Fat Tax

[Ordray]

It's because in the US of A, crappy food (think McDonalds) is worth what you pay for it, which is close to nothing. Fresh vegetables, fruits, and other things generally considered healthier for you, on the other hand, cost quite a bit more.

Not true. You can prepare a healthy meal relatively cheaply. Don't buy brand name items and you cut the price in half almost. Go to McDonald's for lunch every day and spend $3 on a burger and a drink. That's $21/week. That same person could get a loaf of bread (in this case, honey wheat) for (what I payed for it) $2.18 + tax (sales tax in my area is 10%) 1/2 lb. of roast beef: $3.00+tax and a gallon of milk: $3.66+tax
For $9.72 (including taxes) I've fed myself a better lunch for a week. Add in some applesauce for say another (Can't remember if the one on the receipt was a 4 or 6 pack so I'm just going to double it) 2x$1.84+tax. That brings up the total to $13.78, just a bit over half of the McDonald's lunch.

Gallowmere summed it up pretty good, it's about personal choices I'd say at least 95% of the time.

[barbrolie]

I agree with the bit about personal accountability. But what explains the following phenomenon: in the rich world (of which the US is part), obesity is correlated with poverty. In other parts of the world, it is not.

[barbrolie]

For example, if you want to go totally bottom of the line, the best you could do at McDonald's is the dollar menu, which will net you some things that, while horrible for you, won't make you a blimp, unless you buy large quantities of them. If you can afford to do that, you probably should have spent that $5 on something along the lines of say, a small bag of rice, and apple, and some peanuts or a couple of eggs to help with the protein content. It's people's choices, not what they have available.

Also, I haven't been to McD in forever, so I could be wrong. But I think for $2+tax you can get the largest coke they have and a burger off the $1 menu. Eat that for lunch everyday, don't have access to the healthcare system, and get all your exercise walking between a red light and the nearest dumpster, and you will put on a fair amount of weight.

There is a subway close to where I work that is visited by this homeless man who fishes out used cups that people throw in the trash and brings them in and fills them with coke. Maybe he made very bad life choices to get to where he is, but I don't really see how correcting yourself and making better choices gets you out of situations like this.

I mean no disrespect, but, to make an analogy that I hope rings true with people on this board, I think blaming everything on one factor alone -- personal responsibility, or food vendors -- is like analyzing a province in a vacuum. There are too many factors that make things turn out different from how they should look on paper.

[Jo3MoMMa]

I dont think its so much the price of good food but the addiction of our current lifestyle.

I fast and consume what they call the paleoithic diet every other week. Its really hard and actually fairly cheap.
Really when I think about about it the largest part of my spending is on booze and eating out, with both probably having a correlation with weight issues.

[Gallowmere]

I am a huge fan of the idea behind the Paleo diet actually. I have heard nothing but good things about it, especially from bodybuilders who will use it to maintain their lean state for slightly extended periods.

Bar, obesity being prevalent in poor society has more to do with an issue of sitting on one's ass than the food available. When I first started working for the company I am at, I was a broke ass shovel guy. By the time I made my truck payment, bought cigarettes for the week, and filled up with gas, I had maybe $20 to eat off of for the week. I also fell into the 'McDonald's' trap for a year or so, but guess what? I still lost over 30 pounds my first four months here. This occurred because even though I was eating horribly, I was still burning off many more calories than I was taking in.

Basically, supplement almost any terrible food with a decent multivitamin and get off of one's ass, and weight loss is sure to come. Before that time, I weighed 265 lbs, and was one of the 'fat and poor' crowd. It's about lack of activity more than anything.

[Bishop]

thats because exercise > diet.

[Gallowmere]

Of course, my statement was merely a retort to the 'why is obesity so prevalent in areas afflicted by poverty in rich countries' question.

You just can't seem to hammer it in to some people's heads that the obese are the cause of their own malady. They will look for any excuse to take the blame off of the 'victim'. I'm not saying Bar was doing that, but many people do. It's always someone else's fault or responsibility in their eyes, be it government, society, advertisers, etc.

[The Imp]

the obese should be put in a room and the floor is made of treadmill and at the back of the room is a tank of water full of sharks.

[Gallowmere]

Treadmills are actually EXTREMELY ineffective for weight loss without risking potentially serious injury. The long slow cardio needs to go the way of the dinosaur before even more fat people start to believe that they can walk their weight off, while talking on a cell phone or reading a book.

Key to exercise for weight loss...if you can talk while doing it, you're doing it wrong.

[Bishop]

Key to exercise for weight loss...if you can talk while doing it, you're doing it wrong.

The opposite is true actually.

[Gallowmere]

From what I have seen, in both personal experience, and from talking with a few trainers, the absolute best way to lose weight quickly is burst sprinting. Run as hard and fast as you can until you are seeing stars, walk until the stars are gone, then repeat.

However, this is obviously not recommended for people with respiratory or heart problems, and it very well could kill them. I still manage to pull it off, being a 3 pack per day smoker though. I'm just sure my sprints are a lot shorter than a non-smoker's as a result.

[Bishop]

Again, the opposite of my experience - when training for running if you cant chat you are pushing too hard. The idea is to run as slow as you can as long as you can - you build up stamina far better

[Gallowmere]

I agree with you there, but are we talking about two different things? You said 'training for running', but I am more referring to purely peeling the ass off of overweight people.

If we are, that would be a bit like comparing bodybuilding and powerlifting training routines. Two totally different monsters.

[Bishop]

lots of overweight peeps try to lose weight by setting a goal of completing a 10k run though.

[Gallowmere]

Fair enough. I've just never been a fan of marathon stuff. Seriously, look at most professional runners...they look ill, or like they just escaped from Dachau. Lean is good, but appearing frail makes me worry.

You are definitely correct though, in that it will always come down to goals. If people don't have a reason to do something, they won't. Those results usually need to be at least partially short term as well. If everyone thought long term, no one would be morbidly obese to begin with.