Current Events > Why do people let themselves get so overweight?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Zero self control, eating their feelings

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


Tell me you don't know how to shop around without saying so. Same for the rest of you lot.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


And true.

I suppose the real question is, who the hell are you to judge? Why should they have to justify themselves to you, or anyone else?

Now bugger off. You and the rest of your lot.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


But the caloric density is much higher. The amount of vegetables you would need to sustain yourself on a normal diet is going to cost you a lot more than the high fat, likely high carb frozen dinner.

Setting aside the cost for a moment:
People making these claims have probably not done a lot of grocery shopping personally. As someone that eats mostly vegetables, very few processed foods, and NO frozen pre-prepared meals at all (including frozen pizza and chicken tenders) - I can tell you it's not easy and requires more preparation time than someone with screaming kids working two jobs to support them can afford to spend on a regular basis.

The_Popo posted...

It doesnt help that in places like America, the least expensive food options tend to be incredibly unhealthy.

Really not true at all, frozen veggies and beans and potatoes (every raw ingredient really) is dirt cheap
It's just ready-made foodstuff that's highly calorific/processed (also very tasty and thus addictive) that's sometimes more expensive for healthier stuff

The "we HAVE to eat badly, everything else is expensive" meme needs to die screaming
Especially since the main health risk of eating like that comes from obesity, which is avoided literally by eating less which obviously costs less than eating more

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


No. It's not my job to educate you. You want to learn? You have the internet, figure it out yourself. You can learn by doing.

Sillyface_Mcdum posted...

Really not true at all, frozen veggies and beans and potatoes (every raw ingredient really) is dirt cheap
It's just ready-made foodstuff that's highly calorific/processed (also very tasty and thus addictive) that's sometimes more expensive for healthier stuff

The "we HAVE to eat badly, everything else is expensive" meme needs to die screaming
Especially since the main health risk of eating like that comes from obesity, which is avoided literally by eating less which obviously costs less than eating more

You have to factor in time though, as time is as valuable as money, and much like a currency people have limited amounts of it and must choose how to spend it.

Whereas in other countries, people get two or three months paid vacation by law and probably work fewer hours anyway, in this country everyones treated like disposable cogs in the crony capitalist machine, and many people work long hours with little time off, then have to go to their kids sporting events etc.

Cooking healthy meals takes time and energy, and it shouldnt really be a surprise that many people dont want to bother with it or dont have the time, particularly since both parents have to work now for usually worse spending power than their parents had on a single income.

The table is tilted, the game is rigged. Is it impossible to overcome these things? No, but that doesnt mean there arent hurdles.

Weight gain sneaks on people. Theyre not slender one day and a land whale the next day. They look fine, then they still look fine then one day they notice theyre a land whale, but there was never a warning, weight gain is too gradual

Years upon years of bad habits
Eating to cope with negative emotions
Food addiction

deathproof12 posted...

Years upon years of bad habits
Eating to cope with negative emotions
Food addiction

None of that has affected me any but I've got a metabolism to match.

Bad habits that don't get fixed by the time your metabolism slows down to cover for it.

Snacking is pleasurable and easy to do when stressed.

It's also an easy way to distract yourself when you're bored of work.

Our readily available snacks are sugar rich and calorie rich.

Our restaurants have ridiculous portion sizes, usually padded with cheap, unhealthy ingredients (Think the restaurant that gives you like 500 fries).

Some foods that we know are bad are still FAR worse than people think. I think there was a Spaghetti and Meatballs somewhere that topped out at over 2000 calories. And while people know stuff like milkshakes and movie theater popcorn (even without the fake butter flavoring) is bad for you, but I don't think they realize how bad (like 600-700 calories in a shake and a crazy range for the popcorn that can top over 1000).

Brands try to be deceptive with their caloric information. A great example is how an item will seemingly be single serving for one person, but say their serving size is only part of the item. Muffins and chicken pot pies LOVE doing this. Soda used to also do it (you'd buy one of those 20 fl ozs and think the calorie facts were for a serving size. You'd think it was the whole bottle, but the number of serving sizes in the bottle was actually 2.5. They changed it to also list the facts for the whole bottle now, but they definitely played this game for a time)

Throw it all together and you have a fat stew!

Food discipline is very easy to break and hard to get back.