Your Fat Is Unequivocally Your Fault

Jamie Chaos

June 13, 2012

A few years ago, a book was released entitled Your Fat Is Not your Fault. Though the book likely wasn’t popular enough to have effected great change in the American zeitgeist, it certainly echoed the strongly held beliefs of a lot of extraordinarily fat people trundling their worthless asses around your local Walmart. Virtually anything other than their lack of self-discipline and willpower is generally identified by one of these jiggling crybabies as the root of their surfeit of adipose tissue- poverty, genetics, unavailability of healthy food, insufficient time, income inequality, overwork, marketing, governmental complicity, societal pressure, and vast conspiracies implicating some or all of the aforementioned. Of the lot, certainly poverty is bandied about the most, as a number of studies have drawn a correlation between poverty and obesity. Unsurprisingly, this correlation does not hold if one looks at the United States in prior eras, nor does it hold consistently outside of the United States. As these statistics are easily obtained through a google search it seems obvious that obesity is more strongly correlated with sloth and stupidity. Again unsurprisingly, that correlation holds no matter what spatial or temporal boundaries are employed, and actually extends further. As such, I propose that the root of the problem behind obesity in America is a combination of stupidity and laziness, with the amusing correlates of religiosity and bad driving to boot.

Before I expound upon my earth-shattering findings, let me state that I understand that the book Your Fat Is Not Your Fault didn’t blame any of those things, but rather ascribed fatness to bad parenting, food allergies, and a bunch of other happy horseshit. Irrespective, it still takes the onus off the fat person and places it on everyone else, which is preposterous. If you’re stuck in a room slowly filling with raw sewage, you would likely find some way to reduce and then eliminate the flow, and you’d make it your first priority. They should be even more motivated in that scenario if they’d caused the sewage inflow, since it was their responsibility for having caused it. That is, of course, unless they enjoyed wallowing in sewage. One would think that a penis disappearing under folds of fat would cause people react with much the same level of distress, alarm, and heightened motivation towards resolution, but they’re too fucking lazy to bother. Thus, they blame everyone and everything else for their problems and continue to get fatter while they scream about their rights as an alleged human being, their persecution by the skinny right, and the fact that their obesity is not a direct result of their own actions. No matter what their preposterous accusations, however, it’s not society that made them fat, and the only thing keeping them from resembling an actual human is their unwillingness to start bailing out the house slowly filling with shit.

The most common correlation mentioned between fatness and anything else is poverty. Fat people and left-wing social scientists love to claim that obesity is the result of poverty, and use a variety of studies to illustrate the correlation. If you’re thinking to yourself that this makes no sense, you’re right, but they confuse correlation for causation because they’re stupid and lazy, and they seem to think that all poor people are so fucking dumb they don’t know what food is bad for them and what’s not. As I show above, there’s much more to this issue, but it appears clear to me that stupidity and sloth, not poverty, are at its root.

Fat people aren’t fat because they’re poor- they’re poor because they’re lazy and/or stupid.

To wit:

Stupid and lazy people make terrible decisions born of their personal failings.
As such, they get fat, a condition exacerbated by the fact that they’re incredibly lazy. Perhaps extending out of their sloth, they are terrible drivers, and this makes it difficult for them to get to the whatever low-paying jobs they might have been able to obtain.
They are only able to obtain low-paying jobs because ugly people earn less than attractive people. This isn’t fatism- it’s a simple sociological fact that people are nicer to attractive people, and attractive people are more successful as a result.
Finally, after being fired for failing to show for their job stocking the shelves at Wal-Mart, they fall back on the idea that their station in life is divinely ordained, and that they can do nothing to resolve the situation that their intellectual insufficiency and breathtaking laziness have created.

This, then, explains why they’re poor. Before you shit your pants screaming about the logical leaps I’ve just made, consider the following: I added in the bad driving and religion simply because I thought it was amusing, but it seems obvious that fat people are genetically predisposed to anything, it’s sucking at life more than Channing Tatum sucks at acting.

Perhaps you’re concerned that my statistical analysis is flawed. Frankly, I don’t give a shit. This isn’t intended to be an in-depth statistical analysis. Even if it were, everyone worth a shit (read: everyone but fat people) who has been through business school has read all or part of How To Lie With Statistics. If you’ve not, it’s a book that clearly explicates the fundamental problem with statistics, which is that they can be manipulated by clever statisticians to support nearly any aim. Irrespective of the shallow nature of my statistical analysis, I’m certain that were students of anthropology were to look deeply into the data, my supposition would likely be borne out in great detail, and would then be blasted in the press and suppressed for being “mean.”

Why would it be suppressed? Because nonsense like the following is more accepted than the truth:

“It’s no secret that there’s a correlation between poverty and obesity. We’re living in the supposedly richest nation in the world (thanks to a glorious legacy of slavery and property theft), where the majority of the people are either poor, or hopelessly debt-riddled and overtaxed middle class. The majority of Americans don’t have enough money relative to the quality of life we’re expect to maintain for our families, and at best rely on consumer debt to survive, and at worst criminal activities that may land us in jail. Many of us live or work in areas where we don’t have access to affordable healthy food. We may not have the time or money or energy or desire to work out or cook healthy meals at home when they’re already working 2 or more jobs to barely get by. Most of us don’t have adequate healthcare. Most of us don’t have gyms in our office buildings (my building even discourages us from using the stairs), can’t afford or don’t have access to a public gym, and may not live in areas where it’s safe to go jogging at night, or for our children to get exercise by playing outside. We’re encouraged to self-medicate our exhaustion and misery with booze, cigarettes, television, video games, internet, and processed food that is literally chemically engineered the hit the pleasure centers of our brains like narcotic drugs, driving the urge to eat more (a hence, buy more). This narcotic food is cheap, even cheaper if you go for the 64 oz. Big Gulp, the King Size candy bar, the supersize fast food “value meal.” You can buy this “food” almost anywhere, and it’s a quick makes you feel good when you’re tired or cranky, at least temporarily. And it’s no big surprise that this lifestyle often leads to obesity, diabetes, and other issues” (James).

Blood-thirsty capitalist? Yes. Thin? No.

To summarize: fat people are fat because rich, thin, blood-thirsty capitalists force them to live beyond their means and internalize the belief that they can afford anything and everything. Thus, having overspent on trinkets, there’s no money left for food, so the overworked and under-appreciated proles are forced to feed their families processed foods because they’re too lazy to cook real food. Then, they’re not given free gym memberships or rides to the gym by the aforementioned blood-thirsty capitalists, replete with top hats and monocles, and they must live with their big-screen tvs and smart phones in undesirable areas with people in the same situation but are whom apparently dangerous. Finally, they’re forced to apply a chemical salve to their wounded, flabby psyches with junk food, nicotine, and alcohol to escape from the reality in which they live, and those medications are the only things that the rich provide them, as a soma for the Betas, Deltas, Epsilons, and Gammas of our cruel world.

Only the fattest simpletons on Earth could possibly buy this ridiculous tripe. The fat broad who penned that ridiculously intellectually disingenuous bullshit has cast herself as nothing more than an easily led herd animal manipulated into a lifestyle she could have easily avoided if she didn’t suck, and then managed to paint her fellow cattle as dangerous miscreants and criminals. Had this genius ever read Rhetoric, she might have developed the ability to formulate a cogent argument, but that would again require she not be a lazy piece of shit. She’d also know, were she not so fucking disgracefully slothful, that the correlation she mentioned between poverty and obesity only exists in the last decade of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century in the United States.

This, of course, brings me back to my premise- our problem is that people are hideously, shockingly, and inexcusably fucking stupid and lazy. The fattie above blames everything on capitalism and income inequality, but fails to take into account that the United States of of the early 20th Century had nearly as much income inequality, yet they were far leaner. The immigrants coming across the ocean weren’t whining about how fat they were, simply because they were too busy working hard and making their own fucking food to get fat, in spite of the fact that they were hard-drinking, chain-smoking, street fighting motherfuckers who likely never once thought about their waistline because their lifestyles kept them from getting fat. Nor does this correlation exist outside of the United States, because the correlation is nothing more than the root of a stupid fucking argument that’s the brainchild of intellectually lazy socialists. The less intellectually lazy socialists at PBS had this to say to their red-banded compatriots last year:

“There are an estimated 1.46 billion overweight adults worldwide, and 502 million of them are considered obese. While nearly all countries are seeing rates rise, the severity of the problem varies greatly from country to country, said the WHO.

In Japan, about one in every 20 adult women is obese, compared to one in four in Jordan, one in three in the United States and Mexico, and up to seven in 10 in Tonga.

In the United States, where health officials have termed obesity an epidemic, more than 50 percent of the adult population could be obese by 2030 if current trends continue, a team from Columbia University and Harvard University wrote in a separate paper in the series.”(Miller)

In other words, everyone’s seeing people getting fatter, and it has little to do with poverty- in poor countries, the rise in obesity is among the rich. Where’s the indignation on their behalf, fat bitches? On what day shall we weep for them- people who are likely getting rich off the literal blood of their countrymen. It’s not like there are any motherfucking Sudanese getting loot by expanding their cosmetic lines to serve outlying populations in northern Uganda. People in truly poor countries will eat anything on which they can get their hands, and still, unsurprisingly, manage not to be fat.

Avon’s calling! Come get our new eyeliner!

Before we continue, we might as well address that fat broad’s contention about the ability to find affordable food, which is utter fucking nonsense. Think I’m lying? It’s possible, even in Europe where meat is hideously expensive, to eat paleo on the cheap. I personally managed to eat very well for about $30 bucks a day, and I was eating 2 kilos of chicken breast and a big bag of mixed veggies daily in Vienna, the 24th most expensive city on Earth (Bloomberg). I’m not saying that paleo’s the only healthy manner of eating, but it’s indisputably healthier than what most poor people in the US eat, and it’s generally considered to be hideously expensive. The former-American-turned-Czech over at Prague Stepchild ran a 7 day challenge with his readers, and the three winners showed it was possible to not only eat extremely healthily, but also extremely well for between $25 and $85 a week per person- “Brendon spends $30-35 a week in South Korea. Jonathan spent $27.75 for a week, simply shopping at his local supermarket, and Margaret spent $85.49, around the national average, for very high quality food (grass-fed beef, etc) ” (Prague).

Thus, it’s not a matter of cost, but a matter of sloth, which the fat bitch freely admits-

“We may not have the time or money or energy or desire to work out or cook healthy meals at home.”

Thus, it’s not a matter of accessibility or affordability, but rather of work ethic and effort expended. It might not be as easy to be as healthy as the Rock, and it certainly isn’t cheap, but there is a hell of a lot of middle ground between the Rock and your average middle class fatass American.

They could afford healthy food because they didn’t spend all of their cash on meth, guns, and thousand dollar iPhones. Incidentally, conspicuous consumption by the poor is more evidence of their low intellects.

Let’s get back to my awesome chart, though, since I went to the trouble of making it. On that chart, we see a very strong correlation between shit test scores in grade school (which we can attribute to a combination of shitty parenting and laziness), low rates of college graduation, religion, and poverty. Perhaps we should start broadcasting public service announcements that science and math are not the works of the Devil, and if you actually work hard in school you can get a job that will allow you to shop at Whole Foods if they wished. Certainly, I’m not going to blame Jesus for this problem, as that motherfucker had a badass six-pack, but the cattle who worship him around the clock seem to love Ring Dings and couches just as much as the Good Book and hate learning, exercise, and vegetables like they’re the Devil himself.

So, what are we left with? How about the fact that people are so lazy that they consider it a victory to walk a marathon. That they will put on exercise clothes to walk the dog, because that, to them, constitutes exercise. That’s not exercise- that’s LIFE. Living your life the way humanity was intended to- moving the fuck around. Fat people are fat because they’re lazy. They don’t understand it because they’re stupid. They’re stupid because they’re as intellectually lazy as they are physically. Think I’m exaggerating? Think again.

“Only 5.07% of Americans reported doing any vigorous-intensity activity like running, while at the other end of the scale, more than 95% said they had engaged in the highly sedentary activity of eating and drinking.
The next most common activity was another sedentary one — watching television or a movie, which 8 in 10 Americans did.
The “most frequently reported moderate activities were food and drink preparation (25.7%), followed by lawn, garden, and houseplant care (10.6%),” the study said.”(Song)

Food preparation, my friends, is not moderate exercise unless you’re a teppanyaki chef at a Japanese restaurant and you’re busy flipping knives and dodging fireballs like you’re in a live action episode of Dragonball Z for hours on end. The problem, obviously, is that people are incredibly fucking lazy, and that’s why they’re fat. For whatever reason, the government decided to exacerbate this issue by deeming housework as moderate activity, which must be how the obese decided that preparing the food they jam down their gullets is exercise.(Rhone) By prepare, of course, I assume that they mean “drive to KFC, order KFC famous bowl, return home, eat disgusting gelatinous brown glop in shame.”

Speaking of lazy, how about we address the laziest of all excuses that land whales bandy about as the source of their bodyfat- hypothyroidism. Whenever anyone blames glandular issues or their thyroid, they’re claiming they suffer from hypothyroidism, which is an insufficiency of thyroid hormone. Fat people generally assign blame to this in addition to their genetics, which they seem to think are part of the vast global conspiracy to consign them to a life trapped in a fat suit and the ridicule and scorn that comes with it. Again, this is nothing short of laziness, because if they were in any way motivated to come up with anything other than a half-witted rationale for being a disgusting fatass, they’d know that only 4.6% of the population of the United States suffers from hypothyroidism.(Golden) Again, we’ve got nothing more on our hands than a pack of fat, stupid, lazy people who can’t drive to Dunkin Donuts without smashing into other cars and parking on the sidewalk while bellowing odes to Jesus at the top of their lungs and shrieking in horror at the sight of a book.

Venusian. 10/10 WB.

Oddly, I have no problem with people being fat, necessarily, if that’s what they want to be. I believe that the male archetype is the Farnese Hercules and the female archetype is Venus, and venusian figures are generally a bit chubby. I enjoy a fat ass on a chick, a little belly, and some big tits- that, to me, is what a female figure is designed to look like. What I cannot abide, however, is the intellectual disingenuousness that begins with people whining about the alleged discrimination under which they supposedly suffer fora condition they themselves embraced and actively cultivated, only to turn and state that they’re victims of a mysterious and nebulous third party. It’s the same bullshit that resulted in 10 Minute abs and the Thighmaster- sloth. If they love eating and fucking and want to lay around all day eating cheesecake, awesome, but keep your fucking mouth shut about discrimination- they chose a lifestyle that led to their current state.

Thus, I think there’s a compelling case to be made for the idea that a person’s fat is their fault. Whether or not they choose to do something about it is one thing, but they certainly can have a coke and a smile and shut the fuck up about it. They made their soft, pillowy beds, and now they can lie in them- a state of repose should be fairly natural for them at this point, anyway.

Cleanse.

Sources:
Abbott, Sean. 7 day challenge–everyone’s a winner. Prague Stepchild. http://praguestepchild.blogspot.com/search/label/7-day-challenge
Amber, Snarky. How Smart (Or Dumb) Is Your State? Mama Pop. http://www.mamapop.com/2011/09/how-smart-or-dumb-is-your-state.html
America’s Poorest States. 24/7 Wall St. http://247wallst.com/2011/09/14/americas-poorest-states/2/
Bloomberg. The World’s Most Expensive Cities 2010. Bloomberg Businessweek. http://images.businessweek.com/ss/10/06/0622_most_expensive_cities/25.htm
CalorieLab. Mississippi is the fattest state for 6th straight year, Colorado still leanest, Rhode Island getting fatter, Alaska slimmer. http://calorielab.com/news/2011/06/30/fattest-states-2011/
Golden SH, Robinson KA, Saldanha I, et.al. Prevalence and incidence of endocrine and metabolic disorders in the United States: a comprehensive review. Journal of Clinical Endocrinology Metabolism. 2009;94(6):1853–1878.
Healthy Americans. F as in Fat: How Obesity Threatens America’s Future 2010. Trust For America’s Health. http://healthyamericans.org/reports/obesity2010/
Huffington Post. Most and least religious states in America. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/27/most-and-least-religious-states_n_1383482.html
Huffington Post. State Education Rankings: The Best And Worst For Math And Science. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/11/state-education-rankings-_n_894528.html
James, Bianca. Health at Every Size and the Important Difference Between Thin and Healthy. Ms. Behaved. http://msbehaved.com/2012/06/07/health-at-every-size-is-awesome-and-the-difference-between-being-thin-and-healthy/
List of countries by income inquality. Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_income_equality
Miller, Talea. Obesity Rates Rising Worldwide, Half of U.S. Could Be Obese by 2030. PBS. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2011/08/obesity-rates-rising-worldwide-us-could-hit-50-by-2030.html
Obesity statistics. Nationmaster. http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/hea_obe-health-obesity
Newport, Frank. Mississippi is the most religious state. State of the States. Gallup. http://www.gallup.com/poll/153479/mississippi-religious-state.aspx
Rhone, Shauna Scott. Housework as workout. Cincinatti Enquirer. http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2004/01/26/tem_tem2a.html
Shellenbarger, Sue. On the job, beauty is more than skin deep. Wall Street Journal. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203687504576655331418204842.html
Song, Sora. Americans Count Cooking Food as ‘Moderate Exercise’. Time. Healthland. http://healthland.time.com/2010/09/20/americans-count-cooking-food-as-moderate-exercise/#more-9245
States With the Lowest Percentage of College Degree Holders. Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/21/least-educated-states_n_733348.html#s142964&title=Texas
Top 10 Most Dangerous States to Drive In. LegalBlogger. http://www.legalblogger.com/top-10-most-dangerous-states-to-drive-in/

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Jamie Chaos

I am a former all-time, all federation world record holder in raw powerlifting at 181lbs, a record I broke just to say fuck you to the internet’s “lifting” community and the powerlifting community at large. Over the last ten years I’ve written over 500 articles on strength training, nutrition, and supplementation, and continue to do so simply to fight the tide of weakness and sadness that currently pervades the scene I’ve called home for the better part of three decades. I’ve got personal trainin certs, BodyPump and BodyCombat certs, a BA in History and East Asian Studies from the University of Arizona, and MBAs from the Vienna University and University of South Carolina on my side, in addition to some sick lifts and a hell of a lot of rage. What the fuck have you got?

41 responses to “Your Fat Is Unequivocally Your Fault”

Tyler Campbell

June 14, 2012

"Certainly, I'm not going to blame Jesus for this problem, as that motherfucker had a badass six-pack, but the cattle who worship him around the clock seem to love Ring Dings and couches just as much as the Good Book and hate learning, exercise, and vegetables like they're the Devil himself."

I laughed way too much while reading this article. I knew from the title it would be a good one.

Living in Alabama my entire life, I've found a lot of good things, but I've also figured out who to avoid. Which is most people, unfortunately.
1. Jamie Lewis
  
  June 14, 2012
  
  Still waiting for your girlfriend to throw herself at me.
2. Tyler Campbell
  
  June 15, 2012
  
  Do the ladies usually throw themselves at you in the gym? Or just bend over to receive your wrath as you walk past?
  
  Also, you should totally check out that nearly empty room in the back of the gym. The one with the jazzercise/step classes on a projector with fat people as the instructors so that you feel comfortable in your own skin.
3. babababab
  
  June 15, 2012
  
  Dude… If your girlfriend did Jamie Lewis, that's almost as if you did Jamie Lewis. Awesome.
4. The Blob
  
  June 15, 2012
  
  Jamie would need to stand on a box to covet a woman in any worthwhile position, and he hasn't done step-ups much in a long time.
The Blob

June 14, 2012

This was a good article. But how the fuck can you talk about $85 a week on food as being affordable to all? I lived off £20, so about $30 a week for almost a year and couldn't afford milk or any meat that was not minced. I did lose weight then, just because of so little food, rather than put on weight because of too much sugar and whatnot. Clearly people aren't fat because "they’re already working 2 or more jobs to barely get by", I've met about three fat people who've done an honest days work in their lives, and they all work one job and drink lots of lager when they're done.
I've suffered from hypERthyroidism to the point I was at serious risk of a heart-attack and still put onquite a lot of fat, and I've been treated for that and still lost most of the fat again, so I am skeptical on the significance of glandular issues.
1. Jamie Lewis
  
  June 14, 2012
  
  How in the hell did you get fat with hyperthyroidism? You should be studied by scientists. As for the $85/week, I'm not saying it's affordable to all, but it's definitely affordable to most.
2. The Blob
  
  June 15, 2012
  
  Clearly the value of the will, in this case my will to consume, is greater than mere genetics.
3. musicianman
  
  June 19, 2012
  
  The epigenome is ever-mutable. "Mere genetics" is a silly thing to say, seeing as genetics conclusively dictate all protein expression and signaling pathways within your body.
Lennon

June 14, 2012

Even as a life long advocate for the poor (and a christian, to boot!) I found this article to be every kind of ass kickingly balls awesome. Yes, it's significantly harder for a single mother living in the projects to feed herself and her kids healthy food. But it's never impossible.

It's also never impossible to find some way to exercise. A sledge hammer and a tractor tire cost less than 50 bucks and can pretty much keep you in John Henry shape just by themselves.
1. Jamie Lewis
  
  June 14, 2012
  
  To be clear- I've no problem with the poor. They're fucked in every way possible at this point, and there's not a lot of hope for the future for anyone but the rich.
2. Jami Davis
  
  March 19, 2014
  
  Ok, I'll actually chime in on this one, Jamie. You are absolutely 100% correct. Now, I have to say that while it might be a little harder for a single mother living in the projects, it is not impossible. Not by a long shot. Single working mother here. No, I do not live in the projects, but the little town I do live in is far enough off the beaten path that it does make grocery shopping difficult. And while I do work my ass off to provide for my kid, pretty much half my income now goes to medical bills thanks to the cancer that almost killed me last year. That being said, I have never bought the argument that being poor and/or being a single mother means it is really hard to eat healthy or live a healthy lifestyle. I have also never been one to keep junk food or sodas in my house for my kid to snack on daily. We drink water or juice (that I make fresh weekly). We make a point to grow as much of our own food as we can. It's not only cheaper, it's far healthier. I don't care if you live in an inner-city apartment, if you have a tiny balcony, you can grow tomatoes, lettuce, and a few other veggies. Fortunately for us, we have plenty of land, so we have a huge garden. We have chickens for fresh eggs. I don't purchase commercial feed for the hens – they eat insects and vegetation, plus our scraps (fresh eggs fed like this pack a much bigger nutritional punch and they taste better). And we hunt and fish. For example, today we had fresh eggs for breakfast (free) and grilled fish for lunch (that my father caught, again, free). Dinner is spaghetti made with lean ground venison (deer my daughter killed and my dad processed, again, free), homemade marina sauce I put up last fall using all homegrown tomatoes and veggies, and spaghetti squash for noodles (the spaghetti squash was the only thing I had to purchase). So, it is not impossible. For us it is not even difficult as it something we enjoy. Tending to the garden and chickens also helps keep us active. My daughter is 11 and is one of the few girls in her class that is not overweight. She stays active and outside and eats healthy. She does not eat the crap they serve in the lunchroom and she does not pack a lunch full of high-fructose corn syrup juices and chips and processed crap. She packs her lunch, I do not, and she chooses bottled water, meat, and fresh veggies (carrots, broccoli, etc). She also chooses to get up early in the morning to do squats and crunches.
  Now, I know not everyone is able to have their own big garden or chickens, but growing veggies in containers on a patio or a balcony is really easy. Lettuce and spinach can be grown in hanging baskets. And, according to a sign I say at my local feed store, vegetable seeds and plants can even be purchased with food stamps. With a little creative thinking and the desire to lead a healthy lifestyle, it can be done.
Unknown

June 14, 2012

Well, fat people ARE less intelligent:

http://www.livescience.com/10582-obese-people-severe-brain-degeneration.html

"A new study finds obese people have 8 percent less brain tissue than normal-weight individuals. Their brains look 16 years older than the brains of lean individuals, researchers said today.

Those classified as overweight have 4 percent less brain tissue and their brains appear to have aged prematurely by 8 years.

The results, based on brain scans of 94 people in their 70s, represent "severe brain degeneration," said Paul Thompson, senior author of the study and a UCLA professor of neurology."
1. Jamie Lewis
  
  June 14, 2012
  
  That's fucking epic.
_

June 14, 2012

I think a critical piece that is missing from this argument is the lack of impulse control. The Stanford Marshmallow experiment showed a correlation between an adolescent's ability to defer gratification and future success in life. Potentially, the poor have little ability to defer gratification, instead giving in to the need for an immediate "fix". This can take many forms, such as eating fast food because it "tastes good" and is immediate or sitting on your ass and watching TV because it feels better than getting sweaty and feeling uncomfortable because you are out of shape. I definitely agree that being fat is one's own fault, except for a small minority of the population. However, I do wonder whether impulse control is something that can be developed, and if so, how it can be done.
1. Jamie Lewis
  
  June 14, 2012
  
  I should hope that no matter what one's station in life, an adult would be able to exhibit more impulse control than a child. I file "lack of self control" under laziness, frankly. Sloppy thinking leads to a sloppy body, haha.
2. giveitaname
  
  June 15, 2012
  
  The Stanford Marshmallow experiment?
  You gotta be shittin' me.
  Impulse control's very easy to develop. And the road to its control has so many wonderful avenues? Having trouble with crack? Easy. Spend every damn cent you have or can get on credit on the stuff. If and when, five years later, you pull your life out of the shitter and your head outta your asshole, why, the next time the opportunity arises to hit the pipe your impulse control will fire up and respond right nice.
  
  This is often called the 'stick your fucking hand in a fire once so you don't do it again' method.
  
  The shit-food avenue's pretty much the same as the crack addict avenue. Eat your body into a state of near-death, and if you survive that . . . next time a plate of deep fried feces shows up on the menu you're likely to JUST SAY FUCKING NO.
  
  Which is the whole point in the first place.
  Who the fuck doesn't know what makes 'em sick and/or ignorant. Not stupid, not mentally challenged . . . ignorant. And who doesn't realize that intellectual stimulation at a seven-year old's level will eventually rot your brain. Really. The world we inhabit, that is, what little part of it that's still worth inhabiting, is not complex. You do this . . . you get that. And if a 'human being' can't bloody figure something as simple as that out, who fucking cares what becomes of 'em?
  
  http://ditillo2.blogspot.ca/
Thanos

June 14, 2012

Nice reference to two great books!

at June above: you are talking about the nucleus accumbens. Sure it expands with people who have little to no self-restraint. Than again, you are the captain of your own soul (bonus points if you can guess the Victorian Poem this comes from), so being lazy (mentally and physically) only continues the cycle. As Jamie pointed out, this leads to being fat.
The nucleus accumbens is strongly controlled by emotions. So if a fat guy goes out jogging, but say to himself: 'running sucks' at every step, the nucleus won't be triggered. Psychical and mental activity actually trigger the nucleus to find the acitivity pleasant (man as a machine was made to use his brain and body in so much, that it triggers the happy centre in the brain (the nucleus accumbens)), unless ofcourse you contradict yourself mentally. Which is what lazy people do.

So fat people stay fat, because they
a. love it (the nucleus accumbens conditioned to like food and lazy shit like tv).
b. restrict themselves, because of wrong emotional thoughts towards physical and mental activity.

source: basic course on neurophysiology at uni, in combination with what Jamie wrote above.
1. animalrageyeahlookatme
  
  June 14, 2012
  
  Invictus, motherfucker!
2. Jamie Lewis
  
  June 14, 2012
  
  I've actually written about about the role of pleasure centers in the brain on motivation, but hadn't thought to draw that parallel to this as well. Nicely done.
3. Thanos
  
  June 17, 2012
  
  Thanks. It was only a crude link which I could have expanded much more. But I had an ethics paper and a Velicity Von clip waiting, so I drafted a rude sketch of the whole picture.
  
  Pleasure centers are indeed important, they are however very malleable to the point that they can completely be reprogrammed.
  
  note: when I meant fat people love being fat, I meant their brain is addicted to it and loves it when the greasy whoppers get devoured and newest anime comes on screen. They don't necessarilly love the physical shape they are in, however some do. And they are the worst kind. It's those that start up groups to feel good about being the size of a baby-walrus.
  
  (And I was Invictus, an epitome of the Victorian Ideal of self-responsability and facing the hardship of life head on.)
jmacjo

June 15, 2012

This has nothing to do with the post, but I thought you might enjoy this video as much as I did, given your penchant for hot strong chicks and loud music: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5tivPWXQpc&feature=related
1. Jamie Lewis
  
  June 15, 2012
  
  I would punch my mom in the face for five minutes of semi-consensual hand holding with Larissa Reis.
2. Otter Ezekiel
  
  June 15, 2012
  
  Now THAT bitch has high fucking test.
3. Hitower77
  
  June 15, 2012
  
  Sweet Jesus Christ, I'm in love.
  
  That ass!, and the way she tosses that Judoka around…damm!
  
  I'd drag my dick through a mile of broken glass to lick the sweat of her abs…
Noble Ape

June 15, 2012

The "junk food is cheaper than health food" myth is primarily based on a study that compares the cost of food per calorie. However, another study found that when the food is compared by recommended serving size, junk food became second in cost to only "protein" foods. I can dig up the references, for anyone interested in socio-economic studies.

Anyone stupid enough to argue that the per calorie argument means that poor people have a valid argument to choose junk food is missing the basic point. Poor people in modern countries obviously don't need more fucking calories, much less from shit food sources. Unless you are on a starvation diet, and the Dollar Menu is keeping your ass alive, it doesn't make a lick of sense to argue that eating healthy is too pricey to survive on.
Andrew Miles

June 15, 2012

You would assume it would be common fucking sense that one can only get fat by consuming in surplus – and that poor people don't have a surplus of anything, except maybe fleas and venereal disease.

To be rich means to consume less than you produce, and to be poor to consume more than you produce. Same with fat and lean.
ATIWAB

June 15, 2012

To add to the "hypothyroidism" point, if you legitimately do have a hypothyroidism diagnosis, the prescriptions for synthroid and cytomel even WITHOUT insurance are under $15 a month and taking your thyroid medication not only cures the problem, but in some cases will "overcorrect" it. Using hypothyroidism as a scapegoat for obesity is the worst excuse possible.
Imperator

June 16, 2012

Incidentally, hypothyroidism can be helped a great deal by your diet and lifestyle. So there really is no excuse.

http://chriskresser.com/thyroid
Anonymous

June 18, 2012

As someone who has heard several excuses from friends and family as to why Paleo wouldn't work for them I really enjoyed this post. Jamie here is something you will like if you haven't already seen: http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2012/06/08/154568945/what-america-spends-on-groceries?sc=tw&cc=share
Orestis Lazar

June 18, 2012

Hey Jamie.

Just Googled "Chaos & Pain curls" and…

bumped into this..

http://www.ironaddicts.com/forums/showthread.php?t=28593

They are discussing your philosophy of training.

The guy who started this thread is a complete fuckball. I wanted to smash my pc reading this, man. Anyway..
Deus é incrível

January 4, 2013

Jamie, what's the last girl's name? I am ashamed i didn't know, since she seems brazilian also.
Saban2000

February 21, 2014

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD JAMIE!!! the name of that curvy girl
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