Current Events > It's amazing to me how people manage to become 400+ pounds

(+) Yeah! (+)

Like... Wth

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Disorders are crazy. Try and look at it that way

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Laziness

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A lot of things about people baffle me, but I don't know their lives, so whatever.

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Eat!

Strider102 posted...

Laziness

Doesn't make sense as an answer. There's a point where you struggle to do typically easy things, if you're living the sort of lifestyle that leads to morbid obesity.

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Evening_Dragon posted...

Doesn't make sense as an answer. There's a point where you struggle to do typically easy things, if you're living the sort of lifestyle that leads to morbid obesity.

You'd start to wonder if they'll re-evaluate their habits when they cannot wipe their own arse anymore, but nope, more pizza for breakfast it is.

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I eat like a fool but i always work it off.
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DD Divine posted...

Disorders are crazy. Try and look at it that way

That kind of thinking just removes personal responsibility from the equation

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refmon posted...

That kind of thinking just removes personal responsibility from the equation

Nah.

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For a lot of people its a mental thing. Lots of people eat when stressed, depressed, out of anxiety etc

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It's easier to go from 300 lbs to 400 than from 300 lbs to 200.

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Strider102 posted...

Laziness

not even
im lazier than a dead cat and im 6'4'' and i weigh 215, soaked in piss

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I maxed out somewhere between 365 and 380 at 5'10", so not quite 400lbs, but I was definitely on my way there.

I started gaining weight as a kid due to three main things: 1) a feeding problem with no apparent cause, present as early as infancy, that keeps me from having normal satiation cues 2) sexual abuse when I was 3-5 and again at 7 followed by the subsequent fallout of it that resulted in emotional eating, and 3) severe asthma that limited my physical activity. These things created a perfect storm of over, secret, and binge eating along with a sedentary lifestyle that caused rapid, uncontrollable weight gain around second grade, leading to morbid obesity by fourth grade.

My mom is also a horribly broken person who has lived a much harder life than I have, so she was not equipped to help me through these things in a productive manner. She actually made things quite worse in a lot of ways, one of which was enabling my overeating. She's obese herself and uses food as the solution for everything. She grew up in a food insecure home, so her priority has always been to put food on the table. She succeeded lol.

We were also caught in a vicious cycle of poverty that put an emphasis on food outside of sustenance. We didn't do vacations with the exception of a few charity trips because my sister has a chronic illness and we thought she was gonna die by age 10. We lived in a squalid hellhole for a decade. We always juggled utilities. And it's not like it was a choice between these things and food, mind you. She couldn't have feasibly saved any substantial amount of money by feeding us in a more economical way, let alone done that and kept us kids placated. Fast food, pizza delivery, frozen food, and all that was entertainment, distractions, babysitters, and so much more than just a meal.

Culture played a big part in it as well, the dominant being Mexican and the American South. Lots of sodas (or as we call them here in Texas, cokes), syrupy sweet tea, fried and greasy foods, tons of red and processed meats, cheese and butter on damn near everything. I can't remember too many times in childhood when I had a vegetable that wasn't drenched in cheese or dipped in ranch, and I was like 20 the first time I ate one of my own accord.

I was encouraged to eat. I was a mess as a kid, angry and volatile, for obvious reasons, but food calmed me down. Was always happy if I was eating. If we went out to buffet, the family would always be waiting around for me to finish. People would boast about how much I could eat. I was like 9 and ate almost 30 pieces of pizza at CiCi's. Granted, CiCi's slices aren't big but it was still around two large pizzas, plus bread sticks, soda, and dessert. Just kept eating and eating and eating, until finally my siblings started complaining; the only way I was removed from the table was with quarters for the arcade. I had fully intended to go back and eat more and was quite angry to find we were all moving toward the exit.

I was depressed in childhood. I had suicidal ideation starting around age 7 and once I became an adult, my depression really kicked into overdrive, along with anxiety and ADHD. Aside from the obesity, I have congenital bone problems, the most problematic being in my legs and feet. I literally had a shitty foundation before the extra weight became a problem but after the weight? Didn't have a chance.

By the time I was an adult, I had all kinds of horrible habits, as you can imagine. I'd tried dieting here and there, gave up sodas for a while. I had two brief periods of weight loss that were almost exclusively from over-exercising. Put a lot of strain on my already struggling body and was never sustainable, and since I hadn't gotten my eating in check, the weight always came back, usually with more, once I inevitably gave up or was forced to quit.

Work was impossible. I tried working at a variety of different places but the jobs I could handle mentally were beyond my physical capabilities and vice versa. It really fucked with my self-esteem and worsened my depression. My mom never encouraged me to get a job and never really cared. She turned things around and started a very successful business, so she could afford to keep me at home, and that itself turned into a really twisted case of co-dependency and infantilization and a bunch of other shit that is a whole other story, the key takeaway being that we had become stuck in a cycle of feeding and enabling and commiseration, on top of a sedentary lifestyle and alcohol abuse.

I've since turned things around - I am down to 220, had my own business before COVID-19 (sounds more impressive than it was lol but it was honest work and it was mine), have gotten really into athletic endeavors, 17 months sober, no longer depressed but still a lil anxious - but it took going through so much shit to get to the point where I could even start. The only reason I managed to break out of it is because I had a health scare and legitimately thought I was going to die and I didn't even care. It passed and I was left with two options: accept that I had given up, bringing upon something that was going to kill me or do what I could to fight to actually live.

And personal responsibility has become a big part of my life but I had to work up to that. I was horribly wronged multiple times by multiple people and there was never any justice or anyone taking responsibility for what they did. There was never anyone to guide me through recovery in a positive and constructive way. I was never taught healthy coping mechanisms or emotional regulation. I experienced one kind of hell and the only things that helped me through it ultimately dragged me down into several others.

Everything that happened was awful, unfair, and extremely damaging to me in ways I'll never fully recover from but even if they wanted to, nobody who wronged me could fix things for me. The idea of fixing all the damage other people caused me was infuriating but if not me, then who? Not to be hokey but I didn't all of a sudden decide to become personally responsible. I had to find the person first. I had to separate myself from the trauma and anger and hurt and frustration that I had become deeply intertwined with and find someone who was good and valid and worthy of being happy, worthy of being free, and moving on from everyone and everything who had harmed him.

It was hard. Goddamn was it hard. It still can be at times. I look back on things and I honestly don't even know how or why I was able to change. I'm glad I did but I don't know why I chose to live and fight. I know, personally and am aware of, so many other people in my position who didn't or won't make it through. I can't tell you why I never offed myself or finished eating myself into an early grave before I was able to change because I look back on who I used to be and can't understand how I lived like that for so long. It's mind-boggling. It's almost beyond belief to me and I fucking lived it!

I know it's not like that for every morbidly obese person but that's how it was for me and my time in various recovery circles tells me I'm far from the only one. And it's not just becoming morbidly obese. I used to wonder how people could be addicted to meth or have a gambling problem or whatever else but I started talking to people and trying to get to know them and I've met countless people whose stories were just like mine with the only diverging point being what was available to us. I guess my point is that the world can be brutal and that impacts us in all kinds of strange, unreasonable ways.

My message is nearing over 8000 characters in size, which is the maximum allowed for a single post, so I guess I'm done.

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@TheLiarParadox

i hear you and understand you

hugs


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It is at a certain point when they qualify for disbelief and rewarded for being what they at at that point which blows my mind that's a thing in the first place.

Seriously, who greenlit that crap?

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there's just so many factors...

hormones like grenalin or even thyroid and metabolic problems can lead to fast weight gain.

If you were raised not to prioritize on healthy eating and home cooked food, then you are more likely to live an unhealthy life style. Growing up poor increases your chances of that I believe.

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https://youtu.be/p0mVLPViGRI

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I was at 279lbs at most, and it was horrible, I can't even imagine how ppl that weigh more feel.

Now I'm at 245lbs and I have still a long way to go, but I feel so much better.

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Disgusting privileged nation where overreating to this disgusting level is even possible.

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Eating too much and limited activity.

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carljenk posted...

Disgusting privileged nation where overreating to this disgusting level is even possible.

Culture is the reason for the overeating and individualism culture. Other wealthy capitalist countries in europe and asia do not produce the same kind of obesity. Particularly in Asia, the collective standard for beauty goes against an obese society. So it isn't all about privilege or getting fat as a possible outcome as much as some societies just encouraging or accepting obesity.

TheLiarParadox posted...

And personal responsibility has become a big part of my life but I had to work up to that. I was horribly wronged multiple times by multiple people and there was never any justice or anyone taking responsibility for what they did. There was never anyone to guide me through recovery in a positive and constructive way. I was never taught healthy coping mechanisms or emotional regulation. I experienced one kind of hell and the only things that helped me through it ultimately dragged me down into several others.

All that you went through made you s o much more mentally stronger. Keep up the hard work and try not to fall back to old habits. It's a constant vigilance. I didn't go through the same exact situation, but for me losing weight is same as you, no one helped me lose weight or taught me anything. I had to go through it all on my own. And that's the reality, most people don't have the resources to do so. If we all had 5* chefs cooking every nutritious meal for us, losing weight would be so much easier for sure. But the world isn't fair like that. Seriously I read your whole post and that part there resonated the most with me. I went from 255 to 160 and I'm working hard to continue running and make it into the Boston Marathon (like competitively not as charity). A lot of people have similar stories. Ultimately, losing weight I believe is a huge motivation, willpower, and determination test. The fact you got that far shows you have all three, do not let it falter. Those three things are things most people in the world do not have. Breaking out of gambling or addiction takes so much willpower and determination that most can't make it out. Often it takes that life changing experience to do it. Be glad you had that scare where your life was on the line and you chose LIFE. Keep that in your head, do not lose it.

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Ryven posted...

For a lot of people its a mental thing. Lots of people eat when stressed, depressed, out of anxiety etc

This.

Eating is pretty much the only joy that I get, but because i'm so obsessed with how I look and don't have the willpower to manage my weight in a more healthy way... I purge pretty much every day to keep my weight under control.

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To get that far off, it needs to be in your genes. Like some people who can have 8-10 pack abs, and put on muscles like crazy. It goes for fat as well. Most people get fat, but won't be 500 pounds, even if they tried to, like most people can put on muscles, but won't look like Arnold Schwarzenegger in his prime, even with steroids.

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FF_Redux posted...

I was at 279lbs at most, and it was horrible, I can't even imagine how ppl that weigh more feel.

Now I'm at 245lbs and I have still a long way to go, but I feel so much better.

realktalk you look completely different too, and that's solely on the basis of me having a creeper memory and seeing exactly two pics about a year and a half apart.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYNVtDcbSoo

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I think it's amazing anyone is overweight

you look in the mirror, and you look like shit. You walk down the street, and you feel like shit. 75% of the population CHOOSE not to change this.

Boggles my mind but it always will

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Colorahdo posted...

I think it's amazing anyone is overweight

you look in the mirror, and you look like shit. You walk down the street, and you feel like shit. 75% of the population CHOOSE not to change this.

Boggles my mind but it always will

Hey I'm WORKING on it.

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Colorahdo posted...

I think it's amazing anyone is overweight

you look in the mirror, and you look like shit. You walk down the street, and you feel like shit. 75% of the population CHOOSE not to change this.

Boggles my mind but it always will

Choice is basically one of the smallest factors in anything you do. The Calvinists were right, man.

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I don't see how anyone can afford to get fat.

Junk food can be less expensive but you still need a shit ton of it to get to like 250+lbs.

I dont get who gives them the food at a certain point. Are there really family members who just continuously give their 600+ relative $50-$100 of food every day without thinking about it?

gimme some
https://youtu.be/R3caXgI2_cs

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DD Divine posted...

Disorders are crazy. Try and look at it that way

Yeah. Dis order of fries....dis order of cheese dip....

Sheiky-Baby posted...

To get that far off, it needs to be in your genes. Like some people who can have 8-10 pack abs, and put on muscles like crazy. It goes for fat as well. Most people get fat, but won't be 500 pounds, even if they tried to, like most people can put on muscles, but won't look like Arnold Schwarzenegger in his prime, even with steroids.

Edit: Alright I got pissy for the wrong reasons, but whenever I see genes mentioned with fitness it pisses me off. I get the context of what you said.

Why do people say this? This kind of talk is exactly the reason why most people give up on being muscular. Either post the god damn science or fuck off with this kind of misinformation. It's absolutely bullshit to say someone can't become jacked. That's literally the purpose of muscles. You rip them on a microscopic level and they fucking get bigger. SOME people ARE blessed with shit like myostatin mutations which let them grow muscles insanely, just like there are others with myostatin deficiencies that make them grow muscles at a slower rate. But the odds are you're probably within the 95% of people with normal muscular genes that'll grow with hard work. I'm pretty damn sure you can look pretty damn jacked if you put in the work. Having a 6-10 pack is solely based off of whether your fat % is low enough to show the definition of your abs.

If getting fat were genetic 42% of america wouldn't be magically predisposed to getting magically fatter because of GENES. That's insane, it's clearly just cultural nonsense and not to mention ease of eating. A lot of people are getting fat everywhere around the world. 13% of the WORLD is obese. To say genes is obscene. If we were to say 13% of the world is obese because of genes you MUST say the converse is true assuming being muscular lines up with similar statistics. We'd be seeing 13% of the world being muscular like Arnold Schwarzenegger. We'd be seeing 42% of americans also being muscular or some insane high amount of them. We'd be seeing them walking over the streets. Not even trying to strawman here, but to say genetics is ridiculous. It's hard work. You CAN get a six pack, get your fat percentage down. You CAN have bulging quads (hell I fucking do and I'm not even putting in the hard work to FOCUS on them, just running), I've got calves the size of newborns. You can get big ass biceps or pecs. Put in the work. They may not be AS big as Arnold, but they can be pretty damn big. You CAN be that top 1% rattata. How many people you see jacked as all hell on the streets? How often are girls seeing these jacked as hell guys? Among the public these jacked people don't exist, put in the work and you WILL be that one ripped guy in a crowd of fatasses and normal ass people. You may not be the most muscular in the world, but you will be damn muscular compared to the average.

For some additional information, there IS a reason why there are more fat people than muscular. Getting fat is EASY. It's EASY to eat for HOURS on end. But is it easy to lift weights for HOURS on end? This is why we see more fat people than jacked people. There is no genetic predisposition behind this. It is literally easy.

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badjay posted...

Edit: Alright I got pissy for the wrong reasons, but whenever I see genes mentioned with fitness it pisses me off. I get the context of what you said.

Why do people say this? This kind of talk is exactly the reason why most people give up on being muscular. Either post the god damn science or fuck off with this kind of misinformation. It's absolutely bullshit to say someone can't become jacked. That's literally the purpose of muscles. You rip them on a microscopic level and they fucking get bigger. SOME people ARE blessed with shit like myostatin mutations which let them grow muscles insanely, just like there are others with myostatin deficiencies that make them grow muscles at a slower rate. But the odds are you're probably within the 95% of people with normal muscular genes that'll grow with hard work. I'm pretty damn sure you can look pretty damn jacked if you put in the work. Having a 6-10 pack is solely based off of whether your fat % is low enough to show the definition of your abs.

If getting fat were genetic 42% of america wouldn't be magically predisposed to getting magically fatter because of GENES. That's insane, it's clearly just cultural nonsense and not to mention ease of eating. A lot of people are getting fat everywhere around the world. 13% of the WORLD is obese. To say genes is obscene. If we were to say 13% of the world is obese because of genes you MUST say the converse is true assuming being muscular lines up with similar statistics. We'd be seeing 13% of the world being muscular like Arnold Schwarzenegger. We'd be seeing 42% of americans also being muscular or some insane high amount of them. We'd be seeing them walking over the streets. Not even trying to strawman here, but to say genetics is ridiculous. It's hard work. You CAN get a six pack, get your fat percentage down. You CAN have bulging quads (hell I fucking do and I'm not even putting in the hard work to FOCUS on them, just running), I've got calves the size of newborns. You can get big ass biceps or pecs. Put in the work. They may not be AS big as Arnold, but they can be pretty damn big. You CAN be that top 1% rattata. How many people you see jacked as all hell on the streets? How often are girls seeing these jacked as hell guys? Among the public these jacked people don't exist, put in the work and you WILL be that one ripped guy in a crowd of fatasses and normal ass people. You may not be the most muscular in the world, but you will be damn muscular compared to the average.

For some additional information, there IS a reason why there are more fat people than muscular. Getting fat is EASY. It's EASY to eat for HOURS on end. But is it easy to lift weights for HOURS on end? This is why we see more fat people than jacked people. There is no genetic predisposition behind this. It is literally easy.

What in the fuck is this crazy nonsense? Did you even bother reading what I said? You can be fat, but not everyone will look like a Yokozuna. You can be muscular, but not everyone will look like Goku Kaio-Ken x20. ffs.

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I imagine its quite easy

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Some fat people don't have a choice due to genetics, and other health issues such as your thyroid.

Now, if they don't get treatment, I can agree. Cause there's medicine for that, but most fat people are poor and can't afford to go to a doctor let alone pay for their meds.

You can see a fat guy maybe eating a salad, and a burger, and then gains 5 lbs from it.

While a skinny dude can eat 10 burgers and be quite alright.

Everybody is different, and everybodys body is different too.

was 350 at my heaviest, worked down to 180, held steady there for the last year.

I can tell you that you dont get to that point without being broken in some way. I d9jt much feel like sharing my own story at the moment, but I can tell you that the laziness and food addiction doesn't come from a vacuum. And no amount of condescending sneering from assholes going "just put the fork down and go for a walk, fatty" ever did anything for the problem. If anything, it made me want to hide and eat more.

there is not a fat person alive who doesn't know that diet and exercise will help them. even the ones in denial about it are just that: in denial. they know. The issue is their underlying issues. depression, coping mwchanisms, addictive personalities. Fuck, some people just suffer from greater grehlin levels that makes them feel more hungry, more often, even if they're not. There's myriad reasons why people get fat. Comdescendingly jeering "eat less" is totally unhelpful

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hey another boogie2988 topic

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Sheiky-Baby posted...

What in the f*** is this crazy nonsense? Did you even bother reading what I said? You can be fat, but not everyone will look like a Yokozuna. You can be muscular, but not everyone will look like Goku Kaio-Ken x20. ffs.

I edited my post, first thing, I got what you said.

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I was probably like 230-240 at my max, though my height is 6' and I've never eaten excessively unhealthy in my life. The only time I got fat was when I was forced to be fit for a while, then I no longer had a reason to but just kept eating at the same pace. But the thing is, I have to eat til I'm near blowing up every meal to get that fat lol. I imagine eating in the same pace but eating shit with lard and carbs only would've easily landed me around 300+

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badjay posted...

I edited my post, first thing, I got what you said.

Understood. My bad for lashing out as well.

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honestly if you want an incentive to live a healthy life then just get into the healthcare business... even as a porter or cleaning floors will do as long as you get to walk around the wards.

watching completely broken down people who can barely move an inch by themselves when they're barely in their 40's and 50's is a decent wake up call and who knows how long they've been there for.

hell, take it a step further and become somebody with access to patient records and x-ray images and watch people's completely fucked up lungs or livers.

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AsucaHayashi posted...

honestly if you want an incentive to live a healthy life then just get into the healthcare business... even as a porter or cleaning floors will do as long as you get to walk around the wards.

watching completely broken down people who can barely move an inch by themselves when they're barely in their 40's and 50's is a decent wake up call and who knows how long they've been there for.

hell, take it a step further and become somebody with access to patient records and x-ray images and watch people's completely fucked up lungs or livers.

Yeah during my time working in the hospital I realized people aren't old and decrepit at 75. People who half assed their diet and exercise their whole life and then totally gave up at 50 are decrepit

There are 75 year olds who could snap you in half

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DD Divine posted...

@TheLiarParadox

i hear you and understand you

hugs

Thank you.

badjay posted...

All that you went through made you s o much more mentally stronger...

Thank you. I don't really think of myself as a strong person but I try to be. Much of my energy these days is spent on all around improvement because tbh I feel like I'm held together with tape and glue, one bad day away from falling apart. The good thing is that I now have all these good habits to fall back on and success to build on, so backsliding doesn't seem like too big of a threat but I also don't want to get complacent and find out.

Congratulations to you as well. I've taken to running myself and while I don't have any aspirations like the Boston Marathon, I'm excited to see how far I can go. I hope you can make it.

DarkBuster22904 posted...

I can tell you that you dont get to that point without being broken in some way. I d9jt much feel like sharing my own story at the moment, but I can tell you that the laziness and food addiction doesn't come from a vacuum. And no amount of condescending sneering from assholes going "just put the fork down and go for a walk, fatty" ever did anything for the problem. If anything, it made me want to hide and eat more.

Thank you for saying this in a much more succinct way than I did lol.

And yeah, shaming never did anything positive for me either.


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My highest was 323. Im now down to around 230-236. Ive been in the range since March when my gyms closed. Ive been working out outside and discovered hiking and kayaking. But I also realize I stress out and am Terrified of going back to that weight. The last few
months were very hard because it was too hot to workout outside and now its getting too cold for kayaking. Anytime I even slightly binge eat I feel awful. Weight disorders are so physiological I wish people understood that. I also dont see myself at 230 and still feel like I look like Im 320. A manager at work called me skinny and I was like uhhh no no I'm not. A new hire on a overnight shift asked if I had any snacks in my car and my response was what because I'm a fat ass you think I have snacks in my car he was taken back and was like but youre not a fat ass. I know I already have horrible self esteem
issues so that doesn't help much.


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DD Divine posted...

My highest was 323. Im now down to around 230-236. Ive been in the range since March when my gyms closed. Ive been working out outside and discovered hiking and kayaking. But I also realize I stress out and am Terrified of going back to that weight. The last few
months were very hard because it was too hot to workout outside and now its getting too cold for kayaking. Anytime I even slightly binge eat I feel awful. Weight disorders are so physiological I wish people understood that. I also dont see myself at 230 and still feel like I look like Im 320. A manager at work called me skinny and I was like uhhh no no I'm not. A new hire on a overnight shift asked if I had any snacks in my car and my response was what because I'm a fat ass you think I have snacks in my car he was taken back and was like but youre not a fat ass. I know I already have horrible self esteem
issues so that doesn't help much.

This I can relate to in a round about way, considering I was at 255 and never "felt fat" but now when I look at pictures of me now to back then I felt like a fatass and was wondering how I got there. But the thing is it's a slow ascent to get to that weight. I remember being at the doctor's office and being told I hit 200 and I was like ehh, I feel fine. Then when I went again many years down the line he said I was 255 and...something snapped in my head. All the work I did lifting around obese people as an OR assistant and getting pissed that they were so huge and it sucks and how I'll never be like them, it hit me right then when I heard 255. I AM TURNING INTO THEM. THOSE PEOPLE I GET PISSED ABOUT SILENTLY. I thought if I didn't nip this right here, right now, I'd never be able to stop it. Thank god that was the turning point in my life. I IMMEDIATELY started dieting and exercising REALLY hard. I got super serious, counted every calorie and made sure to buy heart rate equipment to know for a fact in my mind I was working hard with facts, not FEELING I exercised hard. Because before I did exercise with no heart rate and I'd pat myself on the back after every bike ride going good workout man! Nice job. I realized heart rate hard work was A LOT HARDER than what I felt. So that helped me out the most. Eventually I stopped dieting and ramped up exercising and lost most of it through sheer exercise more so than dieting. I know the day I stop exercising I have to eat much better. But everything we handle at a time.

TL;DR: In essence I felt my own image didn't feel fat even when I was fat and it wasn't until I got told how much I weighed I realized I fucked up. Our mental image of ourselves is always the best and that experience of being told how much I weighed completely changed how I view myself currently.

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Laugh and grow fat

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