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Comment by drivebycomment | Hacker News Reader

You're effectively saying "obese people, why don't you just eat less". This kind of "binary" thinking is actively harmful and toxic, and only demonstrates a complete lack of sympathy and understanding for people suffering from obesity. Obesity is extremely costly, and causes a lot of human suffering. Finding a way to reduce that suffering is unequivocally a good thing. Not that I expect this will be any kind of a panacea (it won't, as obesity is a complex behavioral phenomena).

On a purely utilitarian perspective, you're grossly underestimating how much broad impact obesity is having:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3047996/

Just look at the fuel cost and the environmental cost and explain to me how helping reducing obesity is not a good thing for the environment.

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> You're effectively saying "obese people, why don't you just eat less"

That is not what the GP said. The objection was about long term resource distribution...it's right there in the short post.

> co2/water/food insecurity battles we now face

The comment about individual consumption was incidental, not targeted. This selective outrage response, is woefully misplaced.

Aside from actual health issues causing others and leading to weight gain, diet and exercise is indeed the cure.

What is toxic is being offended at the very serious suggestion of eating less, especially when you flow it up with how bad being obese is for the rest of society.

You can feel bad for someone's plight without bending over backwards to pretend it's not curable by simply taking in less calories and moving more.

My sister had several miscarriages due to a thyroid medication she took. Once she stopped she carried to term, but gained weight.

She changed her diet and began working out, and has now been a certified personal trainer who specializes in obese clients for over 15 years.

One of her major stipulations for clients is mandatory caloric intake journals and meetings with nutritionists.

She despises above all else the coddling and mental gymnastics people will go through rather than make impactful changes.

We need to treat adults as such.

You say 'complex behavioral phenomenon', some say 'lack of willpower'.

Unfortunately, people have been preaching that gospel for decades and it has had no effect whatsoever on rising obesity rates. I’d like to see a strategy that actually works, because that ain’t it.

Funny thing, obesity rates are historically high, especially for the US.

The gospel of eat less/move more hasn't changed- you know what has? The garbage we eat has gotten worse and people as a whole move and exercise less.

Know what else has changed? The coddling, infantilization, and making up words so no one feels any shame or personal accountability.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that with movements like HAES(bullshit), plus size(obese) models, etc obesity rates skyrocket. Why not when you can eat anything and everything now and cry about it later.

I'm tired of other people's lack of self control becoming society's problems.

I smoke. I don't bemoan my lot and cry foul. It's my fault. I don't sit and wait for a magic pill while crying it's impossible to quit.

When I do quit, and go back to it from stress after years of being off them- I don't go about crying that cigarettes shouldn't be smoked by anyone or displayed everywhere to help me quit.

I don't demand people call smokers something that makes me feel less ashamed, and I damn sure wouldn't tell a doctor not to tell me to stop smoking and give me the same medical advice they'd give a non-smoker.

People need to act like adults and take personal responsibility.

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