As there has been some talk lately of a crackdown on obesity (in the form of the Great Boasting Session), it might be time for a thread about how being one of Jehovah's Witlesses can lend one to becoming fat.
First, my personal situation. When I was in college, I gained the 4X15 pounds that were supposed to be gained in college, and it was only my sophomore semester. It was legitimately my fault. So I stopped eating excessively, and embarked on a course of walking 6 miles per day as a way to lose that excess lard (it was something close to 50-60 pounds).
Sure enough, shortly after I started this, the weight started coming off. In fact, it came off quite quickly. Inside of a month, I lost the quick 20 pounds and kept losing the excess lard. Within the next 2 months, my weight was about where it was before I entered college, with nothing more than sensible eating and walking 6 miles per day. No surgery, no drugs, no special diets or proscriptions, no nothing. And it stabilized even after I reached my goal weight.
This weight was more or less maintained during about the next 5 years. When I went home for Christmas (the dorms closed), I gained part of the weight back because I could not continue my 6 miles of walking per day for 2 weeks. But, without so much as a New Years resolution, I lost the weight back within the next 2 weeks upon return to college by just resuming walking 6 miles or more per day. I made it a rule to do that at least 6 days a week, in all kinds of weather.
During the next few years, the weight stayed off. As long as I could walk that much every day, I could not get fat again. However, once I studied to become one of Jehovah's Witlesses, I had to cut back sharply on my walking. Boasting sessions at first, then field circus, intruded. Field circus is nothing more than slow walking interspersed with sitting or standing, and not the sustained walking needed to keep my weight off. The result is that I gained back the weight I lost in college, after having maintained the weight loss for nearly 5 years. Nice going, Filthful and Disgraceful Slavebugger--I wish I could send you guys the lard, complete with interest.
That illustrates how being one of Jehovah's Witlesses can make you fat. If you are spending so much time out in field circus that you can't just walk for a whole hour a day, you are likely to get fat. (More so if you had been walking that much or more before joining.) But exercise is not the only thing the witlesses do short on.
The Pioneer Diet is another. I have seen more people stop at McDonalds or Wendys for lunch every single day. Now, an occasional meal of this is not likely to kill you. But when you do that every damn day, without a chance to exercise to burn it off, you are all but sure to gain weight. It's only a matter of time before you get fat on all those burgers, fries, high fructose corn syrup drinks, and the snacks. And those coffee drinks also add calories that can add to fat--all without a chance to walk it off. It also clogs the liver and makes the thyroid more sluggish.
Another is stress. Witlesses are chided on everything. They do not get enough sleep, itself a risk factor in getting fat. Stress, besides contributing to mindless eating, slows the metabolism. The witlesses are stressed by the boasting sessions, having to go out in field circus, not having freedom to do anything but theocraptic things, not being allowed to express human feelings, and the threat of dying at Armageddon or suffering terribly during the Tribulation. All of which can contribute to being fat.
This is a classic case where the Filthful and Disgraceful Slavebugger is giving people a program to follow that is guaranteed to make most of them fat, forcing them to follow it under a death threat, and then punishing them for its being successful. I noticed that they are cracking down on obesity among the witlesses, but nowhere is it suggested that they cut back on field circus to make time to walk a whole hour a day. A side point is, today I just saw in a mainstream newspaper an article linking children's not getting at least 12 hours sleep a day when infants with being fat later. Notably, witless babies are forced to stay up until 10:00 PM regularly for a boasting session and then get up at 5:00 AM for field circus.
I am not going to stick my nose in anyone's business and tell them that they should lose weight. But if you want to lose weight, I recommend walking a whole hour a day, at the fastest pace that is still comfortable for you. People still in college or that have few responsibilities can walk as much as 6 miles, or more, per day. Doing that will make it very difficult to stay fat, and if you have lost weight, it will make it more difficult to impossible to gain the weight back. (Compare: People that lose weight by diet alone almost always gain it back within a few months.)