Can we have an honest, good faith conversation about fat acceptance and body positivity?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Diet can change your genes.

Yeah, in like 5 generations

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Diet can change your genes.

How your genes are *expressed*, not the genes themselves. Epigenetics vs. genetics. Also, if you can point to peer-reviewed publications supporting this assertion *in humans*, please do so. No, I don't want to see your rodent data on this stuff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Body acceptance is great. People come in all shapes and sizes. Enabling obesity isn't great. Morality aside, no one should be that shape or size.

There are those who are obese for reasons such as sexual abuse or other childhood trauma. There are those who are overweight or obese due to genetic or metabolic conditions.

However, 2/3 of Americans are overweight or obese. This is crazy town.

As a society, we need to revamp what we see as food and how we eat. I'm a firm believer of loving food and celebrating food. It's part of the human experience. But perhaps we could refocus on what we see as food. If you go into the grocery store, how much of that is really food? I mean, real food.

My kids are served a big pretzel and nacho cheese once a week at school for lunch. They are also served a yoghurt parfait with about 150 grams of sugar, pizza, and chicken nuggets. We're teaching people how to eat like complete crap and then are surprised they get fat.

I think you are oversimplifying the problem but you are spot on when you say that a societal problem requires societal solutions. Our food options are bad. We need to make healthy eating and exercise easier to access, especially for kids.

One huge issue is that shaming and dieting both lead to more unhealthy habits. As a society that is another downward spiral we need to curb.

I was recently in the hospital and the options provided by the dietary service included cheeseburgers, tater tots, ice cream, mayonnaise, pancakes with artificial syrup, grilled cheese, etc. I couldn't believe how unhealthy the food was. Only the sugary kind of yogurt available. I tried to order things like salads and was given minuscule amounts of the fresh vegetables and fruit. Some of the fruit was clearly past its sell by date as well. I'm assuming that this is because hospitals are for-profit entities and the food service has been given to the lowest bidder. I was thinking about writing to Ralph Northam about it. I compare it to the kind of food that you are given in the hospital in Europe, etc. and it's appalling! Also, the emergency room was overcrowded and they were seeing patients in the hallways and you could overhear everything and EVERYONE except me was on diabetes medication. None of those people should be eating that crap. It truly is a structural problem, not an individual one.

This exactly.

If you genetically have a stocky build and are pre-disposed to store a little extra and are healthy, fantastic. Acceptance, please. If you grew up thinking that non-foods are to be regularly consumed and now you have a real health problem, let's change that.

[Anonymous]

A big problem with the "it's simple: move more eat less" theory is that with every pound you lose, the more your hunger signals turn up. More ghrelin is released into your system and makes you hungrier.

That is why many people end up heavier after dieting (yo-yo dieting). The hormones remain high for at least two years after weight loss. Eventually, the constant hunger can become a distraction and some people can't even focus on their daily lives or jobs because the hunger becomes all consuming.

The answers are not as simple as it first appears. If you've never struggled with weight, you really should step back and give people a break. Especially if you are not in the medical profession. You really don't understand the struggle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To answer OP's title question, no, we really can't have a productive conversation -- for reasons this thread has largely shown.

Personally I think it's important to separate "body positivity" from "obesity." I admit some availabilty bias because this is just my own anecdata, but I came from an obese family. Meat and potatoes for every meal. A second helping with velveeta on top. Dessert with every meal. Not much exercise. Oh sure, because the boys in the family played football, we'd tell ourselves that although we were big at least we were "active," but we weren't, not really. And anyways, my brothers and cousins stopped football after high school but kept up the eating. And everyone in the family tells themselves it's "genetic" and there's nothing we could do about it. "We've always been big-boned."

As an adult, though, I basically ended up testing the genetic hypothesis by committing to getting to a size and lifestyle that I viewed as healthy. Yes to vegetables, no to sweets. Consistent exercise, almost every day. And it worked. It turns out there was something we could do about it. Sure, there are genetic things that differentiate me from a supermodel. I have wide hips, chicken wing shoulders, and am self conscious about a dozen other things that I can't change. And I'm grateful for body positivity for helping me accept this about myself.

But true obesity is rarely like that. With extremely few exceptions--like a rare medical condition actually diagnosed by a doctor, not just family lore--you simply do not find morbidly obese people, my relatives included, who are eating clean, tracking calories, regularly exercising, and only having sweets and booze in extreme moderation.

I agree with this.

I cringe when people talk about how they are naturally thin. Healthy, naturally thin people do not exist. These people eat much less and/or move much more. If we cannot even agree on this, then we are stuck.

Obesity can be treaed by eating less and/or moving more. Our soceity has to find ways to make healthy eating and movement more attractive and accessible. Nobody wants to be obese.

Except that as per these scientific references (and there are others), the heritability of obesity is between 40 and 70%. Now, that's a wide range, but even if it's "just" 40%, that means that genes contribute close to half of the variability in determining obesity. That could very well mean things like predisposition to satiety and activity levels, but they're still genetically-mediated.

So, if *you* and others who insist it's all environment can't acknowledge the role of genetics, then we are, indeed, stuck.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2955913/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3104766/

Thin people eat much less than obese people, and some obese people have some genetic predispositions that contribute to their obesity. I don't see the contradiction here at all.

The contradiction is the insistence that "naturally" thin people don't exist and frankly, yes, they do. There are people for whom it is MUCH easier to "eat less and move more" than others, and we need to acknowledge that. It's a privilege, and maybe people don't want to accept that, but it's there, all the same. That has to be the foundation for an honest conversation about obesity. It doesn't mean people can't do things to improve their health at any size, but it does mean some people have a real advantage in achieving the goal of not being obese.

I say this as someone who builds muscle easily for a woman, and I know what an advantage that gives me, i.e., this issue is bigger than obesity, it's about acknowledging the advantages that genetics confer on some people for some traits.

This is accurate. I work out daily (multiple times a day on weekends), eat chia seeds, berries, salad with no cheese or dressing, don't drink calories (or anything sweetened), etc have one small dessert a day and have a bmi of 36. My husband eats all day long. Fried chicken, fast food, processed meats, soda, chips, juice, mayo on everything, ice cream whatever. In large portions. Never works out. Has a bmi of 23.

What’s the point of saying that you eat chia seeds, berries, etc? Is that all you eat? You mentioned your husband’s portions sizes but not your own. If you have a bmi of 36, you are clearly eating more calories than you need.

Probably true. Also, you probably haven't always eaten like this. Once you get overweight, reversing it is a lot harder. If you grew up eating as you do now, you probably would have never been overweight in the first place- that is, if portions arent also an issue

[Anonymous]

It just sounds like a lot of excuses which all come down to poor diet and exercise. I travel abroad a lot, and I never see as many overweight people as I see in the US. It can't all be about genes, pre-existing conditinos, etc. ALl these other countries seem to be able to pull off what we can't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A big problem with the "it's simple: move more eat less" theory is that with every pound you lose, the more your hunger signals turn up. More ghrelin is released into your system and makes you hungrier.

That is why many people end up heavier after dieting (yo-yo dieting). The hormones remain high for at least two years after weight loss. Eventually, the constant hunger can become a distraction and some people can't even focus on their daily lives or jobs because the hunger becomes all consuming.

The answers are not as simple as it first appears. If you've never struggled with weight, you really should step back and give people a break. Especially if you are not in the medical profession. You really don't understand the struggle.

I have struggled with weight (still struggling actually). While I agree that it is not simple, we who struggle have to admit that we eat too much. That part should be simple. I would go even further and say that I am addicted to eating too much.

I think obesity should be treated like any other addiction. Yes, it is probably much harder to treat than some of them (like alcohol addiction) since you cannot completely give up food.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To answer OP's title question, no, we really can't have a productive conversation -- for reasons this thread has largely shown.

Personally I think it's important to separate "body positivity" from "obesity." I admit some availabilty bias because this is just my own anecdata, but I came from an obese family. Meat and potatoes for every meal. A second helping with velveeta on top. Dessert with every meal. Not much exercise. Oh sure, because the boys in the family played football, we'd tell ourselves that although we were big at least we were "active," but we weren't, not really. And anyways, my brothers and cousins stopped football after high school but kept up the eating. And everyone in the family tells themselves it's "genetic" and there's nothing we could do about it. "We've always been big-boned."

As an adult, though, I basically ended up testing the genetic hypothesis by committing to getting to a size and lifestyle that I viewed as healthy. Yes to vegetables, no to sweets. Consistent exercise, almost every day. And it worked. It turns out there was something we could do about it. Sure, there are genetic things that differentiate me from a supermodel. I have wide hips, chicken wing shoulders, and am self conscious about a dozen other things that I can't change. And I'm grateful for body positivity for helping me accept this about myself.

But true obesity is rarely like that. With extremely few exceptions--like a rare medical condition actually diagnosed by a doctor, not just family lore--you simply do not find morbidly obese people, my relatives included, who are eating clean, tracking calories, regularly exercising, and only having sweets and booze in extreme moderation.

I agree with this.

I cringe when people talk about how they are naturally thin. Healthy, naturally thin people do not exist. These people eat much less and/or move much more. If we cannot even agree on this, then we are stuck.

Obesity can be treaed by eating less and/or moving more. Our soceity has to find ways to make healthy eating and movement more attractive and accessible. Nobody wants to be obese.

This is all there is to it. Really.

Being obese is so much more about how much you eat, rather than what you eat. American portions and serving sizes are out of control, gorging. Add in maybe foods that are "treats" and it is a huge problem. Ice cream should be one small scoop, not a half pound of ice-cream mixed with candy blizzard in cup. Restaurant portions are at least 2-3x what a meal should be. People need a LOT less food than they think/want to eat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I think body positivity is fine, and a great thing, when applied appropriately. But there is definitely a problem with body positivity that ignores reality. 99% of people that are obese are unhealthy and can reverse their clinical obesity if they start making healthier lifestyle choices.

All these excuses are garbage.

Start with drinking more water. Then cut out the hooch. Start actually moving - walking. Then start eating more intentionally. The weight will come off. I did it as a partner in a big law firm during COVID. Anybody can do this.

Congrats on your big changes poster. But they are statistically insignificant until/unless you maintain them 5+ years. Good luck, you’ll be an outlier if you do.

Well, it’s been a year, so I don’t think keeping this up will be much of a problem. Why be such a douche bag? Honestly?

What I posted is the truth. None of this is that hard. For me to gain all that weight back would an astonishing accomplishment. I’m not even sure it’s even possible.

Wow, with that intelligence you made partner in BigLaw?

You gained it once. You can most definitely gain it again, and having been obese your body now wants to be obese again and will work against you at every turn - that’s decades of obesity research findings and the experience of ~95% of obese people who lose weight and within 5-10 years gain it all back, plus some.

Good luck. Hope you are religiously lifting weights.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It just sounds like a lot of excuses which all come down to poor diet and exercise. I travel abroad a lot, and I never see as many overweight people as I see in the US. It can't all be about genes, pre-existing conditinos, etc. ALl these other countries seem to be able to pull off what we can't.

When I’ve been overseas, I’ve noticed that they do more walking and eat more vegetables. I wonder how mental health compares. Also, I’ve seen a positive correlation between my phone use age and my weight (which is itself a negative thing). Phone addiction, sugar addiction, all real things.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To answer OP's title question, no, we really can't have a productive conversation -- for reasons this thread has largely shown.

Personally I think it's important to separate "body positivity" from "obesity." I admit some availabilty bias because this is just my own anecdata, but I came from an obese family. Meat and potatoes for every meal. A second helping with velveeta on top. Dessert with every meal. Not much exercise. Oh sure, because the boys in the family played football, we'd tell ourselves that although we were big at least we were "active," but we weren't, not really. And anyways, my brothers and cousins stopped football after high school but kept up the eating. And everyone in the family tells themselves it's "genetic" and there's nothing we could do about it. "We've always been big-boned."

As an adult, though, I basically ended up testing the genetic hypothesis by committing to getting to a size and lifestyle that I viewed as healthy. Yes to vegetables, no to sweets. Consistent exercise, almost every day. And it worked. It turns out there was something we could do about it. Sure, there are genetic things that differentiate me from a supermodel. I have wide hips, chicken wing shoulders, and am self conscious about a dozen other things that I can't change. And I'm grateful for body positivity for helping me accept this about myself.

But true obesity is rarely like that. With extremely few exceptions--like a rare medical condition actually diagnosed by a doctor, not just family lore--you simply do not find morbidly obese people, my relatives included, who are eating clean, tracking calories, regularly exercising, and only having sweets and booze in extreme moderation.

I agree with this.

I cringe when people talk about how they are naturally thin. Healthy, naturally thin people do not exist. These people eat much less and/or move much more. If we cannot even agree on this, then we are stuck.

Obesity can be treaed by eating less and/or moving more. Our soceity has to find ways to make healthy eating and movement more attractive and accessible. Nobody wants to be obese.

Except that as per these scientific references (and there are others), the heritability of obesity is between 40 and 70%. Now, that's a wide range, but even if it's "just" 40%, that means that genes contribute close to half of the variability in determining obesity. That could very well mean things like predisposition to satiety and activity levels, but they're still genetically-mediated.

So, if *you* and others who insist it's all environment can't acknowledge the role of genetics, then we are, indeed, stuck.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2955913/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3104766/

Thin people eat much less than obese people, and some obese people have some genetic predispositions that contribute to their obesity. I don't see the contradiction here at all.

The contradiction is the insistence that "naturally" thin people don't exist and frankly, yes, they do. There are people for whom it is MUCH easier to "eat less and move more" than others, and we need to acknowledge that. It's a privilege, and maybe people don't want to accept that, but it's there, all the same. That has to be the foundation for an honest conversation about obesity. It doesn't mean people can't do things to improve their health at any size, but it does mean some people have a real advantage in achieving the goal of not being obese.

I say this as someone who builds muscle easily for a woman, and I know what an advantage that gives me, i.e., this issue is bigger than obesity, it's about acknowledging the advantages that genetics confer on some people for some traits.

This is accurate. I work out daily (multiple times a day on weekends), eat chia seeds, berries, salad with no cheese or dressing, don't drink calories (or anything sweetened), etc have one small dessert a day and have a bmi of 36. My husband eats all day long. Fried chicken, fast food, processed meats, soda, chips, juice, mayo on everything, ice cream whatever. In large portions. Never works out. Has a bmi of 23.

What is accurate?
It is pretty well known that men and women have different bodies/metabolism/muscle composition etc. There is no contradiction in your example.

Ok...I also have friends of similar age and height who are much thinner than I am who don't work out and eat junk. People (especially doctors) assume that I eat like crap and don't work out because of my bmi...but are always shocked when my labs come back in the optimal or whatever the top category is. There is clearly more to bmi and obesity than just eat less and move more. At least for some people.

Eating junk does not equate eating more.

I was at my lowest in the last 5 years when I ate junk for lunch every day. I ate junk, but I ate much less food than I currently eat (I eat very healthy, but I eat too much).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It just sounds like a lot of excuses which all come down to poor diet and exercise. I travel abroad a lot, and I never see as many overweight people as I see in the US. It can't all be about genes, pre-existing conditinos, etc. ALl these other countries seem to be able to pull off what we can't.

Because other countries aren't dishing out and eating gluttonous portions. That has been normalized and even celebrated (getting your money's worth!) here in US.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To answer OP's title question, no, we really can't have a productive conversation -- for reasons this thread has largely shown.

Personally I think it's important to separate "body positivity" from "obesity." I admit some availabilty bias because this is just my own anecdata, but I came from an obese family. Meat and potatoes for every meal. A second helping with velveeta on top. Dessert with every meal. Not much exercise. Oh sure, because the boys in the family played football, we'd tell ourselves that although we were big at least we were "active," but we weren't, not really. And anyways, my brothers and cousins stopped football after high school but kept up the eating. And everyone in the family tells themselves it's "genetic" and there's nothing we could do about it. "We've always been big-boned."

As an adult, though, I basically ended up testing the genetic hypothesis by committing to getting to a size and lifestyle that I viewed as healthy. Yes to vegetables, no to sweets. Consistent exercise, almost every day. And it worked. It turns out there was something we could do about it. Sure, there are genetic things that differentiate me from a supermodel. I have wide hips, chicken wing shoulders, and am self conscious about a dozen other things that I can't change. And I'm grateful for body positivity for helping me accept this about myself.

But true obesity is rarely like that. With extremely few exceptions--like a rare medical condition actually diagnosed by a doctor, not just family lore--you simply do not find morbidly obese people, my relatives included, who are eating clean, tracking calories, regularly exercising, and only having sweets and booze in extreme moderation.

I agree with this.

I cringe when people talk about how they are naturally thin. Healthy, naturally thin people do not exist. These people eat much less and/or move much more. If we cannot even agree on this, then we are stuck.

Obesity can be treaed by eating less and/or moving more. Our soceity has to find ways to make healthy eating and movement more attractive and accessible. Nobody wants to be obese.

Except that as per these scientific references (and there are others), the heritability of obesity is between 40 and 70%. Now, that's a wide range, but even if it's "just" 40%, that means that genes contribute close to half of the variability in determining obesity. That could very well mean things like predisposition to satiety and activity levels, but they're still genetically-mediated.

So, if *you* and others who insist it's all environment can't acknowledge the role of genetics, then we are, indeed, stuck.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2955913/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3104766/

Thin people eat much less than obese people, and some obese people have some genetic predispositions that contribute to their obesity. I don't see the contradiction here at all.

The contradiction is the insistence that "naturally" thin people don't exist and frankly, yes, they do. There are people for whom it is MUCH easier to "eat less and move more" than others, and we need to acknowledge that. It's a privilege, and maybe people don't want to accept that, but it's there, all the same. That has to be the foundation for an honest conversation about obesity. It doesn't mean people can't do things to improve their health at any size, but it does mean some people have a real advantage in achieving the goal of not being obese.

I say this as someone who builds muscle easily for a woman, and I know what an advantage that gives me, i.e., this issue is bigger than obesity, it's about acknowledging the advantages that genetics confer on some people for some traits.

We do agree that naturally thin people eat less and move more. My "cringe" comment was with respect to those who insist that naturally thin people are that way regardless of how much they eat or move.

As for your opinion of the foundation for an honest discussion about obesity, I am not sure I understand it. Are you suggesting that the foundation for obesity is admitting that some people have advantages and privileges that others don't? Isn't this common knowledge?

Lots of nonsense here. I know plenty of naturally thin people who eat like pigs and stay thin.

Don’t tell me there isn’t a genetic component that weighs heavily. Pun intended.

[Anonymous]

The problem with this debate is that people cannot separate the individual from the population.

Body positivity is about individuals. If you are obese or overweight or ugly or apple shaped or whatever you should be able to be positive about your body. It is YOUR body, the only one you'll ever have and you should love it. And this is as true for Tess Holliday as it is for Chrissy Teigan. Loving yourself being a good thing shouldn't be controversial.

It also shouldn't mean accepting things that will shorten your lifespan as fine. People with diabetes should love their body, people with depression should love their body, you can love a body that has a medical flaw.

As a society, we should be seeking to find a solution to obesity. Crash diets and yoyo diets simply do not work. And since statistically a very very small minority of people are able to keep the weight off, we should be looking at why that is and not putting a moral value on it. If you have lost a lot of weight and kept it off, you are a Michael Jordon or Tom Brady of weight loss and willpower. You have done something fairly extraordinary that not many people can do. But Michael Jordon probably does not look around and wonder why everyone can't be as good as he is if they just tried harder. He understands how much effort it took, every single day, day in and day out, never resting, to be that good. He understands that most people can't do that. And would never put a value judgement on a person that can't put so much of their focus into basketball to become the best ever.

You can't magically make 30% of the population have the willpower of a professional athlete. It is impossible. So if we want to solve the problem, we have to separate our value judgements on individuals from our assessment of the societal issue and how to combat it. If we continue to to make this a moral failing, we will fail. Smoking became a societal issue, giant warnings on packages, restaurants and stores and airlines banning it, effective medications and step down treatments, it was not just shaming people into quitting. We need to approach obesity in the same way.

I am obese, by just two pounds. I have lost almost 40 pounds in the last year. I have done it with intermittent fasting which I believe has worked when nothing else has because I have PCOS and this controls my insulin levels. I feel like I might be the exception to the rule in my long term success because I have a specific medical condition that is being neutralized by a specific way of eating (and of course, I have started to exercise a lot as well but the weight loss is coming from the food). I don't need willpower all the time, because I just have to wait until noon. I am positive that I'll never use my success as a cudgel to bring others down because I know how hard it was and I know how much it sucks to be at the beginning of the journey.

Stop shaming people for cultivating self esteem, that is important. Stop acting like obesity is an individual problem instead of a societal problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To answer OP's title question, no, we really can't have a productive conversation -- for reasons this thread has largely shown.

Personally I think it's important to separate "body positivity" from "obesity." I admit some availabilty bias because this is just my own anecdata, but I came from an obese family. Meat and potatoes for every meal. A second helping with velveeta on top. Dessert with every meal. Not much exercise. Oh sure, because the boys in the family played football, we'd tell ourselves that although we were big at least we were "active," but we weren't, not really. And anyways, my brothers and cousins stopped football after high school but kept up the eating. And everyone in the family tells themselves it's "genetic" and there's nothing we could do about it. "We've always been big-boned."

As an adult, though, I basically ended up testing the genetic hypothesis by committing to getting to a size and lifestyle that I viewed as healthy. Yes to vegetables, no to sweets. Consistent exercise, almost every day. And it worked. It turns out there was something we could do about it. Sure, there are genetic things that differentiate me from a supermodel. I have wide hips, chicken wing shoulders, and am self conscious about a dozen other things that I can't change. And I'm grateful for body positivity for helping me accept this about myself.

But true obesity is rarely like that. With extremely few exceptions--like a rare medical condition actually diagnosed by a doctor, not just family lore--you simply do not find morbidly obese people, my relatives included, who are eating clean, tracking calories, regularly exercising, and only having sweets and booze in extreme moderation.

I agree with this.

I cringe when people talk about how they are naturally thin. Healthy, naturally thin people do not exist. These people eat much less and/or move much more. If we cannot even agree on this, then we are stuck.

Obesity can be treaed by eating less and/or moving more. Our soceity has to find ways to make healthy eating and movement more attractive and accessible. Nobody wants to be obese.

Except that as per these scientific references (and there are others), the heritability of obesity is between 40 and 70%. Now, that's a wide range, but even if it's "just" 40%, that means that genes contribute close to half of the variability in determining obesity. That could very well mean things like predisposition to satiety and activity levels, but they're still genetically-mediated.

So, if *you* and others who insist it's all environment can't acknowledge the role of genetics, then we are, indeed, stuck.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2955913/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3104766/

Thin people eat much less than obese people, and some obese people have some genetic predispositions that contribute to their obesity. I don't see the contradiction here at all.

The contradiction is the insistence that "naturally" thin people don't exist and frankly, yes, they do. There are people for whom it is MUCH easier to "eat less and move more" than others, and we need to acknowledge that. It's a privilege, and maybe people don't want to accept that, but it's there, all the same. That has to be the foundation for an honest conversation about obesity. It doesn't mean people can't do things to improve their health at any size, but it does mean some people have a real advantage in achieving the goal of not being obese.

I say this as someone who builds muscle easily for a woman, and I know what an advantage that gives me, i.e., this issue is bigger than obesity, it's about acknowledging the advantages that genetics confer on some people for some traits.

This is accurate. I work out daily (multiple times a day on weekends), eat chia seeds, berries, salad with no cheese or dressing, don't drink calories (or anything sweetened), etc have one small dessert a day and have a bmi of 36. My husband eats all day long. Fried chicken, fast food, processed meats, soda, chips, juice, mayo on everything, ice cream whatever. In large portions. Never works out. Has a bmi of 23.

What’s the point of saying that you eat chia seeds, berries, etc? Is that all you eat? You mentioned your husband’s portions sizes but not your own. If you have a bmi of 36, you are clearly eating more calories than you need.

Probably true. Also, you probably haven't always eaten like this. Once you get overweight, reversing it is a lot harder. If you grew up eating as you do now, you probably would have never been overweight in the first place- that is, if portions arent also an issue

I've been on diets since I was 8. After every diet I gained more weight. I have always tended towards healthy choices and never regularly ate junk food/fast food etc. Although the diets of the 80s and 90s were high sugar and low fat - so that probably messed with my body long term. Once I realized that with every diet I lost very little and then I ended up with 10+ more pounds, I stopped dieting and just continued to make healthy choices. I've maintained the same weight within 4 lbs for more than 10 years by doing that. Excluding the last 3 months of my pregnancies - but then was back within my usual weight 2 weeks post partum both times.