I did the calculation wrong, the average man needs about 2500 calories per day if lightly active. That's still not a big enough difference to justify the common perception that women can subsist on ice water and salad for every meal while men need to wolf down double whoppers or they'll die of starvation.

I think most women would indeed gain weight on what the average American man eats (though not enough to impair their mobility, that's just ridiculous). However, this isn't because women have metabolisms slower than tectonic plates, it's because most American men eat way too much. An average of 500 calories a day more in terms of basic needs for men does not mean that men need anything like the amount of food that most restaurants here regularly serve patrons.

Which is why most Americans of either sex are overweight. No one is denying this, but funny how certain people insist on acting like it's only the women who're affected.

Again this is entirely your prejudice talking; men can be and are called pigs (in a variety of contexts) and worse all the time and nobody notices or thinks anything of it, but let a woman be spoken of or to with anything other than deferential adoration and it's like the world is ending.

You actually think the amount of attention people pay to male obesity and female obesity is equal? Remember when Jessica Simpson was getting raked through the coals for supposedly getting fat, when she was still wearing... like... a size 2 maybe? Please, tell me the last time someone made that big of a deal over a male celebrity gaining that much weight. When's the last time you saw a "no fat dudes" bumper sticker? How blind are you that you can't see that society places more of an emphasis on women's weight than on men's? I mean seriously, you've got to be kidding me.

(agreeing to support someone is a form of payment) I'm talking about relationships where the woman sleeps with the guy because he turns her on not because she is getting something else out of it. Almost no woman is physically attracted to a fat slob, but some men are attracted (enough) to female fat slobs. The reason people pay more attention to the relative attractiveness of women is because IT MATTERS, talking about the attractiveness of ordinary fat men would be like talking about eating rocks, the conversation would be meaningless and pointless so nobody does it.

and these are probably about that average for the human body when not distorted by pathological levels of obesity.

Hmm, let's see, the average American man is 5ft9 according to the government. So, at 180 pounds, that's a BMI of 26.6, which is overweight. The only way someone would weigh that much and have only 15% body fat is if they're a pretty serious jock. For most men, sorry, that's fat.

And yes, men's looks do matter. Just because women are not attracted to you (I'm guessing this because if they were you wouldn't whine about how women aren't attracted to men all the time), that's doesn't mean women aren't physically attracted to men in general.

This really is your personal issue, not sure why you insist on projecting it onto the rest of the world. I know plenty of guys who'd laugh at your assertion that women in general aren't attracted to men, because they get plenty of sexual attention from women. Then again, they actually are attractive, not unattractive and whining about how that doesn't matter because it's just different for men.