acidroundtrip wrote:
"Naturally big?? That's a bunch of sh!t. If so I should still be 300 lbs. then.
instead of what I weigh now (210) and I didn't have to starve myself. I just got off my fat ass and excersized."
Pierman chimed in:
"Perhaps she will blame her thyroid again for being overweight. (+: ... You can't grow a conscience!"
Oh come on you two! Yes, personal responsibility for one's own health is vitally important, but to make moral or psychological judgements about someone based on their weight or body type is both unfair and irrational.
Weight, body type, "fatness" or "skinniness", whatever you want to call it, is the result of a complex interaction of factors: genetic, lifestyle, personality, culture, socioeconomic status, personal history, etc. "Will power", which seems to be the factor acidroundtrip and Pierman attribute so much importance to, is just one factor and its relative importance depends on a lot of things. It takes a lot more "will power" to lose weight if you're a working parent struggling to make ends meet and short on time and money than if you're childless and making decent pay. In our society, fattening unhealthy food is significantly cheaper, faster, and easier to prepare than wholesome, lower fat, "real" food. For example, consider these pairs of cheap/expensive options:
chocolate bar / protein or "meal replacement" bar
muffin / roast beef sandwich, no butter or mayo
ground beef / chicken breast
canned or frozen fruit & vegetables / fresh fruits & vegetables (outside big cities)
I'm sure you can think of others.
Genetics and childhood experiences also have a huge effect on our eating and exercise habits, and it's naive to think that such influences can easily be waved away and overcome. And there are so many other factors than affect weight: medications, accidents or injuries (can stop an exercise program dead in its tracks for weeks or months), hormonal shifts, pregnancy, time and schedule constraints, etc.
So to make assumptions about a person's character or moral strength based on their weight and body shape is utterly groundless and unfair.
P.S. to acidroundtrip: "Naturally big" doesn't mean there's no upper limit to the range of healthy weight ratios or that there's no such thing as obesity. I take it to refer to the upper range of weight/body rations considered "healthy."
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