I’m 370 lbs and today I had a doctor tell me that people who are skinnier than me are all like that because they work out and eat right. Can I get a roll call for the people who are less than 370 lbs and eat like shit or don’t work out? Because I’m pretty sure you exist.
Also, one time I had a doctor ask me “are you sure?” 4 times after I said I didn’t have any breathing problems. Like nah I’m just big.
No shit?
When I was a little one there were all, like, PSAs and stuff telling people to get at least five hours of exercise a week, and it was everywhere. I’d internalised it and assumed most other people had grown up being exposed to similar propaganda. Here I was thinking I was just doing a bit more than the bare minimum.
The answer here is “Well yes, but actually no.”
Those PSAs assume a generally sedentary lifestyle typical of the middle & upper classes. Owning a detached home away from urban centers, driving everywhere, and working a desk job, that kind of thing. If you live that kind of lifestyle, then you will have to actively count calories, and do extracurricular exercise in order to stay healthy because you won’t be doing enough physical work at any other point in your life in order to do so passively (and this is before we get into matters of diet composition, which is another thing entirely).
This is also why the biggest assholes who insist that obesity is a personal failing, and not a structural problem are almost always middle class strivers, or those looking to join their ranks. They’re fully aware that attacking the actual structural causes of obesity means attacking their accustomed lifestyles, and they don’t want to do that.