I Can Forgive Seven Pounds Overweight...

Hell, I can't even tell if someone has gained ten pounds over time... I never have, and I think only women and men in the fashion industry can tell that small of an increase/decrease, because they're obsessed with weight. My obsession with weight runs the other direction, though. I notice when people are, say, 60lbs overweight.

It occurred to me in early 2005. I was standing in the hot dog line at the Jacksonville, FL Sam's Club, when I noticed something horrifying: How many adults within eyeshot were Lipitor candidates? The answer from looking at them: all of them. Yes, it was Sam's Club. Yes, it was Florida - you slack-jawed yuppie Blue state class warriors can shut up now. But, I shopped at Sam's Club (then), and I lived in Florida (then), and I'm nowhere near overweight. In fact, my BMI is 17, which is apparently underweight. I ate a decent diet, bought from that very same Sam's Club, and consumed it in the very same state. Just a few people - sure, could be genetic. But all of them? Our gene pool can't be that tiny, or shallow.

The fact of the matter is that it didn't matter where they shopped, or where they lived - none of that changed the fact that these people were fat, and it was of their own doing. You eat deep-fried potatoes, you get fat. You eat cheese and mayo with every meal, you get fat. You go back for seconds of all of the above, you get fat. You eat too damn much, you get fat.

I mention this because a story was just released that scientists have found a gene which can predispose one to obesity. Not, gross obesity, mind you, but 2.6 to 7.0 pounds. That's it. 2.6 to seven pounds cannot account for this:

Fat.

That is not seven pounds. That's a beer belly. That guy's fat because he drinks too much beer.

The story tells us that if a specimen has one copy of a particular variant of the FTO gene (called the "fatso" gene), then they are predisposed to gaining up to 2.6 lbs. Two copies: 7.0 lbs. And there are asymptotically fewer numbers of three or four variants. But that's not what's going to get publicized, or acknowledged.

"I'm fat because of my genes," is what is reinforced through this finding. No doubt Oprah and the rest of them will jump all over this. "No, you may have gained 2.6 or seven pounds because of your genes, but you're fat because of your behavior."

I'm sure that'll go over.

If you're as overweight as the picture above shows, then you should be embarrassed about how you look. You can't move or think as fast as you should, you consume more expensive calories than you should, aesthetically you're an eyesore, and you're going to die of type 2 diabetes, simply because you eat too much of the wrong stuff, or too much in general.

Except for those 2.6 lbs underneath your neck - those are your genes'.