The problem is that there is nothing wrong or unhealthy about a Big Mac, nor is there anything wrong with deep-fried food or palm oil. These are all tasty and nutritious things.
When your body needs a Big Mac, a Big Mac is good for it.
The problem is not the food, it’s the person eating it.
After a marathon there’s nothing like a King-sized value meal or three from Burger King, IMO.
On the other hand, it’s not a good choice for dinner if I’ve had a big breakfast, a big lunch, snacked on potato chips and haven’t exercised.
It’s not the food, it’s the person eating it.
That person is responsible for their own decisions.
It is not nor should not be incumbent on society to change individual habits.
**
Fine by me.**
No, it wouldn’t kill manufactures to use healthier oils. Some do. Visit stores like Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods to purchase foods like these. Please note they have the same amount of calories and will do nothing to promote weight loss.**
I don’t get this. What economic penalties are in place for using oils that are more expensive? **
Why should there be external disincentives for junk food eating consumers. If I want a bag of potato chips, I already have a disincentive. Knowing I’ll have to probably skip dessert or opt for a lower calorie dessert later that evening is a good enough disincentive for me.**
Because it’s stupid. Why should I pay extra because some people don’t know when to stop eating or have trouble making the right choices?
About two pounds of chocolate. Maybe five Hershey bars worth. I followed that up with a huge bowl of coconut milk laden Thai curry. For dinner I had chips and soda. Somewhere in between I had a big slice of cake. And I’ve never even been inside of a gym.
But nobody will ever speak ill of me, because I weigh barely over 100 lbs.
I can’t figure out why I can eat like mad and not gain weight, if metabolism isn’t a factor. Or maybe you just expect fat people with slow metabolism to be skull crushingly hungry all the time. Clearly our bodies vary in the way that they process food. I’m not “choosing” to weight 100 lbs. That is where my body reaches some sort of equilibrium. Eating less than you expend may be easy for you, but it can be next to impossible for somebody else.
And since when is eating a donut a moral decision? It’s not like she’s locking her kid in a car during the summer or anything. She’s eating a donut. Why is it okay for me to have one but some great sin if she does? She’s just eating breakfast, and frankly a two to four hundred calorie breakfast isn’t anywhere near excessive. For all you know, she has terminal cancer and is going to die in three months anyway. Would it be okay for her to have a donut then?
Maybe she just doesn’t mind being fat. There is nothing immoral about that. At least, it’s not any more immoral than driving your car, which is pretty darn likely to kill you.
I am so sorry about the id mix-up; pure laziness on my part; I was composing my post and didn’t feel like scrolling up to double check who I was responding to, and relied on my memory.
As far as an activity that I enjoy, no such luck. I do go to the gym twice a week and take a yoga class on Wednesdays. At the gym I do 30 minutes of cardio, followed by an hour of circuit weight training. I don’t enjoy it, but I do it because I know it’s necessary. I go to the gym because that’s how to get fit. The yoga’s not bad. It’s possible that as I get more and more fit, I may come to enjoy working out. . .or not. It doesn’t matter. I’ll do it because I have to do it.
The world you fatbashers live in is simple and uncomplicated . . . and unreal.
The real world is a great deal more complicated; so your instant assumptions about a person about which you know ONE thing may not have taken into account enough information to make an informed judgment.
nisobar, you hit the nail right on the head with your subject title.
Obesity,or rather it’s cause, isn’t just the simple-minded “people eat too much and don’t exercise enough”.
The psychology of WHY people overeat is key in determining how they first “got overweight” and further what is KEEPING them overweight. And then later in helping them lose it, IF that is what they desire.
If you don’t know the “WHY” of it, all the exercise programs and Atkins diets in the world aren’t going to be PERMANENTLY (key word here) successful.
Some people who are overweight are perfectly okay with their lifestyle choice. Even when it does threaten their health.
Some desparately want to change, but really don’t know how. And the diet ninny’s mantra of “eat less, exercise more” does NOT help these people if they don’t understand the physiology behind fat loss.
A lot of overweight people, (the majority based on the millions the weight loss industry rakes in each year) have tried dozens of diets and exercise programs and for a lot of people, those who have ruined their metabolisms with yo-yo dieting, it becomes more and more difficult over the years, and so those people pretty much “give up” after so many failures.
So No tarantula, it’s NOT a simplistic “if you’re obese don’t eat treats” answer (by the way, many of the MOST successful fat loss programs, “Body for Life,”” the new weight watchers” even Atkins [what’s more of a ‘treat” than full on fat red meat etc?] figure “treats” inTO their programs, it’s a big part of why they work so well).
who? Is it going to come down to one of those signs like the ones in front of amusement park rides? ‘You must be this size to purchase and eat a donut.’
matt_mcl was not alone in his confused indignation. Why exactly does it anger you for an overweight person to eat a donut? Please, pontification on how your tax dollars will support their medical bills is slightly ridiculous. You tax dollars support a myriad of health initiatives. Nobody will ever agree with everything their tax dollars support. Your tax dollars have probably paid for someone to have their sixth toe* removed, so look for a more authentic reason. Something that not everyone says just because it’s easy.
I fear that for many of you, so vehement in your outrage over the concept of a fat woman eating a donut, the problem may very well be that you simply don’t like to look at them. The obese ruin the asthetics of your surroundings.
FB
*not that having a sixth toe is bad. I’ve always wanted to have a sixth finger…I think I’ve read too much Anne Rice.
I will grant you fat-bashers one point - it is definitely annoying to listen to people complaining about their situation. That’s true whether the situation concerns their spouse, SO, job, dwelling, weight or finances. We’re all our own worst enemies.
Scylla, mighty slayer of blimps (not the human variety), I was speaking specifically of people who are extremely obese. The process of gaining that kind of weight is quite different from the 10 pounds most people put on over the holidays. Clearly I’m not speaking for every single obese person, but I’m quite certain I describe a significant percentage of them when I say that food addiction is a way of dealing with pain. It really doesn’t have anything to do with enjoying food. It’s much closer to alcoholism - in fact, I betcha the food addiction trigger has a lot to do with metabolism of simple carbs (white rice, etc. as mentioned earlier). I can drink alcohol and it doesn’t really affect me; a donut, or regular spaghetti, is another issue entirely.
IMHO, I also think that you people who are driven batty by fatties ought to ask yourselves why. When someone else’s behavior drives me up a wall I’ve learned that it’s time for me to take a moment and figure out what’s going on. Nine times out of ten I learn something valuable (albeit sometimes painful) about myself.
I’ve been listening to it years, and I still can’t figure out where this moral outrage at obese people comes from. Where’s the moral dimension here? What is it about obesity that triggers so many people to rev up their “social leper” rants?
Why. Do. You. Care? I can understand caring about people you know who are in that situation, but what’s the deal with the “obese people in general” thing? You don’t know me. I weigh 400 lbs. Am I evil? Am I weak? Am I a moral leper? Does this change if I have one peanut butter cup once a week? What if you don’t know me and you catch me buying my one peanut butter cup? Do you feel like you’re on safe moral ground condemning me for buying candy when you don’t even know with what frequency I do so?
Like it’s not hard enough trying to lose weight without having strangers tsk-tsking over me…
Imbeciles like the OP and Shodan aren’t even worth paying any attention to. They aren’t educatable now any more than they were when they were chronologically children rather than just having the mentality of one.
And it’s even tougher being obese and gay. If you folks think the straight world is judgmental, wait until you hear a barful of bitchy A&F queens start trashing anyone whose waistline and age are both over 25. Although the bear movement has done a lot to make hirsute, heavy men feel attractive, in the gay world overall older, heavier men are invisible.
In my pre-BF days, I would definitely have given JayJay, Mockingbird, and Lissener some play because I find guys who are physically larger than me to be incredibly sexy. As it is, there are a couple of hefty male Dopers I’ve met IRL who I’d nail in a second if I had eyes for anyone other than my BF.
Obesity is something to be controlled because it is unhealthy, not because it is necessarily unaesthetic. The key concept to remember is fitness rather than thinness. A flabby, undermuscled thin person is no healthier than a flabby, undermuscled heavy person.
