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There's a lot of stuff I started writing from personal experience but I've just deleted it because I sense what's being talked about in the article is probably classifiable as an eating disorder and I am in no way qualified to say anything about eating disorders. People who identify with the sentiments expressed in the article may want to consult a doctor.
Ok, but there's also an environmental (and one completely reasonable mental) factor: I live in a place where it is unpleasantly hot (upper 90s and humid) most of the year and there are few public outdoor spaces generally thanks to rampant overdevelopment, I hate gyms and toxic gym culture, I have a quaint bungalow that doesn't have space for equipment, I work an intense job that keeps me focused for hours at a time,…
I just don’t get the appeal of throwing my hands up and going, “Yep, somebody needs to care more about me than I care about me.”
Some of my friends are obese despite exercising heavily every day.
Finding ways you enjoy to keep an active lifestyle is a great idea, probably the highest impact thing you can do for your long term well being (for people in this community I strongly recommend trying rock climbing or martial arts, especially BJJ, both very mentally challenging sports).
However, author's recipe doesn't work for everyone, and you shouldn't feel terrible if it doesn't work for you. Also, I'm hearing amazing things about those new drugs.
Alcohol is by far the biggest one(was the case for me). Used to work at a place where "lets go grab a pint or two after work" was the norm every day. A pint is like 250kcal, you do that for a month you will gain like half a kilo easy.
Liquid calories in general are the most dangerous thing because of how easy it is to ingest.
I feel like the author is generalizing by assuming that everyone who is fat has an "obsession with food".
They eat snacks before bed, consume high calorie foods with low nutritional value. Then they feel too tired or hungover to be active the following day due to a poor night of rest.
This whole idea about exercising to lose weight is unhelpful when the truth is that no amount of exercise is going to compensate for eating more calories than you have to.
And yes, you will go to bed slightly hungry for weeks or even months if you want to lose a lot of weight.
For me, quitting tobacco was simple, don’t use. Quitting alcohol was simple. Don’t drink. I cannot simply abstain from eating. I can relate to the struggles and feelings from this article.
Losing weight is hard. Maintaining weight is easier, except that you have to do it forever. It was incredibly hard and took me a long time to lose 15 pounds as a always had been skinny person whose weight slowly crept up. I've never been obese and I'm sure it's super challenging to change, considering how hard loosing 15 lbs was for me. But if I were, I do think I'd try a GLP-1 agonist to get my weight down.
On a side note, I keep exercising at least 2-3 hours per week and honestly I feel physically much better than I used to feel in my 30s.