Why Do We Hate Being Fat So Much?

This has been on my mind this morning. I've hated being fat since around the 6th grade. I wasn't bullied, made fun of in any great way at all, and wasn't fat shamed at home. Yet the realization that I was "fat" hurt and upset me. I didn't like the look of my doughy body compared to the lean boys around me. It set off a battle with my adipose tissue that continues to this day.

Why does nearly everyone seem to hate being fat (or hate others being fat) so much? Is it socialized? Inate? Do we hate the look of it, the feel of it? Is it more about what other people think? I've thought before that I do believe I'd lose weight even if I was the only person left on earth.

What do you think it is?

I think it basically comes down to people don't think fat people have any self control therefore they eat like gluttons and put themselves where they are. It may be partially true, but we are all programmed to love carbs and our diet being pushed all around us on commercials and store shelves are creating a population that eats what it considers normal. A paradigm shift is needed in how people view food in order to enable themselves to control their body compostion.

%100 agree. Food is for fuel, and it's great if it's tasty, too, but too many of us developed the mindset that food is a way to stimulate the pleasure centers in the brain, without regard for the nutritional value of it or whether or not we needed the calories. With the exception of serious athletes, who among us ever goes, "Uh oh! I'm so low on calories, but I've already exceeded my vitamin and mineral needs, what I could really use is some empty calories in the form of cookies!"

I've been on 20% carbs in my macros for 3 months now. So when I do eat a processed sugar treat like Angel food cake with my organic fruit it's like crack. You can realize just how sweet something is when you don't eat sweets. The general population is numb this this and eat heavily processed sugars and carbs for that serotonin rush without even knowing it.

Yep, even though I'm high carb vegan, I do intermittent fasting and I'm keto-adapted from a lot of time doing low carb in the past, so I actually stay in ketosis most of the time and go in and out of it easily. I bet if I ate a huge slice of chocolate cake right now I'd bounce off the walls. Which, to paraphrase Dr. Lustig, would be good, because it would mean I was burning off the calories. But if I eat cake every time I just want the pleasure of eating cake, I sit there in my chair like a lump, I don't want to move, I feel sad and grouchy and I just want more cake. Some foods are just not good for me. Not saying it happens to everybody, but eating for pleasure does a serious number on my health.

See, I'm exactly the opposite, 99% of the time I'll take one bite out of that cake, go blech too sweet and that'll be it. I'm not big on rice, french fries or any of that stuff, I NEVER eat any form of chips except maybe tortilla chips, and that's only if I'm at a tex-mex place and then it's just a vehicle for shoving green salsa down my gullet. I would just eat the salsa with a spoon if it was socially acceptable and I just leave the rice on my plate, don't even touch it. So I just don't understand this concept that somehow we're all being secretly addicted to processed carbs, if anything, I'm addicted to fats and proteins. Now my HUSBAND, he's strait up Irish potato boy....

I don't know, I just always find it a little silly when people try to blame one part of the equation for the final outcome. I can promise you it wasn't sweets that caused me to pack on extra pounds.

there are statues and paintings covering hundreds of years featuring women considered to be beautiful who have bellies and thighs that these days would be considered fat, but at those times and in those cultures were considered beautiful and feminine. this question reminded me of this article i read a couple months ago about a woman who in 1912 was considered "perfect", and she weighed 171 pounds.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/26/perfect-woman-1912_n_2365529.html

She was a perfect pear shape by measurements. Then again, if, as it was reported, she really did have a figure similar to the Venus de Milo, she also had a six pack. She probably really did have more muscle than most of us do now. Maybe it shows that fit was the old skinny as much as that voluptuous was prized more than it is today.

By the way, these body models from the ancient greek and "de milo" times were not really the norm for the time. Being a naked model was not a high profession. These models were probably workers and had farming backgrounds or were slaves or courtesans in a time when having a suntan was a show of the common worker and the elite did nothing all day but live large and have pale skin to show they did not do outdoor work. I will assume that the proviliged persons from that time were sloppy as well.

We don't live in the dark ages anymore (well, you'd think we don't) where being fat is a show of wealth and good health. Lets stay in this century, shall we?

The quoted article on the 'perfect woman' doesn't quite go back that far. It's from 1912. The young woman was compared to the de milo. I stated that, if she was comparable, she did indeed have more muscle tone than most of us have today.

If you kind of squint your eyes and look at representations of the female body across cultures and times, you'll get an impression of a prototypical ideal that is about 20-25% body fat and pretty strong. There are cultural standards and there are human standards. A healthy human woman is in that 25% body fat range and can do a fair amount of work. That seems to be the lynch pin that cultural standards swing around.

I hated being fat because I didn't feel good or look good. I avoided cameras and missed out on things because I just felt bad about myself.

I was never fat until after my last daughter was born. I guess I got lazy and eat and didn't move much.

I can't believe how much better I look and feel after losing almost 40lbs. It's a different life.

Also, people treat me better. Terrible to say but they do.