[lynx97]

I am in my mid-40s, don't do regular exercise, and still dont feel like "shit".

Really, this "motivation trainer" rhetoric coming out of obesity-infested America is tiring.

You sound like there is only two extremes: Couch potatoes and people that run a marathon every weekend. There is actually a middle-ground. And a not-so-small group of people is actually comfortable in that middle-ground.

You can feel relatively healthy without running around like a wound-up monkey. Step on, don't eat too much. Then you don't have to burn calories to get rid of extra fat. It almost sounds like "uppers and downers"... Mind you, I am not arguing against sports in healthy doses. But whenever I read or talk to fitness fans, I feel like I am talking to a person following a cult.

[Retric]

It’s not that difficult to hit basic exercise targets as part of your lifestyle without realizing it. Going from an apartment to a two bedroom house involves a great deal of climbing up and down stairs per week. Taking a dog on a walk involves you yourself walking etc.

People talk about being a couch potato because there’s a massive difference between activities that involve passively sitting and things like gardening that require occasional movement that adds up over time.

[oldpersonintx2]

most people who think they are in the "middle ground" are actually unhealthy, because they end up comparing themselves to the outliers of the morbidly obese or those with absolutely terrible diets

[supplied_demand]

You are proving the original point by again focusing on the extremes.

Do you have any data/research to back up your claims that people who think they are in the middle are actually unhealthy or that they compare themselves to outliers?

[Retric]

The Dunning–Kruger effect should be in play here where people overestimate how fit they are. However, it really comes down to defining where the acceptable middle ground is. The majority of adult Americans are overweight (25+ BMI) and that’s been normalized with morbid obesity being considered excessive.

“Research suggests that changes in the social perceptions of what constitutes overweight and obesity may contribute to the increased prevalence of obesity (Burke et al., 2010; Johnson et al., 2008; Johnson-Taylor et al., 2008). The growing prevalence of overweight and obesity could change the subjective threshold for what most people consider a “normal” weight level, thereby resulting in under-detection of overweight and obesity (Robinson, 2017). This explanation highlights the fact that social context affects weight perceptions (Hammond, 2010; Leahey et al., 2011b; Mueller et al., 2010; Robinson and Kirkham, 2014) because individuals adjust perceptions of their own weight based on the weight of those around them (Ali et al., 2011; Burke and Heiland, 2007; Maximova et al., 2008; Robinson, 2017)” https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6304710/

The comically fat guy on some old shows looks reasonably normal today. However being overweight with a high fat person simply isn’t healthy. The healthy person who doesn’t exercise much should be quite thin rather than simply replacing muscle with fat and keeping the same weight.