Pajiba

I don’t get the country’s sudden fascination with obesity.

Sudden? You think this country's fascination with obesity has been sudden?

"...The show will chronicle a morbidly obese...40-year-old 340-pound father and husband; his 400 pound wife; and their two children, a teenage boy and girl who weigh in at around 340 pounds a piece..."

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First of all these people shouldn't be encouraged they should be punished,

Second, anyone else remember when TLC was all about, you know, "learning" how did we get from Yan Can Cook to these fat fucks?

Oh and these Wal-Marters don't have to "deal" with anything Rowles they PUT themselves out there. Like fucking circus freaks. If anybody is being exploited I guess it's the kids. The adults deserve whatever they get.

Hi Dustin,

"Are we going to start glamorizing fat people?" I'm not sure that would ever cross the minds of the producers. If anything, it would be the ability to send in to homes across America a "train wreck" they can watch, free of charge. We're a culture of gawkers. We love, love, love to gawk. If we could get paid for it, we'd sign up in a heart beat. Hell, ask the staff of TMZ or any of the nearly brainless people who read over Perez a half dozen times a day. My guess, as it it relates to this new show, is that the first few episodes (if not the first season) will be handled from a somewhat condescendingly, compassionate tone. Don't you find it oddly comforting to know that you can judge someone while providing a big ass hug (not a literal allusion folks)?

I do agree with you. This show, the very concept, doesn't sit well with me. It doesn't make me at all comfortable. 1. Those poor kids and what lies ahead for them. If anything, the show stands to give them a warped sense of both shame and popularity. I imagine a handful of people will swarm to their new celebrity classmates. Imagine the emotional fall out once the show gets cancelled. They'll be back to lonely, square one. 2. Shame on the parents. My hope (truly) is that they are coming at this with good intentions. "Maybe if we see our fat asses on national television every week, it'll motivate us to finally lose the weight." We all know it's weak reasoning, but still...at least it would be dysfunctionally good intentioned.

Finally, I don't think you have to worry about a show such as this giving small brained people the idea that gaining weight could lead to a show of their own. All the glorious talk shows of days gone by used to have some of their highest ratings on their 'fat' days. Maury, Jerry, Sally Jesse, Jenny, Ricki, the list goes on (now that I think about it, I frackin' MISS those shows. Man, day time TV should once again be littered with those programs). I've yet to hear if "Jon and Kate" created intense curiosity in to experimental egg splitting in an effort to have soooo many babies at once. Same goes with "Little People, Big World". I don't recall hearing of any surge in the adoption community of misguided parental wanna be's flocking in droves to adopt the cutest little dwarf in stock. Of course, I could be wrong. Medical and adoption quarters, please respond.....

True, but neglect doesn't come smothered in gravy and butter.

Mmmm, gravy.

What's the O/U on the first time somebody blames genetics and/or "metabolism" for their obesity? I figure it'll come no later than 6:30 during the first episode.

We have this end of the spectrum, and I just got back from visiting a friend who told me that her fitness goal is to shed 20 pounds to get back to what she weighed in High School. Before her D/DD sized tits came in. When she weighed 90 pounds. Attempts to convince her that she was insane proved futile.

Honestly, there's a lot of things to be said about the culture we live in that causes thin girls to want to be thinner, yet gives people who are obese ways to excuse responsibility for their size but I just am not the person to say it. I wish everyone would strive for healthy, even as I understand that healthy is not the same weight, size, BMI, or body fat percentage for everyone.

OOH! A&E...should be a new Intervention tonight...yesssssssss.

Perhaps they can do a cross promotion where A&E sends them all to the Betty Ford/Crocker Institute after a teary intervention? I hear people that fat actually cry gravy. Delicious.

"This is where the state should step in and seize the children. The whole concept makes me a little ill."

Posted by: admin at July 20, 2009 11:50 AM

Here here. Lainey is right. Overfeeding should be child abuse. I recognize that the difference between a chubby child who is growing and a chubby child who is just chubby is unclear, and that perhaps we shouldn't criminalize that, but clearly obsese children should get help.

I've never seen "Yan Can Cook," but I remember the magic that was "Wok With Yan."

(Two different Yans, apparently.)

This just goes to show how far along our cultural (as well as economic) dominance over this era has eroded. We are lazy, whiny and fat, everything is a "condition."

Hey Earl, about you end your struggle by not cramming 64 ounces of High Fructose Corn Syrup down your piehole? How about not doing that to your kids?

Warning: GROSS Comment to folow

I've also wondered how morbidly obese people fuck?

Problem 1:
Morbidly obsese = you can't see your dick standing up, so when you mount someone, your gut has to fall down even more, further obscuring your genitalia?

Problem 2:
Next problem, the gut of one pushes up against the gut of the women preventing access to the vagina by altering the angle.

Problem 3:
Culturally/Evolutionarily speaking men are attracted to relatively thin women. While ScarJo is quite different from natalie portman, they are fundmentally "thin", at least relative to an obese women. And real person obese, not top model "obese" which is still objectively attractive. 2) Erection health is a function of overall health (liquor dick anyone?) and morbidly obese people are not healthy. HOW does he get it up?

So I repeat, how do the corpulently expansive procreate? Or in simpler terms, how does fatty fuck??

After working with a morbidly obese woman for year who served as my surrogate office mother, I've decided fat-asses need some impossible combination of compassion and tough love. Kind of like those "street kids" in inspiring teacher movies.

Yes, it sucks to be fat and losing weight is hard. Yes, people are mean to you and you suffer from incredibly low self esteem. I know what it's like to not fit in anything at Forever 21 and then be relieved when Lane Bryant carries pants for women with hips.
But if you stopped making retarded decisions like eating KFC for lunch or eating an entire jar of olives in one evening, you just might feel a little better about yourself.

It's glandular! We can't forget the glands.

Posted by: admin at July 20, 2009 12:50 PM

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Funny how that argument loses it's punch when it's brought up by someone who's snacking on a Rubbermaid 12 gallon bucket of hot wings.

Oh Fuck the "Poor people can't eat healthy"excuse. That may have been true years ago, but it isn't true anymore. There are lots of gains to be made, and I will agree with you on thre school lunch/soda in school. But in general, it is manqageable.

Most poor people intuitively know that eating fried chicken or funyuns isn't healthy, yet they do it anyway. I can blame them bc they do have other options. Guess what, you can buy fruits and vegetables at farmers markets with food stamps. Guess what, KFC and Mcdonalds serve grilled chicken entrees. Guess what, tuna fish and whole grain pasta is as fucking cheap as a big mac. You CAN eat healthy cheaply. PBJ and bitches. Being poor does not give you cause for being fat. You also have no excuse for being uninformed in the era of google and the public library.

It is more difficult to be healthy while poor, as life is more difficult when you are poor, but I feel no qualms about judging people who are fat regardless of their socio-economic class.

The picture of those obese kids above seriously makes me teary-eyed. I don't know what the solution is, but those kids don't have a fucking shot and it's not their fault.

Lurker, you're one of those 'bootstraps irregardless of boots' people, aintcha?

I just feel so bad I can't live up to your standards of how I should be, random anonymous voice of the intertubes.

This is just another logical step along a road lined with vendors selling personal misery, grotesquerie and tragedy as entertainment.

twig, Somehow I don't think your POV is going to prevail here.

"I just got back from visiting a friend who told me that her fitness goal is to shed 20 pounds to get back to what she weighed in High School. Before her D/DD sized tits came in. When she weighed 90 pounds."

Hey Genny (Rusty)---Skinny, big ta-ta's, and poor decision-making skills? Can I have her number?

Twig, I understand some people have biological issues, but I suspect more are like me, who could stand to lose 10-12 but am a) too lazy and b) too short of willpower and 3) just don't care enough to do it. And I'm walking around with three stents in my heart, so of all people I SHOULD care.

Anyway, I hope I'm not the only one who's noted the irony of us sitting in front of our PCs (and some of us are stuffing our faces at the same time, aren't we?) for hours at a time, debating why we're fat.

Should read:

*take note that Mcds is not that cheap..

A lot of what you said, Inaras, is valid, but there's some bullshit, "it's not my fault" in there, too. It's probably cheaper to cook for a family than to pick up McDonald's, pizza or KFC 5 nights a week, especially when you're super-sizing it. It's about as cheap to make a pot of soup, stew, spaghetti or meatloaf to last a few days than to fix boxes of Mac & Cheese. It takes planning and effort, that's for damn sure, but there are affordable options. If this was the case, then what did low-income folks eat before there were frozen dinners and McDonald's?

Sorry, I'm not trying to participate in fat bashing, because 'there but for the grace of Weight Watchers, I go'...I just need to refute the idea that *adults* aren't responsible for the choices they make and that it's the government's responsibility to make people eat healthier and monitor their own exercise. I'm not saying that people couldn't use some help getting access to healthier & fresher foods, but personal responsibility is a beautiful thing.

I'm carrying an extra 20 - 25 pounds because I like ice cream. And Doritos w/ guacamole. Chipotle, Heavenly Ham, & Chick-Fil-A are also favorites of mine. And I enjoy sitting down in front of the teevee or computer & not taking a walk after dinner. Personal responsibility.

GODDAMN it! I hate it when I agree with BSlim!

Posted by: Lainey at July 20, 2009 2:25 PM
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shhhhhhhh....

Just stop struggling and let it happen.

Okay,
I've been poor. And I dont mean "I cannot afford the Farmer's Market" poor. I mean my lights are off, I'm living on food collected from rich people, I can sometimes afford laundry but since it takes 5 dollars (and I need that for the bus) I wash my clothes by hand in my bathtub and dry it on the roof...poor.

I was about 115 pounds. I ate tuna. Lots of tuna. Sometimes if I was lucky I'd get canned clams, gnocci and a tomato paste. The only staples I bought from a store were milk and eggs and bread.

I was poor enough that I COULDN'T AFFORD MCDONALDS OR KFC.
So poor you literally cannot afford to get fat. I became a vegitarian not by choice, but by necessity. And later on when I was taken out to dinner by a boyfriend (who had decent money) I threw up after eating a steak because my body could no longer process meat.

So socioeconomic blah blah kiss my ass excuse. I'm sorry but it doesnt fly. My neighbors consisted of Meth-Head-Jump-Off-The-Balcony-At-Night and If-I-Have-To-Suck-A-Dick-10-Dollar-Pro.
It was the ghetto. I didnt walk around it. But I also didnt have the energy.
Because I was always hungry.

Because I was actual poor. Not spend your 15 dollars on 3 BigMac Meals rather then chili and cheese. Or beans to make your own chili (which goes very far, actually). Or fucking Top Ramen, eggs, and stirfried canned vegges.

15 dollars for just 3 BigMac Meals is A LOT to spend on one nights dinner. These people do it all the time. Not because they can't afford better, but because they dont want to soak beans all night.

I got about ten comments down, then I had to stop.

CPS should not get involved. Because we're busy enough dealing with real abuse. Do I think that the parents of morbidly obese children should try to focus on healthy eating and movement? Definitely. As all parents should.

Child abuse, is when you fill a bathtub with scalding water, then hold your child down until that child has second degree burns. It's pimping out your child. It's exposing your children to domestic violence or substance abuse. In case anyone is wondering, these are actual cases my agency has dealt with.

I'm getting really sick of people calling every damn thing child abuse. It minimizes the effects of actual abuse.

And before anyone gets started, yes, I'm fat. And as a fat person, and someone who has dealt with ED, I'm aware that there is a problem with obesity in this country. I would also say that this show is exploitative. I think that pretty much all of the reality shows that feature children are exploiting them. Having said all of that, the National Eating Disorder Information Center has released a really helpful list of things that people should do with all children to encourage healthful eating and exercise habits. The emphasis on weight in this country is very likely contributing to the increase in obesity. So for those of you out there still reading my post, please google the list and read it. Then remember it the next time you're around children. Because that is probably more helpful than obsessing about the size of your thighs in front of an impressionable five year old.

actually "Luker" your cultural observation isn't completely acurate... only recently have men shown a preference for thin as beautiful. The concept of beauty in most works of art from from anything older than the 20th century shows women with a much higher body fat ratio (while not obese) they are not size 2's (more like size 10's or 14's)... check out what a statue of a greek goddess looks like... baby got back!
Men actually chose mates that were curvy (and I'm not talking scarjo here) but with wide birthing hips and large breasts for feeding babies... and the earliest fertility dolls more closely resembled a 400 lb woman than natalie portman!
In fact, the concept of thin is beautiful has a lot to do with food and who has access to the food, ie the richer the cilivization, the more upper class you were, the better the food you have, so the fatter you were. If you were the fat chick your village in Africa, that meant your daddy was prob rich... so all the boys wanted to marry you...
with America's abundance of food, the ideal of beauty has flipped... and now thin is IN so to speak and many people, are force fed (excuse the pun) this bad body image that something is wrong with them if they don't look like this new vision of beauty... so it's not 100% their fault that they are the way they are...

BSlim, I've taught at NYC schools. Phys Ed, if it's even still in the curriculum, has been cut down to once a week in many schools. So our education system (that cuts phys ed and serves crappy school food) teaches kids warped priorities.

But I do think TV and video games are a big factor making a huge difference in the amount of activity of kids. Movement, attention-span, creativity--kids just don't go outside and play anymore.

And, on top of glandular problems, don't forget emotional eating.

First of all these people shouldn't be encouraged they should be punished,

Second, anyone else remember when TLC was all about, you know, "learning" how did we get from Yan Can Cook to these fat fucks?

Posted by: BarbadoSlim at July 20, 2009 11:49 AM

That...makes me want to punch you...hard. Then, I'm even going to do a fatboy tactic and sit on you while I continue to punch you. You even contradicted yourself by denouncing fat people and then talking about a fucking cooking show. COOKING.

Punished for what? If you want to punish the parents for the kid being fat, why? Note it said teenagers. They can make their own fucking decisions. How many times have you been out and seen fat parents with skinny kids? I know I have. If you want to punish them for being fat, why? Do you think you should be punished along with the rest of you for making asshole comments about people who are obese? Because I personally believe that degrading assholes deserved to be punished more then a fat person. You're like the asshole jock at school who pushed the fat kid around...just because he was fat.

I graduated high school at 310 lbs, I currently sit at about 270 lbs and have been for about 5 years. I'm not obese, seriously, the doctor told me,
"You're not obese, you're just fat."
"Is that a good thing?"
"Its better then being obese."
My resting heart rate, BP, cholesterol, perfect. I drink like a fish and smoke a pack a day. I took a fit test about two years ago and scored excellent in almost every category. I can even still put my foot behind my head. Can you?

The guy who started the fucking jogging craze died of a heart attack. Why do you, or should you, care about how other people live their lives? Do you also agree with the bans on smoking? Do you think the taxes on alcohol and cigarettes should go up because its "bad" for you? Do you think gym memberships should be as expensive as they are? Do you think everyone in the world should be thin?

According to the CDC..."In 2008, only one state (Colorado) had a prevalence of obesity less than 20%. Thirty-two states had a prevalence equal to or greater than 25%; six of these states (Alabama, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and West Virginia ) had a prevalence of obesity equal to or greater than 30%."

You think obesity is something foreign? Look around you. The skinny fucks are being replaced. Once it was considered attractive to be plus size. I have a friend. A smaller friend. Who only likes to hook up with obese women. I don't know why, I wouldn't, but he finds them attractive.

Think before you start degrading people. Celebrities, go for it, and before you say it, these people aren't celebrities yet. But a "people" in general, wait, before you open your fucking mouth.

By the way, I think this show is going to fucking suck. Not because its fat people, but because its reality tv, and I can't fucking stand reality tv. The only one I like is "Little People Big World."

Thinking about it some more, the New Yorker article pisses me off because it leaves the overall impression that the fast-food companies are to blame. Look! They're waging psychological warfare against us! They make us subconsciously stuff our faces! They're not playing fair! So obviously we need the government to step in and rescue us from ourselves, to make restaurants post the fat content of their meals and perform other useless feel-good gestures.

Look, I understand a handful of people are compulsive eaters. That's a psychological problem. Those aren't the ones I'm talking about here.

I know there are a lot of things many of us have no control over. But of all the things we DO have control over, the EASIEST to control ought to be what goes in our mouths. Anything that does has to pass in front of the eyes, and if the eyes see three hamburger patties with cheese on each one, well, dammit, that should look like fat to you, without nanny having to tell you it is.

We're all well past the baby stage, where everything we see has to go in the mouth. We've learned some restraint. More of us need to use it.

But yes, that's only part of the equation. Much of the rest is just getting off your ass and moving around some. When ,daughter was an undergrad, in the two years before she had a car and she had to walk to get anywhere on campus, I told her she was in the best shape she would ever be in. She has acknowledged I was right.

I heart you, Lainey, literally. My problem always was that I couldn't just eat a cheeseburger, it had to be a triple. I couldn't just eat a pizza, it had to be meat lovers. For much of my youth and college years I was 5-9 and about 135 pounds. 30 years later I'm closer to 165 and I really should have had a heart attack, I was a walking time bomb about eight years ago. After surgery to deal with some of the arterial blockage, I lost some weight and watched my diet, ate salads and such. I've since backslid quite a bit, but I don't think I'll ever go back to triples and meat lovers.

Also, watch your salt, folks. Most prepared foods are just loaded. Somebody above mentioned ramen noodles. Take a look at the sodium content some time. You're usually screwed in the grocery store one way or another. Stuff that isn't loaded with fat is loaded with salt, and vice versa.

It ain't easy, but it can be done.

"Why do you, or should you, care about how other people live their lives? Do you also agree with the bans on smoking? Do you think the taxes on alcohol and cigarettes should go up because its "bad" for you? Do you think gym memberships should be as expensive as they are? Do you think everyone in the world should be thin?..."

Live your life however you like hoss. As far as caring goes I have the right to care and express my disdain for having voluntary obesity rewarded at 75k an episode for these folks.

I don't dislike people who are terribly overweight, I feel bad for them (yes, even though they are overweight because of their own actions). It must feel terrible to carry all that around, I don't think I could do it.

The commenter formerly known as bucdaddy is right: the problem with America is that regular old whatever isn't good enough. Stuffed crust pizza, triple thick shakes, double bacon cheeseburgers, chili cheese fries - this shit (along with chips and soft drinks and beer) is why Americans are overweight. If most of these people would just eat about half (in either volume or calories/fat) of what they eat now, they'd lose weight. Yeah, exercise helps it come off faster, but the vast amount of calories is the problem.

I think eating like that, supersizing everything, is a bad habit that people get into which is kinda hard to stop. Worse, they periodically "diet," which means taking off a little weight, but nobody can eat the way you do on a typical "diet" (which is marketed just like any other product), so they go back to eating "normally" (ie, too much), they gain the weight back, they conclude there's no point, so they stop trying.

Seeing overweight kids today kinda makes me wanna call my mom and thank her for not letting us eat whatever we wanted when we were kids. I'm pretty sure her motivation was mostly financial (ie, she had 4 kids and 2 adults to feed, and a budget, and food had to last for a certain amount of time), so we weren't allowed to consume 2 weeks' worth of groceries in 2 days. She would have shit a brick if she discovered a loaf of bread gone the day after she bought it. As a result, I didn't get the idea that eating every time I felt like it was OK. Even as an adult, when I can eat whenever I want, I don't. I do, however, deal with this by not keeping a lot of food in my house to begin with. And usually, I'm far too lazy to get in my car to go get food. I guess that's a kind of willpower. I'm a normal weight, not fat, not super skinny, just normal. I guess. Whatever normal is now.

Seriously, I need to call my mom.

Seriously, though, I understand that people who are overweight are sensitive about it and also that child protective services is overburdened and people have their own responsibility and all. But when I read this stuff a couple things jump out at me:
-people say stuff about children being taken away because parents who let their children get morbidly obese (and 'let' isn't quite the right word since parents are complicit in it) are being bad parents who are harming their kids. Are they beating them with razor blades? No, but they are failing as parents.

-Yeah, some people have a genetic disorder and some people have other reasons that they are fat, but the vast majority of them do not. I hate to be an ass, but if you have a balanced diet in which you take in less calories than you burn, you WILL NOT EVER GAIN WEIGHT and in fact will lose weight. It may be slow and it may be difficult, but you cannot gain weight unless you take in more calories than you burn. If you are 200 pounds overweight (judging from the weights of the people in the show, I'll say they are) then each of them would have had to eat 700,000 extra calories over their life to gain that, plus however extra calories they've had to eat to maintain it.

-If you look at the obesity problem in the US, it is really sad. They will die sooner and be much more unhappier due to health and romance problems.

I don't see this show as any worse taste than any of the rehab shows out there. People have made bad life decisions and now we get to gawk at them while they get money for it. It what TV is nowadays mostly.

slash's meth pitch would make for GREAT tv.

a friend struggled for 2 years with meth addiction, ending when he beat his partner's 70 year old dad with a shovel and was sent to rehab.

god, he was so thin back then.

BITCH!

I've actually hated TLC for a couple years now, both for its content and its misleading name. It should rather be TMC, as it focuses more on the creation or mere dissemination of other people's misery. I get that sad lonely people at home like to laugh at other people's misfortunes, but isn't that what shows like MXC and Wipeout are for? Why watch and/or facilitate the ruining of strangers' lives?

TMC: The Misery Channel
or Televised Miserable Children (notably the Gosselins)

I've been reading this and hoping someone else would point out that Inara, I'm sorry you're full of crap when It comes to WIC. WIC does not provide bread or meat. The only meat it used to provide was canned tuna to nursing mothers. Here is the list of items you can get from WIC:

Low-Fat or Skim Milk
Dry Unsweetened Cereal, Oatmeal or Grits
100% Fruit Juice
Brick Cheese such as swiss, mozzarella, cheddar, etc.
Dried Beans, Lentils, or Peas
Peanut Butter
Eggs

They are discontinuing the cheese in October. This is all for low income children under five.

In addition, there is a farmer's market held every summer where you can get 15.00 of locally grown organic vegetables and fruit.

Thanks for being ignorant. Now let's both line up and make a fruit pie or pot of venison chili from scratch. This WIC Bitch can cook.

Don't tell me you can't buy a can of tuna, a loaf of bread, and a mini jar of mayo (all of which should give one person three filling meals) for close to the same price as a fast food combo.

I can get three filling meals out of one can of tuna? Shit, one can of tuna doesn't even give me a filling meal. My cat would look at me with a bowl with 1/3 of a can of tuna in it and go what the fuck? Mayo? Mayo is fat...literally.

As for food for the cost of a combo? You can go to Kroger and get 2 cans of Kroger Brand Beefaroni for like 2 bucks.

I'm sorry. I eat what I want. Everyone who wants to live to be old as shit are odd. Odd I say. I mean really, why would you want to live to be 90? I'm shooting for 62. If I make it that long I will consider myself lucky.

Ah, the old trick where you pretend Mustard is the New Mayo....classic.

It's a LIE!!!!!

Listen, Fools. Poor people eat fatty foods because, what, what, FOOD is ENTERTAINMENT when you are poor. Historically the cheapest HOMEMADE foods not been flavored with a hunk of lean meat, but have some kind of starch like noodles, rice, or beans with a salted meat "scrap" type of fat for flavor. Lard, Bacon, ham hock, pork chop, soup bone, etc. A lot of the things you all are decrying as prepackaged crap are really convenience versions of things poor people have always made at home. Yes, they're gross. But stop calling people lazy for eating it or I'll stomp that Trader Joe Hummus package out of your slender hands and tell you mustard would be better for you.

Speaking as someone who grew up poor as all get out but whose mom never made that boxed shite, it IS Possible to feed a family of four very healthily on about 50 bucks a week. It still is. I DO. My mom and dad both worked and they never took any assistance. If you go less than that, it's hard. Fresh produce and protein for four people daily is hard to swing on less than 12.50 a person a week. Starches fill the blanks.

I saw a lot of cousins who grew up on food stamps use food as entertainment, though. The chips and the prepackaged stuff became something to look forward to, and a $20.00 trip to McDonald's with a Playground was still seen as more responsible than a $20.00 trip to the movies with an empty stomach. When food becomes your sole source of recreation, well, you're done. It can happen to a poor kid or a NY Times Food critic or a Millionaire Talk Show Hostess.

Thanks meaux, and I actually want to further clarify my previous post.
It's not fair to look at someone who's overweight and assume that they're lazy and can't be fussed to "get off their asses and fix it."
Maybe sometimes that really is the case, but I don't assume that every skinny person is an asshole with an eating disorder, why doesn't the reverse hold true?
I have a problem with that kind of snap judgment IN GENERAL, but some of these comments are pissing me off.

Stacy D Word. My dad once had a garage sale and he put out this big ol' box of old VHS tapes. Some of them didn't have labels. Some of them were just shit he taped in the 80s and 90s. He put a sign on it: $1 for the box. I was like "Dad, now who the hell's gonna even give you a buck for some box of crap-ass VHS tapes?"

He said "someone poor." He would know, he's been extremely poor in his life. Like not even a roof over his head or shoes to wear poor.

I didn't understand and he said it's a safe gamble for entertainment. One buck, that's it, and you get this huge box chock-full of possible entertainment. Enough to last you months maybe.

As he finished talking, a guy came up, smiled, and handed him a dollar. Grabbed the box.

I understood. I'd probably do it, too. In fact, I know I would. And I totally understand the idea of starches filling in the blanks and food as entertainment.

After reading this thread, I think I'm weird--I don't have much judgment about size. People are who they are, I guess. It's not any skin off my nose, and I'm about 30 pounds overweight myself, who am I to judge?

Besides, I've started to think of "fat" (by that I mean 20-50 pounds overweight, not morbidly obese) as the default. I guess I'm always sort of surprised when people aren't fat, LOL.

Oh um, TLC? Is the Freak Channel. I boycott it, seriously. That stupid Jon and Kate fucking mess is what did it for me. I guess adults can decide to be exploited all they want, but leave the kids out of it.

Here we go again. More whining from fatties. Fat people SHOULD be ashamed of being fat, just like junkies and alcoholics should. It's a weakness. It's an inability to control one's behavior.

No, it's not a disease. That's psychological bullshit. There isn't a person on Earth who can't correct their behavior, if they want to badly enough.

Fatties don't, for the most part, have glandular or metabolic problems. No, they EAT TOO MUCH and move too little. I saw lots of fatties drop HUGE amounts of weight when I was in basic training. Amazingly, putting someone on reduced calories and making them run everywhere burns fat right off.

It's simple. If you consume a caloric surplus you will get fat. If you consume a caloric deficit, you will lose weight. Guaranteed.

People don't understand, or care, how many calories they're consuming. Soda is calorie dense. Anything fried is. Sweets are.

Exercise? I work out 6 days a week. I lift weights and ride my bicycle. I see people who are "exercising" at the gym every day, and who achieve no results. Why? Because they aren't working out hard enough, or, more likely, BECAUSE THEY HAVE LOUSY DIETS. If your meal consists of a small portion of a healthy grain, a palm-sized portion of protein, and a whole lot of vegetables you won't get fat.

Personal responsibility. Make good choices.

As for the "poor people can't afford to eat right" argument---I doubt that. Wal-Marts are everywhere. Bags of frozen vegetables are cheap there. Beans are cheap. Brown rice is cheap. I bought a 4 pound bag of tilapia fillets for $4.00 there. A 4 pound bag of boneless, skinless chicken breasts was also $4.00. It's not as fatty and delicious as a bucket of fried chicken, but it's NOT EXPENSIVE.

"My town is very health conscious and the population is slender overall, but we are also blessed with exactly the right weather, transportation resources (heavy investment into bike lanes and pedestrian pathways and outdoor areas) and a 'health culture' that makes it very easy for even poor guys like me to make better choices. There have to be options that support healthful opportunities for it to be an equalizing force among a population. It's true - you just do not want to take a vigorous stroll through a danger zone. Or -30 wind chill."

Thank you. When my west coast friends (not sure if that's where you're from) crow about how in shape and healthy they are I am always tempted to remind them that they'd last about 45 seconds in the Northeast. But I digress.

I've lived in very nice n'hoods and not-so-nice n'hoods. It's about a hundred times easier to procure affordable, healthy food, join a gym, exercise generally in the former than it is in the latter. And please don't crow about "personal responsibility" when it's a hell of a lot harder to take responsibility in certain places than in others. Wal-Marts and Targets are not everywhere, never mind Trader Joe's. Many people cannot simply hop in the car and spend a couple of hours on a Saturday stocking up on bulk brown rice. They may be able to if they can devote the entire damn day to the project, but who among us would do that religiously? I know I wouldn't, but I'm also (relatively speaking) fucking rich and would do Peapod or Fresh Direct, both entirely unfeasible options for the poor. Not to mention that Fresh Direct doesn't deliver to certain n'hoods in NYC.

Jesus, the judgment on this thread is incredible. "Fatties"? Are you fucking kidding me?

I kinda figured someone would say something like that. I appreciate it.

*so

"I have every reason to get pissed off when I see parents feeding their 4 year old son a fucking mcdonalds hamburger instead of baby food."

So, you're conceding here that a child who is set down the wrong path, through no fault of his or her own, healthwise is at a disadvantage? And, yet, your post rants and raves about personal choice and responsibility. Okay.

"YOUR choice to be morbidly obese costs the United States billions of dollars in unnecessary health care costs, airplane fuel, lost productivity time, and quality of life--I'm talking to you person who takes up 3 airplane seats."

Moreover, unless you live the life of a damn hermit I'm sure there are choices you and I and every poster make every day that put us at risk and potentially costs other citizens money. We bear those risks jointly because we ALL engage in risky behavior, be it smoking, driving, bungee-jumping, never exercising, etc.

And, by the way, four-year-olds don't eat baby food. Perhaps I'll sic CPS on you when you have children.

An individual's appetite is monitored by an incredibly complicated set of hormones and physiological mechanisms that involve the hypothalmus/pituitary connection in the brain, the thyroid, stretch receptors in the stomach, insulin/glucagon levels controlled by the liver, leptin produced by adipose tissue and a redonkulous number of other polysyllabic technical terms that I’m not touching with my ten dollar word stick. Anyone who claims that morbid obesity (and obesity in general) is not a "glandular issue" is obviously not familiar with the basic regulatory mechanisms of the endocrine system. While psychological and cultural components most definitely exist, it is not merely a mind over matter issue.

It’s true that the majority of obese individuals do not have a “quick fix” hormonal imbalance responsible for their weight issues, like hypothyroidism or the inability to produce leptin. Instead they may have “burned out” their body’s leptin receptors due to an abnormally high circulation rate of this hormone, produced by the abnormally high amount of adipose tissue. It's similar to the “burning out” of the body’s insulin receptors in Type II Diabetes patients. Since leptin helps relay from the body to the brain the feeling of fullness, these individuals lack an important negative feedback mechanism to feeling calorically satiated.

I’m so sick of reading these hateful comments where people are bitching about willpower and the simple calories in, calories out model of eating. If you have the ability to follow these narrow, cold turkey guidelines to healthy eating, good for you. I do it too. I do not however live on a smug little superiority cloud where I consider every individual capable of following the same restrictive eating plan. That's right, individuals, not fatties, because each and every one is a distinct entity with a separate set of obstacles to overcome on their road to health.

Fuck me running, Pajiba. This dissolved into a hateful little thread.

I simply cannot beleive these comments, the ignorance and hatred for people who are different from you... Wow. When I read some of these comments, I feel amazingly sorry for YOU. Do you know how petty, judgemental, superior and hateful you sound? Please, for the love of all that is holy, don't feel sorry for us fatties. You're the ones going through life loathing everyone around you for their differences, it really must make even simple tasks like going to the grocery store agonizing. Sure, I may die from a heartattack but at least I'm not a miserable fucking asshole that can only share their true feelings about thick folks on a website comment thread. Surely there are fat people in your life, do you talk like this to their faces? Wait, based on some of these comments I suppose you DON'T know any fat people because they are SO DISGUSTING! Well, you're missing out on a lot of awfully cool fucking people. Again, I keep just feeling sorry for you. Odd, aint' it? Keep on making a difference out there with your "tough love" and "genuine medical advice". I already see it making a dent in the fatty population. Really... Ha.

For the record, I'm fat too. Not obese, but about twenty pounds heavier than I really should be. The difference for me is that I make no claim of valid "excuses" for being this way.

I have hypothyroidism which I could easily be on meds for, but the side effects were more of an annoyance for me than the weight gain, and I was sick of still not being able to find the perfect dosage after five years on it. So I went off the meds. My (stupid) choice.

I eat fast food once a week because, guess what? I like it. My (stupid) choice.

I don't exercise, other than my job being fairly physical, because I am entirely too lazy to create a schedule and stick to it. My (stupid) choice.

I don't look down on fat people. I just have an issue with the ones who refuse to admit that they are fat mostly due to their own choices.

Cowardly Pig----you evidently can eat the way you do and suffer no ill effects. That's FINE. It's not the eating that's the problem with fat people----it's the being FAT. You're fortunate. But I suspect you're very young and your metabolism WILL change. When I was 16, I worked at McDonald's. Coming home with a bag of Big Macs and apple pies was a regular occurance---and I weighed 125 pounds. Once you get older you have to work more to keep it off. Videogame playing fat teenagers are the exception, of course. Drinking 6 Mountain Dew 20oz bottles every day is not good.

Leigh---everybody CAN follow a healthy eating plan. I've seen it first hand. Of course, it involved a large man in a Smokey the Bear hat yelling a LOT, but everybody can lose weight. It IS a simple matter of willpower and caloric expenditure. If it wasn't, then people wouldn't lose weight in basic training, at fat camp, on Survivor, or when they have gastric bypass. It's not complicated. It's not EASY to lose weight, but it's not complex. Eat less, move more. And put on your big girl pants and SUCK IT UP. Quit whining.

Angelmonster---you can't compare being black to being fat. Why? Because nobody BECOMES black through their own actions.

That's why it's OK to ridicule fat people. Being fat is a choice. If you are free to make a choice which draws negative attention to yourself, then others are free to comment on that choice. Being fat is not like being developmentally challenged, short, tall, bald, gay, or whatever. Being fat is a direct result of behaviour. And behaviour isn't protected. Sorry.

Parents of obese children SHOULD be corrected. Allowing a child to reach the levels of obesity we've seen is NO DIFFERENT than allowing them to drink alcohol, smoke, or do drugs. Surely nobody would say that allowing a 6 year old to smoke is a good thing. Yet being obese is JUST as harmful, if not moreso. I haven't seen any smoking teenagers with emphysema, but I sure have seen some Type II diabetics.

It's a damn shame. People weren't this fat in the 70s and 80s. I remember. High Fructose Corn Syrup and too much sedentary behavior will be the ruination of mankind.

It doesn't surprise me that there will soon be a show that follows around a fat family. What surprises is me is that someone has to be 400 pounds before Hollywood & Big TV consider them truly "fat".

I read a lot of celebrity bios and gossip books from the 20's - 60's. One thing you notice very quickly is that back then, any woman weighing 150 was considered truly out of shape, and a woman weighing 200 was considered massively, piggishly obese. In fact, it was pretty much unheard-of. For example, Kate Smith, the legendary singer, was widely regarded as far too fat to be attractive to any man - and according to Wikipedia, she weighed only 235 during her most famous years.

I think the media fascination with obese people will continue, but I also think it won't be long before anything below 300 pounds is considered "normal", and they'll have to interview the 400-, 500-, and 600-pound people to see "what fat people think about the way others treat them."