As usual, I see in the comments exactly what I expected: a whole lotta blame. Obese people are just that way because they refuse to exercise and eat right. Spoken confidently by non-obese people. Instead of blaming, consider the fact that obese people really would prefer to be thin and healthy.

The usual refrain, "They just need to eat better." Sounds easy, right? It just isn't. "They just need to exercise." Sure, exercise isn't much trouble when you feel well (obese people don't feel well). If this problem were a matter of all the victims just doing the right thing, it would be fixed. The same is true for diabetes, "Just eat a diabetes-preventive diet." Most people, obese or not, act out of habit. Making drastic changes to exercise and diet in a culture that doesn't support such changes (office work, commuting, lack of time if you are poor, lack of money, food deserts, ignorance about healthy foods due to lack of education, etc.) is incredibly difficult.

This is an issue that matters to me because i was a chubby kid brought up in a home with good eating habits, healthy food--in a family of two thin parents and two thin siblings. I played every sport. And yet, I always had a weight problem. I've devoted much of my adult life to figuring out how to be thin. As an adult, I have a lot of support (education, a supportive spouse, training in nutrition) and STILL, it has been extraordinarily difficult for me to become a thin person.

Like most people who've been fat, I've tried every diet known to man. Due to low thyroid, I eat a very restrictive diet focusing on vegetables, meat, some fruit and healthy fats. I exercise daily, meditate, etc. If I stopped eating the way I do - like having an occasional daily treat or eating out a couple of times a week - I would put on weight.

People who do not struggle with weight do not understand that there is a metabolic, disease process in obesity. Once it gets going, it's very difficult to reverse. Stop blaming individuals, it doesn't help.