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What if you were a fat kid. Other kids made fun of you and adults told you to "lose weight", but never gave you actual tips just "eat healthy and move more". H
by 746F7475 11y ago
What if you were a fat kid. Other kids made fun of you and adults told you to "lose weight", but never gave you actual tips just "eat healthy and move more".
How do you go about eating healthy as a 10 year old? You don't. You eat what your parents put on the table and if your parents are also fat there is going to be a lot of fatty foods and few healthy foods and the healthy foods will often taste horrible in comparison.
How do you go about moving more? You could play outside, but who plays outside these days? You just spend your time playing video games and even if other kids are into sports ball you are fat and slow, and most likely to complain, so no one wants to play with you.
Now imagine this goes on for ~20 years. You are now pushing 30, being overweight/obese your whole life. When people talk about weight they just tell you to "lose weight", but again without any solid steps just: "have self control and eat less and move more".
Running is out of the question because of your bad knees, under your weight. Walking is fine as long as you take it slow and don't walk too long. So your gains are very minimal, you don't even sweat (expect from the Sun) since you can't go fast or long before your legs start to hurt. So people tell you it's all about food, so you try to lower your food intake. It's hell for a week, but somehow you manage it. You starve yourself for two months which feels like 5 years.
You manage to lose weight, not that you know how much since no scale is big enough for you, but your pants start to sag. So you do what people around you want to do, you celebrate, because what's one night of having fun going to do, right? You got your new smaller pants and it's time to hit the town. Next thing you realize it's 6 weeks later, you are shoveling cake in your face at alarming rate and your pats are starting to look like skinny jeans. You feel like shit, and since you were a kid what have you been doing when you feel like shit? You grab a soda or a cupcake or something else that's bad for you.
It's not just about having self-control, because you have life time of nagging about your weight on your back. People have always told you that you weren't good enough, that you should lose weight, but no one has taken the time and guide you on the right path. Losing weight is simple in theory, but hard in practice and it takes a lot of time and effort, more than most people are willing to dedicate.
- forrestthewoods 11y agoNo matter what you are responsible for your body. Period. Full stop. I am not responsible for your body. As an adult your parents are not responsible for your body. The government is not responsible for your body. You and you alone are responsible. Your body may be more susceptible to holding onto fat than the average person. You may have genetic markers that makes you more likely to over indulge. There are one of a million factors that may make you more likely to be overweight. But literally none of them change the fact that you and you alone are responsible for your body.
- 746F7475 11y agoIt's easy to say that, since it is true after all, but you are not helping in this matter at all. You are not going to get a single fatty to lose a pound of weight by telling them: "hey! it's your fault!". Fatties know that, but that doesn't mean it will in any way make them change what they are doing.
- forrestthewoods 11y agoConstantly searching for genetic markers as excuses doesn't help either. It's not your fault! Your genetics cause you to over eat and hold on to all of the fat! And you know what that changes? Nothing. Literally nothing. You can shift blame to genetics or make excuses on how your parents didn't teach you how to eat healthy but it doesn't matter. At the end of day one and only one person holds the keys of responsibility.
- 746F7475 11y agoI never said anything even remotely about genetics. And I never blamed my parents, they did what they thought was best, but I dare to suggest that adults constantly telling kids: "you should lose weight" for years doesn't do any good. At worst you start to resent everyone who says that and then you are in deep trouble. If you have been skinny to normal weight your whole life you have no idea how hard it is to keep up with a diet and how easily it gets out of hand. Kids are the place where we should start treating this epidemic and it doesn't start with nagging them every time they visit a doctor/nurse. It starts with proper school meals which favor salads instead of shit like pasta, rice and potatoes, and removing shit like coke machines from school property. With PE classes where kids actually get exercise and isn't just about playing few rounds of sports ball. And some actual advice with weight problems and proper after school activities (these probably should be sports ball activities) which don't cost a lot. Maybe I'm way off base here. Maybe I'm just crazy. But I know what my educational system is like and for most part it ain't helping.
- JoeAltmaier 11y ago