All the contestants on the show manage to loose weight. While I might not agree with their nutrition and exercise regimen, they still lost weight. If there was a thing of being naturally fat, “The biggest Loser” would have meet that contestant by now. As being naturally fat would prohibit them from losing weight regardless of how little they ate and exercised.

Point being, large amounts of fat people don’t exist in the poor populations of Africa, India, and even the US doing the Great Depression. They didn’t exist on a large scale in China until their recent economy prosperity. Chinese people only have one child and tend to spoil that child rotten if they can afford too. A lot of rich Chinese spoil their children with daily McDonalds trips and cars. So now they have over 200 million obese people in China. Check it out here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YB5sz576cnM

China is proof that its our access to food and lack of exercise is what causes fatness (on epidemic levels) not our genetics. As many people will swear up and down that Asians are naturally thin. This isn’t true. Anybody who adopts the “American lifestyle” of fast food and mobile convenience, will become fatter no matter what race they are.

Personally, I don’t believe there is a such thing as being naturally fat (being 50+ lbs overweight). Although, I do think there is a thing as being naturally chubby (see Snooki from The Jersey Shore). But then again, just because someone is genetically disposed to being one way doesn’t mean they have to be. Some people have naturally addictive personalities. But society that doesn’t excuse them nor are they condemn to being drug addicts, food addicts, or alcoholics. People still have free will. We are not slaves to our DNA.

I don’t get any discount on my ACC levies or my medical insurance despite my BMI being 22.

OH HELL YES. The problem is that thin people are not being rewarded, and fat people are not being shamed ENOUGH.

“I don’t pretend it was EVER as simple as “calories in, calories out.” Because it fucking isn’t.”

See, this is exactly where the confusion with people like “tom brokaw” comes from (and yes, his comments were needlessly inflammatory, but you have just validated one of his key points)…

It fucking is. But let me explain a little.

If you take in more calories than you put out, you will store energy as fat and gain wait. Vice versa and you lose weight. This isn’t opinion, its thermodynamics.

What makes it hard to figure is that while “calories in” are generally completely within our control, we (as a society) often misjudge what they are. And “calories out” depends not only on our measured exercise, but on the energy that we expend at rest, which varies wildly from person to person. Even diets like Atkins rely on strange behavior to throw our bodies into ketosis and change “calories out” – not cast a magic spell to make the calories go away.

Anyone claiming that “calories in – calories out” doesn’t apply to them is basically insisting that they’re a living perpetual motion machine, capable of doing more work than its energy input, which is just plain impossible – which goes back to “tom”‘s initial comment, “They are suggesting that in the end, your weight is your CHOICE and a thing that is ultimately within your control.” He doesn’t say that its easy (although he certainly implies it), just that its possible.

/ relurks