this post was submitted on 05 Sep 2023
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I used to judge overweight people. Now I understand that I was an asshole.
I have gained 25Kg in the past three years for no apparent reason. I eat the same kind of food, I exercise regularly... yet something is slightly off and my weight continues to slowly creep up.
People talk about calories in, calories out. What is missing from that argument is something as obvious as hunger: in the real world, over the long term, people eat until they are satisfied and no sooner than that. "Count your calories" means "Go hungry every meal". You can soldier on for a few months or a year, but eventually you will simply eat until you are no longer hungry.
If your hormones are slightly off and you feel a little too hungry for how much energy you actually need, you will slowly gain weight. Healthy people don't feel hungry every meal, that's simply not how they maintain a healthy weight.
That is why drugs like Wegovy are so important. They slightly adjust your sense of hunger so that it matches the amount of energy you actually need. Being overweight is in itself a chronic disease with all sorts of complications, from hypertension and diabetes to heart disease and joint problems. We need to stop judging people who suffer from it and start treating them now that we finally can.
Okay…there are of course medical conditions that let you put on weight. Also medicines and problems with your hormones. But how many overweight people are just eating to much and don‘t exercise a lot or at all?
So I kinda agree with you here. You shouldn’t insult someone. But just to say: it’s not your own fault… I think this is a easy excuse.
How do you determine what is "too much"? If you measure it by weigh gain, then all of them are eating too much. But if you measure it by "they eat until they are satisfied and no more than that", probably most of them aren't eating too much.
That I suspect is very common. Then again, many modern jobs involve sitting all day and the day has a finite number of hours, and at least in North America cities are car-dependent so many people don't even get to commute by foot. It's an environment that produces very sedentary people.
There is also lack of sleep, which I personally suffer from. How many of us are getting a good eight hours of good quality sleep every night?
There is more to it than "personal responsibility".
First, I completely agree with you that it's incredibly easy to let your weight slip. Just wanted to add that I know many overweight people I have gone out to dinner with, or just been around, that consistently make the wrong choice everywhere they go.
I'm at a restaurant and order something made of say, cucumber lettuce chicken and whole-wheat bread(as someone who is about average weight) The people I'm with order beef patties with mayo on white bread with fries as a side. I just want to shake them and say stop hurting yourself!! But there's not much I can do when every time I give a healthy alternative they'll say yuck, give me the processed food instead.
So definitely don't be hard on yourself if your weight is slipping, but if you're eating out every day or eating high calorie foods, just try to replace some of those, even with something else unhealthy but less calorie dense.