But that's where I see no danger, because I don't think complacency is caused by exposure to the excuse (or reason). Yes, it gives a new excuse to excuse-users, but if they didn't have the new excuse, they would just use one of their old ones.

I think we tend to see overweight people as excuse-finders, when I doubt that it's any more likely among overweight people than anyone wanting (but not being very effective) in making other changes in their lives that they want to or know they "should". It's just that for overweight people, their situation is much more apparent, and more difficult to hide. If "abuse victim," or "drug user," or even "chronic complainer," were tatooed on people's foreheads, many of them would feel the same discrimination that fat people do.

Indeed, kaplods, accountability is difficult for people in all walks of life - both at the individual and group think levels.

Hey, thanks for posting this. I found this pretty interesting. I was born almost 3 months early, so it is neat to see there might be a link. Do not get me wrong, I know the main reason I am overweight is because I was not active enough and ate too much, but still. . .

I think we tend to see overweight people as excuse-finders, when I doubt that it's any more likely among overweight people than anyone wanting (but not being very effective) in making other changes in their lives that they want to or know they "should".


Bravo, kaplods!! I don't know a single human that doesn't live with a big, fat juicy rationalization or two and it's very, very easy for people to say, "why don't you just eat less and exercise?" Right. In truth, that's what it takes (or eat better), but why don't I just fix my bent for sarcasm, right here and now?? What?! I've spent the better part of my life developing said sarcasm for some reason that's probably benefiting me in some way, even if that "benefit" is actually detrimental, and you think, probably tomorrow, I can just not be sarcastic anymore?

I can work on it, sure. (But right now I'm losing weight, so get back to me, won't ya??) We're just easy targets for being 'excuse-finders'. Also, people like to think losing weight is all about willpower, which you either have or you don't, when really, it's about motivation. And, motivation you can work on improving every day. If you really decide that you'd like to not die an early death or that you'd like to not prevent yourself from doing things you might enjoy if only you were thinner, then you have the perfect motivation. But that's part of why we're seen as excuse makers ... the fact that we haven't done it yet proves to others that we have no willpower, sort of a character flaw, whereas we just haven't properly motivated ourselves yet ... no character flaw, just a matter of timing.

Another thing about motivation, is that conflicting motivations often intervene. Just as career and family can pull an individual in two different, if not mutually exclusive directions, all of us can only handle so much on our plate (no irony intended in using an eating reference).

It often seems like people assume that a fat person is doing nothing but sitting, eating and sleeping. I'm not saying that my health shouldn't have been a higher priority (although, who gets to decide that but me), but even now, it's not so clear where I should have made the sacrifices needed to succeed - nor what impact doing so would have had on my life. Maybe working on the master's degree while working full time, wasn't such a great idea, but I certainly don't regret it. That's only one chapter in my life, but most of the other chapters aren't any clearer. I wasn't fat because I wasn't willing to work hard, I was just working hard on things I thought were more important - some of which were,and some in hindsight, weren't.

Also, it isn't just motivation (which people do tend to assume), but knowledge, and being able to apply that knowledge also factor in success. No matter how motivated a person is, starvation diets rarely work, and for a good part of my life, starvation diets were all I really knew. And when I failed, my motivation was blamed, not the fact that my methods were flawed.

We're starting to learn more about what doesn't work (though there's an awful lot of people out there, still trying extreme and dangerous methods).

The problem with reducing it all to motivation is that it's logic that's difficult to prove or disprove, because success is seen as proof of motivation, and failure is used as proof against it.

I don't think my motivation is any stronger than when I was younger (perhaps the opposite). I just have more time to devote to myself, and I'm no longer in such a panic to be thin, so I'm less tempted to use extreme (and ultimately ineffective) methods.