[SketchySeaBeast]

> Finding parity is quite difficult, particularly when you already take good care of yourself.

My wife and I have actually driven each other to be better than either of us alone ever were. We're fitter and healthier than we ever were, and it's largely because on nights I don't want to go the gym she does - we act as each-others champions.

Also, it's surprising to find out the things you don't about yourself until you see it through another person's eyes.

[newnewpdro]

I hope you appreciate how exceptional a situation that is.

Statistically speaking, 75%+ of the adults in the US are overweight. That is the pool being drawn from.

So when you're not in the overweight majority, and have no interest in cohabitating with an overweight person who presumably lives a lifestyle contributing to being overweight, you already have just 25% or less of the population to pick from.

Now you need to find within that fraction someone you actually like as a person, who doesn't have any of the other unhealthy habits unrelated to being overweight you want nothing to do with.

[GavinMcG]

You sound like you've made up your mind to make negative assumptions about others. You might be able to draw on statistics, even, in support of that. But the idea that 75% of the pool isn't eligible as far as you're concerned doesn't make the situation exceptional. Two overweight people could still cheer each other on. Or an overweight person and a non-overweight person could cheer each other on to different goals.

Your biases seem to be driving your views more than your supposed rationality, at least on this issue.

[SketchySeaBeast]

My wife and I both started overweight. I don't know why you think that being with an overweight person will drag you down. Sure, you may gain some initial chub as a lot of people in relationships do, but as the article indicates, the fact that you're not alone is probably going to do more for your life expectancy than those 10 lbs.

[newnewpdro]

The article is pseudo-scientific nonsense, it doesn't prove any causal relationships, it's just observing a correlation.

There are plenty of obvious reasons people likely to die young would end up alone. It's natural to not be attracted to people likely to die young, it's a behavior our evolution has selected for.

We're not attracted to sick-looking people, for example.

[SketchySeaBeast]

I think the arguments for attraction based upon evolution are weak, otherwise we wouldn't see what we like changing with society. Evolution would demand there's major biological components there, but our preferences as a society swing far too fast for biological determinism to be at play.

That's cool if you set your standards extraordinarily high and you can't find someone because of it, but don't blame evolution, realize you set those standards.

[newnewpdro]

You're either willfully putting words in my mouth, or simply failing at reading comprehension.

I'm pointing out obvious reasons people who die prematurely would also be alone, pointing out obvious flaws with the article's unscientific claims.

People who are sick are less attractive to the opposite sex, this is a deeply-rooted evolutionary trait. I'm saying this in reference to one of many obvious reasons people destined to die early also are alone. Few want to date or live with seriously ill people. They're arguably not dying young because they're alone, they're alone because they're sick and likely to die young.

I made no such claim that evolution explains my personal choices on this topic as it pertains to my life, no sir, I proudly own those 100%.

[SketchySeaBeast]

> People who are sick are less attractive to the opposite sex, this is a deeply-rooted evolutionary trait.

My argument is that "evolutionary attraction" isn't actually a phenomena. Our interests have swung wildly from valuing huge to tiny and from pale to tan all due to cultural shifts, not because of an innate inbuilt evolutionary mechanism - there was no filtering of genes due to these features. Heroin chic was a thing, and that's downright sickly.