I was anorexic as a teenager. I always thought I was "naturally" thin and never grokked why I didn't lose weight by starving myself. Cooking and embracing that I feel so much better at 170 lbs than at 115 lbs was a massive challenge.

— Janie Larson (@RedQueenCoder) March 22, 2019

While it’s not healthy being anorexic, the thing is, that being 170 pounds as a short-ish woman catches up with you eventually. That’s a BMI likely somewhere in the 32-35 range. It might not lead to anything now, but wait till you’re 50, then enjoy the diabetes — especially as women in particular tend to gain even more weight post-menopause.

These people who are programmers and other STEM types have remarkably poor reasoning skills and understanding of statistics and probabilities.

Almost no one who claims they are “starving themselves” really does that, by the way — people are absolutely terrible at self-reporting food consumed. Like, so bad at it it’s kind of funny in a weird way. Because if you do actually starve yourself, you will fucking lose weight. I guarantee it. Let me control your food intake and you’ll be dropping weight like nobody’s business.

Ceteris paribus thinness == healthier. This is not a bad first-pass heuristic. Not always, but the statistical correlation is extremely high, and the correlation only increases as you get older. Being young and fat seems fine. Right up until it isn’t and then it’s too late.

Also, if you feel better at 170 just means that you sit on your ass all day and don’t do much and don’t eat correctly, and don’t exercise much at all. That’s just generally true of most Americans and I have no doubt it’s the case here. Of course it feels better to continue in inertia and poor health. Doing nada is always easier than making the effort.

Most people are massive bundles of delusion and self-justification. I want no part of that shit.