10 Crazy Reasons Why You Got Fat

I am flabberghasted.

There may indeed be reasons why some people put on extra weight faster than others and some people have a harder time losing those extra kilos than others, but they couldn't put on that extra weight if they weren't eating too many calories and getting too little exercise in the first place.

This gives yet more ammo for the belief that "I'm a victim -- I can't do anything about my weight because it's not my fault."

And what a strange mix of "reasons" --

--some apply to individuals (lack of sleep, giving up smoking)

--and some apply to populations (too many middle agers and Hispanics??? so therefore I'm fat, fat people survive better which leads to fat people marrying each other which leads to I'm fat because my parents are fat so therefore Darwin is to blame).

Not even one of them is my excuse.And darwinian natural selection thing is stupid.There is nothing called evolution

If there's nothing called evolution, why do I need to get a new flu shot every year? Don't tell me the scientists just lying to me that the virus is evolving to sell vaccine.

These things may not be as direct a cause as taking in more energy than you use, but they would make sense as a list of factors that cause appetite to be greater than energy needs. Afterall, it's very hard to maintain weight if you can't trust your appetite to tell you how much you need.

Lack of exercise has an impact, but the reason why we get even bigger is the food we eat.

The processed fast food, and dinner celebrations every week - recipe for an obese nation!

These are nothing but excuses, as far as I'm concerned. They all may contribute to making it a struggle to stay away from obesity, but I am convinced that the cause of obesity still boils down to consuming more energy than you burn.
When I was first diagnosed as a Type II Diabetic, I was put on medication that listed weight gain as a side effect, but guess what? When I started burning more energy than I consumed, I lost weight anyway, and as an added bonus, after the weight loss, I didn't need the medicine.
I won't address all of these "excuses", but I will say that excuses are just ... well, excuses!

One excuse that I hear all the time from my friends is the Pill makes them gain weight. I've been on the Pill for over a year and it doesn't make you gain weight unless you eat more and don't work out as much. These excuses are pretty lame, but it takes blame off society when they can blame something else instead of take responsibility for their actions. I could have said "Well, obesity runs in my family so I'm just destined to be fat." Or "Too bad I don't smoke or I'd be skinny". Gimme a break. Also, doesn't the population one kind of scream discrimination? Not ALL Hispanics are overweight and neither are all middle aged people. It's very basic...eat less crap and work out more and you'll lose weight, even if you have some unchangeable factors on your side.

I just read a study in a magazine saying the Pill doesn't actually make women gain weight overall. I think the Depo shot is another story. I gained like 15 pounds on that thing. Thyroid medications and thyroid disorders can also make a person gain weight, as can PCOS.
The getting less sleep thing has also proven to be true, at least as far as we know.
As for the other factors, I think genetics DO play a part. Some people are naturally heavier than others, and if they're truly happy with their bodies it's really no one else's business.

One reason that "weight gain" is listed as a side effect of medication is that they can make you hungrier. It can be hard but it is your choice what you do about it. I am on a lot of medications that have this side effect, and I have to exercise and watch what I eat. Sure, I may be hungry, but that isn't an excuse to eat whatever I want!
And less appetite suppression from not smoking? Come on. That's like saying that if more people were on heroin, we would weigh less.
I believe it comes down to living in a land of plenty - where fattening food is cheap and affordable and provides instant gratification. When we don't limit our intake, we get heavy. It is up to us as individuals to listen to our bodies and to common sense, and not eat more than we really need.

The calorie burn from smoking is actually minimal. The only thing smoking does for some people is kill taste buds but with many binge eaters even that doesn’t help.
There are a lot of obese smokers.
I don't smoke but I am a binge eater. Right now I am at a healhty weight.

I very much agree with sleep deprivation and its link to overweight. Heard a study a couple of years ago. 2 groups of people were tested for blood chemistry, one group was the control and the other experience one week of sleep deprivation. The sleep-deprived group's blood chemistry was similar to patients with diabetes.

From my own experience, I know what I went through a long stretch of sleep deprivation while I was gaining pounds.

How on earth did a ridiculous notion like "middle-agers $ Hispanics are obese" get into the top ten, and emotional troubles did not? I know from personal experience that strong emotions, especially anger and sadness, can trigger powerful cravings and, if unrecognized and uncontrolled, to bingeing.

I agree with the bottom line, "you are what you eat", but I think these "experts" need to get back into the lab (or out of the lab and into the rea; world).

Laura, I think emotional problems were not included becouse this list mainly attempts to explain why there is an obesity epidemic, not why certain individuals may be obese. There is no reason to belive that people are more sad and angry now then they were 40 or 50 years ago. In fact, the overall standard of living improved in that time.

The objective in the abstract above states they want to find other plausible causes than the most common: lack of physical exercise and food marketing practices. This is almost like saying give up on any personal responsibility and blame it on something else. This is comming from a bunch of medical professionals.

The guy who headed up this study (Dr. David Allison) is the same guy who published research claiming that obesity caused 325,000 deaths per year (see study abstract. This was later shown to be completely overrated and inaccurate (see blog post).

Allison is also noted as receiving financial support from virtually every weight loss and diet pill company you can think of (see consumer freedom).

Thanks to Jimmy for digging this up.

frankly I think the medication thing is relevant. I do agree that most of the things listed can be avoided with hard work but some medication really do influence your brain in such a way that it either messes with your metabolism or increases your hunger and kills the satiety cue.