Fat Acceptance Movement

lealovie

So I'm coming at this from the other direction -- as someone who's generally been OK with their body but has never fit into a BMI ideal. There are some people who have body types where this just not an option. I am short and my body wants to be busty. Even at my most healthy doctors would consider me overweight. I date a guy who literally couldn't join the military because he couldn't fit in to their weight standards even though he could keep up with anything during training. There are plenty of examples of people that just aren't average and are treated as unhealthy because of that.

The baseline of what is considered healthy needs to be about functionality -- can you do all the things you want or do you feel week or winded? Is it creating a health issue (vs statistical concern)? These need to be what motivates you and not trying to shape your body into something it may never be.

I must also add that the most fat shamed I've felt is by doctors ("Are you concerned about diabetes" after I explain that I was just tested and process sugar extremely well "But aren't you concerned about diabetes?" like they never heard me) or by a diet program attempting to make me feel bad to motivate me by trying to be emotionally manipulative (which I never joined and didn't consider other ones because it was so icky) So it's having the opposite effect in at least my case, although I never claimed to be typical.

I think heavier people showing that they are able to be active and healthy is motivating and to be encouraged.

lorindariess

I know this is an old post but I had to comment. I am a strong believer in love at every size however i think the idea of health at every size is a dangerous concept. The fact is if you are overweight your chances of developing diseases are increased no matter what your blood work says. And to lie to yourself about that is not beneficial to anyone. James Fell wrote an article about this a few years ago so anyone who is interested should google it.

amusedmonkey

lorindariess wrote: »

I know this is an old post but I had to comment. I am a strong believer in love at every size however i think the idea of health at every size is a dangerous concept. The fact is if you are overweight your chances of developing diseases are increased no matter what your blood work says. And to lie to yourself about that is not beneficial to anyone. James Fell wrote an article about this a few years ago so anyone who is interested should google it.

I think something got lost when the movement turned more radical. I think it originally meant "healthier at every size", meaning, striving for a healthier life is not something only people of a certain size do. You can be fat and still take care of yourself and your health. Weight loss may or may not be part of it, but health-focused behavior is not all or nothing. This is consistent with the message of self-love the movement wanted to spread, that just because you don't feel weight loss is something you wish to pursue right now it doesn't mean you should stop taking care of yourself.

Who knows. I may be reading too much into it because that's how I personally think as someone who is fat and doesn't hate being fat.

urloved33

laurimaki wrote: »

So let me tell you...I was a 500 lb man 10 years ago that couldn't walk half of a mile. Now I'm hovering around 330 lbs and have done 10k's, 5k's, and walk 20-30 miles a week, bike, paddleboard, etc, etc. But, I am still fat.

The problem in my opinion is that "fat acceptance" has gone from look, I'm a person that is 360 lbs, but working to be a better version of myself and that's ok...to...oh, I'm a person that is 480 lbs and can't walk up a flight of stairs without being out of breath and then I eat 4000 calories a day and that's ok. And the latter is not ok. I think our society has turned this into "fat shaming" but is it really shaming to say "look man, you can't walk up a flight of effing steps without being out of breath...1. that's not good...and 2. you shouldn't be ok with that." I don't think that's shaming, honestly that's wanting that person to have a better life. Granted it needs to be said in a decently nice way, but sometimes people need to hear those things (from loved ones of course, not strangers). I know I said those kinds of things to myself all of the time.

Now in my life, I do 10k's. I am happy how far I've come and want to keep moving forward. I want people to accept me for who I am, we all do...but at what cost for yourself? Fat shaming aside, it's embarrassing to be 500 lbs and eat a ton everyday. It's embarrassing to be out of breath walking up a flight of steps. It's embarrassing to go out with friends and not be able to fit into a booth. It's embarrassing to have to order clothing online because stores don't hold your size. I could list a hundred things more. It's embarrassing...In my opinion, it's not normal to struggle to walk a mile. Of course there are health reasons, or age, etc that may prevent that...but if you have no problems other than your weight and you struggle to walk a mile, then yes, perhaps you should be ashamed of yourself. I was. Struggling with something that basic is not a good thing. Do you want things to get harder, because they aren't going to get any easier the older you get. When I was 500 lbs, I asked myself all the time, "how did you let yourself get to this point?!?!" I still wonder that. But, the answer doesn't matter...all that matters is that you realize that it's time to change, and change can start today.

I'm sorry if I offend anyone with this post, and I'm sorry to myself that I need to be sorry for offending people (wait, what?!) haha, as I am not trying to shame anyone that struggles...I just wish the world would stop the whole "fat shaming vs. fat acceptance" conversation and look at basic things...if you can't walk a mile, if you can't walk up three flights of steps, if your blood work is jacked up, etc, etc.....these are signs, signs that regardless of acceptance, are telling you that there is a major problem with your body that needs to be remedied.

Again, I'm not trying to be harsh to anyone, just speaking from my own personal experience. When I stood on a scale when I was 24, I expected to see 390, maybe 400...I saw 497...and that was after I already started trying to lose weight. I broke down and I cried, I bawled like a baby...I thought my life was over, I thought I was dead. I was a *kitten* 24 year old that thought my life was over. No matter what people said to me, whether they shamed me, or accepted me, the only person that could help me, was me. I had to start moving more. I had to start eating better (and less). I had to be responsible for who I was, and not worry about if you accept me or not. Great, you accept me for being 600 lbs? Well, good luck to me when I try playing with my kids/grandkids when I'm a 600 lb man. I made the changes not for society, but for me. I want to walk the dog after work every evening, I want to play with my kids/grandkids/nephews/nieces and not sit idly by. I made the changes that I wanted in my life because I knew who I wanted to be and what I had to do to get there. I am well on my way.

Make the changes that you want in your life. Be who you want to be.

WELL SAID.

Twinkiestaaar

I lost a lot of people from my life when I developed anorexia because of my anxiety and personal life problems. They saw my poor coping skills as a reflection on what I thought about their bodies. If they were actually decent people, they would have recognized I was struggling like anyone else and been good friends. Fat acceptance can suck an egg.

rheddmobile

Has anyone seen the recent article on Huffpost about fat acceptance? It's titled, 'Everything You Know About Obesity Is Wrong' and the starting premise is that it's impossible to lose weight so everyone should just accept the body they're in. The author is a self described obese person who claims that there exist people who lose no weight despite eating nothing but 100 calories of lettuce a day. Made me want to leap through the computer and shout at the author, "You don't have to stay fat!"

I get it, losing weight takes work and sometimes life gets in the way. But it's not valid to say that losing weight is medically proven to be impossible, as this article says. I've been down more than 100 lbs for over a year now, according to her I apparently don't exist...

Unknown

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maureenkhilde

Shaming people because how they look is always wrong, never a time when it is ok.

Fat Acceptance, I really sit on the fence overall with what they say they are looking for and want. In general from what I have seen, and read. It is really about Obesity acceptance. I have not seen many who fall into the overweight categories being on talk shows or with the blogs following.
To me, yes you can be obese and have good blood pressure, blood sugar and so on numbers, for some period of time. But the facts are the clock is ticking, and sooner or later. How they eat, what they eat is going to be making changes on the inside of their bodies. They are living in lala land if they really believe they can be 75 or more pounds over a healthy weight for 15 years and up. And not have it sooner or later became a true medical issue.
I say this from the standpoint of someone who started at morbidly obese, but am working on losing weight. And have already been able to stop medications or reduce the amount. And at one time, I was obese with a good blood pressure and decent cholestrol results. But over time they went the wrong way.

I also agree that Healthy seems to be a word that means different things to different people. And at different age groups even being healthy maybe different. Society or much of it, gets the impressions of what is beauty and health from the media. Think about in the US average woman 5ft 4 or so, average weight 168. Yet when was the last time anyone saw someone that size modeling clothes? I think the whole Fat acceptance thing resonated so much with people because everywhere you look it is not the average person who is in magazines, TV, Internet and so on. What is pushed is what sells. Models that are young mostly, tall and wearing size S blouses and size 4 tall pants. This became part of the battle cry for acceptance regardless of weight.

FitAndLean_5738

I don't really care about the size of other people because they aren't me. However, I find the fat acceptance movement to be problematic when the focus turns from, "don't hate me because I'm fat" to "I'm going to hate thin people because they're thin and here's my list of justifications I have for being fat."

In my opinion, it's okay to be fat. Just be honest about it. If you're fat because of your thyroid, then either tell people it's because of your thyroid or don't say anything at all. If you're fat because you eat too much, then tell people you eat too much or don't say anything at all. All of these other excuses are just annoying. Face the truth, live with the truth, and be happy -- it's your life to live, after all. So if you want to tell people why you're fat, then tell them the truth. Otherwise, don't bother saying anything because it's really none of their business anyways. But don't come up with all sorts of lies and excuses trying to justify your lifestyle -- there's no need for all that.

I also don't like the side of fat acceptance that starts getting into "thin privilege" and basically hates thin people for being thin, or ridicules thin people. That's just nonsense. Being thin is not some inherently evil thing, just as being fat isn't some inherently evil thing.

jesspen91

FitAndLean_5738 wrote: »

I also don't like the side of fat acceptance that starts getting into "thin privilege" and basically hates thin people for being thin, or ridicules thin people. That's just nonsense. Being thin is not some inherently evil thing, just as being fat isn't some inherently evil thing.

Yes the 'thin privilege' stuff can get really nasty. I saw something recently when the Fat Acceptance movement were going after someone I follow on instagram. She is a recovered anorexic and speaks about body positivity, mental health and social media. A lot of her posts involve a posed or edited image next to a more natural image of her body and comparisons of how her relationship with food used to be to how it is now.The message she is getting across is not to strive for someone else's body because you don't know what has gone on behind the scenes to get that image and it may not be achievable for you. I think this is laudable. But she is being torn apart by the FA movement because she is reasonably slim. They say she is co-opting their movement and that because she isn't obese she's not allowed to take pride in her body and to encourage others to take pride in theirs. I really felt for her because she's only trying to spread a positive message. This sort of thing is when the FA movement becomes toxic.

evilsmudge

you should not be offended by the truth..as long as you dont use it in a vindictive or nasty way. people get offended so easy these days...the body exeptance movment was for people ie burn victims or birth deformitys who had no control, the fat exeptance moved in and should not be teaching obesity is healthy..

laurenq1991

rheddmobile wrote: »

Has anyone seen the recent article on Huffpost about fat acceptance? It's titled, 'Everything You Know About Obesity Is Wrong' and the starting premise is that it's impossible to lose weight so everyone should just accept the body they're in. The author is a self described obese person who claims that there exist people who lose no weight despite eating nothing but 100 calories of lettuce a day. Made me want to leap through the computer and shout at the author, "You don't have to stay fat!"

I get it, losing weight takes work and sometimes life gets in the way. But it's not valid to say that losing weight is medically proven to be impossible, as this article says. I've been down more than 100 lbs for over a year now, according to her I apparently don't exist...

I saw this article a few days ago and thought it was ridiculous. It made many questionable claims such as: "As early as 1969, research showed that losing just 3 percent of your body weight resulted in a 17 percent slowdown in your metabolism—a body-wide starvation response that blasts you with hunger hormones and drops your internal temperature until you rise back to your highest weight. Keeping weight off means fighting your body’s energy-regulation system and battling hunger all day, every day, for the rest of your life." The author provides no links to any studies relevant to this claim. My husband lost 50 pounds in the past few years and according to the author's claim, he would hardly be able to eat anything without gaining weight and be constantly hungry unless he was overeating. Yet he eats over 3000 calories a day. He does serious running, weights, and martial arts, but his TDEE minus exercise is around 2200 calories which is normal for an adult male. He loves to eat which is why he became obese and not only does he love working out that much, but it also enables him to eat the amount of food that he likes to eat and not gain weight.

The author also claims that overweight people do not have a higher rate of health problems compared to non-overweight people, which is complete BS and goes against not only a huge amount of research on the topic, but common sense (watch My 600-Pound Life and try to say it's possible to be healthy at any size). Complications of obesity such as heart disease, diabetes, and joint problems take a while to develop and a lot of overweight people don't have any health complications YET, but that doesn't mean they aren't elevating their risk over time. Plus there are other less serious health issues. When my husband was obese he got tired easily and always wanted to sit down if we were walking a lot. And he wasn't even morbidly obese, he was barely in the obese range and didn't look that fat.

I'm not surprised the people in the article weren't able to keep the weight off. They didn't know how to diet properly. The diets they were describing were starvation diets and most likely after a few days they couldn't take it anymore and binged on food. A lot of people want a quick fix, but weight loss using reasonable methods can take years depending on the amount to lose. Also in many cases people way underestimate how much they eat without measuring.

I think fat acceptance used to mean "don't shame people for being fat," like the people who yell insults at fat people in the street, and that was perfectly reasonable. Then it meant "don't tell people to lose weight because it's their choice whether to be fat or not," which is like, ok, I guess, obesity is a burden on the healthcare system though but ultimately we all have self-determination. Now it seems to mean "deny science on the health effects of obesity and the methods to effectively lose weight, to avoid hurting someone's feelings." It's ridiculous when it gets to the point that a doctor telling someone they are obese and should lose weight is "fat shaming." Or it's "fat shaming" to tell someone that they will lose weight through a reasonable calorie deficit.

UltraVegAthlete

I’m all for loving your body, but not at the expense of you health or others.
FA activists can have a negative influence on younger generations.

kt90gurl

Nobody should be body shamed. I get where the 'fat activist' are coming from. However do believe they are wrong to be happy about their bodies unless they are healthy (i.e can dance, jump around and run without dying) can climb a flight of stairs without getting out of breath (I know I cant and this is something I want to change) and eat healthily.

But fat or thin, no one should shame each other. Each to their own, fatness should not be promoted, and neither should skinniness. Healthiness is what should be promoted.

lemurcat2

Yeah, no one should be body shamed. You shouldn't make remarks about other people's bodies (unless you are a medical professional talking about health and weight).

But obviously being obese is bad for health, and people shouldn't deny that or shame anyone else for wanting to be a healthy BMI. (You can also be obese and able to climb stairs without getting out of breath -- I lived in a 4th fl walkup when I was obese and could bounce up those stairs with groceries, even -- but obesity was still a major risk factor for me.)

IMO, a good version of HAES would be to take steps toward getting healthier, and if exercise is an easier step that losing weight, do that. That you haven't yet lost weight or gotten to the head space to do it doesn't mean it's a waste of time to exercise or eat more vegetables or eat more protein, less desserts or what not. Or to stop smoking or drink less, etc. Value yourself and do positive things.

It would not be a denial that being fat is generally not ideal for health.

Being obsessed with your body and hating it for imperfections is usually not the best state of mind for a healthy lifestyle and for some people can undermine efforts to be healthy (that I was ashamed of my body as a teen, and thought I was fat and ugly although I was not, probably helped me decide I couldn't control and didn't care about my body and therefore set the stage for me getting fat). Reading an anti-diet book called Losing It motivated me to change my diet and take better care of myself and exercise and ultimately lose weight.