Completely off topic note: For those who are interested in an update on our little Junebug, you can head on over to today’s post at Life by Pets. While we should have spent over $650 so far, the vet office keeps waving fees and we’ve paid less than $200.

 

This is, with a few edits, a post I put up over on a financial message board I’m part of earlier this week. One of the reasons I put it up is that it often seems to me that people have a hard time seeing a correlation between their situation and someone else’s, that there is a lack of empathy if it is not exactly the same situation.

In this case, there are many people on that board who have struggled with, and still struggle with, credit card debt, and yet, when topics turn toward obesity, their response is always that losing weight is “simple” just eat fewer calories than you expend. Well, the same could be said for getting out of debt- spend less money than you earn. But I think most of us know it’s not always that simple.

Here’s a link to the thread, if people are interested in the comments and conversation there. I’ll also add some notes to the end that weren’t in my original posting.

I do want to make very clear that I am not, in any way, stating that all fat people have debt and that everyone who is debt free must be skinny. When I say there is a correlation between obesity and debt, I mean that they are issues that often have the same kinds of causes and the same kinds of solutions. I do not mean that they go hand in hand.

 

The more and more I see comments about the obesity epidemic in the country, and compare them to comments about the debt epidemic, the more I realize that there isn’t just a passing similarity between the two. It’s not just that the language of dieting can be used for debt reduction, etc, it is that they are pretty much the exact same problem, just manifested in different ways.
However, people that have struggled with one and not the other rarely seem to see the correlation. And people who have never struggled with either just don’t get it at all.
Am I necessarily an expert on either? No, but DH and I have managed to get rid of all consumer debt (we still have student loans and the mortgage) and are maintaining a lifestyle where we are not adding any more debt. I am currently taking the lessons I learned in that process and applying them directly to my weight loss goals. So expert, no, but personal experience with both- yes.
I think the first thing everyone seems to forget in either case is that no one gains 100lbs overnight. You can go into major debt instantly with student loans, car loans, and mortgages, but the problems most people have with debt don’t happen overnight either. It’s a slow building. Slow enough that it seems kind of natural, that while you know you’re gaining weight or getting deeper in debt, it doesn’t seem like that big of a deal. i.e. – everyone gains weight as they get older, everyone has debt. Either way, you’re sleep walking while the problem gets worse.
Some people wake up on their own. Others are shocked awake by a sudden change in their lives. Either way, the problem is now so big, it can seem insurmountable. When you’re 100lbs over weight, does losing 5lbs really matter? When you have $10,000 in credit card debt, will paying off that one $500 card make a difference? The problem can feel hopeless, and it takes a lot of emotional energy just to take the first step.

Before taking the first actual proactive step, most people look for a magic bullet first. They play the lottery, hoping, not even for the mega millions, but for just a few thousand that will help them get ahead without changing their spending habits. They look for the diet pill (or additive) that will help them lose weight without dieting or exercising. We want an easy out. After all, getting in trouble was easy- we did it while sleep walking, shouldn’t we be able to solve the problem easily too?

Once we admit to ourselves that this is going to take work, we still want it to be quick. We don’t mind painful, as long as it can be quick. But once the initial problem is solved, we want to be able to go back to how things were before.
Everyone talks about yo-yo dieting. There are some biological factors that make keeping weight off more difficult, but the biggest factor is often that once people reach their target weight, the “diet” is off and they go back to their old habits.
We all know people (have perhaps been the people) who have paid off their credit cards only to go out and run them back up again.
The most difficult struggles come not in initially losing the weight or paying off the debt, but maintaining the new normal. Yo-yo dieting is actually worse, health wise, than just staying fat. Yo-yo debt repayment may not have the same type of consequences, but it is emotionally draining.

While many people on this board recommend crash budgets for people trying to get out of debt (and by this I mean the people who say- no cell phone, no cable, use the internet at the library, etc) the truth is, the crash experience doesn’t actually help them set the parameters for what a new normal would look like. They don’t really get the experience of living on a sustainable budget. So once their debt is paid off, it’s like getting a windfall, and we all know what the “average” person does with a windfall-blows it and gets right back in trouble.
Now, the nice thing about debt is that once it is paid off, it’s gone. You really do have more money in your budget. But the key is to make sure you’re smart enough with that “extra” money to prevent yourself from needing to go back into debt. (I’m not talking about leveraging debt, I’m talking about failing to institute an emergency fund or plan for the expected, but not every day, expenses.)

Dieting is a little harder. Biologically, our bodies want us to be at the heaviest we have ever been. (Remember, that even now, in many places, people do not have year round access to safe and nutritional food. Storing fat is the body’s natural defense against starvation.) Someone who once weighed 200lbs, at 150lbs, will never be able to eat as many calories in a day as someone who has never weighed more than 150lbs. Even more than with debt repayment, dieting is about finding a new normal. Crash dieting doesn’t work. You have to find a calorie level and exercise level that can be maintained. Sure, you’ll get a little bit back when you’ve reached your maintenance weight vs. still needing to lose weight, but you will never be able to go back to what it was before.

And even if we admit that solving our debt or weight problem is about finding a new normal, and allowing for it to take time. We still often want to “fix” it in less time than it took us to get there to begin with. Most people struggling with debt aren’t struggling with just one loan, they have multiple loans and credit card debts that took years to build up. People take years to gain weight. And yet, everyone wants to fix their problems in less time than it took them to get in trouble to begin with. (Here is another point where we, as a society seem to go easier on debt. If someone tells us they have a 5 year plan to pay off their debt, we think they are being smart and responsible about it. If they told us they had a 2 year plan to lose 100lbs- we’d challenge them to watch The Biggest Loser and do it quicker, despite the fact that medically, weight loss goals should be 2-8lbs a month, and 100lbs in 24 months is just over 4lbs a month- so a smart and safe weight loss plan.)

It does not surprise me that our country is struggling with debt and obesity at the same time. And it does not surprise me that people have the same struggles paying off debt as they do losing weight. I’d just like more people to realize that doing either isn’t always as easy as we all want it to be.

 
One of the early comments on this was that it was a good thought, but I was forgetting that some people were obese for medical reasons, that their weight was beyond their natural control.

I understand that, but I don’t think it invalidates the argument. There are people who are in debt for reasons beyond their control (often medical). In either case, those people need help in solving the issue- whether that is getting the right meds from the doctor or asking for debt forgiveness/payment plans/income adjusted terms or even medical (or regular) bankruptcy, we have these programs in place. Because you know what, even if you have insurance, if your child has to spend a week in the ICU, and you owe 20% of that, it’s likely to put you in serious debt, for reasons beyond your control.

 

The other thing that I had meant to mention in the post (but it had gotten really long for a message board) was that in both cases, our families and our relationships are key factors in our relationships to food and money. I know that some people are savers from the start and others spenders and that some people love food more than others, but there really is no denying that the way our families and friends view money and food has a major impact on our own views on the subjects.

 

What are your thoughts? Are there skills we can teach our children, or develop as adults, that could help us combat two of the biggest issues currently facing our country?