The Morbidly Obese Perplex Me

I'm probably going to be treading on dangerous ground here. Verbalizing my opinion about those who are obese.

Obesity is fresh on my mind due to going to the Super Bowl Buffet yesterday for lunch. Sitting right by me were two totally morbidly obese women. It was not difficult to see why they were obese. First off, going to a buffet? Not a smart choice. Second bad choice? The stuff those two put on their plates and in their mouths. Mounds of everything deep-fried. And they did not miss a single item from the dessert area.

From my personal up close observations of obese people they all seem to have some things in common. Emotional issues beyond the eating disorder is one. Low self-esteem is another. Self-indulgence in areas beyond food is another. A lack of self-discipline in other parts of their lives is another. As in they are usually slobs. Yes, I know that's harsh, but, it's the sad truth.

When you get so fat that you have trouble putting shoes on, trouble getting up from a sitting position, trouble breathing, your doctor having told you that you are morbidly obese, how and why do you make the decision to put more bad stuff in your mouth? What makes you reach for that cookie or donut or ice cream or fudge? I can't understand this type of out of control self-indulgence. Is it a mental illness?

Now, I've never been what one would think of as fat. I have weighed more than I do now. As in I think at my heaviest I was somewhere in the 220's zone. That would have been when I lived in Washington. Of course, I thought it was all muscle. It wasn't.

Now I weigh in the 160's zone. So, I know what it's like to lose weight. It isn't that hard to do. It makes a huge difference in how you feel to be leaned out. I've always hated flying. I did not realize that being skinnier would make such a difference til I flew north in July and back in August. Best flights ever. Never felt uncomfortable and squeezed in.

When a person gets to the point of morbid obesity they are so fat that their body needs way more calories than does a normal sized person just to maintain. As in, to support all that weight a person who is 300 or 400 pounds over their ideal weight probably needs 5 or 6 thousand daily calories just to stay even. If the fat person ate a normal calorie load they'd lose a pound or more a day. Particularly if they are still able to be somewhat mobile.

I've known a couple of surgeons who talked about what it's like to operate on smokers and fat people. With the smokers as soon as you cut them open you can smell the smoke. With fat people it makes operating way more difficult due to the fat making everything greasy and slippery.

Okay, I'm done talking about obesity for now. Now, next time you want a cookie reach for a carrot instead.