[bombcar]

If we can find those who do not operate under calories in vs calories out we should either arrest them for breaking the laws of thermodynamics or enlist them as a power source somehow.

As a culture we share blame in making it way to damn easy to eat billions of calories. Coca Cola has probably done more health damage that Big Tobacco.

As he drinks his Diet Coke he posts this, c’est la vie.

[schnitzelstoat]

Yeah, people's metabolism can be really different though.

I was diagnosed with Hashimoto's disease and prior to getting medication I had been gaining weight.

Although that's an actual medical condition so I guess it's an extreme case.

[Volundr]

I can definitely say from personal experience that metabolism plays a big factor. Until about 25 I never really struggled with weight. Sure I packed on the pounds when I started college (went from being on the swim team and working at Wendy's, so highly active, to doing nothing for exercise and working as a security guard watching cameras), but once I realized what was happening and applied a little discipline it came off easily and stayed off.

Then, well, something happened with my thyroid. Best guess is some kind of infection. I was already at a healthy weight, but lost 20 pounds over a few months. Tests showed my thyroid was producing WAY too much hormone and we were about to oblate it and put me on thyroid replacement hormone when the levels returned to normal on their own. Ever since then however I've struggled with my weight despite eating healthier than ever before. Unfortunately I never had cause to have my thyroid checked before this incident, so I have no way of knowing how my "normal" levels pre-infection compare to my new "normal" levels post infection.

Yes calories in vs calories out may be the literal physics of the situation, but the details of that equation can be very different for different people.

[fnordpiglet]

Did you read the article?

[ioslipstream]

Obesity is someone's fault. If it weren't, then we would always have had the same obesity rate. The fact that the obesity rate is rising, or has risen in the last 40 years is evidence that something somewhere happened and someone is at fault.

We can likely blame lobbyists for the tragedy that we'll never figure it out because of special interest money in keeping the "someone/something" in the dark.

[roenxi]

Obesity has a cause, and people have a responsibility to manage their own health.

But does it really make sense to say obesity is someone's 'fault'? Choices have consequences, but fault requires unambiguous harm.

[orwin]

I disagree, or rather i think you're too absolute. My cousin was obese at 8 (after a car accident this parents started to eat a lot, and as the youngest he followed). He had prediabetes at 12 and that killed his hormonal balance. He now cannot be anything else than obese, even with calorie restrictions.

[fnordpiglet]

Your cousin must not have read as much Ayn Rand as OP.

[bombcar]

Yes, and I'm worried that they burned mouse poop but didn't burn any mouse urine. From what I understand, what you piss is more dependent on calories than what you poop.

And in general, society's attempt to make things "no fault" seem to always result in more of whatever it is, not less.

Would I love to blame my body fat on anything else? Sure! But in the end it's down to me. Maybe it's harder for me or easier for me, but it's still me.