I went from being in shape, to fat after an injury, and am now just overweight. Let me tell you that the delusion is real. Deep down I knew I had gained a considerable amount of weight, but I kept telling myself that my face and body looked good, I just had a beer gut, or maybe you could just call me chubby but attractive. I refused to weigh myself because that would mean coming to terms with reality. I didn't like taking pictures of myself because that would expose the lie. I did all of this and only realized after the fact at how I was finding every single way to tell myself that I was still good, I was still alright, I was still decent looking. I blamed the accident on not being able to workout like I used to, which is true, but I ran with that and took it as I can't do anything. I went to a wedding and saw photos of myself, which drew the line. I was protruding my jaw out to make myself look thinner, and doing weird poses that I thought made me look thin, but that was not the case. I looked like fat sling blade trying to look sexy. That was when it all came crashing down, and I told myself I would cut the bullshit and workout. I bought an exercise bike and have biked 2 hours everyday, without missing a single day, for months. I am now 10 pounds before I am considered out of the overweight BMI, so I'm still going. I was never morbidly obese, but I was fat. A lot of these people I am sure are the same way. I think their minds are deluding themselves to justify their habits as being the result of outward forces, and not directly related to them being lazy, eating like shit, and not working out. I think figuring out why being lie to themselves would be better than trying to look for these "hidden" "medical" reasons for why people are fat.