Very few seek help, because they are too embarrassed. I, for example, am only about 40lbs overweight, however I haven't seen a doctor in 3 years plus, because I keep telling myself "When I loose the weight, I will go", simply out of embarrassment for my size. My weight goes up, and down, and I've lost those 40lbs several times over, but every time the weight creeps back on I get too ashamed to set foot outside, I withdraw from my friends, and social activities and avoid doctors and medical visits at all costs....

The super obese are people who have been hurt, a lot, and have found comfort in food. Food never judges you, doesn't call you names, doesn't shame you into shying away from society, food is just warm and delicious and comforting. Unfortunately, this creates a cycle and it gets to a point where the shame is too great, and it becomes preferable to just eat yourself to death than face society. Even if a morbidly obese person is "working on it", trying to loose weight, weight loss won't be noticeable for about 100lbs, and people will continue to treat them like they are subhuman until they've dropped several hundred pounds. In the face of working really really hard and having people spit on you at every turn, for months, or years, until you finally have results to show for it, lots of people just don't have the strength to go on.

If a crack addict seeks help, and goes into rehab, people are proud of them and supportive. A fat person is fat until they've lost all the weight, so even when they're in "rehab" and trying to lose it, they still look fat to the rest of the world, and so instead of support, they're just met with more bashing and cruelty. Honestly, how do the people know that any one of the individuals they judge as gross and lazy aren't actually working on losing weight? How do you know that the fat woman you pass on the street hasn't recently dropped 20lbs with intention on losing more? Even when you see someone fat at McDonalds, how do you know it wasn't just a slip up, and that they had actually been on a diet, and losing weight steadily, and just gave into temptation this one time? You might see a 350lb man and think to yourself "how disgusting what a slob" without ever knowing, that he was until recently a 450lb man and that your little snicker as he walks by is just one more dig at his motivation, chipping away his drive to succeed little by little every day. Maybe it's not true... but if you start to treat these people like humans and stop making assumptions about their lives and choices, they'll be more likely to want to "work on it" rather than just give up altogether.

Some people are lazy, disgusting wastes of space, but most are just hurting, unfortunately, their pain manifests itself in a way that isn't attractive enough for society to care about it.

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