I feel like this will be a good area to add my own thoughts and experiences. I don't really have a point to make, rather I just want to ramble a bit.

Thankfully, I've never been anywhere as big as either of those gentlemen. My heaviest as an adult was around 230, and lightest was around 175. 230 might not seem like a huge issue, but I look at pictures of my father in college and I'm the spitting image of him. Same beard, same haircut, same physique. He used to play tennis and football and did alright for himself. Over the course of the last 30 years he's let it get out of hand and has gotten up to ~600lbs. I hit some emotional lows within the past year and talked to my dad about his eating habits to find out that we have the same impulses, cravings, justifications, and problems. He has become the biggest role model for me when it comes to what not to do. Its like when scrooge gets to look at Christmas future, and I know that if I don't alter my mindset that's exactly how I'll become.

I don't know how much of this is nature or nurture. I know that as a kid my father would buy a bag of donnettes and recruit me to help him finish them off before mom saw. We were "getting rid of the evidence" After the smallest struggle it was easy to justify some feel good food. I almost feel like I've been trained to eat poorly. On the other hand my father, who was adopted as a baby looked into his birth family and found that he his the smallest of all his siblings.

I do know that my problem is 100% eating habits. I rock climb twice a week, and do calisthenics around the house. I used to do Tae Kwon Do as a kid and have been trying to regain my flexibility, and can still manage the splits when I'm warmed up. However, even though I've been trying to keep a level head about my food because I'm much more aware of whats happening to my body, I still run into short comings. I just found out I'll have to move in a couple months, so while my roommate was gone I took it as a self appointed holiday of playing loud music, not wearing clothes, and being a major glutton. One night I had a pan of brownies, the next a quart of ice cream and a package of cookie dough. I know its a setback but its so hard to turn the voices off until I've eaten enough to to upset my body and I get post glutton guilt. Stress makes eating so easy. Its like a chemical victory that you get very very cheaply. Did work suck? Don't worry, for a $1 I can get knockoff pop tarts and eat 1200 calories of sugar and feel very happy about it, at least during the moment.

Most days though, I can limit myself to 2500 calories. Its made easier by consistently being active. I know its backwards, but on days that I go to the gym and rock climb for a few hours + sprints and weighted pullups, I eat less than any other day. When my body does a lot of moving it doesn't seem to like dealing with food. Conversly, days when I sleep in and do nothing I wan't to eat everything, and the best way for me to not overindulge is to eat a proper amount before I ever feel myself getting hungry, because at that point, its usually too late.

The saving grace for me is that I have a negative role model that has made me pay attention to whats happening long before It becomes a mobility and major health problem. There are many things I've done over the past several years, and while I've never kept up with all of it, I've definitely made progress overall. Its very much been a two steps forward, one step back kind of situation, but that still means one step forward at the end of the day. My father talks about gaining 400 like boiling a frog. It was slow and gradual and so there wasn't a single defining moment of, "I'm doing something really bad", just "I'm only doing slightly worse that before" Being good to yourself can be the same way. Even though I don't count calories anymore, I'm a hell of a lot more conscious of what I'm eating. I might not do full body weightlifting every other day, but I'm not a lot more active and fit than I was when I started. I might not do yoga every week, but I'm mindful of my flexibility and work on the parts that mean a lot to me. If I can slowly get a little better, I'll be doing great in the next few years. I'm not after immediate change, I just want improvement. I don't really know where I'm going with this, and I'm sorry for the jumbled mess without a real point.

TLDR: Dad used to look just like me, and we have the same habits, so even though I'm doing fine now, I know I could be 600lbs by 60 if I don't keep it in check. Eating is my problem. I have to stay active and eat before I get cravings to keep it in check. Even though I don't keep up 100% with most health related activities, I make slow improvement and that's very good.