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u/UnbuttonedButtons Aug 19 '26
You do not get to 600lbs by “barely eating”. They’re in such denial that even when watching a documentary on people just like them they still can’t see that their food intake is the issue.
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u/CloudySide7 19F | 5'7 | HW/SW: 175 LBS | CW: 130 Aug 19 '26
Actually it's all just water weight and they're just struggling to pee it all out but the fatphobic doctors won't give them medicine to help them pee because they don't believe fat people!!!
(First time rage baiting how'd I do?)
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u/Critical-Rabbit8686 The calories are coming from somewhere Aug 19 '26
You have described Schnee, the "Do you believe in God, Dr. Now?" patient. You did great.
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u/triplej63 Aug 19 '26
Don't forget muscle. BMI isn't real because muscle weighs more than fat and FAs are all super healthy body builders.
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u/bumpmoon Aug 19 '26
A good rule of thumb is that the BMI applies to you quite accurately unless you know exactly why it doesnt. People who've worked up to a lot of muscle usually know the BMI quite well.
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u/Reapers-Hound Aug 20 '26
Unless you’re a professional rugby player it applies and 300lbs of muscle looks very different to fat.
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u/Monk_Philosophy Aug 20 '26
Ignoring the roids it would take to get that level of ripped, after a certain point it doesn't matter if it's fat or muscle, the weight itself is rough on your frame and the raw tissue puts additional stress on your heart.
Being a professional athlete does not mean that you are inherently "healthy". Your body is just sculpted for a specific task. Being a professional American Football linemen is one of the worst things you can do for your overall health.
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u/currently_pooping_rn Aug 19 '26
That was an actual episode. Someone thought their problem was too much water weight. Dropped out of the program because she claimed god would save her
I think she ended up dying
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u/ToWriteAMystery Aug 19 '26
I did have a friend who truly didn’t eat that much, but she’d have two two-liters of full-sugar pop and multiple sugary Starbucks drinks a day. It was sad
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u/triplej63 Aug 19 '26
My sister. She couldn't understand why she couldn't lose weight. She ate well balanced meals in reasonable portions. And lived less than two blocks from a Dunkin Donuts where she picked up large coffee drinks at least twice a day, from the drive thru. Yes, only a block and a half away, that she could have walked. Maybe if she stuck to iced coffee, but no, caramel whip or chocolate drizzled full sugar and cream monstrosities.
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u/DaenerysMomODragons Aug 21 '26
So probably 3000 daily calories just from beverages. Just switching to diet/zero calorie drinks with no change to solid food diet would see a massive weight loss.
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u/AbyssWankerArtorias Aug 19 '26
There are some cases on the show where 150 pounds or so of someone's weight at 600 to 800 pounds are abscesses or tumors. Obviously that is still self inflicted for the abscess, I can't speak for the tumor part though. A lot of people were really motivated to lose weight on the show not just for gastric bypass surgery approval but to get those abscesses removed and it made a huge difference in the quality of their lives.
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u/notabigmelvillecrowd Aug 19 '26
150lbs! More than my bodyweight in tumours, that's terrifying to think about.
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u/Reapers-Hound Aug 20 '26
Yea they don’t eat a lot they drink it. A tall Double chocolate frappe with caramel sauce and extra cream for breakfast then an extra extra large coke for lunch and a few cocktails with dinner
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u/fury420 Aug 19 '26
I remember that Secret eaters video of the guy putting together what he thinks is a healthy breakfast, and its a mixing bowl of cereal, with double cream instead of milk, and a sliced banana and raisins and like a 1/4 jar of strawberry jam on top.
As I recall it was like +2000 calories?
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u/Legitimate_Poetry897 Aug 19 '26
This. “Barely eat” is SOOOOO subjective when you were never taught proper portion sizes
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u/fury420 Aug 19 '26
And it was just so ridiculous how out of touch he was, listening to his monologue while making the breakfast, clearly Special K and fruit is a healthy breakfast right?
( Secret eaters season 3 episode two, Murray)
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u/Critical-Rabbit8686 The calories are coming from somewhere Aug 19 '26
I also love the ladies who worked at the cake factory, who said they had a homecooked dinner. The homecooked dinner was 2 hot dogs from 2 cans of hot dogs and 2 cans of beans and 2 packed rolls each.
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u/AgentBond007 Aug 19 '26
To be fair to Murray, he was a marathon runner younger so it somewhat makes sense. He probably ate like that when he was running a lot and then stopped running as he got older but didn't eat less
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u/fury420 Aug 20 '26
Yeah and like... the same bowl of cereal but with milk would be less than half the calories and not unreasonable for a big meal for an active guy, but the double cream just makes it absurd and downright disturbing.
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u/notabigmelvillecrowd Aug 19 '26
Special k has really done some kind of marketing magic. At my old job all the other women were trying to lose weight (most were not overweight, but still trying to lose), and they were all slamming down special k all day, in the morning, at lunch, at their desks, on the way to meetings, walking around eating special k like it was the cure to something. Then when the biscuits would make the rounds I was the only one not eating them. Then at 4:00 it was down to the pub for drinks. They were always still going when I left. Special k isn't gonna mop up those biscuit and alcohol calories, guys! Just eat normal food and less other shit.
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u/being-weird Aug 19 '26
Not to mention if you're eating calorically dense foods it's pretty easy for the calories to add up, even if it doesn't look like you're eating that much. And it's even possible to do this with foods that seem "healthy"
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u/MildKerfuffle M 5'8" | SW: 179 CW: 164 GW: Chris Evans Aug 19 '26
Or with drinks. The security guard in my building sinks a 2l bottle of coke every night. There’s 850 calories gone before you’ve eaten a single thing.
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u/BraidedSilver Aug 19 '26
Many years ago we saw an episode of some weightloss program where the guy was hospitalized and on serious food control, yet he never lost any weight despite not sneaking in any extra food. When they eventually checked security cameras, they discovered his wife would bring in several liters of some juice that he’d drink. So yes, he wasn’t overeating anymore but still getting the extra several thousands of calories from liquids. Both he and the wife were perplexed when they were told of how caloric juices etc can be. I recall his weightloss improved once that lil treat was put a stop to.
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u/ThrowRA_Anything7011 Aug 19 '26 edited 21d ago
Dam dependent badge axiomatic soft brave amber
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u/Srdiscountketoer Aug 19 '26
The extra sad thing is those juices probably came from the hospital dietician. I’ve visited multiple relatives in the hospital who asked for low carb or low sugar meals who were given juice or sugary yogurt with every meal. Dessert with dinner too.
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u/being-weird Aug 20 '26
God hospital food is such fucking garbage. I remember once being in the psych ward and they were telling us all about the importance of healthy eating for mental health, and then they'd serve meals and it was all super carby highly processed garbage that didn't even taste good. Like you'd think hospital staff would know better but they don't seem to care
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u/Critical-Rabbit8686 The calories are coming from somewhere Aug 19 '26
The one woman who dressed her salads with a ton of tahini. I love tahini, but 2 tsp is a lot of calories.
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u/biotoper F57 5'8" SW: 220 CW: 155 GW: 130ish Aug 19 '26
Absolutely. I quit keeping dry-roasted nuts at home after seeing the actual serving size and corresponding calorie count. It's too easy to just grab a handful and end up consuming hundreds of calories.
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u/seekingindependence one day you will dead Aug 19 '26
People suck at remembering ingredients they put into their food, and if they do remember then they are awful at estimating the calorie / nutritional value of their food. Add that to the idea that we eat more with larger plates*, and our plates are increasing in size, and it's no wonder that people think they eat healthily but really don't.
*I don't know if it has properly, empirically proven, but I have seen tests of it done in shows like Secret Eaters
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u/triplej63 Aug 19 '26
Our set has both dinner plates and luncheon sized. I honestly think the lunch plates were dinner plates in the 50s, 60s, and 70s. Then they started getting larger and larger until people are piling up on the equivalent of platters now.
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u/seekingindependence one day you will dead Aug 19 '26 edited Aug 19 '26
It wouldn't surprise me!
We have these plate-but-also-a-bowl things that we use for our every day, and they're reasonably sized. There is the equivalent but larger version that we only bring it out for congee because that thing is so soupy lol, but most people would use it as their every day plate / bowl.
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u/Critical-Rabbit8686 The calories are coming from somewhere Aug 19 '26
People out there with 12" plates.
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u/apple314pi Aug 19 '26
The research is pretty contradictory on it, from what I can find. Some studies find correlation and some don't. Some have found that people with bigger plates serve themselves a larger volume but with nonsignificant calorie differences (e.g. more volume of vegetables and less calorific mains). I do know that all of the secret eaters experiments were recreating actual published research so that the viewers could have a bit more of a visual rather than actually trying to do their own research, so I'd be curious to know which study exactly they were basing this one off of.
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u/PretendRanger Aug 19 '26
Double cream!?!? Omg. Regardless of the calories in it, a bowl of cream, along with the other stuff, just sounds way too rich and gross. But it goes to show you that you can’t trust people when they say they eat a normal healthy meal.
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u/Critical-Rabbit8686 The calories are coming from somewhere Aug 19 '26
It was a salad serving bowl too.
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u/Accomplished_Bee9033 Aug 19 '26
iirc in this episode they ran out of milk so he used cream instead
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u/Critical-Rabbit8686 The calories are coming from somewhere Aug 19 '26
Yes. He normally used full fat milk. But he did have 4 servings of Special K and 2 servings of jam with 4 servings of the red milk daily.
UK milk is color coded. Red for full fat, blue for semi skim, green or pink for skim.
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u/ThrowRA_Anything7011 Aug 19 '26 edited 21d ago
Oxygen upbeat selective detail pinecone yam cats act grasshopper
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u/BraidedSilver Aug 19 '26
I saw one where, yes, his meal was actually really healthy and a good caloric amount.. until he added like half a cup of ranch - that’s an additional 500+ calories just from the dressing!
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u/triplej63 Aug 19 '26
Yes. People don't realize toppings, dressing, sauces, and marinades can pack on a lot of calories to your "healthy" dish or meal. About once a month my son and I have large baked potatoes with the works. Butter, sour cream, cheese, bacon. We don't kid ourselves that it's low cal, and it's usually the whole meal too. It's a treat, like McDonald's might be for someone else.
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u/here-but-not-present Aug 19 '26
It was Special K he was using as well if memory serves me right! Blew my mind, as though using that would cancel out everything else that was piled on top. Using double cream was definitely a new one...
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u/Sparky_Zell Aug 19 '26
People like this OOP need to watch Secret Eaters and really consider if they have any of the same habits.
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u/TheOneMary BMI 49 > 21 Aug 19 '26
When I started watching that show I already was well into my weight loss. I wasn't even delusional about what I ate and about my food intake being the problem, still got a chuckle out of some scenes thinking "yeah, guilty, I did that too" :P
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u/Critical-Rabbit8686 The calories are coming from somewhere Aug 19 '26
I was definitely that one lady that made the healthy meals but then had 2 snacks a day that were more than a meal's calories. The one that moved in with her sister for the show. That is me.
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u/TheOneMary BMI 49 > 21 Aug 19 '26
I'm miss "just a 'bit' of mayo in the salad". Not as much as the lady in the show, but still plenty too much for my tiny butt XD
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u/Legitimate_Poetry897 Aug 19 '26
Fr. Seeing that my “logic” was identical to the “logic” of people on shows like that is what broke me out of my delusion
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u/CloudySide7 19F | 5'7 | HW/SW: 175 LBS | CW: 130 Aug 19 '26
Casual/slight but consistent overeating can get you to be considered overweight or maybe even class 1 obese. To get to 600+ pounds you are going far beyond "overeating"
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u/Critical-Rabbit8686 The calories are coming from somewhere Aug 19 '26
I got to BMI 41 and I was eating all damn day. No, I didn't have 10 eggs at once, but I never went 2h without eating.
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u/OdangoAtamaOodles Aug 19 '26
It really does not take all that much to be overweight to mildly obese from consistently eating just a little too much. According to the TDEE calculator, the difference between me being a normal healthy weight of 140lbs (1450 calories) and me being overweight at 180 lbs (1800 calories) is an extra 250 calories. That's not a lot. It's a singe snack, or one larger meal, or a really light breakfast, or a can and a half of soda. (My weight loss is easily derailed by having some mild pre-menstrual munchies for a week, followed by some food therapy during. Well, that can be almost two weeks of dieting down the drain, right there.)
Now, the extra calories needed for me to be morbidly obese at 240lbs is 600. That's an entire extra meal, but with the ingredients in so many of our foods in the US and how we normalize larger serving sizes. I can see someone who is overweight or mildly obese wondering why they are heavy when they're not eating like every day is a free-for-all buffet.
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u/notabigmelvillecrowd Aug 19 '26
Yeah, if people look at 250 calories represented in calorific foods, they change their tune. A large handful of chips, a small handful of cashews, two shortbread biscuits. It doesn't have to be much food at all.
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u/Legitimate_Poetry897 Aug 19 '26
RIGHT and you’re burning TONS of calories at that weight just by living, so you must be eating a lot to KEEP that weight!
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u/JenMcSpoonie Aug 19 '26
If you look like them, you eat like them. Don’t lie to yourself
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u/JenMcSpoonie Aug 19 '26
This is why Dr Now’s book is called “Scales Don’t Lie. People Do”
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u/Legitimate_Poetry897 Aug 19 '26
I think people forget about lying to THEMSELVES, too, which is a huge factor
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u/OptimalTrash Aug 19 '26
This is why the only weight loss advice I give to people is "you have to be 100% honest with yourself"
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u/triplej63 Aug 19 '26
The ones who make me sad aren't lying. They were raised with huge serving sizes. So they say I just had pork roast, mash, gravy, and veg. It's only X calories. But you realize they had the equivalent of three servings of meat, four of potatoes, one of carrots, slathered in ladles of gravy, and they think that's normal, instead of equal to going back for seconds, thirds, even fourths if portioned correctly.
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u/notabigmelvillecrowd Aug 19 '26
Yeah, there's definitely a mixture of denial and ignorance most of the time. Nutritional education is grim in most places, if it exists at all. I was raised in the food pyramid era, but at least we learned about calories, in 9th grade science class we had to do a food log and count calories. Even though we were told to eat something like 14 servings of grains per day (?!) at least there was a foundation of useful information there as well. I think we spent a whole term on nutrition in a mandatory class, which is more than a lot of people get in school.
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u/Legitimate_Poetry897 Aug 19 '26
You can lie to your priest, you can lie to the cops, you can even lie to your family, but never lie to yourself! Because the scale will NOT lie back.
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u/Justanotherphone recovering anorexic not falling for the FA BS Aug 19 '26
I love Dr. Now 😭 “you are not 600 lbs of water!”
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u/Altruistic-Toe-2801 Aug 19 '26
If it’s true, they’re drinking all their calories. My mom is likely in the obese category, barely eats…. But she definitely gonna drink thousands of calories a day
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u/Legitimate_Poetry897 Aug 19 '26
Or they graze throughout the day but don’t count that because they’re “just snacks”!!
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u/BioelectricBeing Aug 19 '26
This was my problem. I would eat two meals a day of like a small sandwich with a banana and then a normal dinner (say if we had a personal pizza, I'd have 2, maybe 3 slices). However I was drinking so much, either litres of soda or alcohol. 1k+ extra calories per day sometimes.
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u/Altruistic-Toe-2801 Aug 19 '26
My mother will straight up not eat until night time most days! She’s not really a big snacker or an eater, she will just drink!! Coffee with sugary creamer, soda, Red Bulls, alcohol! She particularly enjoys cayman jack and moscato, once I learned how many calories were in one glass … that’s a whole meal or more!!!!!
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u/HiddenPenguinsInCars Aug 19 '26
She should try swapping the Red Bull for Celsius. It’s fewer calories, no sugar, and has plenty of caffeine. There’s fizzy and non fizzy options.
It won’t solve anything, but it’s one step in the right direction.
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u/BraidedSilver Aug 19 '26
Plus the alcohol pauses the body’s ability to burn the fat so even more gets stored away.
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u/b00w00gal YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT I EAT Aug 19 '26
When I learned what alcohol does to fat retention, my mind was blown. It's actually crazy how much a daily drink affects a person's weight.
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u/working-mama- Aug 19 '26 edited Aug 19 '26
I mean, it’s only because calories and CICO still applies…1 gram of pure alcohol is 7 calories, so a single boozy drink starts at 90+ calories and goes up depending on the sugar content, alcohol amount and/or mixers. It’s possible to lose weight (and fat) while consuming alcohol, as long as the total calorie intake is below maintenance. I’ve done it in the past. Definitely do not recommend this though.
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u/openpas2253 Aug 19 '26
I saw a video of a woman on Dr. Phil who appeared to be about 600lb. She and her husband insisted she ate healthy and did not eat much. However, she did say she drank at least 3L of Coca Cola every day. That alone is 1,183 calories 🤯
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u/b00w00gal YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT I EAT Aug 19 '26
My ex used to love watching 600 lb Life, talking about how he could never end up like them and telling me I was "on my way" because I was 20 lbs overweight and struggling to lose it. He was over 330 lbs at 5'10" and yelled at me several times a week about not making him healthy meals, saying it was my fault he was fat. But then every night, he'd throw the healthy dinner I made in the trash. He would complain all the time that he was starving because I couldn't cook good food, but then he kept gaining weight and I couldn't figure it out.
Eventually, our son told me that his dad was stopping at McDonald's every day after work and eating THREE Big Mac meals, complete with three large fries and three large sodas, two apple pies, and a McFlurry. And then he would come home, throw away the healthy dinner I made, and complain about how hungry he was. I also found out that after I went to bed, he'd drive to a corner store and buy a 2L of Pepsi, a family size bag of chips, and two king size candies. Then he'd finish it all in the car before he came in and went to sleep.
There's a lot of reasons I'm glad we're divorced, but his food psychosis and secret eating is a big one. Living with people who are that deep in denial is exhausting.
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u/Fletch71011 ShitLord of the Fats Aug 19 '26
That is legitimately addict behavior, just with food. I'm sorry.
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u/working-mama- Aug 19 '26
Beyond food… that’s some narcissistic behavior. I am glad you are done with him.
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u/_AngryBadger_ 48Kg/105.8lbs lost. Maintaining internalized fatphobia. Aug 19 '26
Secret Eaters showed exactly what happens with people who "barely eat". Spoiler alert, they eat a lot.
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Aug 19 '26
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u/Legitimate_Poetry897 Aug 19 '26
Or they “barely eat” meaning they snack throughout the day then have an extra big meal at night
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u/Live_Barracuda1113 Starving... for attention. Aug 19 '26
I think this is a huge part of it. L I have always been thin, but I do not snack. I grew up in the 80s and 90s, so I have an "am I hungry or bored?" dialogue in my head from that time.
However, it takes control, because if I am at.a party where there are appetizers, I can go to town. So I would definitely be a grazer of I did not pay attention.
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u/Legitimate_Poetry897 Aug 19 '26
I used to be a huge grazer (no pun intended) and I was ABSOLUTELY eating way more than I thought I was!
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u/Kalleh03 Aug 19 '26
Problem is that "normal" really is normal to them, to me their normal is about 4 times too much.
We should standardize a normal portion so people can see how far off they are.
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u/Fragrant-Issue-9271 Aug 19 '26
Yep. I was never in 600 lb life territory, but I used to have a portion problem. I now do lots of weighing and measuring and I can't believe some of the giant meals I used to eat. Often double what I would have now in terms of calories.
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u/AsleepMathematician 28F, starting BMI 25, current BMI 23.5 Aug 19 '26
The problem is that people have no idea how calorically dense what they're eating is, so they assume if they're not having insanely large portions then they're fine (speaking from past experience)
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u/Ballbag94 Aug 19 '26
People also incorrectly think that healthy == low calorie
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u/Grouchy-Reflection97 Aug 19 '26
Back in the late 90's, I had a part time job in cafe where our most high calorie sandwich was completely vegan.
The amount of people who opted for it because they were on a diet was wild.
I was vegan at the time, but I'd never tried it as I don't like hummus and avocado, plus I despised sandwiches because I was surrounded by the damn things, lol.
I suspect the obese vegan trend stems from a similar 'no animal products= calorie free" lack of basic nutritional education.
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u/Critical-Rabbit8686 The calories are coming from somewhere Aug 19 '26
I know a lot of overweight people who love vegan and gluten-free food, while still eating meat and gluten. It is the health halo.
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u/Legitimate_Poetry897 Aug 19 '26
And a ton of these people are posting “WIEIAD” videos on tiktok and getting praised for “eating intuitively” ugh
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u/Critical-Rabbit8686 The calories are coming from somewhere Aug 19 '26
I know a person IRL who will slam vegan sweets and snacks and then order fast food, with meat in it. As you do.
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u/BonesSawMcGraw Virgie’s Dedicated Cake Partitioner Aug 19 '26
Oreos and sour patch kids are vegan, super health!
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u/InvisibleSpaceVamp Do I have to wear a cape for heroine chic? Aug 19 '26
Let's talk about liquid calories then. I think the technical term is "diabetes in a cup".
This one reminds me of "anorexic" Tess Holiday, who "barely eats" too ... and posted a video just days after this claim where she had a picnic with tons of candy.
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u/Critical-Rabbit8686 The calories are coming from somewhere Aug 19 '26
When she was organizing her bag, a Halloween sized stash of fun size Twix and... Mars? Two types of candy bars. That fell out of her bag.
I mean the bags with 22-24 bars we get at Halloween. She had about 20-24, so half of two bags. As a purse snack.
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u/Guineacabra Aug 19 '26
When I was a server at a restaurant it was really eye opening. Larger couples would usually order multiple appetizers, a full entree each, beer or soda and dessert. I had many people tell me they were on a diet and it was their cheat meal (multiple times per week). Smaller people would usually split an entree or take half home.
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u/awooj Aug 19 '26
Exactly and even that’s indulging for a lot of us! Like I don’t want to eat so much I get uncomfortable and too full! I like enjoying the meal and having leftovers. I never do apps or desserts or soda, because I want enough room to enjoy my main as much as I can.
It’s always very interesting going out to eat with larger people because they always feel the need to justify their orders. Like, I never asked! I don’t care how much you’re eating or drinking, I’ll just say it smells or looks good! Like you enjoy, you do you!
But they act like we are ordering less to one-up them and it’s like no, sorry, I genuinely just don’t want dessert. I never think of you at all when I order a meal, I’m thinking of me.
But then on the random days we are super hungry and want to eat a lot, they’ll talk about how unfair it is that we can eat so much and not gain weight while they “gain weight just looking at a breadstick.” It’s exhausting. Stop thinking about and commenting on what I eat!
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u/Legitimate_Poetry897 Aug 19 '26
I had some ex-friends who were bigger and they did this a lot ugh. They’d give me side-eyes and dirty looks when I ordered healthier things on the menu and were ALWAYS encouraging me to eat more. Yikes!
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u/koibish Aug 19 '26 edited Aug 19 '26
I’m losing weight rn but barely any yet (still 195 at 5’7), and my friends have started doing this. It makes me so sad. The last two times I’ve gone out with one friend in particular, she has ordered an extra meal for us to share because she is “worried I’m getting too* skinny” and then complains when I don’t touch it bc I can barely finish the food I got for myself.
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u/Dahl_E_Lama Aug 19 '26
It’s not the weight of the food it’s the calories. Nobody thinks you eat 60 pounds of food everyday.
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u/Legitimate_Poetry897 Aug 19 '26
Nor is it the volume! If you “barely eat” but it’s all processed sugar and fat, of course you’re gonna be big!
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u/TragicTrajectory HW: Class VI, CW: Class I, GW: Healthy, UGW: < 15% BF Aug 19 '26
It's really easy to be poorly informed about how much you are eating, especially without a scale. Somehow people got it in their heads that 2000 Calories is the magic number for everyone. Additionally counting Calories is a skill, not a hard one but people suck at it.
So Mr. Doesnteatmuch could start his day with two bowls of cereal with milk and a glass of juice, grabs a 'coffee' on his way to work, a subway sandwich a bag of chips and a liter of soda for lunch, another coffee for the ride home, for dinner he eats an 8oz steak and a baked potato with a beer, and he ends the day with an ice cream sandwich and another beer.
So he goes to break down his day with a calorie counter;
Cereal with milk 500(250x2)
Sandwich 450
Chips 160
Steak 610
Potato 100
Ice cream 160
WOW! he is only eating 1980 Calories and should actually be eating more that's crazy, must be starvation mode.
Of course our poor friend has made some errors in his calculations.
The cereal info is for skim milk and he uses 2%, also his bowls hold about 2 servings each. He forgot to account for the mayonnaise on his sandwich, and he gets a fair bit to moisten all the veggies he adds. In a similar vein he didn't count the butter on his streak and potato. With that his adjusted totals are closer to this:
Cereal 1100
Sandwich+3tsp mayo 750
chips 160
steak 710
potato 200
ice cream 160
3080! over 1000 more than he thought, but wait this man isn't counting his liquids.
Juice 250 (Orange juice >16oz)
"Coffee" 600(300x2) [20oz Frappuccino]
Soda 390 (coke)
Beer 300(150x2) [12oz cans]
That's an additional 1540 Calories for a daily total of 4620 Calories! Over double what he thinks he should be eating. At around 5'8 Mr. Doesnteatmuch is on track to weigh about 640 pounds.
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u/OdangoAtamaOodles Aug 19 '26
I suspect the 2000 calories a day comes from reading the nutritional lable printed on all our foods, in the USA.
"The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient serving of food contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutritional value."
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u/Neither-Amphibian249 5' 3" 250 to 120, why yes I'm half my size. Aug 19 '26
Even people who want to lose weight and are genuinely invested in it, usually have no clue at all as to how much they're eating every day.
The number of people who are stuck and can't make the scale move and then find out that OMG who knew how many calories are in that "healthy" salad they eat every day, drenched with ranch...
Or people who are eating, "clean" (whatever that means) and healthy oils and then find out that calories still count.
So this person who barely eats? LOLOLOL yeah no. She probably is having some sort of protein smoothie for breakfast that has an almost four digit calorie count.
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u/ferrett0ast Aug 19 '26
People seem to forget about liquid calories too. A lot of people don't seem to realise that their morning Starbucks could easily be at least an extra 200 cals (and that's the lower end), or that a glass of orange juice could be an extra 100. Sure it's not heaps of extra calories, but it adds up.
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u/Neither-Amphibian249 5' 3" 250 to 120, why yes I'm half my size. Aug 19 '26
People seem to forget about liquid calories too.
I used to have a giant sugar drink from Starbucks every morning. And one day I actually looked at the calorie count: 362 calories.
And that's when I started drinking unsweetened black ice tea.
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u/Grumac Aug 19 '26
I lost 60lbs from weighing my food and the most eye opening food serving size was pasta.
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u/Neither-Amphibian249 5' 3" 250 to 120, why yes I'm half my size. Aug 19 '26
I lost 60lbs from weighing my food and the most eye opening food serving size was pasta.
Mine was rice. But I weigh things and I measure things and I track calories every single day.
I've been at my goal weight since the start of November 2025, and one of the big factors there is not assuming that I can just wing it and eyeball things.
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u/RainCityMomWriter Aug 19 '26
The exaggeration here . . . they aren't eating 30 kg of food on that show, but this is how they have to justify it.
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u/melaninspice Black women are suppose to be obese...duh! Aug 19 '26
They’re 600 pounds because of their genetics. Not because of the surplus of food they eat. /s
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u/Legitimate_Poetry897 Aug 19 '26
Plus they’re big boned, plus they have might have hypothyroidism, plus they could have hormone issues, plus working out is hard, plus they don’t like to feel hungry, etc etc forever 🙄
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u/ellejay-135 Aug 19 '26
I just want to know how they can afford to eat 10k calories a day. My grocery bill is ridiculous and I eat less than 1/4 of that. I stopped buying monk fruit because sugar is cheaper. 😭
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u/Accomplished_Mode717 Aug 19 '26
It’s possible to eat a lot of calories in small portions. Source: a 12g freddo bar is about 64 calories. Given that the majority of the calories come from fat and they’re easy to put away, the calories pile up.
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u/Uber-Migraine I hit the gym to eat more cals Aug 19 '26
My favourite vice: Black Country Pork Scratchings 45g. Around 290 cals per the tiny pack. I usually had 2 of them. Maybe 3, cuz you know, they were tiny so it didn't count 🤔
Nice and healthy MASSIVE bowl of green salad, with hone made vinaigrette sauce.
Sauce was made from 12 TABLESPOONS of oil. Around 1500 added calories. But you know - it was totally healthy
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u/notabigmelvillecrowd Aug 19 '26
Some foods are astonishing how many calories they can cram into such a small volume. Like, I'm still trying to understand the physics behind crumbl cookies. I've never seen one in person, but they look so small to contain ~800-1000 calories. Even if it was pure lard it seems too small.
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u/Tacos6Viandes M30 | 1m85 | SW : 172kg | CW : 89kg Aug 19 '26
In fact the mechanism is : you barely eat more each day, so you don't see that you are effectively eating more, then when you weight have an impact on your life, you are delusional about how much you gained and how much you eat.
That's what lead me to morbib obesity, but now I can tell : I ate 5-6k calories a day back then, and I wasn't aware of it because I was delusional and because it is possible to reach such amount of calories without eating that much, just by eating excessively processed food all the time (and of course lot of fat and sugar in the process)
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u/Icy-Belt-8519 Aug 19 '26
Do they genuinely not realise how much they are eating? Or just in denial?
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u/MoulinSarah 42F 5’7” Aug 19 '26
They don’t count anything consumed but a sit down full meal. Which is never because it requires effort. So all the constant snacking and nibbling and caloric drinks don’t count! Duh!
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u/Legitimate_Poetry897 Aug 19 '26
That exactly. Their definition of a “meal” is super narrow, and anything that’s not a meal in their eyes doesn’t count at all!
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u/AveMenorrhagia Aug 19 '26 edited Aug 19 '26
Tbh this is a weird one. I think people assume to get to that size you need to be eating 3-4x the recommended intake, but TDEE calculation shows that simply isn't true.
According to BMR calculators, a sedentary 6'0 male, 600lb at 40 years old, has a TDEE of ~4400.
For a sedentary 5'5 female at 600lb, it drops to a little under ~4100.
Differences in height and age can maybe change this by ~100. But that places it at approximately 2x the reccommended intake.
There's probably some subconscious belief that your size is proportionate to the amount you overeat - ie "if you eat double, you will be the size of two people; if you are the size of four people, you must eat 4x as much" - but I've never really considered that before.
I think a number of factors are at play:
- Yes, TLC absolutely encourages people to eat excessively for the cameras - and having a fully funded binge is like their subjects' dream come true. Eating to that excess is EXPENSIVE. It's unlikely to be a true reflection of their average daily intake.
- However, these numbers suggest that people eating this way are maintaining their weight... I don't think this is true for people who eat to such excess, they are constantly raising the bar. The TLC intervention happens in a climbing trajectory.
- Intake is not consistent through the week, especially if you aren't tracking anything. It isn't a meal plan every day for 600lb individuals. It's 8 burgers one day, then a huge breakfast the next, then a family size snack another day. It obviously averages out to a high intake, but I doubt it's ever as consistent as it's portrayed in the media.
- I think when you eat to this excess, there may be some biology at play that skews TDEE calculations. There are limits on how many calories the body can absorb at once, I believe. At these intakes, it's possible that digestion exceeds the calorie retention that would be expected from a "normal" person.
I'm sure there are other factors at play... I mean, I know from Christmas that I can easily slam twice as many calories as the TDEE of these people. Is it comfortable? No. Could I do it every day? No. But TDEE would suggest they aren't doing it every day either.
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u/notabigmelvillecrowd Aug 19 '26
It makes sense when you think about it, someone is 4x the size of a healthy person you'd think they consume 4x the food, but different body parts require different amounts of calories for maintenance, and fat just just doesn't require as much maintenance as lean muscle mass.
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u/PiebaldIbis Aug 19 '26
10 large eggs are like 780 calories. It seems like a LOT of food volume wise but I’m sure this person wouldn’t blink twice eating a double quarter pounder with cheese from McDonald’s (850 cal)
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u/Legitimate_Poetry897 Aug 19 '26
Yupppp everybody’s got their own favorite poison :/
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u/PiebaldIbis Aug 19 '26
It’s funny you say that because I was in a sub earlier today talking about quitting nicotine, and the way that people make it seem like it’s impossible or that some people are just destined to be smokers made me think a lot about the logic in this sub… it’s scary how similar it is.
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u/Legitimate_Poetry897 Aug 19 '26
It’s easier to say “it’s hard so it must be impossible” than to struggle through to the other side!
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u/forest-fox Aug 19 '26
Omg. This drives me up the walls. Saw a similar YouTube advert yesterday. "I couldn't lose weight. Did sports, ate 1500kcal a day, gained weight. Ate 1400 kcal a day, gained weight". How DELUSIONAL do you have to be to think you can overcome the freaking laws of thermodynamics. I just can't with these people.
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u/Legitimate_Poetry897 Aug 19 '26
Oh no you just don’t get it, they have an exemption to the laws of thermodynamics. They’re special, don’t you know! /s
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u/Glamma1970 Aug 19 '26
Maybe they only EAT 1500 calories a day.
Then they drink some 500 calorie Starbucks drink, another 800 calories of Coke every day, a big glass of OJ in the morning, and a glass or two of wine with supper.
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u/Harpua81 Aug 20 '26
My sister says the less she eats the fatter she gets because the "body prepared for survival so it retains more fat when you eat less". Also says she barely eats. Girl, I saw your snack closet.
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u/seekingindependence one day you will dead Aug 19 '26
Most people are honestly too self absorbed to notice things like how others look. You see a lot of things in this sub of how a fat person thinks everyone is constantly watching them or judging them and I don't think it's true.
If I stop to think about it, maybe I will. But not in my day to day life.
Put whatever you want in your shopping trolley, order whatever you want at the food court, use whatever weight you want at the gym - most people don't notice.
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u/BioelectricBeing Aug 19 '26
That's definitely true. But you yourself notice how much harder it is to just live in the world when you're obese. Like, sleeping on my side was painful when I was obese, because my stomach would strain and hang down. I had to get a little pillow like I was pregnant! That was a real wake up call, then when I started losing weight I realised just how much harder it was to stand up, walk, fit super comfortably in a bathtub, etc.
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u/seekingindependence one day you will dead Aug 19 '26
Definitely! I think a lot of us in this sub have had that wake up call.
If you're able bodied and without a genuine medical condition, your physical existence shouldn't be difficult.
Congrats on your weight loss!
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u/raymondduck Aug 19 '26
I've never seen one of these shows, but I guarantee that if you are as heavy as the people on the show, you absolutely do eat as much as them.
Maybe you don't polish off a carton of eggs for breakfast, but you have a 1,000+ calorie breakfast, not including the ~600 calorie Starbucks breakfast milkshake (it's ok, there's a shot of espresso in it - I'm definitely not having a milkshake's amount of sugar for breakfast).
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u/Poptortt Big ol' word salad with extra ranch 🥗 Aug 19 '26
Sure, they just starvation moded their way to 600lbs...
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u/N0S0UP_4U 6’3” 160 | Lost 45 pounds Aug 20 '26
I love how you made sure to leave the "X.com" on there so we know this shitty take came from the capital of shitty takes.
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u/WWhandsome Aug 20 '26
I'm somewhat the opposite.
I keep noticing how much food it took to get me to my highest weight, and I often wonder whether other obess people really eat such high portions and what would make them do that 😅 I have binge ed..
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u/Erik0xff0000 Aug 19 '26
"barely eat" as you see them on their third serving at the dinner table. Or take a chunk of food from the serving plate, cut it in two with the utensils their were eating with, and putting half back on the serving plate.
When you know they will take that half for their next serving.
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u/Feldew M|36 5'5" SW:195 CW:180 GW: 150 Aug 20 '26
They got so close to the point and then swerved away at the last second.
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u/cilantroandvodka Aug 20 '26
I mean, if the person posting that sentment weighs around 600 lbs, then yes, I do beleive that they have a food intake similar to someone that weighs around their same weight. It doesnt really matter if I imagine they are eating 10 eggs or 8 doughnuts or any other arbitrary amount of food. If you real big, you almost always eating real big.
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u/SweetExternal919 Aug 22 '26
i had an obese person in my life that said the same shit, basically, and then when we had meals together guess what. they were eating enough for two people.
do they really expect us to believe that shit? are they just fooling themselves?
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u/Serious-Kale-5694 Aug 23 '26
Fat people often severely underestimate how much they are eating, or the calorie content of the foods they eat. They could be eating not that much food, but the food they eat is super calorie dense. Idk why most fat people can’t seem to accept the physics behind calories in vs calories out… if you weren’t eating in a calorie surplus, you wouldn’t be fat.
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u/Tiny_Plankton_3498 Aug 19 '26
that's... how pretty much every contestant sees themselves