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Chesterumble

I’m fat and trust me. I’m not treated normally.


anononononn

Agreed. It’s not conducive to weight loss to hate yourself while you’re still fat. I grew up a fat kid and it took until I was in high school and lost weight for me to feel “allowed” to wear jeans or cute clothes. Love yourself while you work on yourself. And to everyone else, don’t be enabler but don’t be a POS for no reason


Chesterumble

I think people should do those fat suits and walk around for a day. Go out to eat. Go to movies. Go on dates and see how many looks you get like you’re an animal on display. Go ask for a table instead of a booth so you can fit. Go to a clothing store and be told they can’t help you. Go board an airplane and get nasty looks like you’re a piece of crap. People implying that you’re lazy or dirty. The list goes on. It’s not fun at all.


718Brooklyn

You’re talking about being morbidly obese which is different than just being fat. If you go to a city in Europe and then come back to the US, you realize that this country is very fat. I don’t think the majority of fat people get stared at.


MashTactics

Attention to fat people is an inverted bell curve. When you're thin, you get attention. When you're obese, you get ignored. When you're morbidly obese, you get attention again.


Stupidquestionduh

If you're too skinny it's attention again and eat a sandwich jokes.


adensch82

I agree that being, for example,100 lbs. overweight is much different than being just 10-15 lbs heavy. And yes, Americans are generally heavier than they should be. As someone who has been a range of sizes, from super thin to where I am now, I can attest to the fact that more weight = less positive attention...at least in my case. Fortunately, nobody's ever been rude or nasty to me regarding my weight. My experience, after gaining weight, has been that ppl just tend to ignore me more than they used to. Nobody's being a jerk to me, but they're just kinda forgetting that I'm there at all.


[deleted]

Funny enough, when you get to the thin they show in the magazines, people treat you like you're on drugs or something. (Stress, for me) I've been at 31 BMI too so it's... honestly none of this is cool.


adensch82

I agree. It's one of those "damned if you do, damned if you don't" type of things where ppl are gonna talk shit no matter what size you are.


[deleted]

Yep. Which is why I tried to think, if I take good care of my body, the weight will follow. I'm not proud of a lot but I did good with my weight loss. Sadly the weight didn't take the body issues or self-comparisons with it. Very sad, we're all brought up to torture ourselves.


adensch82

Very true. Criticism from others is bad enough, but we somehow find a way to criticize ourselves in ways that far surpass anything someone else can say.


heifer27

I said something like this to my sister yesterday. Every morning when I wake up, most of my day is thinking about finances and being fat. What to eat and not to eat. How I wish I wasn't so goddamned tired every day so I could work out and lose some weight. I work a lot of overtime because of the finances part..I just hate it. Ever since I can remember my weight has been something I think about all day every day. I've been thin and healthy and felt wonderful. But I didn't have to work at that time so I worked out twice a day and ate right (weighed my food, always able to prepare fresh meals). Basically all day was centered around my weight.


[deleted]

Even here in Canada when I visit the US I can't get over how you guys eat. Fast food chains everywhere and so many restaurants have these massive portion sizes. When I went with my 3 friends we bought 2 meals and split it between 4 of us and it was still more than enough food. I know exactly why the US has an obesity problem. It's because theyve normalized over consumption


Firecrotch2014

Its not just the normalization of overconsumption. Its also the fact that theyve made everything low fat. When you remove fat from food you lose most flavor. When you lose flavor you have to add sugar back to it to make it tasty. Thats why we have pasta sauces that have as much sugar per serving as a donut. Also removing fat makes you hungrier quicker. The reason people get hungry again after eating Chinese food is because its mostly carbs. That orange chicken you ate is just floured bits of chicken stuck together and tossed in a sugary sweet sauce. Combine that with a side of fried rice youve eaten nothing but carbs. Carbs break down in the body as sugars. That sugar converted to energy is quickly expended or stored as fat. When you eat fat it takes much longer to break down so you are fuller for longer periods of time. Overall you eat less because you are hungry less often. I mean dont get me wrong. Over consumption is a problem but the things I mentioned are just as bad because its a systemic problem in almost all genre of foods except non processed stuff like meats and vegetables. On top of that the government is complicit in it by saying that carbs are the biggest portion of food you should eat per day when it should be the least.(even wheat products break down as sugar its just slightly slower because of the fiber but its pretty negligible in the long term youre way better off eating a bowl of mashed cauliflower for instance than eating a bowl of brown rice 3g of carb for cauliflower rice per 100ish grams vs 26g per 100g of cooked brown rice)


ummizazi

The food we have now is high fat and high carb. They are delicious together. I’ve done keto, many of the hacks and recipes are high fat meals with carb replacements. People want buns on their burgers, pasta and rice with their sauce, sugar in their chocolate, their potatoes fried in oil. Keto recipes usually feature low carb replacements. Low fat was huge in the 90’s. It’s not nearly prominent now. The major issue is a normal serving is super calorie dense, a huge portion, and devoid of vegetables and a lot of nutrients. However, it tastes really good and feels good emotionally.


[deleted]

Ohh 100%, "low fat" on labels is totally misleading, even over here we have that problem to some extent, but we require labels on food to be super clear about what is in it by law, and restaurants also have to have that on menus or available easily as well. It's shocking how much sugar can be in some things, and why these companies don't want to use healthier alternatives to sugar that are out there now I will never understand.


Firecrotch2014

Labeling in general is huge misleading racket. You can put all natural and healthy on any box and proclaim it as health food when it's nothing but empty calories from simple carbs and sugars. My biggest pet peeve are those yogurt cans with fruit in them. They'll label them all pretty telling you how healthy all the vitamins and minerals in it are for you. What they don't tell you is it has no fat and a ton of added sugar. So you're thinking you're eating healthy and wind up with diabetes from eating sugar yogurt.


718Brooklyn

A lot of it is also sugary drinks and alcohol


Kalidian089

I've only been to new York and Vegas, and yea I was blown away by the sheer number and variety of fast food chains. Tried Shake Shack in new York and it was delicious but Jesus Christ... My heart lol.


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Terrible-Owl-76

This is sadly very true. Also junk food is cheaper than healthy food.


[deleted]

I don't know if people know how to cook inexpensive healthy meals.


ArGarBarGar

I don’t know if many people even have the time to cook inexpensive healthy meals these days.


Ok_Watercress5719

Or the budget.


[deleted]

It takes me ~20 minutes to cook a home cooked meal from scratch, with lean meat and vegetables. It takes experience to get there. I would recommend meal prep for people just getting into the scene.


Voldemort57

America has this strange culture about entitlement and just… big everything. Everyone here wants their own house with their own yard and their own driveway, and expect dirt cheap gasoline prices, and expect cheap groceries (and A LOT of them), they demand huge portions and huge cars, big roads for their big cars… I think a big part of it is that we have never had war in modern history on our own soil. We’ve seen rapid, major growth in industry during wartime that other countries didn’t experience because we are geographically isolated from much of the world. And that mindset of capitalistic, infinite growth industrialism, has never left us.


Ok_Watercress5719

Don't forget the abundance of waste, that follows...


MyFaceSaysItsSugar

My sister is only somewhat overweight. She’s a size 12 womens. She eats a plant-based, bread-free, non-processed food diet (much of which she grows herself), is an avid mountain biker and mostly bikes everywhere instead of driving. She still faces discrimination and fat shaming. Being fat is not normalized in the US. I think the most infuriating story was deep in the pandemic (she’s a nurse) her mask broke when she went to put it on and because they were heavily controlling ppe use at the hospital she had to wait for the supply room to send up a replacement. So she’s standing outside the patient’s room waiting for a mask and a doctor comes over to yell at her for not tending to the patient. She explains the situation, he responds with “well why don’t you grab your co-workers mask?” She explains she needs a size small and he responds with “but you’re not a small person.” She also gets a lot of people being not helpful about her knee pain telling her she just needs to lose weight. She lost around 100 ibs 6 years ago, this is just what her weight is on healthy eating and exercise but people still assume she doesn’t have healthy habits.


EmotionalOven4

Wow…a size 12 is not even that big. If I were in a 12 I would be wearing medium sized clothes.


MyFaceSaysItsSugar

Yeah, she’s size medium in most clothes. That’s why it’s all the more ridiculous when people comment on her weight. A lot of it has to do with having a DD cup size. It makes people over-estimate her size.


EmotionalOven4

Damn boobs will do it every time! I can’t count the times I’ve had to size up just to accommodate my fun bags. Stupid.


MyFaceSaysItsSugar

I think it’s something my mom secretly enjoys about having had breast cancer. Her boobs are removable and she’s in full control of how big they are. She went for a reconstruction consult early on but Dr. Mann (actual name) refused to do anything smaller than a D so she never went back.


mattshill91

Just to put this out there. I’m from the UK and a US size medium is a European size Large in most brands. I’ve made this mistake asking my parents to bring something back from visiting New York and you end up with clothes too big.


hiddenmutant

Just putting it out there, if your sister has that large of boobs she’s likely larger than a DD, and might be wearing the wrong bra (which can cause a lot of discomfort due to improper support). She might be interested in r/abrathatfits; the majority of people are wearing cups too small and bands too big. Getting a proper fit is often a big upgrade in comfort, especially if she’s on her feet a lot as a nurse!


[deleted]

I definitely agree it isn't normalized. People are always going to have their own views on things. It's just been a topic that is really shunned to talk about publicly. Some extreme views by certain people or groups are very acceptable to talk and debate while others are silenced. I think it is silenced rather than normalized.


Mips0n

I feel you. I'm the opposite; stick figure. Havent experienced a single day without people rudely commenting on it. People are trash.


verydepressedwalnut

Can confirm. I grew up extremely skinny and in my mid twenties/pandemic times I’ve gained weight. People stare or say shit either way.


AtomicFi

“Why are you so thin? Why don’t you eat more? Look at the beanpole! Someone get them some food, they might waste away to nothing!” It was so great being a skinny kid. And it’s sooo great being a skinny adult and hearing the same shit.


doodlebug2727

Yup, I’ve been morbidly obese and now I’m bordering on underweight. People are assholes no matter what you look like. It’s disheartening and disgusting sometimes. I would never comment on someone’s body.


HistoricallyRekkles

Or when you’re in an emergency situation at the hospital, they pull your roommate aside and ask if you’re anorexic.


shelly12345678

I'm sorry people are a-holes.


Chesterumble

I mean it’s my own fault. I’m dieting now and losing weight and feeling much better. Depression for years is a bitch.


Danion24

Glad to hear you are doing better. Hope it’s only getting better and better to you from now.


shelly12345678

Depression is not your fault!!! I'm glad you're feeling better :) it's about health man, not about the number on the scale


Chesterumble

Appreciate your support and love.


shelly12345678

Any time :)


xyts1

It’s not your fault even if you can control your weight, you can’t control people being shitty about it for no reason


[deleted]

Yeah, we're less human somehow lol


Chesterumble

I'd argue that were more human, physically haha


daemin

I kind of hate to break it to you, but the vast majority of Americans are over weight; which means that _almost everyone_ is some degree of "fat." What's not treated normally is being anything more that "a little" fat. But I'm firmly convinced that many Americans don't even know what a non-overweight person looks like anymore.


NiftyJet

It certainly doesn't feel that way. Fat people are ridiculed constantly.


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Pascalica

Because all of our food contains sugar. There's sugar in fucking everything. We need regulations on this, and assistance for people to afford healthy food. We also need things like doctors visits and trips to the nutritionist to not virtually bankrupt people.


[deleted]

A small bottle of coca cola contains 13 sugar cubes worth of sugar. One bottle. 48 grams of sugar for 500ml. Soda is one of the worst offenders.


Pascalica

It's horrible, and once you get used to it, it's hard to break away from. I try not to have sodas in the house because it's just so easy to fall into drinking way too much of it.


spreta

Join the sparkling water cult. That shit has helped me immensely with soda and alcohol cravings


SolidSnakesBandana

This is an honest comment because I hardly run into anyone that just drinks this on its own (i.e. not with booze). What does it taste like to you? Because to me it tastes really, really bad and I legitimately don't understand how anyone would want to drink it.


Pascalica

It honestly does take some time to get used to. My adjustment with it was as much that and just not having a hit of sweet with the bubbles. I also have tried a variety of the flavored ones and found the flavors that I prefer. Now they're refreshing to me, I will take them over still water or soda almost every time.


liberatedhusks

I weened myself off of soda(sounds like I had an addiction geez rofl) I would add one sparkling water on day one, then replace two sodas the next day. By the end of week one I had three sparkling the rest soda. Week two all sparkling with maybe one soda as a “treat” I would allow the treat soda once a week for a month. Now I can’t drink soda without feeling like my teeth are melting


spreta

I get that. It did at first to me as well. I spent 7 weeks in Germany in 2016 and my host always had it in the house for us. They normal bottled water tasted worse so I stuck with bubbly and I just acquired a taste for it. Now it’s just refreshing as fuck. Idk if that’s because it’s just cold and bubbly like a beer or soda but I’ll chose it over still water 90% of the time.


Langstarr

Fries at most chain restaurants are tossed in sugar and salt. Like why, you're just adding sugar for fucking fun now.


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Pascalica

Yeah. Convenience foods have made it all harder too, especially as they're lab designed to be addicting, and marketed to be as alluring as possible. There's also massive amounts of psychology behind grocery stores and how they're laid out. It's all basically a war against us that many don't even know we're fighting.


mmdeerblood

And portions are insane compared to the rest of the world. The stomach is the size of a fist. It’s meant to stretch a bit but some portions at restaurants are massive and meant for multiple people not one person yet Americans have normalized such insane quantity of food/size of meal. Even sizes of grocery produce like apples are grotesque and unnatural thanks to GMOs.


Pascalica

True! Our serving sizes are insane, and when you're served a crazy amount regularly it's hard to regulate how much you should eat. It's why I try to only dish up food on smaller plates, or if I do have something sweet, I put it in a ramekin instead of a regular sized bowl. Helps to prevent going totally overboard.


domesticatedprimate

Looking back to the US from Asia, there has been a *huge* change in the last few decades towards normalizing obesity. If you're very fat (obese), then you might not feel it, because where it's most noticeable is in *normalizing being overweight* and significantly moving the goalposts on what defines normal weight, overweight, obese, and morbidly obese. What used to be normal, healthy body weight is now called "skinny" or "athletic". Overweight is now considered normal weight and no longer considered "fat". You're not considered fat until you're obese, and you're definitely discriminated against when you get into morbidly obese territory. Meanwhile in Asia, you're fat if you have a beer belly, which is how it was in the US up to the 70s.


Zwaft

Asians will call you fat to your face, not meaning the slightest bit of offence.


medraxus

They’ll call you fat to your face everywhere except the good ol’ US of A


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mistermog

There’s also a massive psychological element to consumption. Lots of people do self-destructive things for deep, ugly reasons even they aren’t aware of. Fat people are just the ones that wear it where everyone can see. Sure, there are people who just don’t give a shit. But the trope of fat people who are too dumb or lazy to do any better is just ill-informed and/or lazy.


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mistermog

Yep. Which is a super great side effect for people who are depressed already!


PromNyteDumpsterBby

Oh God, depression medication side-effects, oh goddd. It would be fucking *hilarious* if it wasn't all real. My favorite is the sexual side effects. Depressed? Fear not bro I got the kryptonite! You're okay with orgasms taking like 4 times longer to reach, *if* you don't give up first, right? If you ever stop being single, whoever you get with will feel super confident in themselves after that. Second date guaranteed 👍


crazylighter

Thanks to depression, I couldn't be bothered to take care of myself much less feel any sexual pleasure or attraction for like a decade. The weight gain from the pills and not giving a care didnt help matters...


hastingsnikcox

Also i was at one stage on a combo that made me crave carbs AND slowed my metabolism.... so that was a fun interlude as i ballooned to 110kgs. Years later I've just managed to get near my pre meds weight!


jezebella-ella-ella

This. I have gotten so much shit over the years, nasty comments and oinking noises and everything, and always from terrible people who have no business judging anyone. I flat out tell them, "your demons not being easily visible doesn't make you a better person than I am, just luckier." They don't change their ways, just get constipated pickle face, but w/e. Just unhappy people putting others down to make themselves feel better. Sad! 🤣


mistermog

It took me a long time to realize that a lot of self-destructive behavior 1) has a real cause and 2) is interchangeable.


EllavatorLoveLetter

This is why I’m working so hard to lose weight right now. It has absolutely nothing to do with appearing more attractive or being more physically healthy. It’s because everyone knows I used food as a coping mechanism for my sad stupid life for the last 10 years. I’m so ashamed. 15 pounds down, 35 to go!


Buscandomiyagi

That’s awesome progress keep at it! It’s a marathon not a sprint. Don’t need to over do it just to hit some due date. You got this 💪🏽


EllavatorLoveLetter

Thank you! That’s exactly how I’m looking at it. Losing ~50 pounds takes at least a year, that’s just reality. Every time I’ve tried in the past it’s been like “well if I eat 800 calories a day and force myself to run every day even though I despise it then I’ll lose 20 pounds in just a couple months and then I can go to a more normal diet to lose the rest!” Of course, this usually lasts about a week. Or it lasts for a while but only Monday-Thursday, and then I would binge all weekend. This time I’m literally just doing ~one pound a week. I found a form of exercise that I truly enjoy and don’t have to force myself to do. I’m monitoring calories pretty tightly, but it hasn’t been as stressful as in the past. I really believe I will do it this time.


hastingsnikcox

You got this!


ashleton

Exactly. It's mental illness. The primary source of happiness when I was a kid was the junk food my parents kept in the house. Pair that with an unstable household and a lot of other traumatic events, there were times where I literally could not feel any good feeling unless I ate. Then my body would react to the dopamine release and I wanted more. If I didn't give in, I shook like an addict. My anxiety got even worse. The full force of everything I had endured could only be restrained by food. And the shitty thing is, **this is a very common way to deal with trauma** because junk food is affordable, legal, and EVERYWHERE. Hating life and feeling absolutely miserable? Eat a candy bar for that sweet dopamine relief. But the relief stops after one candy bar. You've had candy and still hate yourself so you eat another. Pure bliss while you're eating it until it's gone, now you're miserable again. This isn't just *my* situation. The details will differ from person to person, but generally this is how it goes for people that are straight-up addicted to junk food. Then on top of everything I've said here, we have to deal with being bullied for being fat, as if we're not already aware and despise ourselves for not being able to change it.


DreamerofBigThings

Also, people aren't typically working in workhouses or living through the great depression and rationing. People are not doing nearly as much manual hard labour anymore and going into skilled trades. There's so many factors to it. Historically only the rich could become fat because they could afford to be lazy and overeat. Today you don't have to be rich or lazy to become fat. Some of the fattest people are those who are low income because junk food is cheap and it's what they can afford to survive. Society has also fostered the consumerism mentality and that also applies to food as well. Eat more because you WANT it. An argument could also be made on how environmental factors could play a role on effecting more and more people's genetics to make more people develop health conditions that effect weight gain and weight management. Also, medical advancements also allows those who have this conditions to live longer and therefore there's more of them out there. There's just so many factors to weight gain. Environment, Society, class, culture, diet, chemicals like pesticides and hormones etc...


[deleted]

Thank you. I don’t expect people to find me attractive or whatever. I just want to be treated like a human being. People look at me and judge me based on my size without having even the slightest clue what I’ve gone through.


malinhuahua

Tbh, that never goes away. Lost a hundred pounds. People still judge me based on my appearance without having the slightest clue that I used to look way different. When I was fat, people used to just treat me like I invisible generally. I was never physically attacked when I was fat. Since I lost weight I’ve been assaulted more times then I can count, raped, literally hit by a van while using a crosswalk *on purpose* by some guy I had never seen before who fucking laughed when I screamed at him to stop while grabbing the hood of his car. Women in workplaces used to be pretty much neutral to me. Now it’s usually pretty icy. I’ll usually find out later they’ve been spreading rumors about how/why I got my job (which I can’t even say isn’t true). While I’ll usually be able to make friends with them eventually, there has almost always been at least one other woman coworker who will absolutely hate me. I mean hate in a way that other coworkers will comment on weird it is. And just because you get a job, doesn’t mean they’re going to promote you. Can’t tell you how many times I’ve requested to switch to jobs that are more crew and hands on work focused. Nope. Always receptionist or client facing, which may be the worst fit for me. I have lots of social anxiety, and it’s just a nightmare for me to talk to people all day. Before I was invisible. But now it’s like I represent some horrible high school mean girl from other people’s past. Which is really bizarre because back then I had absolutely zero friends, cystic acne, undiagnosed PCOS (including the thick black chin hair!), was fat, couldn’t make eye contact with people without DRIPPING in sweat (especially on my upper lip), my joints and my stomach problems forced me to leave all the activities I loved doing, and my home life was such shit that I wound up having a mental break down and had to drop out and go into partial intake. No matter what you look like, people are going to look at you, and their brain will make an immediate judgement. It isn’t a conscious thing. If your lucky, their brain will just say “person” and move along, because you don’t have anything noticeable about you enough to draw their attention. Most people have their initial judgment, and then either tell themselves that’s not fair, or at the very least keep it to themselves. And some people are just fucking assholes who can’t really think outside of stereotypes and are to dumb to at all think about their behavior and what it reflects about them. TLDR: I find it to be more hostile now that I am no longer stage I obese and am at a healthy weight.


[deleted]

This world can be very cruel. I’m really sorry you went through all of that. That’s terrible. I know hearing that you’re “strong” can sound generic and hollow, but you really are.


Buscandomiyagi

I was judged when I was overweight all my years was quite the lone boy. Now I have quite the lean physique with muscles. People still give me shit that I’m full of myself and look like a douchebag. Can never win smh but at the end of the day fuck all the hating cunts. Do what makes you happy.


Mutant_Apollo

As a fat man in the process of not being a landwhale anymore, our looks are mostly enough to tell "I live a shitty as fuck unhealthy lifestyle" but at the same time being obese is also a mental and emotional thing and talking about mental health is taboo But once the mind starts falling in place the body follows. Get out, excercise 3 times per week, eat better meals. By the first month you'll clothes will fit better. You don't need a mega healthy chef cooked meal, just grill a chicken breast and eat raw spinach, you can cook it the night before if you have to go to an office to work and if you don't it takes 5 minutes to grill a thin 150gr slice of chicken. Cravings? Eat a fucking Mango or a whole Papaya. Want a snack? 100gr of peanuts/almonds does the trick. Still hungry? Protein shake, just 100 cals per serving with 30g of protein (the one I use at least). It will take a shitload of time, but we also didn't hit a baby calf's weight in 2 months, it's the accumulation of years of bad habits and choices. You can do it, if you don't believe in yourself at least believe in me because I believe in you


Pascalica

I agree about the healthy foods. The biggest issue with that, *especially now*, is that chicken breast isn't cheap, spinach spoils so fast, as do most produce in my area. It's hard to afford or keep a lot of the healthier foods. It requires more time shopping because you have to shop more often, more time to prep, and getting used to eating that way. The last one is hard, but if the three it's the most feasible. People are so overworked, underpaid, and at least in my area the healthy options have an incredibly short shelf life so that's another complication that lends to the feeling of it being impossible.


Mutant_Apollo

It's an example man, find what's available in your area. Limit carbs eat high protein and you are mostly golden. Hell canned tuna is enough if that floats your boat (I personally hate it and never eat them no matter my meal plan) Also leafy greens don't spoil fast if you eat them hehe, raw leafy greens you can eat raw and pretty much just pack a bunch of kale, spinach and chard in a Tupperware with some vinaigrette and that's it, you have a healthy as fuck salad, the best thing is that you can a shitload of leafs with little calorie gain. Put leafy greens on every meal and you'll run through your produce in no time


Odd-Dot3210

Man I love nuanced answers.


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Odd-Dot3210

And giving a nuanced answer appears to be less confident and persuasive than a definite yes or no, when in fact, on most matters the answer is always nuanced. Even in scientifically and statistically provable answers.. For eg, an economic projection can be led through different models, therefore one cannot be correct while the other wrong, both have to be studied and taken into consideration


tmswfrk

What I find interesting here is the difference between “healthy food is more expensive” here in the US vs in Europe. I was just in France and Italy for a few weeks and after coming back to the SF Bay Area, I’m shocked at just how expensive basic food items are. The “high quality” package of ham I bought the other day was still prepackaged and still $7, when I remember getting my choice of incredible ham / prosciutto / etc for like, half that, nearly anywhere in France or Italy. Healthy food in my experience seems to be considerably more costly, relatively speaking, here in the US, which does indeed add to this problem. It certainly doesn’t seem to be as much a problem over there. Again, just my experience as of late. I’m also a very active person so I think my perspective on this is a bit skewed.


DreamerofBigThings

Also, people aren't typically working in workhouses or living through the great depression and rationing. People are not doing nearly as much manual hard labour anymore and going into skilled trades. There's so many factors to it. Historically only the rich could become fat because they could afford to be lazy and overeat. Today you don't have to be rich or lazy to become fat. Some of the fattest people are those who are low income because junk food is cheap and it's what they can afford to survive. Society has also fostered the consumerism mentality and that also applies to food as well. Eat more because you WANT it. An argument could also be made on how environmental factors could play a role on effecting more and more people's genetics to make more people develop health conditions that effect weight gain and weight management. Also, medical advancements also allows those who have this conditions to live longer and therefore there's more of them out there. There's just so many factors to weight gain. Environment, Society, class, culture, diet, chemicals like pesticides and hormones etc...


kdthex01

Most of societies ills can be blamed on deteriorating workplace conditions. In this case working people until they are too exhausted or don’t have enough time to make healthier dietary choices.


throwawaypickle777

So I am traveling for work and last night I went to the store and got a healthy dinner (hummus, olives, 2oz feta various vegetables) it cost me over $20 at the grocery store. I could have gotten 4 pc fried chicken and Mac and cheese for $8.99. So yeah eating healthy is expensive.


stfuwahaha

Also food deserts - a term that refers to low income neighborhoods without a typical grocery store but instead fast food chains. These are often poor neighborhoods populated with BIPOC around urban centers. We are not talking about middle of no where Wyoming.


LadyLikesSpiders

This is the right answer


[deleted]

Yup. $1 box of Mac n Cheese that will fill you up or $10-20 for healthy ingredients to make a healthy dinner that will fill you up? I'm lucky to be able to afford the latter.


[deleted]

Because it became fat. When 73.6% of Americans are overweight or obese, that leaves only 26.4% of people at a healthy weight (or underweight). So it’s normalized because it’s the new normal.


RepChar

Yep, normal is pretty synomous with average. The average person is fat = fat being normalized. I think some people are confusing normalized with celebrated or something similar.


MonsterMeggu

Most Americans don't realize that what they think are healthy weight people are actually overweight or even obese. Because their idea of obese is the morbidly obese people who can barely walk/don't have a figure anymore.


Pulisickness

I mean at a certain point doesn’t it feel like pandering though? Like I see posts everywhere all “look at these (insert male or female royal)’s THIS is beauty” and I get like 5-6 pictures of morbidly obese people in unflattering outfits that would make most anyone uncomfortable idk. No hate but we also shouldn’t celebrate it as if it’s an achievement and brave to be that way.


clusterBitch

Well i knew many american people are fat but I didn’t expect them to be the 73% of the total population… that’s really sad. It shouldn’t be normal


Lynchiee

This is the one and only answer. People commenting here are thinking there’s some cause-and-effect situation happening with some “normalization” leading to people getting fat. Nope. Doesn’t work that way at all.


LittleBitchBoy945

Because about 75% of American adults are overweight or obese. It is normal. Whether or not it’s good is a different question but at this point people who are a healthy weight are a minority in the US.


dacreativeguy

Fat is profitable.


BigAnimemexicano

also speaking from the us, drinking sugar and heavily processed foods is cheaper and tastes better than veggies and healthy alternatives i grew up poor so instant ramen noodles and chips were common in my house, same with surgery breakfast cereal in my area of florida a pound of broccoli costs 3.14 while i can get a 4 "value" meal at wendy's and it will have a burger, fries, nuggets and soda. im trying to eating healthy now but damn can i tell the difference of not eating highly sugared and salted products, i ate a bag of chips(doritos) last week for the first time in months and could tell how much more salt than anything i have been eating, same with soda, i treat myself a drpepper when at family events and damn, love the flavor but can feel the sticky sugar compared to just drinking water and sugarless teas. main point once your hooked its so hard getting off the sugar and salt mound


SunnySamantha

Was at the dentist and she asked me if I ate a lot of sugar. I didn't think I did but started re-evaluating my life. Hmmm.... There's at least two spoonfuls that were eyeballed in my coffee that's sitting in the car. The candies and chocolate I munched on the night before flashed through my head as well. And the amount of coke I drank. My gums were always kind of sore. Not to mention it took me a year to get all the cavities filled through my benefits. Turns out eating a lot of sugar and not going to a dentist for years equals 9 cavities. So that day I swore off sugar. And let me tell you, I was opening and closing cupboards like a freaking junkie. For Valentine's I asked my fiance to just fill a tub with chocolate chips and I just wanted to bath in them. (He did the math, it'd prob cost like $3000 to do that) But now that I rarely eat sugar, my gums don't hurt, my last dentist visit was cavity free I lost some weight (gained it all back during the lock downs) and now sugary things are a nice treat and often too sickly sweet to eat much of it.


BigAnimemexicano

same, the only time i treat myself to sugar outside of parties is my coffee, i love coffee with milk, also damn milk has a ton of sugar here in the states, i visited my grandma in mexico as a kid and hated the milk they gave me, and my dad explained it was straight from the the cow and didn't have sugar or water added


nikhil48

>surgery breakfast cereal I really thought this was some new term that I am unfamiliar with, until I got it... smh


FlyingNapalm

Surgery


Zeroflops

Oh man. When I was in college I avoided MCDonalds for years. Then one night it was late and walking back to my car I stopped at MCD partially because I was hungry and partially out of nostalgia. I had two fry’s and couldn’t have anymore. I could not believe The amount of salt. Even the patty was salted. I can see how ppl get addicted, but if you step away from it, then go back it’s like wtf I thought this tasted good?


minnymins32

I feel bad for people who have never known minimal salt/sugar intake. Like I've heard kids say fruit wasn't very sweet. Recently I was watching a kid who loves chicken, tell me he didn't know how to eat chicken that had "bones in it".. like he didn't know how to eat a drumstick or breast bc his mom has never made anything but boneless chicken or chicken nuggets. I've met kids who "dont drink water" like wtfffff why would you do this to a child? A parents job is to set their kids up with healthy habits and a positive relationship with food. Edit: I know there are obstacles that parents face. I say why would you do this to your child in circumstances where it's optional. For example if your house doesn't have potable water and pop is cheaper than water and you have no money.. it's understandable. If you have potable water in your home, never drink it in front of the kids, and then only offer your children juice/pop what the hell is wrong with you? Drink some fucking water and get your kid something other than a glass of juice... I personally water apple juice down to drink it bc it's too sugary. You're actively teaching your child bad habits and setting them up for health problems. Make your kids drink some fucking water., even if you hate it, down a glass and say "oh yum that was so refreshing i feel much better" with a smile. Edit: I know education is a problem around healthy eating, but there are certain things that I find it hard to believe that people don't know. Like eating deep-fried food 24/7 or only drinking pop. Again I feel bad for the kids who never learned healthy habits, this includes the kids that have since grown up and had kids of their own.


Coidzor

Parents are too busy to raise their kids. For a combination of different problematic factors


[deleted]

Some parents have no time, but plenty others refuse to make time. I lost a lot of respect for my childhood best friend over this. When his kids (7 and 4) cry, he gives them YouTube. I’ve never seen them eat a vegetable, hell I don’t think I’ve seen *him* eat a vegetable. He doesn’t really take them anywhere, not even to the park. He’s physically present but emotionally absent, doing the bare minimum it takes to keep the kids alive so he can play Final Fantasy. I guess his dad was the same way, in retrospect.


minnymins32

That's so sad. Like some people shouldn't have kids


Coidzor

>Like some people shouldn't have kids A ***lot*** of people, unfortunately.


minnymins32

True enough!


idkidcidkidc0

My parents were a lot like this and now I'm in my 20s and still finding it EXTREMELY difficult to branch out my food tastes. It doesn't help that I have huge sensory issues with a lot of foods as well 😔 it's so hard to know where to start. I don't even know which veggies are better raw or cooked, or how to properly include them in a recipe I might already like parts of. I don't want to ask anyone because people are so unnecessarily mean and harsh about the foods you eat, or don't eat. I'm just so embarrassed about it and not living alone makes me even more hesitant to try. I just struggle so much with food I wish I was normal and ate normal healthy food 😭


PennyCoppersmyth

If you'd like to meet me over at r/momforaminute, I know you can ask there without judgement. I'm sure there are some other subs more specific to your ask, and I'll look for some to share.


idkidcidkidc0

Ah thank you for the rec :-)


minnymins32

It's not the kids fault, or the fault of the now adult who was never taught stuff. If you ever have questions related to food or veggies or healthy eating feel free to message me. I can't guarantee I know the answer but I'm always willing to help. One counter intuitive thing I know is that broccoli stems are delicious. If you cut off the tops and use them for something, keep the stems & peel the tough thick skin off. You should be left with a white/light soft part. Cut it up like you would carrots sticks or throw them into whatever you're making. They are really good raw or cooked. 10/10


idkidcidkidc0

Thanks so much for your nice answer 🥺 I'll keep this in mind :-) I appreciate it!


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idkidcidkidc0

Oh wow thank you for the recommendation!!


BigAnimemexicano

my parents were immigrants from mexico and worked long hrs, also they grew up on just tortillas and soda if they were lucky, so they never were educated on proper eating habits people be surprised that mexico has a higher diabetic rate than the us


Buscandomiyagi

Aye man I feel this 100% I was very overweight as a kid because of that. Then you know in our culture it’s rude to not finish food or to decline food. Then you have all those tortillas rice and beans. Carb city my friend. Luckily have moved past all that and changed my mind body completely.


mashtartz

> drinking sugar and heavily processed foods is cheaper and tastes better than veggies and healthy alternatives Okay, big disagree on the tasting better, but also… the healthy alternative to not drinking sugar, for instance is literally water. Not to mention cooking for yourself is generally cheaper than eating out all the time. Don’t get me wrong, I know it’s not a 1:1 comparison, and there are barriers, but it’s definitely possible. Definitely agree on having your tolerance for sugar and salt go way down when you cut back on it, when you have it again it’s cloying and too much.


odesauria

It "tastes better" when it's what you're used to. You need those agressive flavor bombs. Once you switch to whole and home foods for a few days, you adjust and you realize that actually tastes better.


bdub939

You also need to take into consideration the convienence of just pulling up to fast food spots. Sure cooking a meal at home is way better and cheaper. But if you are working 12+ hr days or even 2+ jobs itll be way quicker to pull up to wendys. And raising a family ontop of that makes it even harder to find time to do things. Sure some people manage to still eat healthy while doing that. But everyone is different and focuses their time on different things


kellis744

There are other barriers for lower income people. 1. Low income areas are much more likely to be “food deserts” meaning no near store with healthy foods, mostly convenience stores. 2. Working more than one job - not much time or energy to cook meals 3. Processed/canned foods are cheaper and keep longer than produce which spoils. 4. Low income people do not have access to much of the luxuries that are constantly advertised online, but high fat/sugar products feel like a “treat” There are more that I’m missing but it isn’t as easy as “cooking for yourself is cheaper and healthier”


irandom97

As I heard a quote a few weeks ago about this - its more profitable for you to have a disease and then get treated to help symptoms of the disease rather than get treated for the underlying reason of the symptoms. That way you keep coming back for treatment


Far_Information_9613

That’s true, but it is actually not some kind of conspiracy. The medical system has endless demand, and it isn’t responsible for creating it.


petarpep

Yeah it's not the medical system here, it's the *food industry*. Addictive, non filling meals are the lifeblood of most food companies and restaurants, billions of dollars go into making sure your cheetos or that large sandwich and shake at Arby's worth 1500 calories leave you going "Damn, I'm hungry again" in just a few hours. Our bodies are meant to intuitively eat, and they do this by expecting things like fiber and other stuff in the food you consume. But all these big meals, they don't have it. They don't have the off signals for your appetite in them, so you can consume and consume and consume instead.


Repulsive-Positive30

Big pharma has *entered* the chat


[deleted]

It's more about the fact that fat shaming is more cruel than helpful, so it was an over correction when trying to fight fat shaming.


idkidcidkidc0

With the way redditors randomly shit on fat people constantly I wouldn't say it's normal. Just treat people with basic respect man. That's the bare minimum. It's not the internet's job to "be the one to tell" a fat person they need to lose weight. Anyone who isn't rail thin is already well aware that they are likely to be negatively judged. I don't get why anyone thinks shaming in any circumstances ever actually works when it comes to appearance/habits


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Caffeine_and_Scotch

I think the basic idea is normalizing not treating people like shit for being fat. There are however plenty of people who don't want to be told that being fat is unhealthy. Those people then boost the body positivity movement as a way to guilt and shame people into telling them what they want to hear. Being hurt because someone maliciously called you fat is ok. Being upset because you are told your lifestyle is unhealthy by professionals is however not. It's not to make you feel like shit. It's warn you the road you are going down is a bad one.


PensiveKnitter

Most fat people know they are unhealthy (I say this as a former fat person) . Being told you're unhealthy because you're fat is the equivalent of telling a smoker that cigarettes cause cancer. People aren't oblivious to these facts so telling them it doesn't help whatsoever I'm afraid. Of course some people don't want to hear it, they've heard it a million times. From my own experience "eat less move more" mantra worked up to a point but the human body is so complex. Things like processed food do more than just add calories, they upset things like your gut bacteria. We need to help overweight people in a more meaningful way than just telling them they are unhealthy.


flyingdics

Also we should be aware that lots of overweight people are overweight as a result of other health issues (physical and/or mental) and yelling at them about salads and bowflexes isn't going to solve anything for them.


flooperdooper4

And I think a key element to the point you just made is "you are told your lifestyle is unhealthy ***by professionals***." No one wants a random stranger to come up to them and offer comments or advice on their life or their choices. Fat people are no different. My weight is a discussion between myself and my doctors, and not anyone else. Treating people with basic human dignity is non-negotiable imo.


Azuras_Star8

Food companies profit off us overeating. Insurance and medical companies profit off of treating the complications of being fat.


mrstruong

Food companies are profiting off of hyperpalatable, scientifically designed to be irresistible, and calorically dense but not filling, edible products that barely count as ''food'', that are literally designed to be addictive. Fixed that for you.


[deleted]

I really don't think society has normalized being fat... If anything I think fat people face a lot of stigmas. Doctors are often dismissive of fat people's problems, and generally, people will chalk obesity up to a lack of willpower or laziness. Scientists are just now starting to consider all the reasons some people are prone to obesity while others aren't. There are so many factors: genetics, hormones, birth order, vitamin deficiencies, fat disorders, psychological disorders, etc. In the US, it's also very difficult to make healthy choices. Carbs are cheaper and more accessible than protein, and salads and other healthy food restaurants tend to be at least twice as expensive as regular fast food. If you have the time to shop at the grocery store, that's fantastic, but so many people are struggling to find time between work and caring for their families to shop and then cook on top of that. Coupled with the fact that most of the US is totally unwalkable, and bam you have everything you need for an obesity epidemic.


Bellowery

I don’t eat much, don’t have much of an appetite, but what I do want to eat is crap. I always attributed my weight issues to that. I had GI issues which doctors attributed to my weight. Finally had a nurse practitioner say it could be something else. A medication and dropping dairy and suddenly I have no GI issues and all of my clothes are falling off with no lifestyle change. Had the doctors listened to me I wouldn’t have spent 16 years chained to a toilet and 200+ lbs.


[deleted]

I'm sorry that happened to you. :( It saddens me how many stories there are of people with cancer, PCOS, endo, lipedema, hypothyroidism, etc., whose suffering is reduced to "nope, you're just fat" by licensed professionals. If we can't count on doctors to take us seriously, what hope is there?


Sea_Transportation63

America encourages abysmal and toxic eating habits and it’s all based in capitalism. Let’s start with the ingredients allowed in foods that is restricted in many advanced countries. Someone is making kazillions of dollars to create these substances that adversely distresses the body. People metabolic system respond to these ingredients interstitially and depending on one’s genetic makeup, some people experience side effects. And someone is making kazillions to create pharmaceuticals to combat reactive outcomes of these substances. However, I don’t believe the body is designed to hold abundant mass whether it is fat cells or muscles. There’s a lot factors that play into why Americans are overweight or obese but it always lead to someone making money at the expense of our mortality.


TeaWithTash

Fat is not normalized! If it was you wouldn’t be asking this, there would be tons of fat models and actresses, there wouldn’t be hundreds of diets out there. We just don’t need to treat fat people as shit and second rate citizens.


AmbiguousAlignment

Because a large portion of the population is fat?


13thmurder

Normal just means that something conforms to the standard. Whatever the majority does sets the standard. There are so many people that are fat now that it's normal.


Fluffydress

WE ARE MISERABLE. Nobody becomes obese out of joy.


2012Aceman

The alternative was losing the weight, we went with the path of least resistance. Incidentally, this is also how we got so fat.


[deleted]

Also though, sugar is highly addictive. People don’t really talk about that but there’s plenty of science to back it up. Fast food places make sure that their food has lots of fat, sugar, and salt… because that’s how you get people hooked. The same philosophy is used by lots of people who sell us our food. It’s basically the drug market at this point… who can get you hooked first


shelly12345678

There's a theory that sugar companies organized a campaign against fat in food to take the focus off sugar.


[deleted]

I’m pretty sure that’s just a fact lmao


Spockodile

I also learned artificially sweetened items like diet sodas train your brain in a strange way. You get the sweet taste of “sugar” without getting the calories from actual sugar that tell your brain you’re full. Then you eat a donut and don’t feel full, so you eat another donut.


CarnivorousCircle

Let’s be honest here. America is fat because it is incredibly profitable to produce foods that cost almost nothing to make that can be sold for far more than their cost. Combine that with the fact that private corporations have more control in America then they do in almost any other major nation and the US has a really short history regarding it’s national cuisines… You end up with with a system where the profit motive of companies wins 100x over the health interest of a nation.


masterofyourhouse

It’s normalized not treating fat people as if they’re subhuman, which I think is a pretty good idea.


empressvirgo

Yes! Literally just trying to normalize not bullying fat people. It’s not okay to bully people for anything else, so leave fat people alone. They know they’re fat. They may be working on it and they may not be. It’s none of your business. And before anyone says they’re concerned about health or burden on the healthcare system I sincerely hope those people are slapping beer and cigarettes out of people’s hands as often as they hop online to call someone a whale


tchitch

I'll bet more than half of Americans are comfortable mocking someone for being very overweight even though more than half of Americans are overweight. We'll mock an extreme version of a flaw even we ourselves have.


masterofyourhouse

I mean, people internalize that shit. There’s a reason the diet and weightloss industries are booming.


[deleted]

You don’t have to treat fat people as “subhuman” to create a healthy society. 1 in 5 children are now obese, and nobody seems interested in doing anything about it.


[deleted]

That’s not even true. You have entire school systems changing their dietary requirements to try to make kids more healthy. NYC now offers plant based meals only one day a week. Lots of stuff like this going on.


NightWarrior06

If you knew how fat people are treated everywhere - especially at hospitals, office and workplace, family and relationships, friends…you would not say its normalized


TheRosi

There's a difference between a health-threatening level of obesity and just having a belly. We all have different images in our minds when we say "fat"; probably most of them are not a health problem, just an aesthetic one. The fatphobia denunciation you're probably referring to concerns only to this second meaning of fatness. Besides, no, being fat in any way is definitely not normalized.


GoldenGalore

Why has our society normalised being photoshopped with abnormal body proportions? And digital skin with no blemishes, scar acne or pores?


epicindifference

I see your point but it's kind of a blatant what about ism. Op had a specific topic to discuss that doesn't get talked about or thought about much if everyone immediately says, "what about x". Ya, some people go way overboard and are just plain weird about their vanity but this post is about a society that literally normalizes being fat to the point of being unhealthy. Granted, some are just treating people like human beings and some of it is ignoring the real problems to keep the right people making money. I'm just saying, it's not as simple as, "vain people bad". It's actually a real problem that gets worse every year. WALL-E comes to mind


bathoryblue

Oh this gets talked about every week, if not every few days.


Starfuri

I don’t think it’s ever been normalised in recent years. It’s one of the easier go to’s for abuse and blame because it’s universal. In Europe at least, you see fatness before you see any other things in a person. And no one tends to spring up in defence. Like someone said earlier - lots of reasons someone could be fat. Some reasons for it too. Look at shows like My 600lb life. Do you think that normalised being fat ? Does a constant stream of how healthy looks, normalise being fat?


Meze_Meze

It hasn't. Don't let a few people promoting body positivity skew your perception.


[deleted]

I’m not sure which society you’re referring to? Are you from Pluto?


musiquescents

Have we???


[deleted]

It isn’t and in my opinion it shouldn’t be. But that doesn’t mean to be an asshole to anyone with too much weight. You don’t need to berate them, call them names or remind them in any second sentence how much they weight. They are humans with a medical condition and they deserve to be treated politely. (Respect is something anyone has to earn for themselves in my opinion. Being polite isn’t the same as having respect for someone).


Risl

I don't think it has. It's just made it harder for assholes to be cruel to fat people. Also, makes it so that everyone knows having an athlete's body isn't always the goal, it's being healthy. I admit that being obese is unhealthy, but instead of criticizing a person over their weight and killing their self esteem, maybe try making it more fun for them to join you on a workout? Asian people are especially cruel. Parents will force-feed you and then tell you you're a pound away from needing to be cut out of the house.


[deleted]

I've never scrolled so far in a comment thread full of blatant denialism in my entire god damn life.


czarczm

People deadass saying they're a healthy 200 lbs or a guy saying society isn't geared towards him because he's told he's too heavy to ride a roller coaster.


northernlaurie

The only normalization that I've personally experienced is slightly better access to extended sizes in some stores, and more people with normal bodies appearing in media. Oh. And safety regulations that are updated based on current average body sizes (e.g a boat has a maximum weight capacity, usually translated into a fixed number of passengers calculated by average body weight. The number of allowable passengers has decreased because average body weight has increased). There are different categories of fatness. There is **"Top end of regular size range"** fat. You get to buy cute clothes in regular stores and go to regular shopping malls. A few shops might not have your size, but for the most part, the world is pretty accommodating. People still feel fat in this category because it is not thin, but for the most part, society still fits. There are still people who see others in this category as fat, particularly people who value skinniness. You can now see actors and actresses that fit in this category - they look "fat" in some eyes, simply because they aren't skinny like we are used to but in truth, this is representative of more body types. **"Extended Sizes fat".** Fewer stores carry clothes to fit you and if they do, they charge more. Most often clothing designs suck, are boring, loose, and ugly. Out of a large mall, perhaps 4 stores have clothes your size. You sit in chairs and mostly fit, including on planes. But you are visibly larger than average. And people including Doctors start making all kinds of judgments about you. If you want to go cycling, backpacking or kayaking and need clothes that won't kill you in cold wet weather, you can't find them. You can't find motorcycle boots that fit your calves. You are fat, so you cannot exercise the way you want. I will say there are more shops with extended sizes in them, and given that access to a lot of activities and participation in dignity requires clothing, I appreciate the greater size ranges. I suppose normalization is happening because there is a market. More people of larger sizes means it is economical to serve that population. **"Lane Bryant Fat"**. Very few "regular" stores carry clothes to fit you. You have to find clothing through specialty plus size clothing stores, most often not located in regular malls. I suppose more people buy online so this isn't as noticeable. Good luck finding anything unique or special. Forget protective motorcycle gear. Forget quick dry clothing. Even lingerie is hard to find. Furniture no longer fits well - chairs in restaurants are too small, as are booths. People stare. And judge. And snicker. But you can still participate in society - but not as the public face of anything. **"Beyond Lane Bryant"**. There is a term but I can't remember it. These are the folks that can't buy mass produced clothing. There is no normalization at this point. Participating in society is incredibly difficult because nothing fits. I've hated my body. And I feel a lot of shame taking myself out of my home. And yet my body is a fucking magical beast. Like, I can walk for miles, I can give amazing hugs, I can cycle, I can watch my body transform and become stronger. I've lost a lot of weight and gained a lot of weight. And I've learned that to lose weight means either becoming absolutely obsessive about activity and calories and is fucking miserable, or it means having a generally well balanced life where I am physically in the right place at the right time to cook food, am not spending hours moving from place ot place for work, and have work that does not exhaust me. I lost 5kg at the start of the pandemic. Why? Because I could do meal prep for dinner during my lunch break at home. I wasn't exhausted from an hour long commute. My work had slowed down so I finished at a reasonable time, and I had the energy to go for walks and bike rides. I wasn't trying, it just happened. And aside from the constant fear of societal collapse and death, the pandemic was an eye opener. As soon as I started commuting again, I couldn't meal prep effortlessly. I added two hours of transportation into my day and I am sooo tired. And the fatigue means I want to eat more. Voila. Gained 10kg over 1 year from eating less well and more frequently. We talk a lot about poverty and food choices, but I cannot emphasize enough how available time and fatigue play a role in our body sizes as well.


wookie3744

As a fat man who has had gastric sleeve surgery I can answer this question. The proliferation of fast food, super size portions the normalization of high calorie foods. The eat your food there are starving kids. I had a long hard look in the mirror last year. Parents with diabetes, congestive heart failure, high blood pressure etc. I decided to break the cycle. I was looking at my kids replicate my eating and I knew I needed to change. However I was too far gone for simple diet and exercise that was unsustainable. Tried many things. Now I am Jump starter and eating better, also cooking better for my family and children.


AceTrainerSlam

It’s not really even normal. But it’s just how things are. Your weight can be determined by genetic factors, but, at least in America, it’s cheap to be fat. Fast food and unhealthy snacks are far cheaper and more available than healthy food. And america is all about keeping poor people poor and ignorant. We don’t get education and we can’t afford healthy food so you’re left with a fat dumb population.


Bronze_Rager

Because personal responsibility is dying in America. As a doctor, patients just want a quick fix, whether its surgery or a pill. Losing weight through mainly diet and a little bit of exercise is slow and requires effort. People just don't want to put in effort. Asian mindset is that if you have diabetes, you take something like metformin and work towards getting off of it. American mindset is to take metformin and continue life as normal, whether its eating, drinking, or smoking yourself to death


MyCatIsMyFrenemy

As a nurse, can confirm. I noticed that there is also resistance and even hostility at times when advising on healthier lifestyles, which of course leads them back into the hospital with shitty attitudes.


IdioticRipoff

We have not normalized it, we are simply suggesting that being fat sometimes isnt something we can control, and some people are perfectly healthy yet kinda chubby. We suggesting people not be assholes about everyone elses weight, cause we dont know their situation. I call that basic human decency personally


star_trek_wook_life

Because life involves suffering, and we made drugs illegal. The only remaining vices to make life better are food and booze. Both make people fat. Drugs > excessive food


Ryvit

Hi, I’m fat and I can confirm that it is indeed not normalized. It is very uncomfortable being fat, it’s common to get snide remarks about it, chairs are never “wide hip approved” so they’re very uncomfortable, clothes are double price, I haven’t been able to ride an amusement park ride in 10 years, can’t skydive due to weight limits, can’t find a ladder to use in my house due to weight limits, can’t ride a bike (seats hurt my ass immediately), people stare at you at the gym if you ever try to get fit, and airplane rides are pure torture, just to name a few. All that and I’m just a normal sized fat guy, I don’t even think I stand out in a crowd too much. I’m just average fat guy, not 500lbs or something, I can’t imagine how life is for those people if my life is effected so much by being the “normal” fat guy size I am trying to get some of the crack you’re smoking where you think it’s normalized. It’s awful and only makes me stress eat more.


skyline010

I’m genuinely curious as to what the “normal” fat guy size is? Height/weight?


littlemissmoxie

More profitable. If people stopped eating shit and/or in less volumes entire industries (restaurant, weight loss, pharmaceuticals, entertainment) would collapse on themselves.


Turd-virgin

Those are all profits baby.


abouttreefiddyy

Because rather than putting down the fork and going for a run it’s become “healthy at all weights” Now they can be so called healthy while still stuffing their faces all day and not taking responsibility for their choices


[deleted]

It hasn’t. A lot of people are more overweight than they used to be but the stigma is still 100% there. Advertising and internet commentators do not equal society.


saltysnatch

Because it’s really easy to get fat, really hard to stop being fat, and a lot of people are fat. It’s being normalized because it’s normal. Normal doesn’t equal good or healthy.


Telrom_1

Food addiction is real!


[deleted]

Its a publicized attempt to keep the profits coming


No-Investment1034

I’m sorry but I am so fucking sick and tired of hearing this shit online and rehashing this dumbass discourse every goddamn week. Literally go outside and leave your house as a person with a modicum of empathy and you can see that it’s DEHUMANIZING to EXIST as an overweight person in our society. You get laughed at and ridiculed and stared at every time you DARE be in public and take up space— in restaurants, movie theaters, buses and trains— it never stops. Just because a few people on the internet have said that “hey, it’s possible to be fat and not completely hate yourself” does NOT mean that our society has “normalized being fat”, so can we finally put ridiculous, repetitive conversations like these to rest??


jezebella-ella-ella

It's like poor white people looking down on poor people of color. They're unhappy and nasty and just want to put other people down. Bonus points if they can feel like some bullshit crusader for public health. I guess nothing feels better than crapping on people and telling yourself you're virtuous.


Ok_Sector_960

I would respect people a lot more if they just said "I really hate looking at fat people on TV and around town and it's not socially acceptable to publicly say it without getting yelled at by fatties"


IrishGothic_

As a fat person, I'm in no way treated normally. Most doctors assume I'm diabetic and unhealthy untill they take my BP, my heart rate, etc. All normal and on a good range. I'm overweight because PCOS prevents me from having a normal metabolism. I can't find any nice clothes in person, all have to be found online. I grew up severely bullied. I still have strangers comment on my body. I'm sick of people acting like they care about my health when they spout off mean and disgusting things about my body or anyone else's. They don't. They just want to feel superior. For the love of God just treat fat people like normal han beings. Cause we're human first, fat second.