This is specifically for overweight people who make no effort to lose weight - Why?
I’m perplexed because I have a close friend who is overweight, and only getting bigger. He would prefer to be thinner, but he lacks the desire to be thin and does absolutely nothing that would help him lose weight. He indulges in poor eating habits without guilt and does not find his bulging belly to be aesthetically unappealing. He has even admitted that every aspect of his life would be improved if he were thinner, but I don’t understand why he makes no initiative to begin a lifestyle change towards that goal.
I’ve never met a fat person who enjoys being fat. But this is one aspect of a person’s appearance and health that is under one’s own control and is avoidable. So why do some fat folks just not care enough to improve their bodies?
'cause there’s some of us who don’t really give a damn and refuse to march to the beat of the Stepford Fitness Wives to be thin Thin THIN T H I N ! ! !
You may not have met an ‘overweight’ person who enjoys it, but some of us are comfortable being who we are, honestly.
Besides, after you’ve spent 40 years trying every damned program under the sun to lose it, you begin to realize that it ain’t coming off.
They care, they often just feel that it is futile.
There is a poor fixation in our society on dieting rather than focusing on changing eating habits for life, working on moderation, and being conscious of choices.
Instead, we have a society that pimps us and instead of giving us crack, it starts us out with a Happy Meal. Then it gets us later by Super Sizing our order for thirty nine cents.
Cost is also involved.
Organic food is considerably more expensive than regular food. Often healthy food is considerably more expensive than junk.
Convienience foods are often priced afforably, and because they are fast and often quite generous with portions, people will choose that over making dinner themselves.
There are a lot of variables to consider.
Once you see how you are being led down a path that doesn’t support you in being healthy, stop the fast food, buy fresh food and prepare it yourself… then things can really change.
I am currently trying to lose weight, but I can give you some past reasons for not trying:
An already hectic life – meal planning and exercise take time, as does preparing healthy foods as opposed to convenience foods, as others have pointed out. When your schedule is already strained to the limit, fitting in a workout and extra cooking/shopping time can be difficult.
Also as previously stated, some of us learn to be comfortable with our bodies. It is possible to be in general good health and still be overweight. Why beat yourself up over being fat, getting frustrated with diets, etc, if you can come to grips and be comfortable or yes, even happy the way you are?
I have a hard time developing good habits in general, if I don’t already have them.
mainly because people gain and then some the weight back 95% of the time. Its like asking a criminal why he doesn’t run from the cops if he is arrested. 95% will be caught and punished worse than before. Why bother to begin with.
I’m back on a diet now, but its not by choice. i was gaining weight for some reason. But i’m dieting in a more permanent way. i’m eating about 85% of maintenance calories in a low fat diet and doing 45 minutes of cardio a day.
I’m somewhat overweight. Not morbidly or grossly so, but I’m carrying some extra poundage. Now, I have an exercise bike, and I use it regularly, to the point that I feel reasonably comfortable that I won’t drop dead of a heart attack at the age of 35. So, for me, health isn’t really the issue.
So it becomes mainly a question of aesthetics. Frankly, I don’t give a rat’s ass about what other people think of the way I look. It’s not important to me. I’m comfortable and happy the way I am, and I have a lot of things I’d rather do with my time than work out nonstop and obsess over my daily calorie intake. I just don’t care. I suppose I should be worried that the woman of my dreams won’t want me looking like this, but, frankly, if there were a woman who would reject me as I am now, but accept me if I lost a few pounds, that would make her shallow enough that I wouldn’t be interested in her.
My question to the OP is why do you care? How are you hurt or offended by overweight people? What business is it of yours?? Luckily, I’ve never met anyone in real life who felt the need to pass judgement on me to my face because of my appearance. I know that’s not the case for many people.
Maybe your friend needs more unconditional love:
To have, for once in life, - love for his self, beyond outward appearance.
This is a strange world. We have (many of us) been deluded into a belief—system that honors looks above every other trait.
I wonder what ever happened to the concept of “saving grace”?
When people are befriended, like you and your friend, - sure,
you’re concerned about his health. Good! The best way for any of us to be healthy is to feel loved for ourselves. Things like weight and smoking become less significant when we are loved. The sheer joy of being loved helps people to become their best. Loved beyond “measure”.
It’s a tough world. I’ve been picked on for being “skinny”.
Health has so much more to do with emotional well-being than we seem to grasp, still.
I think your friend simply needs to be loved for whomever he is, however he appears. Like I reckon you already feel, since you call him - “friend”. Just keep caring for him as a friend like any friend!
These are my thoughts tonight. I wonder what others think?
The answer to your question, Headcoat, is called learned helplessness. (Hear me out before you start screaming.)
Ever heard about the study where the dogs were put in a cage and their little paws were shocked? Some of the dogs were able to jump over a bar and leave the cage, thus avoiding the shock, so they did. Some of the dogs were locked in and after a while just gave up. They put these dogs in an open cage later and the dogs still didn’t even try to leave the cage, they just took the shocks.
When you have tried every weight loss program on the planet, sometimes numerous times (I personally tried WW three times), and it doesn’t work, eventually you just give up. Why try another diet when all that will happen is you’ll lose a little, get tired of the deprivation and then gain it all back and then some?
I personally think the weight loss industry doesn’t give a shit about fat people in general. They just want their money. And unfortunately so many of us are so damn desparate to lose weight that we will pay anyone who we think has the answer. Thing is, the vast vast VAST majority of weight loss programs, IMHO, are flat out lying to people. I do not believe the answer is low fat/no fat/low carb/high carb/low protein etc., because these diets are NOT NATURAL. They are nothing but deprivation of foods that can, and should, be enjoyed within the bounds of hunger and fullness.
Look at the success rates of most diets: 5% at best. Why are we spending billions upon billions of dollars yearly on plans that have a 95% failure rate? Why SHOULD we?
Would you buy a car that had a 95% chance of breaking down on you within the first year?
I’m moderately overweight. And I don’t really make an effort to lose it most of the time–though I am starting a concerted effort now.
I have a fairly busy life. I have classes, and clubs. Most of the time, I’m just trying to do what I’m SUPPOSED to be doing for school and stuff, and sometimes I barely succeed at that. Factor in trying to learn healthy eating and exercise habits–which I believe are the only good way to lose weight short of surgery–and I think my head would explode. Especially since my college doesn’t serve much in the way of healthy food that doesn’t suck. It’d also take a toll on my wallet while I’m at school. So, a lot of times, I put it off because I have more pressing issues to attend to. Learning to eat properly–not simply to eat LESS, but to eat less while still addressing your nutritional needs and not feeling deprived–takes a lot of work, and learning to exercise regularly is even harder, especially if those things were never stressed as you were growing up. I believe it’s worth it, but I don’t believe it’s a goal that is worth sacrificing my academic career or my social life for, and, during the school year, that’s probably what would happen.
Though I was never ‘fat’, I’ll be the first to admit that growing up in L.A. made me incredibly weight conscious and perhaps gave me body dismorphic disorder of sorts (I’m one of those chicks who asks if something makes my butt look big, yes, very annoying I know), and all I can say is that considering the amount of overweight people in the country and considering that the average size for a woman is what it is (8 or 10 or 12 or whatever) I’m surprised because being a size 0-4 they are always running low on those sizes in the stores…Why? I thought everyone was so big?
Junk foods are the most expensive items in the supermarket.
Um, no.
Candy bar at the local grocery: 69 cents, sometimes 4/$1.00
Bunch of bananas: about $1.40 a pound, so figure about $3.00 per bunch.
Gallon of milk: $3.29
Two liter of soda: anywhere from 89 cents to $1.25 depending on brand
One watermelon: about $4.00 these days, they were $5 earlier
Box of clementines: nearly $7
Bag of green seedless grapes: about $3
Bag of baby carrots: $2.50-3, depending on size
Half gallon of ice cream: $1.99
Bag of off-brand frozen chicken, about 7 pieces: $7.99
Pound of the leanest hamburger meat you can buy: about $3.50
Pound of the fatty stuff: about $2
We won’t even talk about the price of fish!
I think you’re misunderstanding the original post. He hasn’t said that overweight people have some responsibility to others to get thin. He wonders why they don’t, for their own sake. That’s why he mentions his friend admitting that every aspect of his life would be better if he were thin, and that he’s never met a fat person happy with that situation.
Not where I shop. A box of pasta that’ll last a couple days is about a dollar if you catch the sales right. A box of cheap macaroni and cheese that makes a nice meal for two usually goes for about 79 cents. Milk costs something like four bucks a gallon, more if you’re like me and drink soymilk (I have some problems with regular milk). Fruit and vegetables? Don’t make me laugh. I can buy bad food for two weeks on what one pound of fruit costs. Eggs? Too expensive, not filling enough.
Soda costs maybe $3 per twelve pack, less if you buy the cheap stuff. Chips are usually buy one get one free, so about $1.79 for two good-sized bags of chips. A pack of cookies, especially the off-brands, are down in the low cents. Candy bars can be bought mucho cheap, especially if you go someplace like Sam’s and get the “Whole Damn Family” size.
If they made something healthy that was as cheap as bad food and, dare I say, as tasty…
Now, let’s talk diet. This baffled my doctor. Breakfast is a bowl of cereal–not sugar filled, kiddy kind, either–with soymilk. Lunch, if I bother, is a bagel with margarine. Dinner is usually pasta, though I’ve been mixing in beef and pork lately. I don’t buy snacks. I drink diet soda. I’m aware I need fruits and vegetables, but they’re too expensive for my limited budget. I’ve tried some diets, stuck with them a while (2 years, in one case). Nothing happened. I stayed the same.
And it can be hard to exercise, too. I used to spend eight hours a day on my feet at work. The LAST thing I wanted to do when I got home was spend another hour or two on my poor, aching feet jumping around exercising. Gyms? Too expensive. Not to mention the dread Gym Rats. Out walking around my apartment complex? Well, my feet hurt for starters and my complex wasn’t the safest place to be out and about at night. And yes, I know losing weight might make my feet not hurt one day in the future, but that day is far off, and I’m not going to spend my day at work hobbling around for future gains that may not even materialize if the gods of metabolism aren’t with me.
In the meantime, just to baffle the doctors and naysayers, my cholesterol is low, my heart rate is very normal, and I’m incredibly healthy. The doctor that I went to refused to believe it. She just couldn’t wrap her mind around it.
In the meantime, just to baffle the doctors and naysayers, my cholesterol is low, my heart rate is very normal, and I’m incredibly healthy. The doctor that I went to refused to believe it. She just couldn’t wrap her mind around it.
Hah! Same here! My cholesterol is 165 Yep yep yep! According to the medical community it “should” be sky high
Yep yep yep! According to the medical community it “should” be sky high