So I could make $11,000.00 more per year if I quit working and eat more? MacDonalds, here I come!!!

Eating fewer calories than you feel like burning off isn't some big mystery is it? Really? Hasn't everyone come across that information somewhere? I get that it can be harder, sweatier, and involves less ice cream than many people are comfortable with - but "we don't know how" is bullshit.
Although, if they're giving away free money, why the fuck not jump on that wagon eh?

what a load of bollocks
they're just lazy scroungers who are too thick to realize the interviewer was about to pillory them. or they don't care because they're looking to be made famous by a reality TV show.

fruit and veg are too expensive...yet they're eating microwave pies? BS, the whole thing

Brianna: be careful what you wish for. I wished that once upon a time and I got it. Now I can't stop losing eight and must drink six cans of Ensure Plus a day to MAINTAIN my weight...plus eating around 2000 calories.

You can have my disease, I'll take yours.

Breast cancer? have fun with that.

Look, we all have our own definition of hell. Some of us are living it.

However, most of us have acknowledged that we are the ones experiencing it; I doubt Bri (-anna or -an) think anyone else can take their treatments for them.

I am obese; I have (pre) diabetes. It's my problem and I don't expect society to 'fix' it for me. I may get a lap-band to help me lose weight. But I have been a contributing member of our economy 13 years, and will continue to be one till I die. I have earned my medical insurance, and I will probably be (actuarialy) at least as valuable to society as my future medical care will warrant.

I'm not sure what I came here to say, 'cept that freeloaders bother me! At least make a goddamn effort, please?

If they would just become heroin addicts, I'd bet they'd lose some weight.

They spend £50 a week on food?
Bollocks.

Oh, well, if their diet is as limited as they say it is, and they shop in Aldi (or Lidl, or Iceland) then maybe they do...

It's typical of newspapers to make benefits sound like living off the fat of the land though. Their family income is £20-odd grand. But that is not a lot to keep four adults on their feet. I know - I'm broke the day after my benefits come through, and I don't have to pay any bills! I do - make a contribution I mean - but I'm never actually asked for it.

All I can hope for them is that a do-gooder takes them under his/ her wing and teaches them to manage their money better/ how to cook & eat healthily. They'd have such an easy time losing weight, given that their current lifestyles are so obviously bad. If they only walked a few more minutes a day and ate a handful of strawberries instead of chips, the weight would fall off! Whereas poor old me... well let's put it this way, I am having to make far more effort.

I suppose I should be more grateful. There but for the grace of FSM go I.

Usually, in my limited experience, the questions asked guide the reponses. Monnie's right, they were clearly unaware of the interviewer's agenda.

Sophisticated media interviewer + unsophisticated family living on benefits and feeling a bit hard done to + a handful of leading questions and soothing reassurances = instant cultural villan.

I would expect nothing less of you, Dana. :haha:

[deadpan] What? [/deadpan]

So they told the truth and are now getting lambasted for it - TFB.

Clearly, this family needs some home helpers to come and spoon/shovel food into their mouths. Then they can be fitted with artificial jaws to chew for them (or the helper can pre-chew it). It is in our interests, as a society, to feed them as much as they want. They'll be dead before the year is out.

A family of poster children.

Most everyone has some bad habit that it should be logical to kick, but don't.

Any of those mocking, smokers?
Or don't exercise 30+ minutes a day?
Or don't eat 5-a-day fruit & veg (or the American equivalent)?

Yes, they are an extreme.
But they are just silly people. People being the operative word.
Use the same terms about smoking as you do obesity and see how many Dwellars smack you down.

Yes I write this because I am fat.
And I'm not saying it in a proud way.
I am intelligent. Which should make it worse.
But somehow their lack of intelligence makes them a target.

I hate that people can be lambasted in the street for being fat, but not for smoking/ drinking/ littering/ all the rest.