This just sounds like you got brainwashed by Nike ("advertising signs that con / you into thinking..."). I'm not a person who makes excuses, and I'm not making excuses here. I'm not even obese.
I'm just observing phenomena. And the question I want to know is how is it that so many humans, who came this far evolutionarily, are all of a sudden so messed up? I mean, literally every single person alive today stands on the shoulders of giants. We are progeny of the winners, the tenacious, the survivors, the killers. What happened??
> We are progeny of the winners, the tenacious, the survivors, the killers.
You are a progeny of a chance, nothing more.
We allowed the normalization of incredibly calorie and sugar dense foods. We got kids hooked on the diet young. We made cartoons showing that kids hate vegetables while demonizing Michelle Obama got wanting good meals.
At some point, the social pressures got removed. Being severely overweight and eating more than a normal share stopped getting ridiculed. And then doctors started getting pushback because patients would rather giggle about their obesity and pretend it's okay than accept they're killing themselves. And those people fed that attitude to their kids, who are now dealt a losing hands when their parents raise them fat. Our culture's "iconic breakfast" is a bowl of milk filled with marshmallows and sugary carb bits.
But the unpleasant reality is that if my coworker just stopped ordering the pizza, they would start losing weight. It's hard, especially once in the hole, but everyone who isn't morbidly obese does that every day.
> People should also talk about the volition trap. I'm 40 and it feels like I've had more than a life's worth of people talking about how "you can do it if you just try!"
"People should" instead of "I'm going to". "It feels like" instead of making a direct statement.
Nobody here knows your situation or why you formed the way you did. But also, it doesn't actually matter. We always want some deep explanation but understanding is often just a way of dealing with impotence.
Just do it. No excuses.