Things like Fat Acceptance and trying to normalize being obese are part of the issue. Being obese is not physically healthy and there should be appropriate social pressure to counteract that.
It’s way more complicated than that. You can’t go through life thinking that will power is real. Motivation or lack there of is real. And fat people aren’t just about either/or. Living in a food desert plays a part. So does income. So does home training, mental illness, genetics, and more.
Life ain’t just some generalized American fantasy. Real shit is involved. And it would be wise to take notice.
Please. It's not about "willpower." Poverty plays a part. Genetics plays a part. Our unhealthy lifestyles under capitalism plays a part. But go ahead and blame people for things that might just be beyond their control. That always makes a difference. /s
I am on strict keto diet. I exercise 4 times per week more than 1 hour each time (half is high intensity cardio, half is weight lifting and a bit of stretching) I am doing 44 hour fasting each week and I am window eating each day (6-8 hour window). I do all that FOR YEARS, despite of the fact that I naturally do not like exercise, and of course, I rather eat, including sweet fruits, than fasting or being on keto. And I am overweight and borderline obese. So, with all my respect, sir or ma’am, fuck you for trolling! You do that before you call someone without discipline or will power.
So, imagine you need 7 willpower to do an exercise and someone on the way to obesity needs 11 to do the same exercises. You roll an 8, do the exercises, all is fine. The other person rolls a 9, higher than you, yet still fails the willpower check. You standing there laughing how they lack willpower comes off as a little ignorant now, doesn't it?
My wife eats a little healthier than I do. She drinks more water than I do. We eat the same quantity of food. We have the same exercise level. She’s notably heavier than I am. Please explain how there’s such a substantial difference in the end result. You aren’t allowed to use genetics in your answer.
Technically true but it’s messed up that it requires that much willpower in the first place. Food pyramid, garbage like high fructose corn syrup, using cars for everything, all contribute to it being way too easy to be fat. We should strive for a society where you don’t need to have to put in special effort such as going to a gym or go on a special diet to be healthy. Being healthy should be seamless.
It is much harder than necessary to be healthy. If you wanna get paranoid about it, a fat/lethargic populace is less likely to successfully rebel.
I am over 50 so have watched America get fat - when I was in grade school we had one fat girl , Tanya. I’m sure she had some metabolic issue, and I’ve since met a few other people like that, athletic but obese.
My kids go to school with so many fat kids that they don’t even notice it.
It’s more complicated than willpower, systems here are set up to almost enforce inactivity, and obesity is epigenetic, if you are born to a skinny mom but get fat, a genetic switch flips and your children (even if you don’t raise them in an obese household - for example you die and they grow up with skinny grandma) are very likely to struggle with obesity.
But it’s also true that you, as an individual, have the biggest impact on your body size. It’s just not true that everyone’s appetite and metabolism are the same. I come from a thin mom who herself had thin parents, and I’m taller than average, my body is easy to keep slender even now.
And I’d describe the problem as habits not willpower, nobody has enough willpower to fight an appetite for a lifetime. Habits are what matter, and in places where there are many obese people, they sort of distort society, making it more difficult to be active (car centric cities, elevators for everyone, desk jobs).
I used to agree with this until I got hit with PTSD.
Then I had cravings that were next to impossible to say no to.
I wouldn’t even be hungry and I’d be screaming at myself internally that I didn’t even need this, and yet I wouldn’t be able to stop.
Ultimately my therapy and medication was able to help stabilize and, almost like magic, I could say no again. My Dr said it it is literally an addiction.
People will always judge and OP is ignorant AF.
It also doesn’t help that modern diets are built on mass production and mass consumption of sugars which isn’t good for us.
I’m in pretty good shape currently thanks to being appropriately medicated for executive dysfunction, but in my stock physical configuration I experience constant gnawing hunger that can sometimes reduce my ability to make appropriate decisions or hear myself think. This doesn’t just impact my weight, but also my ability to maintain gainful employment and take care of my stupid body.
Once you are overweight, everything is harder to do. Existence is painful and it’s hard to put together motivation to improve things. You want people to lose weight? Work on getting rid of societal stressors. Tax unhealthy food and incentivize farmers markets. Create walkable neighborhoods.
What doesn’t help is telling people to man up and stop being so poor overweight.
You are doing the same, just a layer of abstraction and human constructing out.
Addiction, and the willpower struggle, are genetic. You are aware things like ADHD exist, yes? Abd that ADHD is genetic?
Willpower is inherent to psychological topology, which is an abstracted idea overtop of the physical makeup of your brain, which is heavily genetically influenced.
The other half is environment.
Primarily speaking, the combination of a poor environment (which most people suffer nowadays in the west) and a “bad roll” on genetics for what brain you end up with, and you become heavily predisposed towards addictive behavior patterns.
And while eating and obesity aren’t the only addictive behaviors, of course, they are both legal and highly available making them very common.
What I’d be curious about is how you think “willpower” isnt genetic. Are you suggesting it’s somehow an external force outside the human body…? That’d make no sense.
Largely speaking this sort of statement is just an attempt to discard establish science by just smothering a layer of abstraction overtop and pretend it’s something else.
“Willpower” is not a quantitative established metric, OP. How do you measure it? How do you quantify it?
Dopamine exhaustion, decision fatigue, and executive function however are established concepts that are easier to discuss in a serious manner.
Would I agree that obesity has a comorbodity with poor executive function? Yes, 100%!
Would I say that executive function isn’t genetic? God no, it’s heavily genetic, when it is particularly bad that’s literally called ADHD.
Add comment