Fat Positivity?

My body is like a brand new Ferrari 458. I absolutely love it and I need to take care of it. My "Ferrari" has to last me until I die. I don't want my "Ferrari" to turn into a "1971 Ford Pinto" by the time I am 45.

After dealing with extremely frustrating and scary health problems because of how much I had weighed (I thought I wasn't going to live long much longer if I didn't kick into gear) I cannot say I could see how anyone would want to be in a body that is holding them back from doing so many awesome things. The fact that for the first time since I was a kid I will be in shape to jog without my weight heaving with me at every step is just fantastic.

I am trying to help my mother lose some weight herself because she started having issues with her legs. It took forever and her doctor telling her that the scars on her legs will be permanent, but it will stop getting worse if she loses the weight.

It's fine to be happy and fat, but I don't think people should be happy with their fat. I know I wasn't, so I wanted to get rid of it. I'm sure everyone could use a bit of a push, but some people will just flat out not listen to any reason. Why? I wish I knew.

Truth right here. Congrats man on 92 pounds. That's an insane amount. :happy:

I'm very much against discrimination against people based on size or what their body looks like. Their health is their business, and it's their doctor's job to judge the state of their health, not random strangers or casual acquaintances. So I'm in favour of it from that perspective.

BUT I have seen a lot of people within this movement kidding themselves that they're healthy when they're not. I don't see how that's all that different to people glorifying extreme thinness/self starvation. They're both unhealthy extremes and people should strive to be healthy, both physically and mentally.

That said, when it comes to health there is a *massive* over-focus on body fat, at the expense of all other factors. e.g. someone can be a bit chubby yet healthy according to every other measure of health, and people focus only on the fact that they have, say, 30-35% body fat (for women) and look a bit chubby (same with men at 25-30%). And at the same time you get lean, sedentary, people who eat a very unbalanced diet who think they're healthy because their BMI is in the healthy range, yet they can barely walk up a flight of stairs, have low bone density, weak muscles and their blood lipid levels are not very good. And their body fat percentage may be as much as 30% but it doesn't notice because the low lean mass keeps their weight in the "healthy" BMI range..... which is far from healthy. People look at the two and focus on the chubby but fit person, and ignore the sedentary but thin looking person. That's what I take issue with. Health is not just about body fat, it's about a whole range of different things, and everyone should strive to be healthy. So maybe the fit but chubby person could do with lowering their body fat percentage a little..... but the skinny sedentary person needs to get in the gym and get active just as much as a fat sedentary person does, and they also need to focus on eating a balanced diet and improving their body fat percentage. And additionally, while it's possible to be very fit and a little bit obese (e.g. around 35% body fat).......... there's a limit to how fat someone can be without the fatness itself impacting their health in a severe way, both from the risk of long term health problems and also because fat makes it hard to be physically active. Fat and sedentary is a very bad situation from a health point of view.

I don't agree with bashing people of ANY body type. When you're fat, especially VERY fat, you face loads of discrimination. Those types of problems shouldn't be fixed by losing weight, they should be fixed by changing society so we're not seeing fat people as not being worthy of respect. True story: as a fat child, a teacher made fun of me in front of the whole class. Everyone laughed. That was not MY problem, no matter how old I was. So even if someone makes a concious choice to be fat, they still deserve the same respect as anyone else.

On the negative side, I do think the fat positivity movement can make it harder for people to have a realistic view of their own health, which is something everyone should have, regardless of size. I also think it can make people targets for potentially abusive, feeder/feedee relationships.

It's one thing to not feel bad about yourself if your overweight while knowing that you can improve. it's another to throw rational thought to the wind and proclaim the ridiculous.

I think it started as a backlash against the disdain/mockery/dislike/discrimination fat people routinely face and it evolved from there. In principle I agree with the message. But trying to justify it on health grounds has gone beyond self-acceptance and into outright denial.

Tumblr has literally the most extreme and insane people. Yes body positivity is good, however they want to deny the obvious medical problems that comes along with obesity. They also promote that no diet seems to work and that they all have some "medical" condition that makes them unable to lose.

People who have never went through being overweight often think things like "How did they let themselves get like that" and "how can they live that way". Its hard to understand how people cannot just get up an take action. Especially with all the resources.

I'm very much against discrimination against people based on size or what their body looks like. Their health is their business, and it's their doctor's job to judge the state of their health, not random strangers or casual acquaintances. So I'm in favour of it from that perspective.

BUT I have seen a lot of people within this movement kidding themselves that they're healthy when they're not. I don't see how that's all that different to people glorifying extreme thinness/self starvation. They're both unhealthy extremes and people should strive to be healthy, both physically and mentally.

That said, when it comes to health there is a *massive* over-focus on body fat, at the expense of all other factors. e.g. someone can be a bit chubby yet healthy according to every other measure of health, and people focus only on the fact that they have, say, 30-35% body fat (for women) and look a bit chubby (same with men at 25-30%). And at the same time you get lean, sedentary, people who eat a very unbalanced diet who think they're healthy because their BMI is in the healthy range, yet they can barely walk up a flight of stairs, have low bone density, weak muscles and their blood lipid levels are not very good. And their body fat percentage may be as much as 30% but it doesn't notice because the low lean mass keeps their weight in the "healthy" BMI range..... which is far from healthy. People look at the two and focus on the chubby but fit person, and ignore the sedentary but thin looking person. That's what I take issue with. Health is not just about body fat, it's about a whole range of different things, and everyone should strive to be healthy. So maybe the fit but chubby person could do with lowering their body fat percentage a little..... but the skinny sedentary person needs to get in the gym and get active just as much as a fat sedentary person does, and they also need to focus on eating a balanced diet and improving their body fat percentage. And additionally, while it's possible to be very fit and a little bit obese (e.g. around 35% body fat).......... there's a limit to how fat someone can be without the fatness itself impacting their health in a severe way, both from the risk of long term health problems and also because fat makes it hard to be physically active. Fat and sedentary is a very bad situation from a health point of view.

I'm very much against discrimination against people based on size or what their body looks like. Their health is their business, and it's their doctor's job to judge the state of their health, not random strangers or casual acquaintances. So I'm in favour of it from that perspective.

BUT I have seen a lot of people within this movement kidding themselves that they're healthy when they're not. I don't see how that's all that different to people glorifying extreme thinness/self starvation. They're both unhealthy extremes and people should strive to be healthy, both physically and mentally.

That said, when it comes to health there is a *massive* over-focus on body fat, at the expense of all other factors. e.g. someone can be a bit chubby yet healthy according to every other measure of health, and people focus only on the fact that they have, say, 30-35% body fat (for women) and look a bit chubby (same with men at 25-30%). And at the same time you get lean, sedentary, people who eat a very unbalanced diet who think they're healthy because their BMI is in the healthy range, yet they can barely walk up a flight of stairs, have low bone density, weak muscles and their blood lipid levels are not very good. And their body fat percentage may be as much as 30% but it doesn't notice because the low lean mass keeps their weight in the "healthy" BMI range..... which is far from healthy. People look at the two and focus on the chubby but fit person, and ignore the sedentary but thin looking person. That's what I take issue with. Health is not just about body fat, it's about a whole range of different things, and everyone should strive to be healthy. So maybe the fit but chubby person could do with lowering their body fat percentage a little..... but the skinny sedentary person needs to get in the gym and get active just as much as a fat sedentary person does, and they also need to focus on eating a balanced diet and improving their body fat percentage. And additionally, while it's possible to be very fit and a little bit obese (e.g. around 35% body fat).......... there's a limit to how fat someone can be without the fatness itself impacting their health in a severe way, both from the risk of long term health problems and also because fat makes it hard to be physically active. Fat and sedentary is a very bad situation from a health point of view.

+1

Thank you for taking the time to write this - it saves me from taking an hour to write something less than half as articulate!