Repeat after me:
If you are naturally thin, you have no business criticizing the weight of others. You simply cannot comprehend the issues involved, no matter how much you think you do. And no, fighting to keep that extra 20lbs off doesn't mean you're not naturally thin.
I'm not trying to excuse fat, cause god knows I have plenty of blame for my own. I'm simply pointing out that what's easy for you is not easy for others, and you can't judge them by your own standards.
It's very hard for people to sympathize or empathize with things they cannot comprehend. As an example, I have sleep apnea (i'm sure many people here do as well, it's fairly common). Most people with sleep apnea have trouble sleeping and don't get enough sleep. I'm the opposite, I sleep longer, sometimes 10, 12, 16 hours straight, because i'm in a chronic state of sleep deprevation.
Most people cannot understand how someone can sleep 16 hours straight. How they can sleep through loud alarm clocks, or turn them off in their sleep. I've lost dozens of jobs because I couldn't make it into work on time, related to my chronic over sleeping. Most of my bosses simply thought I was lazy and couldn't understand how someone couldn't just wake up in the morning. I must, they logically conclude, simply want to sleep in. I would compensate for my tardiness by working late, and doing extra work, but that never seemed to matter to these people, they saw the coming in late part as evidence of my laziness and eventually let me go. Eventually, I simply started my own consulting company, where I could control my hours.
People have different metabolisms, they have different body chemistries, they have different genetics, some of which predispose people to becoming obese far easier than others.
We've all known the person that eats like a horse and never gains a pound, and we also know the person that can diet religiously for months and barely lose any. Which is not to say that most people who claim that dieting and exercise don't work for them aren't full of shit.
It's harder for some people than others, even harder still for some others. Weight gain is a feedback loop, as you gain more weight it becomes harder and harder to lose it because it becomes harder and harder to exercise. What's worse, exercising heavily at high levels of obesiety can cause severe injury or other medical issues.
People gain weight for different reasons. My problem was not that I couldn't stop eating. My problem was that I didn't eat often (usually only 1 meal a day, and then it was usually after midnight), and when I did I was starving and ate way too much. My body shut down because it thought it was starving, and then when I did eat, it packed on all the extra calories. I didn't eat that much more than someone who would eat regular meals, but because of the way i ate, my body treated it differently.
Most of the people who have trouble with diets have trouble because they starve themselves, and when they don't see results they get depressed and figure, "why bother? It doesn't matter either way, at least if I eat i can enjoy myself" It's a psychological problem among others.
The human body is *NOT* a simple machine. It's not a simple formula of caleries vs. exercise. For example, in many cases, if you start to starve yourself, your body will canabalilze muscle before fat (for example, reducing heart muscle), because it thinks that reducing calorie burn will save fat for longer periods of starvation. Your body will only burn fat when a) it has no other choice, or b) it is getting regular nutrition, but not enough to cover the calorie burn.
Having said all that, losing weight is not rocket science either. But, it does require changing habits, lifestyles, attitudes, and trusts. That's a lot of change for most people, not simply deciding to eat less and exercise more. Count yourself lucky. VERY lucky if you believe that all it takes is a little effort.
On a side note, I *AM* big boned. In the army, I was skinny as a rail, and weight 220 (at 6'3"). Large boned (or large framed) people have more skeletal mass and more muscle mass to move it, not to mention more fluids in the body (which are pretty heavy too). Big boned does exist, though many people use it incorrectly. So i'm supposed to pay more than 100 pound asian woman? Bullshit.
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