If being overweight makes you stressed out, depressed, underpaid, and underlaid...should that not be enough motivation to lose the weight, and not to get heavy in the first place?

My social circle consists of full-fledged gluttons. We all love food. We can talk about food for hours, describing our latest cooking conquests and restaurant trips. I eat piles and piles of food every day and snack constantly. The piles of food I consume as do my friends differ drastically from the piles of food consumed by overweight people. I see this difference at the lunch table at work, while shopping for groceries or when going out to eat. I eat piles of veggies, fruit, seafood, chicken, some red meat and a bit of whole grains. I do not venture into the baked goods section or into the processed foods section at all. Although I eat throughout the day, my daily consumption seldom passes 2000 calories and is usually less...and yes there are occasional days when I eat a nice big cheeseburger, but they are occasional. I do not drink soda or sugared juices. My one vice is beer and wine..in moderation mostly. Also, I go to the gym. And yes there are overweight people in my family, so it is not likely to be a question of genes.

Please do not tell me that if someone who is overweight followed this same lifestyle they would not lose weight. Dieting does not work. One needs to change their lifestyle completely. Stop buying soda, processed foods, baked goods and fatty meats. Eat plenty of food, but fill your plate with fresh produce and lean proteins. You do not need to eat organics or anything like that...plenty of produce is very cheap. Indulge occasionally and join a gym. It will work. Its not rocket science.

Nanoshka, yes, it is rocket science. The human body is much more complex than you appear to know....

To us, it's not rocket science. You probably had active parents and started out with a good attitude about health and food.

Me, too. And I acknowledge it would be an advantage if I were ever in danger of out of control weight gain.

However, what I find so ridiculous about this obesity epidemic and its preposterous don't-abuse-us campaign is that while obese people are content to live the way they live, they have no problem suggesting and trying to legislate that the rest of the world adapt to make them more comfortable.

Is food not an addiction? Do we institute cocktail hour at the DMV to make drunks happy? Why the leniency with food addicts when alcoholics and drug addicts are punished. You're pretty much the same people. Beholden to a substance and a downhill spiral of self-fulfilling prophesy.

But fat, for some reason, gets a pass. The healthcare industry is practically on its last legs thanks in large part to the overwhelming negative effects of obesity, but it's out of line to point out a causal relationship and sever those causes?

Horsesh*t.

Obese adults lack self control. That is an unappealing thing to be around, to have to witness and to be forced to deal with. Parents who breed obese children should be charged with child neglect for hanging physical and social death sentences around their kids' necks.

yes agreed. Kids do not have complete control over their diet..they eat what they are fed and pick up habits from parents.Then they do have a real struggle with losing weight as an adult. It is always easier to keep the weight off in the first place than to lose it later in life.

kati:

Nanoshka, yes, it is rocket science. The human body is much more complex than you appear to know....

Actually, Kati, it is not rocket science at all. Einstein put a bunch of equations together and when he finished the conversions and cancelling, he got to the bottom of the page to find:

"e=mc2"

Sure, you can apply calculus, derivatives and even imaginaries to the diet science; maintain insulin levels, carbo this, protein that, 5x a day this, this proportion of that. When you finally solve the equation, you get:

"in-out=net"

DvB

Nanoshka, yes, it is rocket science. The human body is much more complex than you appear to know....

You know what food would be better for you. You know what level of exercise would be healthier. If you're fatter than you want to be, change your current system for a healthier one. Or don't make the switch, and shut up.

SWZA:

Is food not an addiction? Do we institute cocktail hour at the DMV to make drunks happy? Why the leniency with food addicts when alcoholics and drug addicts are punished. You're pretty much the same people. Beholden to a substance and a downhill spiral of self-fulfilling prophesy.

Yes - food can be an addiction. What you overlook is that food is not like drugs and alcohol. Drugs and alcohol are things that people can walk away from (granted not easily), but they can never touch them again. Food is something people need to survive and therefore someone can not stop eating cold turkey. An alcoholic doesn't have to say well I can only have wine if I want to be OK, but everything else is out of the question - no they can stay clear away from it and what happens if they don't. They relapse and often binge very badly. People who have problems with food cannot stop putting food in their mouth and constantly have the battle of whats OK to eat and what isn't.

Nothing in this post refers to people who suffer thyroid disorders, physical handicaps or disease that make them unable to control their weight.

***

You don't understand substance addiction. If an addict can manage to stop lifting the bottle to his lips or the hundred to his nostrils that IN NO WAY means he is over and done with the process. Recovering alcoholics think of nothing but having another drink every waking moment until they die. Same with people who suffer from abuse of narcotics, pharmaceuticals, etc.

And more to the point, when an addict can stop the intake, he still has to be able to function in society without falling off the wagon. Learn how to go out with friends and not retreat back into harmful behavior.

Food is something people need to survive? Insightful.

FOOD isn't the issue. Booze isn't the issue, drugs aren't the issue. It's self-destructive behavior that manifests itself in unhealthy coping mechanisms. It's the same across the board.

And drunks and junkies apply the same litany of bullsh*t excuses for why they can't, they can't, they can't. When in fact, they can. But it's scary, and it's going to be a hideous, painful uphill climb, and people may not support you along the way, and your dad didn't love you and on and on and on and on and on.

Ever see The Biggest Loser? Ever see the trainers yell at people to shut the hell up and get on the treadmill? Notice what happens when they finally stop b*tching and crying and puking and wailing? They get on the treadmill.

They stop fighting the support that is coming in a form they don't like, stop making excuses and realize that their lives are about to improve 100% thanks to someone with balls calling them out on their crap. And as insulted as they may be at the time, it's hugs all around when the complaint veil drops and people are able to appreciate the truth.

I keep waiting for the one contestant whose blood pressure doesn't go down, whose cholesterol doesn't drop through the floor, whose joint health doesn't improve, or whose life isn't suddenly this amazing gift now that he's at a size that allows him to enjoy it on every level.

What I will never understand is this outrageous notion that people are overweight and obese on purpose. Like they really want to be immobile, or want to shop from the catalogue that attaches extensions to everything because they can't reach their own body parts, or enjoy constant shin splints from hauling their gigantic carcasses around. Or better still, to be singled out to children as a cautionary tale of what happens when you give up.

Just stop.

Some people want to live life to the fullest. Some find every excuse they can so they don't have to. And while that sure is your prerogative, it's ridiculous to expect to be respected for your choice.

SWZA, there's yet another condition that many posters seem totally unware of: if you have an illness such as cancer or an auto-immune disorder, the only treatment is cortisone. Cortisone will make you bloat out, regardless of whether you're eating or not. It wont be fat but watery tissue, but you can't tell the difference from the outside.

I wonder if one of the posters who hate people they perceive as overweight had to be on cortisone to survive, would they be able to deal with it, or would they give up and stop the treatment and die?

Yep, sorry, Nanoshka, you are so wrong about anyone eating like you being able to not be overweight.

I also eat the way you describe (fruits, veggies, little read meat, (mainly chicken and fish) low fat dairy products, whole grain items only (white rice? white bread? what?), eat deep fried stuff maybe 5 times a year, not alot of sugar, no fruit juices/sugared drinks, don't eat alot of salt/butter/oil, have about 3 glasses of beer/wine a week, don't eat processed foods etc etc etc.....) and yep, I'm still overweight. I average about 1200-1500 calories a day....still overweight. I average 45 minutes of moderate level exercise daily.....you guessed it, still overweight.

Only time in my life I've been able to be 'normal weight' was if I was strictly regimented in what I ate: no more than 20 grams of fat in a day, at least 60 grams of protien, tried to stay at 1200 calories and worked out 2-3 hours a day. That was A LOT of hard work and effort at the age of 25 (which should be easy times) to lose weight and maintain that weight. Now granted, I had a killer body back then and killer heart rate......but now that I have a full time job, a kid, am married, travel a lot for work.....it's just not worth that kind of labor intensive input to get a benefit of 1) looking better 2) lower heart rate (my cholesterol and blood sugar and BP levels are still the same as they were when I was 25)

So get off your uppity 'fat people are bad' high horse and go get a brain.

Um, do some research on addition.....drug, alcohol and even food addictions will rewire the brain pathways ..... a food addicts brain lights up during an MRI differently than a non-food addict's does.....even a previously overwight food-addict who lost the weight, their brain will still light up like a 'fat' addict.....

Addiction (of any sort) is a daily fight against your own brain function.

Keep in mind the difference between morbid obesity and being "overweight." I venture to guess that if you exercise regularly and consume only 1800 calories per day that you do not weigh 350 lbs.

The diet industry wouldn't be pulling in money hand over fist each year if fat people were content with being fat. Part of the problem is that we seem to think treating obesity and overeating is as simple as just telling people to eat differently. I have been in the very overweight category before and trust me, fat people know what they should do to lose weight - eat healthy, get exercise. Speaking for myself, I got so overweight because of other issues I was dealing with - it was just another self-destructive behavior that I had to learn to take control over. I felt like crap, and obviously I looked like crap. There are always going to be some fat people who say it's glandular (there may be a few, but not many who can claim that legitimately), it's genetic, whatever. It would be nice if you could think it through enough to realize that person in denial doesn't represent the attitude of ALL people with weight problems.

I suckered up and posted a reply to guy, but he has got to be a troll. People who "breed" overweight children? Give me a break.