Obese people acting like they can't control it is precisely why they're obese. It's vile to discriminate against someone for their height, race, sexual orientation, and other factors because they have no control or choice over those things. But if someone makes a bad choice that negatively affects their own health and others around them, it's acceptable to tell that person it's unsafe. Shaming them is ineffective, but just pretending being obese is normal and healthy isn't ok either. These folks need help.

Don't even start with me on thyroid disorders, those are a small fraction of people who are obese and even they do not defy basic laws of thermodynamics. Eat less than you burn, it's basic math. You may not be able to control the disorder but you are in control of how you respond to it.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil 1 points 3 months ago

Obese people acting like they can’t control it is precisely why they’re obese.

Body Mass Index doesn't do a good job of scaling by height. Its much easier to qualify as "obese" when you're 6' tall, simply because your frame is so much larger. And quite a few people really are just larger. Samoans are large folks, which is why they produce so many football linemen. South Americans tend to be a lot smaller and leaner by their nature.

You can change your diet to cut out the excess sugars and limit your carbs, but a person whose body demands 5000 calories a day is simply not going to be the same size as someone who can get by perfectly fine on less than 1500.

[–] ZILtoid1991 -1 points 3 months ago

I hope you also saying it to smokers, drinkers, etc.!

Maybe bring back the "slow suicide" and "brain damage" jokes for them, or at least call them "self harm", that will be totally not counterproductive or anything!

[+] [email protected] -9 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

It might be acceptable but is it effective? Thyroid disorders are not common, but food addiction is extremely common. The same way you couldn’t understand what drug or alcohol dependency feels like if you’ve never felt like that before, you couldn’t understand what food addiction is like if you don’t have that experience with food.

It’s clear that there is a spectrum of how people respond to food, from “always hungry and literally never not wanting to eat” to “forgets to eat for days and barely notices until they pass out”. I personally know people on both ends of that spectrum and every place in between.

So I think your response is a little insensitive, or at least lacks empathy. To boil it down to the classic “stop stuffing your face” or “basic math” assumes your level of willpower required to not overeat is applicable to all people and it can’t possibly be different or harder than it is for you, so the only explanation is that everyone else must have less willpower than you.

Either that, or they feel like they are starving all the time and are literally addicted to food. Most science shows that it’s that one, but feel free to believe whatever you wish.

[–] meliaesc 9 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

I went from a perfect healthy BMI to gaining 50lbs over the course of a year (lockdown wasn't great for my mental health). I'm obese now, and I need to stop stuffing my face. There's explanations for every behavior, especially addiction, but there's no "cause" or solution for something like skin color or other genetic features.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

Yeah just to be clear, I never said there was. Obesity is not race, I am in no way trying to defend the tweet itself. Although I would say that I think with near 100% certainty that how you respond to food and how addicted to it you can be is absolutely something in your genes. People have wildly different reactions to things like stress or depression, some don’t eat at all and can get very sick and waste away, others get ravenous.

So I wouldn’t be so quick to put everyone in the same bucket, even if the end result is the same that they need to consume a healthy amount of calories. That may be much harder for them, in both directions.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I understand the level of willpower is different, I have an eating disorder myself. But the fact remains it is something that can be willed. Changing myself to be a different race or sexual orientation isn't a willpower issue, it's simply impossible. Hence why the comparison in this tweet is ridiculous.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Agreed, I’m not defending the tweet or saying it’s the same as things you literally cannot change. It’s stupid. I just take issue with your characterization of it just being math, feels oversimplified to me.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

Weight is a technical problem. Eat less than you need and you lose weight. Eat more than you need and you gain weight. Simple.

Willpower to follow through with the technical steps to lose weight is a mental health issue. That is way more nuanced, complicated and ultimately why so many people can't lose weight. I think you consider them holistically, whereas those who disagree with you keep those concepts separate. There is a logical argument for both and neither argument is wrong.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

Makes sense, enjoy your day