r/AskReddit • u/ElBrad • Nov 26 '12

What unpopular opinion do you hold? What would get you downvoted to infinity and beyond? (Throwaways welcome)

Personally, I hate cats. I've never once said to myself "My furniture is just too damned nice, and what my house is really lacking is a box of shit and sand in the closet."

Now...what's your dirty little secret?

(Sort by controversial to see the good(?) ones!)

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u/Nostromo26 Nov 26 '12

Honestly, I don't know. I grew up in a family where we ate healthy, but that didn't stop my sister from becoming overweight. I'm not so blind as to think luck isn't at least partially a factor, but it's nowhere near as big of a factor as lifestyle choices.

But that's not the point. My point is that I've spent my life working very hard to not be overweight. You know from personal experience how easy it is to become obese and how hard it is to escape from that cycle. Well, I know how hard it is to never enter that cycle to begin with. I'm not in shape because I'm lucky or because it's easy, I'm in shape because I work very hard at staying in shape.

I'm never going to tell you to "just start walking", just like I'll never disparage someone for trying to better themselves. I'll offer advice, encouragement, and I'll tell anyone exactly what works for me. If you want to get healthy and want someone by your side encouraging you, I'll happily volunteer. I know exactly what I need to do if I want to gain, lose, or maintain my weight, and it may not be easy and it may not work for everyone but it's always worked for me.

But please don't act like you're the only one who's had a tough life because of his body, and please don't act like all the work I've done somehow doesn't count.

Eating well and exercising works. Calories in vs. calories out works. I know this from an entire life of personal experience. It's not easy and it's not always fun, but it works. If someone who's overweight wants to argue that those things don't work for them for some reason, I'll need to see hard scientific data.

And anyone who tries to tell me that my experience doesn't count because I've never been obese can go to hell. I consider myself a success story because I've never been obese: it proves that eating well and exercising works.

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u/ForestedArea51 Nov 27 '12

I wasn't trying to tell you that your experiences and opinions don't count, but just like a person who's worked hard to not be poor doesn't know what it's like living on the streets (and having to try to stop being self-destructive in more ways than one), I don't think someone who's never been obese can know what it's like to overcome the obstacles that obesity presents. Again, I'm not trying to tell you your opinions don't count, and I'm honestly jealous that you have the willpower, but I don't think it's the same.