Obesity is a choice not a disability1

WEIGHT RESPONSIBILITY: Obesity is a choice, not a disability

Last updated: March 28th, 2019

Soaring obesity rates have prompted a law professor in Canada to call for legislation to protect obese people from discrimination, stating that obesity should now be considered a disability. This is complete nonsense.

Labelling obesity as a disability is just another example of how we’re enabling the obesity epidemic. It is simple. Unless you have a true medical condition that causes weight gain, which is a very low percentage of people, your weight is your responsibility. You are responsible for your own choices. You are responsible for learning how to say no. Say no to unhealthy foods. Say no to laziness. Say no to lack of discipline.

Society loves to play the blame game and point fingers at the food manufacturers, restaurants, portion sizes, genetics and now the possibility of labelling obese people as disabled. This is ludicrous. People are literally dropping dead because of their weight, and we’re telling them that it’s OK, it’s a disability and you can’t fix the problem because you were meant to be this way. Millions of overweight people claim that their weight is not their fault. It is. No one can save you but you. You are the only one who can truly stop yourself from being obese. You have the control, if you want it.

It’s time to grow up emotionally and develop the mental toughness to stick to a diet and exercise plan once and for all. Stop waiting for the drug company’s magic pill. Stop waiting for your doctor to scold you. Stop waiting for the government to save you. No one is coming to the rescue. You’re not a child, and it’s time to stop eating like one. You must accept and decide that you are the one who can rescue yourself from a life of low energy, low self-esteem and disease. You are in control of deciding when enough is enough.

Anyone can be fit. You have to be willing to pay the price and do the work. Unless you are a genetic wonder who can eat everything in sight without gaining weight, the reality is you have to be willing to deal with some hunger to truly lose the weight that you need to lose. Getting used to being a little hungry is one of the prices you have to be willing to pay.

If you are obese, you need to face it, accept it and commit to change it if you want your life to improve. Changing discrimination laws will not help you lose a pound or become any healthier. Being fat is dangerous. It can lead to heart disease, cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, sexual dysfunction and a host of other debilitating and deadly diseases. But you can stop being fat whenever you make the decision to do so.

Stop making excuses. There’s no excuse for being obese. It’s a combination of laziness, failure to prepare, lack ofSteve in Chair 2015 exercise, poor food choices, emotional eating and other self-induced habitual behaviours. You can make the choice to find a healthful and effective diet. You have to have the mental toughness to stay on that diet until you reach your goal weight. And that’s it, nothing more and nothing less.

If you want to get fit, there’s a price to pay. No one gets a free ride and no one negotiates their way out of doing the work and enduring the pain. The answer isn’t new human rights laws or labelling obesity as a disability. The answer is self-responsibility.

Read more on this topic in FAT-SHAMING: Why do I owe an excuse?>>

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q? encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0975500392&Format= SL250 &ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=theminwor01 20ir?t=theminwor01 20&l=as2&o=1&a=0975500392 Steve Siebold is author of Fat Loser! Mental Toughness Training for Dieters and Die Fat or Get Tough: 101 Differences in Thinking between Fat People and Fit People. For more information and to download five free chapters, visit www.fatloser.com and www.diefatbook.com.
image: obesity prevention stop sign via Shutterstock
  1. For an article ostensibly about legislation, this piece moves with astonishing speed out of the legal realm and into a quagmire of self-indulgent judginess. It?s troubling not just because it?s so mistaken, but because it pretends to some authority on the subject.
    But to be clear, this is not an article with harsh truths in it. It?s just hateful commentary, and like every example of hate speech, it makes its point not through reasoned argument but by pitting a ?we? against a ?them? with only the barest pause to consider that that basic division is nonsensical. Even the author has a fleeting recognition of the complexities of the populations he?s tried to hack apart when he exempts people with medical conditions from his tirade. His simplistic equation between obesity and a lack of discipline makes it easy to know what group you should want to belong to, but that doesn?t make the equation valid (what about fat people who exercise and are not lazy? What about thin people who are? What about chronically underweight people like me who emphatically do not want to be a part of the ?we? the author just made up?).
    The logic doesn?t hold here because it uses one trait shared by a group of people, here fatness, as a code for a host of undesirable moral traits the connection to which there can never and will never be an evidentiary basis because physical traits and moral traits do not coincide.
    There is no statistical link between obesity and laziness. There is an overwhelming amount of evidence linking obesity with poverty, and in that sense, Siebold is right ? we should all, fat and thin, say no. Say no to poverty. Say no to dead end jobs that keep you standing or sitting in one place for 12-16 hours a day for wages that don?t permit you to afford produce. Say no to agribusinesses that make it cheaper to buy foods loaded with trans fats than a local, organic carrot. Say no to class barriers to health care and health education. Say no to stereotyping like Siebold?s that equates the shape of your body with the moral fiber of your being.
    Obesity is not a moral choice. It is the result of complex choices made every day not just by individuals, but by companies and governments that do, in fact, have an impact on what people are able to eat and what physical activity people are able to engage in. Bullying people is a moral choice. It?s a simple one. Stop it.

    1. No matter how aggressive you assert your authority, Cindy, obesity is a moral choice 99% of the cases.

      You’re arguing, yet again, from the 1% which is utterly ridiculous. (see your bullshit about “organic carrots” and “governments making people fat”)

      Organic carrots my arse.

      Normalizing obesity and waiting for Nanny McState to take care of you is resulting in the deaths of millions worldwide. Luring people into an early grave due to otherwise preventable diseases is a moral choice. It’s a simple one. Stop it.

      Stop. Normalizing. Obesity.
      Stop. Pointing. Fingers.

      Take some damn responsibility for once.

      1. So how does someone increase will power. How do you fix moral failing?

        Or is it that people in that position are just lost causes?

        In which case how do we magically have will powerless people in droves?

        And if your answer is “just do it, it’s what I do” then I find it a crime that human psychology isn’t required education to graduate.

    2. Absolutely. I live in Tennessee and nobody walks. Damn it folks get off your tush and move. Being fat is wrong. A three-star general did a TED YouTube video and excoriated Americans for being so overweight. Nearly 75% cannot enter the service because they are overweight or can’t pass the physical. This is a national security issue of the highest degree.

  2. Ms. McMann,

    I recommend you that do some homework on the research in this area. I’ve been studying this topic for 30 years, conducted thousands of interviews with fat and fit people, and the evidence is overwhelming and clear: obesity is a choice for the 99% of the population. Making excuses for people will not solve the problem.

    Ms. McCann, you are free to fail. Thats your choice. But encouraging others to follow suit is morally reprehensible. Presenting people with facts and evidence based on years of research is not “hate speech”, but an act of love with the intent of helping people help themselves. Choosing what you put in your mouth is NOT a complex choice, and neither is the choice to exercise. Sticking to a healthy eating and exercise regimen may not be easy, but calling it a “complex choice” is ridiculous. Again, fail to maintain a healthy weight if you choose, but don’t rationalize your failure by suggesting that theses choices are somehow “complex.”

    Constructing a nuclear weapon is complex.

    Astrophysics is complex.

    Choosing what to eat is not.

    Put down the pizza, pick up an exercise program and join the world of fit people. The group of people who choose to succeed instead of spending their time making excuses for failing.

    I’d suggest you visit a gym and interview a few dozen fit people succeeding at this. This will not only educate you in the simple success strategies of the physically fit, it will also show you that fitness is a just another choice we make for ourselves. I hope the readers of this blog who are struggling with their weight will be able to tell the difference between 30 years of research and evidence versus an angry reader attempting to justify her own failure.

  3. Cindy has made some great points in her second-to-last paragraph… the lifestyle most people are encouraged to (practically forced to, in some cases, for economic survival) partake in (in Western society, at least) isn’t conducive to making the best food choices. I do not think she’s intending to defend her own “failure” here, as, as she states, she’s chronically underweight and therefore is not a part of the large group of people critiqued within this article.

  4. We need more doctors like you Steve, who are willing to speak the truth and not coddle us fat people who’ve grown comfortable with our vices. Great article, great viewpoint, and overall great advice. Thank you!

  5. Obesity was a result of depression, anxiety and stress in my case and I know of plenty of people like me. Not before I managed to get treated for the problems above I was able to lose weight and keep it off. So you’re completely wrong in this matter, obesity is NOT a choice. If obesity was a voice so would cancer and other illnesses.

  6. Whenever I hear a person vehemently rail against obese people, my first question is “Why so upset, chum”?

    There are a myriad of causes for obesity. Classic over-eating, psychological issues, hormonal misfiring, side effects from medicine… the list goes on.

    My generation is turning obesity into the homosexuality of the 1950s-1990s. Back then, an overwhelming majority of people said that homosexuality was a choice and against God’s will and other malarkey.

    Now, the children and grandchildren of those same prejudiced bigots habe latched on to fat people because it has not yet become 100% societally taboo to dump on fat people openly as it has with homosexuals, people of color, etc.

    Their arguments against obesity have the same themes, tone, and timber as their rants against homosexuality and people of color.

    It goes a little something like this…

    I don’t like X. X is bad and wrong. I have the moral high ground because God/America/health/safety/security. I am a drag at parties because all I do is hate on people.

    Yesterday, X was homosexuality, abortion, and vaccines.

    Today, it’s immigrants, fat people, and health care.

    Point is, they’re broken records, incapable of an original thought that wasn’t inspired by a fear-mongering pastor, Fox News segment, some obscure, poorly misinterpreted Bible quote or the NRA.

    Let’s reintroduce some reason into the ranting…

    Whatever someone’s body shape and size, it is their business. The truth is that any outside observer has no idea how a fat person got fat.

    However, the bigoted crowd is far too hostile and intellectually dishonest in their approach to the subject of obesity, just as they are with the subjects of gays, blacks, immigrants, etc., so nobody wins. Nobody wins because there’s no dialog. There’s just brash attacks, meanness, and unkindness.

    America is the only nation on Earth whose prisons trade on the stock market. Did you know that? It’s true. Look it up.

    I share that tidbit to point out that here in the good old US of A, we have made the manufacture and commoditization of hatred such a fundamental part of our way of life that it’s no surprise that the haters have sought out fat people as a target on which to release their bile and vitriol.

    They’ve hated everyone else, so why not add fat people to the mix?

    He’ll, don’t stop there! Add bald people, people with speech impediments, people who are missing a finger, people who own pets, people who use white garbage bags instead of black ones….just fill up the world with petty, meaningless hate….

    Oh, and don’t forget to tell everyone that Jesus made you do it….

    1. Jedi Dwight: Because bald people, people of color is the EXACT SAME THING as obese people. You got us now, Detective Dipshit!

      You know who’s intellectually dishonest? The person who pulls a parallel between skin colour, actual disabilities or physical issues (baldness / speech impairments) and lazy fatasses who just cannot stop binging on beer and pizza.

      You disgust me.

      1. If you can’t eat right because of will power or rather executive function, that means something is off in your brain. That IS a disability. A large portion of obese people have mental health disorders and/or trauma.

        But attitudes like yours are why this isn’t common knowledge and the stigma continues. At least being gay or a different skin colour aren’t health risks. Obesity is.

        Obesity is caused by eating disorder. Something goes on in the brain that prevents healthy behaviour which is perpetuated by q variety of factors, namely class since it touches into all socio-economic areas.

        Also people shame any way the person tries to get past their issues. Medication, surgery, nope it has to be all natural and will power based only. It’s because if someone can’t it challenges people’s view about their own control over their lives. Depression gets the exact same treatment and it’s still taking time for people to realize that’s not choice either.

        1. People like you love to justify their laziness and depression as a disability. It’s not a disability. A disability is permanent and is caused by a serious medical condition such as a heart attack, stroke, seizure, or if you get injured, or from birth. You’re not depressed either. You’re just labeling yourself as a victim and wallowing in self pity to try and attribute depression as the cause of all your problems. Someone who is actually depressed wouldn’t be complaining on the internet. You don’t need medication or surgery, just stick to a diet and exercise plan and over time you will see results. Lack of self-control is not a disorder or disability. Do your research, less than 10 percent of obese people have trauma or a genuine diagnosed disorder.

  7. Well, this is a tricky subject to weigh in on, my only defense is that I am being as honest as possible. If you want to and are able to break my defenses so that I will lose weight, I’ll thank you.

    Often, I don’t like looking in the mirror, these days. (Sometimes I do.) I’m quite a few pounds overweight. I’m not gaining, but I’m not losing, either. Ten years ago, I lost 50 pounds on a group diet with people I knew. The diet consisted of salads for lunch and dinner; yogurt and oat bran and some fruit for breakfast; and no snacks.

    I dutifully pledged to stick to the diet faithfully, and pretty much did. The results came. In three months, I shed all that weight. People congratulated me. I DID look nice in the mirror!

    Was I happier? Perhaps. I didn’t feel all that different, actually.

    Then, after several more months, I just got fed up with the monotony of the diet. I felt I was being robbed of an experience of diversity of tastes, which diversity was a beautiful part of God’s universe. On my “Maintenance” program for the diet, I made a few changes (which I was allowed to do); and thus began a very slow upturn in the graph of my weight, which within 7 or 8 years resulted in my returning almost to my original weight.

    I haven’t thus far been able to “get a handle” on this latest weight gain. BUT…and here’s the thing I want to say. I DON’T FEEL I’M A WORTHLESS PERSON! In this one area, I am “challenged”, and have not overcome…”not yet,” as someone I knew learned to say about ANY problem. However, I contribute to my world in many ways, enjoy a good life — and, frankly, LOVE the food I ingest!

    I tend to think–is it true–that most all of us are challenged in some area or other–this is mine. Others’ may not show as clearly. Of course it would be good to be perfect. Someday we all will be.

    I try to maintain compassion for myself as I deal with ALL my issues on a daily basis. I recently DID succeed in changing a longtime habit, when I realized that drinking coffee was no longer serving me. (see “KICKING AN ADDICTION in TMW https://themindfulword.org/2018/kicking-addiction-drinking-coffee/ )

    I rose today, as I will tomorrow, and looked into the physical and the spiritual mirror of myself. I will continue to work on myself. I will continue to have imperfections, and to see if I can “perfect” them. All the while, I will try to do it with compassion for myself and others, and I will not hate myself, I will do my best to love myself as I am, while I try to continue to improve.

    Sincerely,
    Max Reif

  8. I?m sorry, but the authors view point is ignorant and unhelpful. It is more complex than your simplistic view. For many there is a huge psychological component and addiction. This is like telling a heroin addict that if they just didn?t inject heroin they wouldn?t be a heroin addict. Although true, it simply in no way addresses the underlying problem, which is what needs to be addressed in order to make a change. This guy sounds like he?s just trying to sell his books. And if they?re anything like this article, don?t waste your money.

    Gabriel Lane, MD

    1. You’re saying drug addiction and food addiction are similar, when really they are not. You are comparing going on a diet and exercising a few times a week to overcoming a serious chemical dependency that requires medication, counselling and support. Your parallel between the two is an insult to drug addicts, recovering, recovered and concurrent. How would you feel if you were a recovered drug addict reading what you posted and you saw your gruelling road to overcome your chemical dependency that was ruining your life was made equivalent with going on a diet with exercise? Absolutely thoughtless comment of yours.

  9. “here, as, as she states, she?s chronically underweight and therefore is not a part of the large group of people critiqued within this article.”

    I will not take a single word for granted of what Cindy says. She is using the exact same emotional blackmailing bullshit that obese people generally use. Chronically underweight, yeah right.

  10. As someone who is fit by “choice,” I have to concur with most of Steve’s comments although it must be acknowledged that more effort is required for some people to stay fit than for others – it is just a genetic roll of the dice that leaves some people able to eat whatever they want without getting fat while others have to eat mindfully every single day to stay in a healthy weight range. (We all know of the classic “ectomorph” who is a beanpole for life regardless of what they eat.) For many of us it requires vigilance, mindfulness, and discipline to stay fit, but we make the effort for our health. If you’re obese, it’s because you eat more than you need (however little that may be.) Period. And one of the “excuses” I don’t buy is the poverty excuse. It costs more to eat healthy? Really? How much does a Snickers bar cost compared to an apple? How much does soda cost compared to water? How much does a bag of Doritos cost compared to a bag of kale? How much does a bucket of KFC cost compared to a whole chicken that you cook at home? Sorry, but the poverty excuse doesn’t cut the ice. If you eat LESS, and you eat natural foods, you will spend LESS money on food, not more. But that requires a willingness to take responsibility for yourself rather than making excuses for your lack of self-discipline.

    1. Premade foods are cheaper in most places than fresh veggies and fruits. So you’re categorically wrong. You can’t buy those in bulk, they go bad much faster and per kilo they are far higher.

      But please keep telling yourself you’re better than others and perhaps others will just bow down.

      The will power argument as a moral failing is the most illogical circular logic that exists.

      You work out and eat healthy because you were set up for it by life experiences and genetics. You are satisfied by one cupcake and don’t feel and incessant desire for 3 or more.

      When people start realizing that they are simply lucky and unlucky, we can stop the blame game and actually help others. Judgement doesn’t change people. All they feel when they can’t resist is that they dont understand why they don’t have the will power and often engage in more harmful behaviours. Shame doesn’t work and for the few it might, even more get worse.

      1. An apple is less than a dollar. Water is basically free. Reducing your portion size saves money. We work out and eat healthy because we chose to take action. Your body is up to you to change, at the end of the day it’s your body and your responsibility.

        You take personal control of your life. Stop justifying your own personal failures as being “unlucky” and other people’s success as being “lucky”. They took action to improve their lives while you decided to ruin your life. If you believe that important life decisions are results of being lucky or unlucky, you are beyond help and simply a feather in the wind.

      2. We do feel a desire for more cupcakes, we just choose to resist it. Your life is not predetermined by genetics and past life experiences. It is determined by independent rational thought. Saying that your life is already written out and you can’t change the trajectory of your life is probably the most helpless and blame-shifting thing I’ve ever heard.

  11. I do believe that food addiction actually will be in the DSM (the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders) soon and will actually qualify as a true addiction. I?d like to add that gambling and video gaming ARE in the DSM also at this point. And both of those can appear to someone who isn?t educated enough to know as ?a choice? to gamble or ?a choice? to play video games all day ever day. Someone can become addicted to anything that alters their brain chemistry. Food, in fact does. (Basically anything that activates the pleasure portion of your brain) Therefore if someone has depression and/or anxiety (just for example) they can and will use food or any thing that they CHOOSE (because of course it?s a choice AT FIRST). Key words here people. Once they have created the pathways in the brain of pleasure that they use to self medicate for whatever underlying issue they have, for years and years and years…it creates something that is now going beyond a simple choice. Of course it?s always technically a CHOICE. Why? Because you could decide to ?quit? at any point. HOWEVER, I encourage anyone reading this to consider how hard it might be to ?quit? eating badly because you can?t just stop eating all together…otherwise, you die of starvation. So take an alcoholic and tell them well, you have to keep drinking to live but …you can?t drink as much as you are currently. Its HARD. Enough said. So while it?s a choice, yes, consider the harsh words your using towards people with this self medication problem using food. Consider when your being so mean about it where all of YOUR feelings are stemming from because to be so mad about it tells me something about YOU, not about ?them?. We all have our vices and I suggest you make sure you take the plank out of your own eye before you try and take the speck of sawdust out of your brothers. One last point, I happen to know people who WANT to be fat because they were molested so much when they were younger…it?s like a personal protective ?suit? if you will from fiendish sexual predators. It?s how they feel safe…truly. So once again. Stop judging. And begin to think about where your thinking and thought process could be totally off kilter…you don?t know people?s stories. One FYI also, people who are fat…KNOW they are. I think it?s hilarious that ?healthy people? (I put that in quotes because not all of us have vices that we wear on the outside for everyone to see and to judge…but let me tell you there are A LOT of very unhealthy, ?healthy? people) People who ate overweight are usually very ashamed and depressed about their situation. The very LAST thing they need is someone telling them something they already know. They KNOW how unhealthy and DEADLY that it is. It?s an addiction…defined by everything that falls under the addiction category, meaning, even though I know it?s killing me, I can?t stop. – that?s true addiction. Using food as self medication. Stop judging and being mad and actually do something to help find a solution if you actually care so much? To sum up what I said, why YES it IS a choice…100%, but there are a lot of things in life that are choices that people can?t seem to shake and I?m sorry that EATING apparently isn?t YOUR issue, but maybe something else is. I?d like you to make the choice to stop THAT and come back and talk about this topic that you clearly know very little about.

  12. Finally some rational commentary on this topic! Sorry, but acknowledging that if you are overweight the root cause is because you eat more than you need to doesn?t make someone a ?hater? of people who are different. You really think simple caloric deficiency doesn?t work? Well, then look at photos of liberated inmates from concentration camps. I recently tried it on myself; not really around weight loss, but because I wanted to see if sticking to a diet STRICTLY would have an impact on cholesterol (another topic where people claim it?s more ?complex? than my hypothesis started with). Eight weeks of eating basically beans and greens later, LDL went from 170 to 114, and the weight went from 163 to 142 pounds! Did it SUCK sometimes? Absolutely. I craved my pasta and cheese and ice cream, but at every point I had the CHOICE of what to and not to eat. Everyone else does, too.

    1. Hi Mike,

      Normally, it’s a simple equation of calories in and calories out. However, there’s the occasional exception if someone has a metabolic problem like hypothyroidism that makes them use their calories much more slowly than the average person… likely leading to them gaining weight, even if they’re eating an appropriate amount of calories for their height and weight. It’s no secret that people have varying metabolisms since on the reality show Survivor, on which they get little food, of course, some participants lose weight much more quickly than others.

    2. Except the failure/recidivism rate for being overweight with traditional means such as diet and exercise would indicate that most people have no will power to change their habits permanently. This is not even to mention that the body wants to be fat if you are fat because it doesn’t like change and actively wants to store for safety reasons. Add that most obese people have mental disorders or trauma which takes away willpower. It’s like asking someone to walk who doesn’t have legs and telling them that they just need to build up those muscles.

  13. Actually individuals with some genetic dudorders and hormonal disorders have a very difficult time – if near impossible to lose weight.

    I wouldn’t advocate for an inclusion criteria in law because thay seems overkill.

    Others have to be willing to understand.

    You’re still trying to think which disorder…?

    Prader-Willie and Klinefelters.

    Both being genetic and involve the same hormonal disorder.
    Also shows up in frontotemporal dementia.

    Some eat out of garbage or have to have there sources of food locked up.

    In the case of Klinefelters initiation and motivation can be highly impacted due to energy depletion and impacts gherkin and leptin.

    Just be aware and cognizant of hormonal disorders in females AND males.

    I know complex disorders.

    I would reccomend becoming an ally of the individual.
    It’s not too late to become a mentor.

  14. This article is ignorant and opinionated. What I could manage to browse through, had little to no factual evidence, and really just sounded like someone complaining. To say its a choice when there are psychological, genetic, societal, and environmental variables. Is like saying hitting a home run in a baseball game is a choice. A choice is should I wear pants or shorts today, or should I finish watching this movie or go to bed. As soon as multiple uncontrollable variables come into play, things become less of a choice. For many its not even something they have to think about. I have been fit my whole life, and at many times ate crappy food too much, or too little. Anyway I didnt see if you were a doctor or just some over opinionated ass, im betting the ladder. I find knowing what your talking about before opening my mouth usually works out better, or at least putting in the effort to know. Lastly there is the strength of character to be able to admit when you are wrong, as you are.

  15. I think there are a lot of good points on both sides of this debate. First, as someone who struggles with an addiction (not to food), I understand that it isn’t as simple as “just choosing to stop”. Are there social, economic, etc. factors in place that can make it uncomfortable to choose to stop? Yes. Are there personal psychological situations that make it difficult to choose to stop? Yes. Are there personal medical conditions that make it difficult or impossible to stop, even with choosing a better diet/exercise plan? Definitely.
    I believe that often, obesity and addictions are a symptom of something, not the underlying disease. The author claims that that “underlying disease” is laziness, and maybe it is some of it, some of the time. But other things impact it as well. Obesity and all addictions have very individual causes and should be conisidered on an individual basis. (In this sense, I agree with the author’s point that you shouldn’t call obesity a disability, but maybe make the things that lead to it a disability.)
    However, all that being said, I have a firm personal belief that there is a lot in this world that is under our control, if we only pause, think about it, plan, and have the psychological skills to choose them. That’s why I’m such a big fan of therapy. Someone who struggles with a slow metabolism, but also eats wantonly and won’t exercise, has some things under their control that they can do to change their situation (in this case, eating healthier and exercising). I think we are fully responsible for what we can control in our lives, and not responsible for the things we can’t control. But I think we too often put outside of our control things that we really can change. I think obesity is a very outwards example, but what about something like kindness? I think most people agree that that is a good thing, but often make excuses for being unkind, like “I was busy”, or “what did they ever do for me?” I think these are equally as bad as the “laziness” attributed to obese people, because when given a chance to be a better person through something you control, you choose not to.
    In short, I think obesity is a very individual problem, and to say they are lazy because they are obese is grossly oversimplifying. However, I think there are many thing in life, including sometimes obesity, but also things like kindness, education, etc. where we do have a morally right choice that we often don’t make. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.

  16. This was one of the most ableist posts I’ve read in a while. Disability is not about going “Oh well, sucks for you.” It’s about finding ways for a disabled person to function or get help that alleviates disability. If you can’t understand this than your other assumptions are erroneous because you fundamentally don’t understand disability and therefore if obesity is a disability. I trust 100s of experts over some random post that is so self aggrandizing, judgemental and misinformed.

    1. You’re comparing an actual disability to a condition caused by years of laziness, poor decisions, inactive lifestyle, and putting junk into your mouth on a regular basis. Being obese is not a disability, as much as you might want to believe it is to console your feelings and shift the blame away from you. Trying to help obese people take responsibility to lose weight is far different from hating disabled people. You are not disabled, you are just lazy.

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