In 1890 you had to be able to walk -- no one was going to carry you to the table and put food into your mouth, which is apparently what happens to today's grossly obese land-whales. How fat you could be was limited by your ability to carry your own weight.
Yes, the linked article is bedridden people who have to have food brought tobthem. Imagine bringing 20,000 calories to a bedridden fatso daily. That's an average of 20 mcdonalds big mac meals a day
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