You're Fat by Choice

A short story on Gather recently took aim at fat people. Many responders to the author were offended; if so, then you're sure to be offended by the following. But you should read it anyway.

If you are "overweight", "heavy" or any other euphemism for "fat", you didn't get that way because of your glands or your genetic history. If you're an ambulatory fifty-something who's 20 or 40 pounds overweight, you got that way because of choices you made (or that your parents made for you, and that you maintain): kind/quantity of food you ate, amount of exercise you took. Having babies stretches your rib cage and weakens your abdomen – it doesn't make your arms or butt fat. You may have some physical condition that prevents you from exercising, or some medical condition that predisposes your body to produce fat instead of muscle. In that case your choices for becoming or remaining "unfat" are limited to changing your diet – eat less, or eat less-fattening foods. That's a bummer, but that's natural law, and the longer you tell yourself that you can't help it, that it's your genes or your glands, the longer you will remain overweight.

There are many ways to lose weight that don't involve sweating at a gym or eating nothing but lettuce. The libraries and book stores (and probably the internet) are full of descriptions of how to do it. All of these ways DO require patience, mental effort and perseverance, (and a willingness to stop blaming fate). When you have a salad, you can't have ranch dressing, no matter how good it is. You have to have a few spoonfuls of Italian (not a quarter-cup, and no grated cheese). You can have a glass of wine, but not two. You can't have that little plate of pasta, you must have vegetables. And stop drinking that foul diet soda…have lemonade or water, they're much healthier in so many ways. If you tell yourself that you just don't like vegetables, or your health just won't permit exercise, then stay fat! It's YOUR choice, not society's or your mother's.

The good news is that if you're patient, you only have to unbalance your calorie intake by 100 per day (expend 100 more, or eat 100 less) to lose ten pounds in a year. You didn't get ten (or twenty) pounds overweight in a month, and you can't realistically expect to lose it permanently in a month. There are plenty of books that will tell you how little exercise it takes to burn 100 calories, what kinds of food (and how little) you have to cut out to reduce by 100 calories. Get one and educate yourself. Even if you're confined to a wheel chair, you can still exercise, you can still eat healthy.

The most important thing is, stop making excuses to yourself or your friends or your family. Eat a hundred less, exercise a hundred more. It's much easier than you think. Do it for yourself, not for society.

I'm sorry if you are offended by this. But the only thing stopping you from being at a healthy weight is your attitude.