. Two people very often can have the same behavior, diet, exercise, etc, and have a vast difference in weight.

Some people have to work harder than others to avoid being fat. Too bad. That's life. Deal with it. Or don't, and let people find you repulsive; it's a free country.

Some people have to work harder than others to avoid being fat. Too bad. That's life. Deal with it. Or don't, and let people find you repulsive; it's a free country.

Well, in English slang, a "quid" is a unit of currency equal to 1.5 pounds Sterling.

"Fecisti" I'm assuming is a misspelling of "fascisti" -- the black-shirt-wearing party of Benito Mussolini.

In any case, you sound like 1.5 fascists to me.

Tarkol:

Sakura:

Actually, for virtually all fat people, there IS something they can do: get off their fat butts, and eat a healthy diet.

There are almost no people who are fat for any other reason than poor habits....and there is nothing wrong with "discriminating" against people who practice them.

Bull. You don't discriminate against the habits you discriminate against the effects. Two people very often can have the same behavior, diet, exercise, etc, and have a vast difference in weight.

Everyone can discriminate against different things. I can't rule out discriminating against the effects, but I know discrimination against the habits is much more prevalent. I will admit when I am at some particular restaurants (that I won't name here), and 80% of the customers are overweight or worse, and everyone has at least 3 plates in front of them, it does make me rather annoyed. Conversely, when I see an overweight person at the park out for a walk or a run, it makes me happy that at least they are putting in an effort and exercise will improve health even if it does not lead to weight loss. Granted, these certainly could be the same people exercising and overeating that I am alternately annoyed and pleased with, but your statement is still false.

In any case, you sound like 1.5 fascists to me.

Yes, the fascists were notorious for telling people to do whatever they wanted.

(Incidentally, a quid just means a pound.)

What I wrote above seems a bit misleading--I was just commenting on my own thoughts. I won't pretend to have any idea was most people discriminate against.

Some people have to work harder than others to avoid being fat. Too bad. That's life. Deal with it. Or don't, and let people find you repulsive; it's a free country. -quidfecisti

Yep. That's pretty much it.

And if you could possibly save the whining about unfair treatment, that would be terrific.