Obesity doesnt bother me at all. I dont particularly enjoy looking at extremely obese people, but I dont particularly enjoy looking at ugly people, or penises, either. Its not offensive, I dont find it disgusting, or worthy of hate or scorn. I feel bad for them to some degree because their lives are limited.

What DOES offend me is the entitled, external-locus-of-control attitude that is STRONGLY correlated with obesity, and the correlation goes up with the BMI. My attitude towards obese people has changed dramatically since I've worked in healthcare. We see a disproportionate number of very obese patients, and they have a whole litany of medical problems that non-obese patients dont suffer from. With few exceptions, these patients tend to be the most impatient, the least compliant, the most litiginous and frankly just the meanest and nastiest patients. They tend to take zero responsibility for themselves, whether that is whatever choices led them to this spot in the first place or whether its simple post-operative care and instructions. We have 500 lb patients on their 6th hernia repair who are incredibly demanding and outright rude when their repair fails, which is inevitably does.

None of this makes me hate them. It just makes it incredibly frustrating and difficult to care for them. For many of my colleagues this frustration turns into disgust or anger.

They say that 25% of the excess calories in the food supply are drinkable, not edible; the obesity problem seems like it might correspond with the expansion of beverage options, Benioff Children's Hospital seems to suspect as much. A double-double coffee is around 200 cals, 340 with cream. OJ and Gatorade are in the 110 to 150 rage. Coke is around 250, I think. People have at least one of these per day although I've heard some get up to six.

Fiddling around with solid food or trying to get people to eat offal wouldn't realize the same gains (...) as reducing/eliminating liquid calories. Plus Revots would be happy!

well yes regarding a certain subject.
i am very strong willed and able to controll myself in other regards but i really like good food.
if you research the subject of addiction you will find out that and its not fully established yet why thats the case, that not every human reacts the same to a stimulus.

anyway the reason for the hate in here is of course that you have been told that nonconformity is bad.
the whole argument is basicly redundant.
i realize society expects people to behave and look a certain way, i also realize any kind of nonconformtiy to that makes a lot of people feel uneasy.
but i believe thats societies problem and i am damn well going to do what ever the **** i please.

You are making a very lazy correlation/causation error here. Fat people tend to be poor, and poor people tend to be fat, but its not necessarily for the reasons you describe, nor is it at all obvious that one causes the other.

Both obesity and lack of professional success are strongly (inversely) correlated with impulse control and ability to delay gratification.

Haha well seeing unhealthy people get healthier and be less likely to die would make me happy, yes!

Carbonated sugar-water is the emptiest of empty calories, probably one of the worst things on the planet to put into your body.

Drink more water, drink less soda, consume less calories, get off the couch occasionally... rich or poor, it's not rocket science.

I said 'strong correlation' in the very beginning of my post. I didn't say anything about causation. Can you cite me something/refer me to an article that disputes the correlation argument because I would like to read it (seriously, not being sarcastic at all)? What are the other reasons then?

Are these really your other reasons? Link to study proving this? Because your statement [backed up by nothing other than your own lazy proclamation] is not at all obvious to me.

Sometimes things are true without having several double blind peer-reviewed studies attached.

Are they? Provide a study proving this, please.

But seriously, I ask for studies/cites because I really, really hate anecdotal evidence as support for a position. It just never works for me. You're one person - you can't generalize your own experience as 'proof' of anything other than your own beliefs.

He might be thinking of the marshmallow experiment.

The conclusion is that the marshmallow eaters' weak self-control carried on through life and resulted in lower incomes, but then you have to wonder if a lifelong trait observable in pre-school is really a choice, or whether it's easier to bag on it when your own vices aren't the kind of thing that becomes visible to outsiders by impairing your health or financial attainment. Lots of CEOs get whipped in dungeons, you know?

Who me? I was merely talking about how people are advised, e.g. here:

CAB advice on food banks

I can't help if you think I was saying something else, or the unfounded and irrelevant assumptions you are making about me. (If your post was addressed to me.)

I just got curious, so I did mine...

I'm 6'1", 215, which puts me at 28.4, or the upper range of overweight and a night of beer and chicken wings away from obese.

for the past 16 months or so, I've worked out basically every day (I was 278 on jan 1, 2013). I lift, I jog, I bike, I swim, I box/spar.

I've been "stuck" at 215ish for 3 or 4 months now, but that's bc all the weight in my stomach is tightening up on it's way to my shoulders/chest.

I'm 35 and in the best shape probably in my life. 17-19 I may have been just a little faster, but I jogged 6 miles last weekend which is the furthest I've run in my life by a mile or two at least. the 35 year old me would win 8/10 fights against the 17-19 year old me.

but yet, according to a BMI calculator, I'm a percentage point away from being "obese".

gtfo

I still have probably 10lbs I could lose from the remnants of my beer belly, but if I'm obese, then **** that measurement scale.

mostly wanted to subscribe to this hilarious/awesome thread. carry on

this is it, definitely.

my empty calories are in beer.

when I decided 278 was too fat, I started drinking 100oz water every day and only drank beer on fri/sat.

I would lose 4lbs during the week and gain 2.5 back on the weekends, but **** it that's what I did.

water really is the key IMO. I have 4 or 5 33oz water bottles both at work and home and have a bunch of different flavors of Mio and still drink 3 or 4 every day.

no calories, and while I used to roll my eyes at the whole, "drink water you won't feel as hungry" thing, once you get into that habit of doing it, it really does. drink 30 or 40 ounces of (flavored) water and eat a granola bar and even me at 250lbs+ was fine until lunch...

I dunno. I don't "hate" fat people, but like some have expressed, the feeling of entitlement that goes along with it is stupid and mock-worthy.

you wanna be fat, be fat. **** do I care? being obese is the same as if you were gay to me, there isn't one reason in the world that I would care. don't tread on me and all that.

but thinking you should be a protected class or something, **** off.

This reminds me of something I read somewhere.

Now I remember, this.

That's a good point vhawk makes there, I agree.

I'm very "small government" but I don't see why a fat tax wouldn't be a good thing in the long run.

Interesting New Yorker piece on Chris Christie, it's pretty hard on him. http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2...ors_picks=true

Not making assumptions about you, I just think its funny, that is all.

True anecdote: I've worked on construction sites with a bunch of underpaid, yet overweight Mexicans, living 5 to a room that has undrinkable water and no usable kitchen. I know that is talking extremes, but it is silly to think that people believe everyone in America has unending options.

Isn't that called "Obamacare"?

wiper's 2 posts made a lot of good sense to me, solid stuff.

I'm right there with you.

Katy, I still laugh when I think of that funny story you told about chasing that crazy naked lady around.

Nor is your personal experience of poverty universal.

http://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/pri...office20130819

haha we were actually talking about that incident last night because we found ourselves, once again, in a similar predicament sliding around a floor trying to subdue a wet naked guy while he kept yelling out "I love you, Katy!" What is it with psychotic people needing to tear their clothes off and run down the halls wet? Someone explain it to me. If I weren't getting paid for this stuff I would be really irritated. But to get back to the topic at hand, at least this patient wasn't fat because wrestling a fat naked guy would have been tricky.

I love you, katy!

When I was in the hospital for less than stable people, there was this one employee named Byron who must have been 500lbs. If you started to act up violently while he was on shift, you were ****ed. I once saw some dude start making a racket, hitting the walls, threatening any of the employees that came close to him. Then we didn't so much hear as feel something heavy coming our way. It was Byron. The patient knew what was coming and froze, like that would help him, but it was too late. Byron slammed into him and took him to the ground.

Your data suggest a moderate automatic preference for Thin People compared to Fat People.