This is going to be a long one… so bare with me.
I touched on the subject of “Fat Acceptance”, or FA, a while ago in my post: Love Yourself – FAT BUTT and all in which I talk about how fat people are missing the point when it comes to wanting to be accepted for “what they are”. They misunderstand that they are not being judged by others really for their appearance, but because of the choices they have made that make them become and look unhealthy.
Being more than just a few pounds overweight is not healthy for many reasons. I’m not going to list it’s negative effects here, but you can read what they are yourselves from the following websites:
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
- World Health Organization
- KidsHealth.org
- U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
- The FDA
- National Institute of Diabetes & Digestive Kidney Diseases
- American Heart Association
Mostly, it’s the same stuff on all of these sites. They just explain it in different ways. The point is that you can’t deny that these are highly reputable sources for health information.
It drives me bonkers when I read blogs that are tailored toward the Fat Acceptance bandwagon. The OVERWHELMING tone among every post, and every comment (except for those from people like me), is so far away from reality, and so delusional that when I feel the urge to comment, I don’t know where to begin. These people are saying things that have no basis, and are clearly only serving their own arguments with conclusions that are drawn from studies suggesting that what they believe is fact.
And what is it that they believe?
- That NOT ONE of them chose to be the fat person that they are.
- That anyone who suggests that they CHOSE to be fat is absolutely wrong.
- That they are what they are, and there’s nothing they can do about it.
- That despite the extra fat that they carry around, they believe that they are all very healthy.
- That the research studies providing the results that each of the websites above has spelled out are flawed.
So if you, my readers, happened to bother with checking out the websites I posted above, you would have seen that some very reputable organizations have spelled out the health risk facts for our fatty friends. But as I just mentioned, people that preach FA refuse to be labeled as unhealthy.
Fat Acceptance bloggers and commenter’s will be the first to tell you that they see skinny people eating “unhealthy” things all the time. OF COURSE “HEALTHY” IS A RELATIVE TERM!!!! Obviously thin people make bad food choices too, but you don’t know how many steps they’ve taken that day, or if they took the stairs to get to their office, or if they eat like that everyday, or if their portion sizes are the same as yours, or if they do or don’t have midnight snacks, or if they get a decent amount of sleep at night, or if they participate in any regular physical activities, or if they sit in front of the TV or a computer for hours a day. My point is, there are COUNTLESS factors to consider when determining whether someone is healthy or not. You don’t know every single thing they do. You can’t just point out that the not-obese person sitting across from you at Dairy Queen is having a butterfinger milkshake too.
The easiest way to not take responsibility for your actions is to point out the faults of others.
Feeling healthy is relative too. If you’ve been fat your whole life, of course you don’t know what it feels like to not be 30% heavier than you should be. There may not be anything specifically wrong with you, but you’d be an idiot to not realize that simply existing in a world with gravity would be easier if you weighed less. Sure you can be lucky and have no illnesses, but I’d be willing to bet that if you are obese your knees and your back hurt often. Do skinny people have bad knees and backs? Of course. But probably not for the same reasons. If the only life you know is a lethargic one, then it makes sense that you wouldn’t understand what it’s like to be energetic. From your point of view, you feel healthy. But to what do you have to compare the way you feel?
Making improvements in your diet is a strange thing. You don’t so much feel noticeably better, as much as you DON’T FEEL BAD. When you don’t overeat, you don’t feel that brick in your gut that’s trying to digest, putting huge strains on your stomach and colon. Therefore, you also don’t get constipated. Digestion being slowed by bad foods can quite literally weigh you down. It drains your energy. Only when you don’t have these bad feelings all the time do you really notice them when you do. Eating foods high in sugar and fat cause your hormones to fluctuate wildly, causing you to go from feeling great, to shit. But of course you wouldn’t realize this is happening to you unless you stopped for a period of time.
Why is it that whenever a group of people start slipping from the norm, they do everything they can to lower the standard? Is it to make themselves feel better? Is it to try and make themselves seem like they are normal? I can tell you right now an FA supporter would respond to this by saying:
Why do I have to be normal??”
Well, first of all, do I really have to always abstain from using a word that is a general term? Second, by normal I don’t mean look and dress like everyone else. I mean not look like you smuggle ding dongs under your fat rolls.
So guess what happens when I comment on some of these blogs? My comment gets deleted. I’m not joking. I even make sure that I don’t comment in an attacking manner. What’s the point of having a blog if you’re not open to discussion? If you’re not open to all viewpoints? It must be nice to only allow the comments that agree with you, and make it seem like you are even more correct because no one seems to disagree with you. Maybe WordPress should have a filter that bloggers can enable so that only the agreeable comments are allowed.
The simple fact that these bloggers are not open to discussion tells me that deep down they are utterly unsure of themselves, and are not willing to argue their point of view because they don’t want to question their beliefs. The SECOND anyone acts in such a manner in any facet of life, it serves to completely invalidate their point. If you participated in a debate with anyone, about anything, and chose to not listen to the opposing viewpoint when considering your next argument, you would most certainly lose that debate. Actually, if you made sure that somehow the person with the opposing viewpoint were to disappear, you would win by default…
I understand now.
What’s wrong with having a goal? Something to aspire to? If nothing more than to always want to better yourself? They make it sound like such a bad thing. Apparently, there’s a fine line between accepting what you are… and giving up. And then in some strange, disgusting fashion, being proud of it.
Fat Acceptance might as well be called “FAT PRIDE”.
Check out a few Fat Acceptance pages and blogs, and be sure to read the comments. You may be astounded at just how resentful, self loathing, delusional, and blind they are to the countless and reputable sources out there that spell out the negative aspects of being an unhealthy weight.
[...] am extremely curious what the “Fat Acceptance” people think about this show. As far as I can tell, the agenda of “FA” people [...]
They delete your comments. Am I surprised? Not one bit. Do I like to ask myself questions and then respond to them? Yes I do.
Here’s an awesom comment I found on one of those FA blogs:
“And dude, I trust licensed nutritionists barely more than the for-profit diet industry that plays such a huge role in educating them. The power to decide what is and is not healthy for me is not something I’m going to grant to ANYone 100%.”
Brilliant… you know… while you’re at it, don’t believe what those “scientists” and other “lab coats” tell you about anything else either. There’s no real proof that mercury is a dangerous chemical… so go drink a gallon of it, fatty.
Wow only 3 comments? You made a mistake by not linking to a single post on the big FA blogs. If you had done that it would have generated a pingback which would have led the FA myrmidons to your blog to spew their conspiracy theories and attempt to explain how their bodies are capable of defying the most basic laws of thermodynamics by storing energy/matter they allegedly never even consumed.
But heck you can always live vicariously through others like Bentlyr.
The folks at Big Fat Blog, to pick one, are (fortunately) not representative of overweight people in general. They are to the 30% of the American population that is obese what whack-job religious fundagelicals are to ordinary churchgoers. Their capacity for denial and self-delusion is spectacular, and is readily maintained by groupthink and insularity–you don’t have to worry about comments being deleted there, because you’ll never get the chance to comment in the first place as registration is required and dissidents who manage go get approved are booted at the first mention of weight loss as a positive thing, no matter how benignly phrased. Of course, they have no compunction about descending on blogs and newspaper articles they deem “hateful” (i.e., anything that notes the medical realities of being overweight) and spewing forth all manner of unruly and erroneous blather. Ah, the Internets…
Great post! Very well said.
I’ve read BigFatBlog and wow what a pack of delusional crazies they are.
One poster over there wrote that it was acceptable for someone to lose weight for the sake of increased mobility and this person was attacked by at least a dozen people. They are obesity advocates and they are insane.
I guess people don’t want to be mean – but looking bad is also a good reason to lose weight. When did it become wrong to say that fat is ugly? Fat is ugly!
I used to think that it was impossible for me to get fat – but here I am: fat. I just started losing weight. I’m doing it for my health, to feel good, and to look good. According to the CDC I need to lose about 12 pounds to be “normal”. Those standards are a joke. 12 pounds is a good start, but I have a lot more to lose than that. There are two women in my office the same height and weight – who think they look just fine and aren’t doing anything about it!!!!! Americans are getting fatter and fatter as a group. Fat is normal now. Pretty horrible.
Scariest thing I saw on Big Fat Blog
” I can come up with a whole list of physical things I have avoided at times in my life because fat people “don’t” or “shouldn’t” do them:
Riding my bike (this is a big one that still gives me trouble…I have an irrational fear of being mocked on my bike)
Walking around my neighborhood
Running in my neighborhood
Swimming
Going to the gym
Joining a community sports team
Rock-climbing
Yoga
Learning to salsa dance”
Why? Why do you avoid working out?? I understand that people get teased and it hurts. I used to be pretty overweight, and now I’m in the 80 percentile of my BMI, so I’m not all the way there. I’m not afraid of swimming in a bikini. I go walking around my neighborhood. If you can get over the teasing, then you can focus on losing weight, and people will STOP teasing you. Pretty simple huh? Worked for me.
Oh and eating organic too. That’s something everybody should do
I love your blog! Have you written about ‘Health at Every Size’ yet? Or ‘Intuitive Eating’? I’m curious about your thoughts on this.
I also hate the comments that a lot of the FA people make about thin people being either 1) anorexic 2) freaks of nature 3) gorgers of food that simply digest food quicker.
I am an normal sized 24 year old female. By ‘normal’ I mean that I am in the lower end of the ‘healthy’ BMI and I am guilty of eating unhealthy food at times. I live on campus at a university and the food options suck. That said, I realize that my options are limited and that sometimes I might eat the bad stuff so I have to take extra care the next time I eat to make healthier choices. I also make extra time at the gym, or go for walks around campus in between classes. I know this is the case with many ‘thin’ people. Yes, many of us indulge in unhealthy junk but realistically, we still eat a lot less and quite a bit healthier than our fatter counterparts. I know that a lot of fat people would like to think that the majority of thin people are sloth-like junk food eating machines that happen to not get fat due to genetics but in my experience, this is untrue. A lot of thin people eat junk food. However, a lot the of the same people do eat less than the fatties and they move more. My roommate for example is a petite girl from Malaysia that can eat massive amounts of food. One time we were eating lunch with some friends and one of the fat girls said to her “how come we eat the same things and you stay skinny but I get fat. That’s not fair”. What she doesn’t pay attention to or inquire about is that my roommate is also incredibly active and that she sees those meals as indulgences. She doesn’t eat like that all the time. She talks about craving chocolate but she doesn’t eat it most of the time because she knows that it will to do her health.
I would argue that for the majority of thin people, we still have to work at maintaining our health. I find it such a straw man argument when I read in some of the FA blogs that “well lots of skinny people eat big macs but they happen to be freaks of nature so they metabolize quicker”. I bet if a fat person actually studied the habits of a thin person over a period of time, they would find that most of them live a reasonably healthy lifestyle.
As for intuitive eating….I have a huge problem with this. How on earth are you supposed to learn what your body is actually craving when you give in every time the body wants something unhealthy? I could understand intuitive eating as a concept if it actually would talk about purging of all unhealthy foods for a period of time to tune the body to stop craving the junk but it glosses over that. If you continue to eat crap while trying to listen to what you’re body needs, you’re gonna get mixed signals all the time. It just doesn’t make any logical sense. To me, all it sounds like is a justification to live the lifestyle of a self indulgent lush. I mean, I love melted cheese on pretty much anything but I’d be fooling myself if I actually believed that I’m craving melted cheese because my body needs the fat. Nonsense.