I totally agree with you.

On one hand, I do think people should be encouraged to accept themselves. Too many people, especially women, feel a lot of pressure to get down to a certain "vanity" weight. If you are within a healthy weight range already, feeling less worthy because you're a little bigger and not perfect is simply deletarious to self esteem. Studies actually show people with a little bit of extra weight are more healthy than those who are very thin or underweight.

BUT on the other hand, I think the "size acceptance" movement which encourages people to stay obese and morbidly obese is very dangerous. The fact of the matter is, obesity isn't healthy. You are putting a lot of strain on your cardiovascular system, plus you are limited in your mobility so you can't strengthen this already strained system either. You put a lot of weight on your joints, and there is evidence that simply being overweight contributes to insulin resistence and diabetes. Your quality of life is diminished.

While I am all for raising self esteem, these very overweight people are living in denial regarding the consequences for living such an unhealthy life. You will die earlier than you should if you weight 400 pounds, this is a certainty.

Actually, I think they do what they do because they feel they have no other option. Ironically I just wrote a lengthy post about how pre-atkins I used to feel I was destined to eat a lot and be big. I didn't even think I was eating a lot for my body, since I ate when I felt I was hungry. The problem was, I ALWAYS was hungry . I now realize my hunger was unnaturally high because of the food I was eating.

I think the morbidly obese feel there is no way out, and they figure since they were "born to be big" they might as well learn to love themselves. I can relate to this feeling, but I just can't help but wonder if only they tried low carb dieting they could reclaim their hunger and reclaim their life and health.

Some of them have such an emotional attatchment to food, that even if they found low carb did work for them they would miss the highs from carbs so much that they wouldn't be able to stay on the wagon. It's like how every alcoholic is not able to stay away from the temptations forever, because their personality and behavior is so intrinsically linked to escapism through drinking.

Anyway, I just feel bad for them personally. They have given up on trying to be healthy because they've been failed so many times, and are trying in vain to keep a smile on their face as they die a little more each day. It's very very sad. I wish I could teach them all about the atkins diet, because I am sure at least some of them would be helped by it, but I can't.