Well, one reason is that not everyone thinks the same way you do.  They
value different things.  If what they value is greasy food, the
entertainment value of eating pringles and watching tv, in lounging around
with friends in the livingroom, in drinking beer and hanging loose, well
they will become fat.  In olden days a monarch was expected to be
fat: that's the life of riches and leisure.

Some people consider that vanity is a sin.  Being obsessive about your
workout needs doesn't fit with everyone's life.  For example, I got fat by
exercising less and sustaining multiple blows to my metabolism associated
with pregnancy and the subsequent subsummation of my life to the children.
It's not like one day I had trouble fitting in my jeans, it's more like
for 9 months I wore maternity clothes and my body wasn't shaped the same
ever-after and I didn't have time or energy to do anything about it.

You saw your pants getting tight and several things came together:

You cared and considered it a problem.
You realized that you needed to eat less.  
You knew how to eat less and still be satisfied on those foods.
You changed your habits.

If any one of those four steps were different then you would have had a
different outcome.

Wendy

Good question. I was fat too. I did not have any special issues,
except that I take thyroid supplements. I suspect that my thyroid made
me a little unbalanced. Still, obviously, I gained weight because I
ate too much, but I was lacking some self regulation.

How did it happen? I liked to eat a little too much and I exercised
too little. Sort of, I was in denial about my weight and ignored
it. Tried to lose it once, starved myself and gave up.

I wish it was more complicated, apparently some individuals here are
much more complex in regards to weight issues. But to me it was liking
to eat too much, and eating wrong food, and sedentary lifestyle.

i
223/177/180

Because people are taught that they don't have to make hard
decisions, somebody will come up with a pill to fix whatever
is wrong with them.  Hence all the people who take pills to
lose weight -- and wind up sick one way or another.

Behind it is the notion that if people know how to make hard
decisions, they won't buy 80% of the things American commerce
wants to make money from.  

Read back through the postings and you will see not only spam
but also some postings from people who have bought the fantasy.

For me..
It's much like being an alcoholic or an addict. How does an addict
become an addict?  Because they think they can control it even if it's
"just this once" - Since some serious self discovery I have learned that
I can not take that path. There is no "just one snickers bar" for me, or
"I'll skip working out just this once" It *has* to be a reasonable
conscious effort on my part on a daily basis to stop all those bad
habits and replace them with good. It's getting easier yes.. but it is
still a very prevalent part of my day. To make good choices that will
eventually get me to a goal, and I'm not talking about a physical goal
alone but a mental and spiritual one as well. I don't know if this is
how it is for others. But that's how it is for me.

Susan
260/202/160

---
2month 2weeks 20:21hours of being smoke-free, 3,040 cigs not smoked,
$562.40 saved, 1wweek 3day 13:20hours of my life saved

I'm very sceptical about people who claim "glandular issues or other
medical related obesity problems" but I know there are some who will
tell me I'm wrong.
The answer for me is simplistic (not to be confused with simple!)
For myself, I've spent most of my adult life overweight because I eat
too much.
I eat too much because  I have a compulsive eating problem which I
have never been able to conquer for a sufficient length of time to get
to my goal.
I take a considerable amount of exercise, especially walking,
swimming, etc., but it would take a heck of a lot of exercise to work
off the calories some people eat, including me on a bad day.
It could be that some of this applies to the people you are referring
to, although I agree there are some who take no exercise and who
really don't care about what they eat.
Of course, exercise and eating well is the obvious thing to do.  It's
doing it that many people find difficult almost to the point of
impossibility.
janice

There was a time when I didn't give a flying fig if I was fat, thin, or
otherwise, as long as I got to eat WHAT I wanted, *when* I wanted.  
There *were* situations in my life which embedded this mindset when I
was younger, of which I acted on later in my life.  My choice, My deal.

Sometimes, seriously, food is tasty, and that taste is addictive for
some, and they'll go through ANYthing, even fatness, to just taste it
yet one more time.

Some people's addictions just happen to be more obvious than others,
that is all.  While one person is engaging in overeating, another person
might be engaging in drugs, or gossiping behind someone's back, or what
have you.

Someday I will reach the point of perfection, and never make any bad
choices WRT eating, or whatever, and as soon as I do, you'll be the
first to know ;-)

1.  Babies.  

Being pregnant makes you very hungry in odd ways.  You CAN control it,
but you have to see the need.  

No-one really said to me, 'look, you need to be willing to be really
hungry for nine months and pretty depressed about it, or to gain 10+
pounds per baby.'  

It also makes your body store fat.  I suspect some of the metabolic
changes are permanent.  

Breastfeeding uses up FAR fewer calories than you are led to believe,
and it causes RAGING carb cravings.  I know someone who gained half a
stone while bf twins.  

2.  Being at home with babies, and bored.

3.  The ideology police.  No-one ever said that being 'normal' weight
was a lot of work.  Heaven forfend.  Any remarks of this kind led to
cries of 'eating disorder'.  

Hence paradoxical alliance between feminism and advertisers to create
delusional state - also induced by advertising showing thin supermodel
pogging self on Haagen-Dazs - that 'normal' people eat a lot and remain
thin.  

So why don't I deserve some too?  Whine.  

4.  Conflicting ideologies - vague notion of keeping cookie jar full on
the one hand and being a size 10 on the other.  If cookie jar is full
most people will sooner or later have a cookie.  

5.  Your metabolism slows as you age, however much you exercise.

I think everyone's answers may be different.  But those are mine.  I
don't want to flame you, but I wouldn't be too sure of myself till I'd
done babies and menopause.  

I've seen lots of answers to this question.. but never the obvious one.

Sometimes people are just fat because that's all they've ever known.

I was always a very active kid.  Always wanted to be outdoors.. yet I was
also a chubby kid from the age of 4.  Then I moved on to a heavy teen (180
was lowest at 16).  I'm now a morbidly obese (god I hate those words) adult.
The last 60 or so pounds came on without me even realizing.  Literally I
woke up one day and went... holy sh#t, I'm 240lbs.  After that it was
lifestyle that put on 20 more pounds.

What started it all though, was an unhealthy start.  My mother cooked
extremely greasy food, rewarded good behaviour with sweet treats, healed boo
boo's with ice cream.  My life revolved around food.  It's only now (and by
this I mean the past 5yrs or so) that I've finally begun to deal with the
fact that if I don't change this relationship to food, I will die loving it.
My doctor has already diagnosed me pre-diabetic with high cholesterol and
elevated blood pressure.  I'm only 29.  It's a sobering fact and you know,
sometimes it still isn't enough for me to break the bond I have with food.

I'm not overweight because I want to be.  I'm overweight because I have not
been able to break the cycle.  I'm working on it though.  I'm working hard
and sometimes I succeed and sometimes I fail, but I keep trying.

I initially lost 40lbs and started to feel great but then all of a sudden I
got comfortable, or maybe what I got was just scared.  Scared because if I'm
not "the fat one", then what am I?  Scared of all the attention I could get
if I got "thin". Losing weight sometimes is a huge leap.  I've gained 20 of
those pounds back and I'm working once again to take it off.  My thoughts
are that it's going to take awhile.  I constantly have to have this battle
within me and little by little my battles are being won.

Cp

Thanks for all the replies folks. This has really helped me to understand
some of the reasons behind obesity. I've never been overweight, I'm
currently 6'4, 200 lbs and 9% body fat, but I will no longer automatically
think less of those who struggle. I have friends with substance abuse
problems so I can relate to that.

Thanks,

Buddee.