Confusion: People who are OK with being way overweight

[El Diablo]

OK, this is about people who are overweight, but just don't care.

This is important: this is NOT directed at people who keep talking about how overweight they are and how they want to change it (but are too lazy or undisciplined or whatever to do it) or people who keep trying but fail. I totally understand how that happens.

What I'm talking about here are people who are sloppy and fat and are just fine with it. Especially young, single people.

Every time I meet someone like this, who just doesn't care about having a big belly hanging over their belt or three chins, I just don't get it.

Obviously everything's a tradeoff, and for many of us, getting beyond a certain level of fitness just isn't worth the extra effort. That makes total sense to me. But to not want to be at least in reasonably good shape seems just bizarre to me, when it's something so directly in people's control and has such a direct impact on their life in terms of things like who they attract, how healthy they are, etc.

I'll add more later.

Anyone here fit into this category? If so, please offer your perspective.

[MusashiStyle]

i think u did this thread before and emcw said being fat is OK, then u said being fat is NOT OK. I would agree that indeed being fat is NOT OK. One's ability to move around comfortably is very important. To be unable to reach down to tie your shoes because your stomach is in the way sucks, and is no way to live.

[danlux]

I think laziness and ignorance are largely to blame. Laziness not just in not exercising, but also in not wanting to cook healthy meals. Cheap fried food and fast food are largely to blame.

Ignorance in that young people aren't fully aware of how bad some foods are for them.

I also blame families where the parents are fat, and therefore set the example that being fat is ok.

Not to mention the narcicism of today's youth, and everybody thinking that they are so special and that everyone will still love them even though they are fat.

[El Diablo]

MS,

You are thinking of this thread: Are you prejudiced against fat people?

Obviously, similar topic, but in this thread I'm curious about the specific question of people being OK with being fat. To me it seems like there's a natural, innate pull to have a certain standard of physical fitness.

I'm mainly wondering if others agree or disagree with that.

[El Diablo]

dan,

You're talking about the broader topic of why people are fat. Most fat people I know wish they were in better shape.

I'm specifically wondering about people who just don't seem to care. This seems incredibly odd to me, but I've recently run into a few people with that attitude and couldn't really figure it out.

[danlux]

I see your point, but most fat people I know don't seem to care that they are fat. It may be in part because I'm from probably the fattest city (Milwaukee) in the fattest state (Wisconsin), so it seems being fat is the norm and socially acceptable.

[deadcat3x]

E.D. is it now possible thanks to threads like this, to post over 1k times in 2p2 {essentially a poker forum} without ever having to mention poker and could you do this under another name

[guids]

I know some big fat old italian friends of my dad and my dad for that matter, they just dont care, they would rather eat and be happy than worry about anything related to health etc. They already have wives due to being rich, or any nummber of reasons not related to looks, and they are fine with that. Most of them are construction guys that work hard all day, I cant imagine how fat these guys would be if they had a job that didnt require physical effort.

[danlux]

This reminds me of a Labor Econ class I took where the professor listed 10 college majors and the percentage of each one that smoked. He listed ones such as engineering, finance, econ, dance, biology, etc.

Everybody was surprised when he said Dance majors were the most likely to smoke. The rest of the majors expected to slowly climb through the job ranks and make more money as they moved up, where as dancers saw their income peak before age 30.

So dancers smoked because they didn't look long term at their own life, maybe the same theory applies to fat people.

[El Diablo]

quids,

The following people seem to be immune from caring about being fat:

1: Italians
2: People from Chicago

In general, where there is a cultural acceptance of being fat and you can attract a desirable person even if you're fat, it makes more sense to me. I know some Italian guys in NY like this.

However, when you're young and single and in an environment where you put yourself out of contention with a big chunk of the opposite sex, just seems bizarre to me.