I've been obese since I was two because my parents fed me nothing but fast food. I've battled binge eating disorder most of my life, and I'm currently recovering from bulimia. I exercise daily and lock up my food in order to lose/not gain weight.

I've had 1300 calories and exercised for 106 minutes today. I weigh less than i did when I was 15. I'm trying.

I don't know what other fat people's situations are, but not every fat person just has no self respect and doesn't care.

The obesity epidemic is due to:

1) High fructose corn syrup and other added sugars. Fructose interferes with leptin, the hormone that tells you to stop eating.

2) Large portions being the norm. Eating too much too often also affects leptin. Leptin resistance occurs after breif periods of eating too much. This leads to people never feeling satiated after meals. This condition affects some races/people more than others depending on how well their body regulates their hormones. It is considered blasphemy if I go to a restaurant and only order a 400 calorie salad and a water. My friends/family/waiters insist I should eat more because eating a 400 calorie lunch is crazy in our culture.

3) Exercise not being normal. I know so many people who never exercise. Inactivity causes more diseases than excess fat, but no one understand that. The risk of diabetes, high blood pressure and heart attack reduce dramatically if people would just exercise. Obesity-related diseases should be renamed to inactivity-related diseases. Maybe people would exercise then. It's a lot easier to go for a 20 minute walk than it is to lose 50lbs.

4) Child obesity not being considered child abuse. I know so many obese people who became obese as children because their shitty parents fed them shit. They didn't gain weight as adults; they just can't figure out how to successfully lose the weight their parents put on them.