Do you think some people are made to be obese?

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I have been heavy all my life and I have 2 girls 13 and 17. They 13 year old weighs 95 pounds and my 17 year old is 117. So I was lucky they took after my husband.

Does kind burn my butt that they can eat like they can and not gain nothing though! LOL

Don't bother sweating over your bills, in the end we all wind up in the hole!

I think it's a little of column A and a little of column B: Both genes and eating habits affect a person's weight. You'll have your skinny people who eat like horses and gain nothing, and your heavy people who eat normal amounts. It's possible for the latter to lose weight, but they have to work a lot harder at it than the former.

Ho ho ho, stick out your toe! Hee hee hee, stick out your knee!

Stop making excuses for fat people. No, people are not made to be obese. It's unnatural. That's why you never see obese animals in the wild. People gain the weight back because they see diets and exercise regimens as temporary solutions. They are satisfied with their results, so they go back to their old habits.

Sure, there are some people who can get away with eating lots of junk food due to a fast metabolism. That will come back to bite them in the ass when they're older.

Without a doubt there is a genetic component, but our genes have not changed in any meaningful way since the 50s and look at the obesity problem the U.S. is facing now. Some people put on weight faster than others, that is just a fact, but when we are talking about morbidly obese people it really is just a matter of calories in vs. energy burned. It is much easier (I'm not saying that it is easy) to go from 25% bodyfat down to 15% than it is to go from 10% to 8%. So the calculations on how to lose weight in a healthy way gets a little trickier the lower in BF you go but the idea is relatively the same.

So I agree that some people are 'made' to be fat. But no one is made to be morbidly obese. Its a matter of degrees. There are many people who comfortably are 15 lbs overweight and it is hard for them to lose that weight. But NOONE is comfortably 80-100lbs overweight. You honestly need to work at getting that far overweight. This is why you see many of those extremely overweight people having other issues besides just being overweight. They are typically using food to make up for something else. Be it being depressed or whatever.

I agree with your post, but not the title of it. I think that once people become obese it is difficult to lose weight and even more difficult to keep it off. It requires making a major lifestyle change and I think that is one of the major challenges. But I do think it is a range of factors that contribute and it is different for every person. External factors, like the availability and affordability of high-calorie food (that is pretty much designed to make you crave it) is another factor. Mental health, education, income, etc. all can contribute.

For the record, I also hate fat shaming/fat jokes and this show is a big reason why. If you watch this show but still have no compassion for overweight people, I don't understand you. Even if you blame them for getting themselves into that situation, you have to recognize that it's extremely hard to get in shape as an obese person. Before I watched this show I wasn't really aware of the plight of overweight people but now I really feel like it has made me more empathetic towards their situation and I try to be sensitive of that.

I have never been obese but over two years ago this show influenced me to start watching what I eat. At 6'3" and 185 lbs I wouldn't have even been considered overweight by most standards. I had been doing cardio for a long time but didn't see many tangible results, and it wasn't until I started tracking my calories that weight started coming off. I lost about 25 lbs. and have kept it off and I credit this show with making me think I could do it.

Genetics play a part, but many people think that means that if your parents are thin, you will be thin, and if you aren't, then you are overeating. Remember high school biology? Just because both parents have brown eyes, it is possible for them to have a child with blue eyes (Bb + Bb can = bb or BB or Bb)

So two thin people can have one or more children that have to struggle constantly to maintain a healthy weight. It's all on the roll of the genetic dice. I was watching an episode of MTV's "I Used to Be Fat" where this was the case. Two kids thin, eating whatever junk they wanted, in whatever quantities, one kid having to live on a healthy foods only diet with extra physical activity to be the same weight, and learn not to live with resentment.

I have met women that were rail thin before pregnancy, rail thin during pregnancy (picture a broom handle with a basketball stuck to the middle) and rail thin after pregnancy, that had the most atrocious eating habits. Mt. Dew and Doritos all day, fast food for meals, sitting on the couch all day smoking cigarettes and watching daytime TV. This is not an exaggeration.

So, it's not just diet and exercise, and there is nothing more difficult than trying to convince a 5'3" woman who has been strictly sticking to the meal and fitness plan (it's monitored closely in controlled situations) and losing and gaining the same 1 pound over the course of three weeks, to stick to it and things will change, when she can see that the woman that is 5'7" is steadily losing 2-3 pounds each week. They both started at the same weight.

In addition, due to the roles testosterone and estrogen play, men lose quicker than women when following the same plans. So hubby is visibly getting smaller, and the wife is slowly getting more dejected at her measly 1 pound a week weight loss.

Some people can exercise for about 30 minutes a day, 3 or 4 times a week and maintain their body fat. Others have to do at least 60 minutes of hard exercise every day, or the pounds start to creep up.

As an instructor once told our class, "The only place you are always going to find the word "fair" is in the dictionary."


"Arguing with idiots is like trying to play chess with a pigeon..."