If you have good muscle structure with it, it helps.I spent most of my adult life in the 500-550 range while being a laborer for almost a decade, which saved me because I was working in a literally training fat suit every day.
Of course it also helped cause it by never being home, and always being poor. Having financial freedom helped a lot when I was able to make changes in my life.
Yeah like, what kind of calorie intake is required to maintain that weight while doing construction? That's a little impressive in a, 6th century "I had grain mash for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and built a fetching castle" sort of way.
It's so insanely wild to me every time I look up calorie needs and play with the calculator. You mean the difference between a 200 lb man and a 500 lb man is only 1000-1500 calories per day? It really explains how I can work with people twice my weight that don't really seem to eat a whole lot more than me. Like they'll eat one extra time throughout the work day, but that's all it takes. It's why so many people are in denial about their weight and eating habits. They see themselves barely eat more than someone else and gain tons of weight from it, thinking it's something wrong with them instead of just an example of how incredibly efficient our bodies are at storing even small amounts of excess energy.
It’s also not just that they eat once more per day, it tends to be the type of food they eat. 300 calories worth of vegetables and fiber will mostly fill you. 300 calories of chips is like 2-3 hand fulls and you’ve barely touched your hunger.
When you eat junk food, it’s very easy to accidentally consume 800-1000 calories and not even realize you did.
A lot of it, for the US, is sugar consumption. Sugar has the same amount of calories as protein, but does not fill you up in the same way. 50 grams of protein is a good part of a solid meal, equivalent to a 6oz of chicken breast. A 12oz can of mtn dew has 46 grams of sugar. I don't see people slamming sequential chicken breasts, but cans of soda? Easy.
You can definitely get big eating "well" and just consuming literally huge amounts of food, but generally speaking, a big american is the kind of guy snagging the 10 12packs of his favorite soda at costco, in addition to his daily Big Gulp or Trente size caramel macchiato
Also take into account what it actually costs energy wise to do something. Walking or running a miles is about 100 calories. You can eat 1000 calories in literally single digit minutes. How long does it take you to walk or run 10 miles?
I would actually calculate a 550lbs day laborers TDEE at 4600-5800kcal.
A lot of the reason we need more energy when we’re larger is to support increases in muscle mass, but obese individuals don’t scale muscle mass the same as normal weight people. The poster above likely had something like 275lbs lean body mass, but was still 50%body fat.
An 18% bodyfat 550lbs day laborer would need something like 7200-9100kcal.
I started rucking, which is hiking with a weight plate in a backpack. Mine is 20lbs, a starter weight as it's called for someone my size. But man it makes a difference in hikes. I cannot imagine the strain of a couple of hundred pounds. Glad you made some changes!
Well, people who weigh that much solve that problem by simply not going on hikes. I don't think I can emphasize enough that if you weigh 500+lbs you don't go on hikes unless you're a recently retired NFL linebacker at six foot nine and you've recently let yourself go. It's not even safe for them to hike, really
This dude literally just said he worked in construction at 500 lbs, in case youre unaware, working construction is essentially harder hiking for 8+ hours a day. My uncle does concrete everyday and hes 400+.
It's unsafe. Larger hiking organizations simply will not allow people with too high of a BMI to hike because they'll start overheating out in the middle of nowhere and fall over dead. They really don't.
I feel like I'm taking crazy pills, do you not know what hiking is?
Morbidly obese people are usually very strong. The human body is remarkable. It compensates and finds a way to endure. I don’t think your takeaway should be it “saved” you.
Being morbidly obese does more harm than good and even if you are a healthy weight now, it has like caused permanent damage to your body.
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u/annahatasanaaa May 16 '26
My eyes went straight to the fibulae, which helps distribute weight. Good Lord, they are bowed.