# Why do obese women all dress the same? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 3, 2008, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-obese-women-all-dress-the-same/455162 "2008-07-03T07:18:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![Risha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/5fc32e/32.png) [@Risha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Risha)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2008, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-obese-women-all-dress-the-same/455162/161 "2008-07-05T02:40:34Z")
[QUOTE=Sierra Indigo] And to my dismay, they don’t ship internationally ☹ That makes me sad, because some of those clothes are hella cute. [/QUOTE] They custom make the clothes in India but only ship to the US? That’s hella messed up. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Completely](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3be4f8/32.png) [@Completely](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Completely)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2008, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-obese-women-all-dress-the-same/455162/162 "2008-07-05T14:59:56Z")
[QUOTE=Risha] You’re falling into the fallacy that weight is a simple equation of “food eaten - calories burned = weight”. It simply doesn’t work that way; [/QUOTE] Do you have a cite for this? Because the fact of the matter is, that if you have a weekly dietary deficit of 3500 calories, you WILL lose 1 pound of body fat. Period. Simple math. Think about this: If this notion that “diets don’t work” is true, than why is it that in the starvation camps of the holocaust, **everyone** became emaciated? Where were the ones who “can’t lose weight no matter how little they eat”? In the photos of the victims of those camps, I have never seen any chubby obese ones amongst the starvers. If “diets don’t work for everyone”, then how do you account for this? ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2008, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-obese-women-all-dress-the-same/455162/163 "2008-07-05T15:36:19Z")
[QUOTE=Ogre] The SDMB is getting wiser. This is so obviously a troll trying to flame out spectacularly, but so far, it’s just sort of a damp fizzle. I approve. [/QUOTE] Never mind. ---
**Author:** ![Risha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/5fc32e/32.png) [@Risha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Risha)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2008, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-obese-women-all-dress-the-same/455162/164 "2008-07-05T15:58:08Z")
[QUOTE=Completely] Think about this: If this notion that “diets don’t work” is true, than why is it that in the starvation camps of the holocaust, **everyone** became emaciated? Where were the ones who “can’t lose weight no matter how little they eat”? In the photos of the victims of those camps, I have never seen any chubby obese ones amongst the starvers. If “diets don’t work for everyone”, then how do you account for this? [/QUOTE] :rolleyes: Well, if you read, oh, anything I wrote above and/or many of the links I included, you would see that I actually said that anyone can starve themselves (or be starved) into losing weight. The difference being, those who tend to be heavier need to permanently stay starving to keep at that thinner weight. Talk the ones who have stayed long term on a 800 calorie a day diet to see how well that worked for most of them. And yes, there are plenty of people who aren’t actually what we’d consider anorexic (distorted body image and such) who do that in the quest to be thin. As for the first part, I phrased that badly. I should have said, “calories eaten - x amount of exercise = weight”. I don’t have time at the moment to dig up any actual scientific studies. But if you google “calories burned metabolism” you’ll see that even all of the pro-diet calorie calculator web sites reluctantly include a paragraph about how it’s not exact because people’s metabolism varies. ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2008, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-obese-women-all-dress-the-same/455162/165 "2008-07-05T16:48:27Z")
[QUOTE=Maeglin] **scrambledeggs** is a slavering semihuman for singling out obese women when the truth is, most people don’t know how to dress to save their lives. [/QUOTE] _hand in the air_ I swear, no-one agrees with me when it comes to clothing. I’ll dress up, think I look like the hottest piece of dynamite ever to leave the factory, and everybody else thinks I look kinda dorky. I’m beginning to think that my ideal woman is a genius long-distance runner who’s blind. [QUOTE=Malthus] Diet is an ongoing endeavour, along with exercise. There is no magic one-time thing you can do, it is a constant effort to stay in shape (not that you have to be all rigid about it). [/QUOTE] Yes, yes, yes, times a million. Whatever it is you’ve been doing until now, that put you where you are. If you start doing that again, you’ll end up back where you were. If you want to keep the weight off, you stick with the changes. Forever. You can’t diet and then go back to your old lifestyle, _of course_ the weight will come back. You have to change your life. If you don’t want to do that, more power to you. If you make the decision that it’s just too much work, fine. Make the decision, stand by it, and be honest about it. It’s like me and my ripped stomach. The thing about my ripped stomach is that it doesn’t exist. I’m thin and have abs of steel, but they’re hidden behind a bit of tummy flab. I know exactly what it would take to get visible abs, and it just isn’t worth it. I’d rather have this glass of wine here. But the people making excuses (like that blogger someone linked to in the woman celebration thread) really get my goat. The truth is that you’re not prepared to do the work, so don’t pretend it’s anything else. There is no such thing as willpower, and consuming fewer calories while burning more calories _works_. Truly. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2008, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-obese-women-all-dress-the-same/455162/166 "2008-07-05T17:31:50Z")
[QUOTE=Priceguy] \*The truth is that you’re not prepared to do the work, so don’t pretend it’s anything else. There is no such thing as willpower, and consuming fewer calories while burning more calories _works_. Truly. [/QUOTE] The point I took away from the doctor’s studies is that some people have to work not only harder than they do, but hella harder than other people, and that’s what the naturally thin folks don’t seem to grok. That’s what, as a fat person, it’s so disheartening to face. When I shed all this weight, it’s not that I can’t go back to eating like I did (I don’t want or need to do that), it’s that I can’t even switch to eating like _you_ do. General not-fat “you”, of course. I don’t know how **Priceguy** eats, but I know how my thin friends eat, and it’s a lot more than me. I don’t know how much **Priceguy** exercises, but I know how much my thin friends do, and it’s not more than me. And yeah, that makes me feel like a three year old with a carob chip on my shoulder sometimes. It’s like telling a dyslexic “Look, it’s really easy, just remember that a “p” has the little stick on the lower left and a “b” has it on the upper left!” Or telling a diabetic, “Oh, yeah, I used to get low blood sugar sometimes when I’d forget to eat. All you need to do is carry some peanuts in your pocket so you always have a snack on hand.” No, that’s all YOU needed to do, because you’re not a diabetic! “Eat a little less and move a little more” is all YOU need to do to stay thin because you’re not wired for _obesity_, but for a tiny bit of a spare tire! “Fewer” calories turns out to mean “far less than a naturally thin person forever” and “more” exercise turns out to mean “far more exercise than a naturally thin person forever”. Forgive me if it’s going to take me a while to come to grips with the inherent unfairness of that. And yeah, that’s a childish and whiny thing to say, I know, and life isn’t fair and all that…but sometimes I do feel childish and whiny about it. It’d just be easier sometimes if skinny people acknowledged that it’s really fucking hard - harder than they imagine - for some of us to be skinny. And that we’re fat because of A) genetics and B) thinking that we can eat like those around us eat and move like those around us move and look like those around us look, NOT [because we buy whole grain Cheerios](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=9946963&postcount=40) to quench our pain at being molested. Weight Watchers is right - it’s not a diet, it’s a lifestyle change. But it’s not a lifestyle change to the lifestyle that thin people enjoy. It’s a commitment to a lifetime of starvation - literal, not figurative. That’s the message I don’t think is getting out there. ---
**Author:** ![Completely](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3be4f8/32.png) [@Completely](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Completely)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2008, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-obese-women-all-dress-the-same/455162/167 "2008-07-05T17:33:35Z")
[QUOTE=Risha] pro-diet calorie calculator web sites reluctantly include a paragraph about how it’s not exact because people’s metabolism varies. [/QUOTE] “pro-diet”?? 😕 As opposed to what? Of course there are differences between individuals. One person may need to burn 3505 calories to shed a pound, another may only need to burn 3480. No one ever said everyone’s metabolism is _identical_. But _in general_ a person need to burn about 3500 more calories than she eats in order to lose a pound of fat. True, it could be 3501 calories, or even 3499. But minor differences in metabolism aren’t going to change the overall big picture: a pound of fat contains about 3500 calories. Don’t eat those calories and you won’t gain that pound. Yes, it really **is** that simple. Again, you didn’t address the issue that if “diets don’t work” and some people will be fat no matter how little they eat, then how do you account for the fact that there weren’t any obese folks in the holocaust camps? ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2008, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-obese-women-all-dress-the-same/455162/168 "2008-07-05T17:44:21Z")
[QUOTE=Completely] Of course there are differences between individuals. One person may need to burn 3505 calories to shed a pound, another may only need to burn 3480. No one ever said everyone’s metabolism is _identical_. But _in general_ a person need to burn about 3500 more calories than she eats in order to lose a pound of fat. True, it could be 3501 calories, or even 3499. But minor differences in metabolism aren’t going to change the overall big picture: a pound of fat contains about 3500 calories. Don’t eat those calories and you won’t gain that pound. Yes, it really **is** that simple. [/QUOTE] Did you read the article \*\*Risha \*\*linked to? It’s not a difference of a few calories, it’s a difference of **hundreds** of calories. > [@](#): > > Every time the result was the same. The weight, so painstakingly lost, came right back. But since this was a research study, the investigators were also measuring metabolic changes, psychiatric conditions, body temperature and pulse. And that led them to a surprising conclusion: fat people who lost large amounts of weight might look like someone who was never fat, but they were very different. In fact, by every metabolic measurement, they seemed like people who were starving. > > Before the diet began, the fat subjects’ metabolism was normal - the number of calories burned per square meter of body surface was no different from that of people who had never been fat. But when they lost weight, they were burning as much as 24 percent fewer calories per square meter of their surface area than the calories consumed by those who were naturally thin. And the observations of naturally thin people: > [@](#): > > It began with studies that were the inspiration of Ethan Sims at the University of Vermont, who asked what would happen if thin people who had never had a weight problem deliberately got fat. > > His subjects were prisoners at a nearby state prison who volunteered to gain weight. With great difficulty, they succeeded, increasing their weight by 20 percent to 25 percent. But it took them four to six months, eating as much as they could every day. Some consumed 10,000 calories a day, an amount so incredible that it would be hard to believe, were it not for the fact that there were attendants present at each meal who dutifully recorded everything the men ate. > > Once the men were fat, their metabolisms increased by 50 percent. > > They needed more than 2,700 calories per square meter of their body surface to stay fat but needed just 1,800 calories per square meter to maintain their normal weight. > > When the study ended, the prisoners had no trouble losing weight. > > Within months, they were back to normal and effortlessly stayed there. > [@](#): > > The findings also provided evidence for a phenomenon that scientists like Hirsch and Leibel were certain was true - each person has a comfortable weight range to which the body gravitates. The range might span 10 or 20 pounds: someone might be able to weigh 120 to 140 pounds without too much effort. Going much above or much below the natural weight range is difficult, however; the body resists by increasing or decreasing the appetite and changing the metabolism to push the weight back to the range it seeks. > > The message is so at odds with the popular conception of weight loss - the mantra that all a person has to do is eat less and exercise more - that Jeffrey Friedman, an obesity researcher at the Rockefeller University, tried to come up with an analogy that would convey what science has found about the powerful biological controls over body weight. > > He published it in the journal Science in 2000 and still cites it: > > “Those who doubt the power of basic drives, however, might note that although one can hold one’s breath, this conscious act is soon overcome by the compulsion to breathe,” Friedman wrote. "The feeling of hunger is intense and, if not as potent as the drive to breathe, is probably no less powerful than the drive to drink when one is thirsty. > > This is the feeling the obese must resist after they have lost a significant amount of weight." So, yeah. Wah. ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2008, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-obese-women-all-dress-the-same/455162/169 "2008-07-05T17:48:15Z")
[QUOTE=WhyNot] The point I took away from the doctor’s studies is that some people have to work not only harder than they do, but hella harder than other people, and that’s what the naturally thin folks don’t seem to grok. That’s what, as a fat person, it’s so disheartening to face. When I shed all this weight, it’s not that I can’t go back to eating like I did (I don’t want or need to do that), it’s that I can’t even switch to eating like _you_ do. General not-fat “you”, of course. I don’t know how **Priceguy** eats, but I know how my thin friends eat, and it’s a lot more than me. I don’t know how much **Priceguy** exercises, but I know how much my thin friends do, and it’s not more than me. And yeah, that makes me feel like a three year old with a carob chip on my shoulder sometimes. [/QUOTE] I feel entitled (as much as I hate that word) to speak on the subject as I spent my entire life overweight until one day I started doing something about it. I spend three hours a week in the gym. I run over 50 kilometres a week. There is no such thing as a day when I don’t exercise for at least an hour. My calorie intake is lower than that of many friends of mine who’ve been thin their entire lives (but some of them are chunking up now that they’re hitting thirty; the sound you’re hearing is the song of sweet justice), I stay away from foods they wolf down indiscriminately, and I’ve spent a lot of time and energy learning about nutrition and experimenting with my body’s reaction to various foods. I am in no way naturally thin. If there is such a thing as a person who has a harder time losing weight and keeping it off than others, I am it. Yet here I am, 167 centimetres and 60 kilograms. And there is _nothing special_ about me. Anyone can do it. I freely admit that various aspects of my current life situation make this somewhat less work for me than for many others, but I still have to do the work. If it’s too much work for you, fine, like I said. I think no less of you for it, but I do have a problem with people claiming it’s down to winning the genetic lottery or whatever. I did hard work to get here and I do hard work to stay here, it’s my accomplishment, I’m damn proud of it, and no-one is taking it away from me. ---
**Author:** ![Completely](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3be4f8/32.png) [@Completely](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Completely)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2008, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-obese-women-all-dress-the-same/455162/170 "2008-07-05T18:01:30Z")
[QUOTE=WhyNot] “Fewer” calories turns out to mean “far less than a naturally thin person forever” and “more” exercise turns out to mean “far more exercise than a naturally thin person forever”. [/QUOTE] There is no such thing as “naturally thin”. There are people who consume the correct number of calories to maintain a healthy weight and those who consume too many and become obese. No one in my family is fat. And it aint because we’re “natually thin”. It’s because we maintained a household where a) there was no junk food b) there was no such thing as “second helpings” c) we ate sensible portions and d) we were encouraged to be physically active. I had fat friends growing up; without exception their household did exactly the opposite of the above. That’s why they were fat. They were no more “naturally fat” than were were “naturally thin”. :rolleyes: [QUOTE=WhyNot] It’d just be easier sometimes if skinny people acknowledged that it’s really fucking hard - harder than they imagine - for some of us to be skinny. [/QUOTE] Oh grow up already. Here’s a clue: staying trim **is** really fucking hard. Deal with it. If I ate whatever I wanted and went back for seconds, I’d be fat too. It’s really fucking hard sometimes not to buy that candy bar or scarf that 3rd brownie. But you know what? That’s life. That’s maturity. That’s taking personal responsibility. All you’re really saying is that you’re not willing to put the work into it. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2008, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-obese-women-all-dress-the-same/455162/171 "2008-07-05T18:23:02Z")
[QUOTE=Completely] There is no such thing as “naturally thin”. [/QUOTE] Sure there is. I, and most people in my mom’s family, are/were really thin growing up, despite pretty much never considering whether a brownie or a cookie was “too much.” ---
**Author:** ![Completely](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3be4f8/32.png) [@Completely](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Completely)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2008, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-obese-women-all-dress-the-same/455162/172 "2008-07-05T18:34:19Z")
[QUOTE=WhyNot] we’re fat because of A) genetics and B) thinking that we can eat like those around us eat and move like those around us move and look like those around us look, [/QUOTE] And I call bullshit on this as well. I’ve had quite a few fat friends and co-workers over the years. **Without exception** they _did not_ “eat like those around them” ate. They ate huge servings. They ate junk food. They went back for seconds and thirds. They scarfed candy and soda and cupcakes. They sneaked food and hid the wrappers between the seats of their cars. I have NEVER met a fat person who ate like a normal-weight person. **Ever.** ---
**Author:** ![dre2xl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/34f0e0/32.png) [@dre2xl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dre2xl)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2008, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-obese-women-all-dress-the-same/455162/173 "2008-07-05T18:36:28Z")
[QUOTE=Completely] Oh grow up already. Here’s a clue: staying trim **is** really fucking hard. Deal with it. If I ate whatever I wanted and went back for seconds, I’d be fat too. It’s really fucking hard sometimes not to buy that candy bar or scarf that 3rd brownie. But you know what? That’s life. That’s maturity. That’s taking personal responsibility. All you’re really saying is that you’re not willing to put the work into it. [/QUOTE] BS. I am so sick of the skinny martyrs. I read the following book: [Diary of a Fat Housewife: A True Story of Humor, Heart-Break, and Hope: Green, Rosemary: 9780446602815: Amazon.com: Books](http://www.amazon.com/Diary-Fat-Housewife-Story-Heart-Break/dp/0446602817) and truly believe that for many obese people it is more of a struggle than the thin person will ever know. The person in the book downed whole bulk-sized bags of candy, several pounds at a time. But, for me, the thin person, that is a foreign thought; chocolate languishes in my cupboard since I genuinely do not want to eat more than a couple of bites at a time. So, do I have more self control than the author of the book? I don’t think so. The author of the book ascribes to the viewpoint that obesity is a disease in the same way that alcoholism is, and extreme measures must be taken to keep sufferers from the “trigger foods” (husband has to do shopping so she doesn’t even see foods in the grocery store, etc), and it makes a lot of sense. She does eventually lose all her weight, but she had to do it by virtual isolation from her trigger foods. My therapist is the same way–she suffered from an ED (bulimia or COE) and has not eaten carbs for 17 years. That’s the kind of thinking that is totally alien for me. I can ignore bread in the bread basket. I can just be happy with fish and salad and ignore the fries on my plate, and have no temptation for dessert since I’m full. It doesn’t take me self control, I just listen to my body’s signals. IOW, I can watch what I eat, because eating isn’t such a big deal for me. My heart goes out to those struggling with food. ---
**Author:** ![Completely](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3be4f8/32.png) [@Completely](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Completely)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2008, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-obese-women-all-dress-the-same/455162/174 "2008-07-05T19:04:00Z")
[QUOTE=Freudian Slit] Sure there is. I, and most people in my mom’s family, are/were really thin growing up, despite pretty much never considering whether a brownie or a cookie was “too much.” [/QUOTE] Right. That’s because “a brownie” or “a cookie” isn’t too much. But a whole box of them is. Something tells me your family didn’t have a house crammed full of junk food, cook horribly fattening/unhealthy foods, pile your plates high and go back for 2nds and thirds at every meal. Or that it was considered ok or normal to sit in front of the TV and consume an entire box of Little Debbies. By yourself. This is the type of thing that went on at the homes of the fat kids I grew up around. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2008, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-obese-women-all-dress-the-same/455162/175 "2008-07-05T19:35:13Z")
[QUOTE=Completely] Right. That’s because “a brownie” or “a cookie” isn’t too much. But a whole box of them is. Something tells me your family didn’t have a house crammed full of junk food, cook horribly fattening/unhealthy foods, pile your plates high and go back for 2nds and thirds at every meal. Or that it was considered ok or normal to sit in front of the TV and consume an entire box of Little Debbies. By yourself. This is the type of thing that went on at the homes of the fat kids I grew up around. [/QUOTE] No, not so much, and I’ve always pretty much just stopped eating when I wasn’t hungry…I never really ate for comfort/if I was sad, quite the opposite, really. Plus, growing up I pretty much (outside of “gym” class) never did any sports or things like that, spent most of my free time reading/doing other similarly dorky things. Now, I do still eat a lot of junk food…I work out now and all but there’s pretty much never a day that goes by that I don’t have some form of chocolate, whether it’s in a chipwich form or in the form of a kitkat or some really decadent brownie. I’m sure there’s a lot of people for whom that would be really fattening. ---
**Author:** ![Risha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/5fc32e/32.png) [@Risha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Risha)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2008, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-obese-women-all-dress-the-same/455162/176 "2008-07-05T19:57:30Z")
[QUOTE=Completely] And I call bullshit on this as well. I’ve had quite a few fat friends and co-workers over the years. **Without exception** they _did not_ “eat like those around them” ate. They ate huge servings. They ate junk food. They went back for seconds and thirds. They scarfed candy and soda and cupcakes. They sneaked food and hid the wrappers between the seats of their cars. I have NEVER met a fat person who ate like a normal-weight person. **Ever.** [/QUOTE] Then you’ve met very few fat people. Sneaking food? Please. If I wanted to eat something, I would, and I wouldn’t bother to lie about it. I eat about what my skinny friends eat, on average. My countertop is currently littered with Halloween and Christmas candy that my mother-in-law will eat when she comes to visit, since if we haven’t bothered with it yet and I doubt that we will anytime soon. Some people just don’t like having their worldview threatened. Try looking at the science and studies instead of what “everyone knows”. And by the way: > [@](#): > > Again, you didn’t address the issue that if “diets don’t work” and some people will be fat no matter how little they eat, then how do you account for the fact that there weren’t any obese folks in the holocaust camps? I directly addressed this in my previous post. How about actually reading it. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2008, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-obese-women-all-dress-the-same/455162/177 "2008-07-05T20:24:35Z")
Speaking of eating and compulsions, how about DNFTT? ---
**Author:** ![Risha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/5fc32e/32.png) [@Risha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Risha)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2008, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-obese-women-all-dress-the-same/455162/178 "2008-07-05T20:27:25Z")
[QUOTE=susan] Speaking of eating and compulsions, how about DNFTT? [/QUOTE] I hadn’t actually noticed that he was a guest. Good point. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Omegaman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e480ec/32.png) [@Omegaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omegaman)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2008, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-obese-women-all-dress-the-same/455162/179 "2008-07-05T20:51:52Z")
[QUOTE=Ogre] Never mind. [/QUOTE] Now don’t go gettin’ all pissy. Trolls are multi-taskers. They worry some more than others. You just have to wait until you catch one out in the open, then stomp the livin’ shit of them. Man style. I know you know what I’m talking about. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2008, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-obese-women-all-dress-the-same/455162/180 "2008-07-05T21:15:57Z")
[QUOTE=Completely] Right. That’s because “a brownie” or “a cookie” isn’t too much. But a whole box of them is. Something tells me your family didn’t have a house crammed full of junk food, cook horribly fattening/unhealthy foods, pile your plates high and go back for 2nds and thirds at every meal. Or that it was considered ok or normal to sit in front of the TV and consume an entire box of Little Debbies. By yourself. This is the type of thing that went on at the homes of the fat kids I grew up around. [/QUOTE] Please. Never gave any credence to genetics and predispositions, huh? In my experience, genetics holds more sway to weight gain than overeating. In order for my wife to lose weight, she had to cut her daily caloric intake down to around 1,000 - 1,200 calories. I, on the other hand, weigh 180 lbs, and eat well over 2,500 calories a day, and she still weighs a little more than me. I came from a family of thin, scrawny people… she, from very “robust” stock. Overeating only exasperates the disadvantage of those predisposed to being overweight. So, shut your BS. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-obese-women-all-dress-the-same/455162.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-obese-women-all-dress-the-same/455162.md?page=10)