The fat acceptance movement is stupid and regression

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I remember watching a documentary about certain medication having a considerable effect on weight which I known anyway for quite some time . In those circumstances a medical professional can provide a perfectly satisfactory reason for any weight gain and I'm cool with that.

It's only the people who have no reason whatsoever for morbid obesity that I have an issue with.

I don't see this as a "Fat Shaming" thread.
It is simply self-evident that obesity is not healthy.
A simple empirical fact of life.

Food can be an addiction like drugs.I used to watch my 600 pound life and it seemed most of the people had suffered some type of severe trauma in their life, loss of a family member, or sexual assault.Food became their addiction and comfort, the only thing they could depend on to make them happy even though it was slowly killing them .Usually family members were codependents and bringing them the food they demanded.They would bring all sorts of fast food instead of healthy foods.
It’s not right to shame anyone for being extremely fat or anorexic, there are usually psychological issues involved.It is hard to get either to seek help and they can get very defensive about their weight.Like most addicts they are in denial about the problem.

You're talking to someone who due to religious reasons never ever touched a drug, cigarette, porn or sexual material or anything people normally use to cope with hard life stressors, meaning when life hit me hard, and trust me it hit me harder than 99% of people who say they've been through trauma (one out of the thousands of trauma ive been through in life was in Palestine during an actual war. When I was 6....), when life hit me hard my only drug became food and my addiction was so bad I reached 290 pounds despite being 160 pounds before my injury. I was eating at restaurants every day, I literally spent every check on a restaurant, and when I had even an iota of stress due to the impossibility of using actual drugs, cigarettes or sexual material to numb the pain food became such a drug of mine I literally have a receipt from 2018 where at Chick Fil A I spent $70 on ten spicy chicken deluxe burgers, 4 milkshakes, and a giant soda.

you're talking to the guy who because of severe injuries and trauma that would make the average US soldier commit suicide and who as a result was unable to do anything except eat. Trust me I know that pain and hopelessness better than you can imagine.

And considering I was rehabilitating from injuries it was 1000 times harder to get in shape. Yet through hard work, tenacity and sheer willpower I made it work

Im not here to say everyone is like me and that if I can do it so can everyone else. im only saying that where there is a will, there is a way. Rather than scorning those who struggle to lose weight just because I was able to I actually feel empathy and compassion with those struggling because despite me now saying I lost that weight I know that journey was hard as hell, with many tears and many moments of even near suicide, and that it feels hopeless. but no matter how hopeless it got had I surrendered to that pit of despair and devoured another cheeseburger to numb that pain I would still be 290 pounds and too fat to even move.

It is hard as hell to lose a lot of weight, and those who are obese suffer hell and food to them is their drug. I get that and I was there. but I genuinely feel such strong vicarious empathy for those people struggling that I wish they can push forward and get in shape because only then will they realize how worthwhile it all was

/\I am so sorry that you had to endure all that.
Congratulations on all your hard work to maintain a healthy weight.

Thank you. It was bitter work, but the fruits, were worth it.

Granted I have to give credit where it's due and admit that without the inspiration from heroes and legends like David Goggins I wouldn't have had the motivation to transform myself into where I am; luckily I had people like Navy SEAL David Goggins to inspire me:



Who is David Goggins you may or may not be asking? Only the most inspirational human being on earth and arguably one of the most inspirational in history. The man was like me, from the moment he was born he was beaten hard by the wringer of life and crushed and his circumstances were bleak as hell. He was born to an abusive father who was so vicious that he used to beat David Goggins by removing his clothing, leaving him in the dark room, and whipping him savagely from behind...while David Goggins was only 8. He was the only black kid in his school and neighborhood growing up and he was called the N word by everyone around him; one day during a basketball game that he attended in an auditorium of over 2000 people the entire gym in unison began to chant "N**ger" over and over again. He lived only a few blocks away from the KKK and he used to regularly witness the Klan burn crosses next to him. In fact his classmates were the children of Klansmen and one day when Goggins missed school his classmates took his Spanish notebook and wrote on it "we're going to hang you n***er"; when he told the principal about it the principal laughed instead of taking the incident seriously.

By the time Goggins was 25 he was at the bottom of the barrel: he was 297 pounds obese, was making only $1000 a month spraying cockroaches at night, was spending every day while not working eating boxes of mini donuts and drinking chocolate milkshakes, and was a high school drop out without any prospects for a better future. One day he saw a documentary on the Navy SEALS and that inspired him: "what if I, fat David Goggins, can become a seal?" He went to every recruiting station asking what are his chances of becoming a SEAL, and all of them laughed at him since a 300 pound black high school drop out was the last man anyone thought would be SEAL material - until Goggins met one generous recruiter who told him curtly "you can only join if you drop down to 192 lbs in 3 months", which is basically asking Goggins to lose 105 pounds in 3 months. And guess what? Against all odds Goggins miraculously pulled that off!! ! In 3 months of rigorous training David Goggins ended up losing 106 pounds in 3 months and joined the SEALS

His story is a lot longer but ill make it quick. Basically he went on to break records that were unheard of, let alone for a man coming from his background, such as being the only SEAL in US history to complete 3 hell weeks back to back, setting the world record for pull ups by doing 4,032 pull ups in less than 24 hours, as well as completing 1st place in Army Ranger school.

Whenever I felt hopeless I would listen to or read David Goggins and that was enough to give me hope that I would make it through.

And im glad that I did.

I'm pretty sure the original purpose of fat acceptance movement was to stop people from insulting fat people, especially random ones they didn't even know, and to make the fat people with bad self esteem to feel better about themselves. These are goals I fully support, but when someone says to an obese person that they're fine just the way they are, that they don't need to change at all, then that is something I consider a problem. If someone has a good self esteem and they feel good about their looks even though they're overweight then good for them, but that doesn't change the fact that it's not healthy to be that big. I think that overweight people should indeed receive emotional support, like friends celebrating with them even small successes about weight control, but they should not be given the message that people don't want their situation to change.

And this is coming from someone who used to be overweight. While I had a medication that increased weight gain (and still do, but a different one now) and my disability makes exercise harder than for an average person, I'd say that those reasons covered only about 20-25% of my overweight. Mostly it was about eating too much, too unhealthy and getting too little exercise. The first two are now certainly fixed, but this office rat here is still working on the third...

Pretty much agree with everyone here without exception, the fat acceptance movement should be aimed at stopping discrimination against overweight people BUT it should not normalise obesity

I don't mind watching Lizzo dancing around in her bikini (I think 90% of the women attacking her are secretly fat shaming but don't want to say) but at the same time kids really shouldn't aspire to be her size or think being overweight is normal as obesity is a health risk.

Not all fat people are "lazy"

Some drugs and diseases cause weight gain

Genetics a factor

Plenty of skinny people are lazier than some fat people

Stereotype

Overgeneralization

It sure didn't take long for this thread to be called fat shaming. If this thread is shaming anything, we are shaming the HAES movement for their lies and propaganda they spread and they shame anyone who loses weight to be healthy or to improve their health issues. They also thin shame and anorexic shame people for their eating disorders as well. What a bunch of hypocrites.

So glad someone else posted this. It is a stereotype. I do need weekends to relax and when it’s hot out (I get heat sick) but other than that, I use the treadmill quite often.

Someone can't be morbidly obese and still active to a sufficient level. Illnesses and medication doesn't seem to be a factor in most cases.

If fat people are active, it's because they still eat too much and they give themselves the same amount of calories their body uses to maintain that weight. Studies have shown that many people underestimate their calorie intake. Skinny people tend to over estimate their calorie intake. They may say they can eat anything they want without gaining a pound but what they mean is they do not eat that much and when they do eat junk, they are just giving themselves the calories their body uses to maintain their skinny size. Or they eat one big meal and then not eat for the rest of the day and then they have something light like a snack in the evening before bed.

I have seen plenty of fat active people and they often argue they can't lose weight, that is because they are not measuring their food and not counting their calories properly and don't realize how much they are having. They may not realize a Starbuck coffee they are ordering has around 600 calories. Or they think they eat healthy but don't realize how many calories the salad topping has.

I think a lot of the exercise many obese people do isn't vigorous enough a lot of the time too. Aerobics seems to be a popular one and one that I would hardly have any faith preventing a looming heart attack.

I never thought of Marilyn Monroe or Betty Page, as curvy, but average/thin. I thought that curvy was like Queen Latifah, and obese was like John Candy.

I think there's a fine line though between advocating for healthy choices and psychological harm in the realm of weight since nowadays more than half of people are overweight and particularly women are subject to body dissatisfaction, Most young girls are actually normal BMI but perceive themselves "overweight" so ironically are also impacted by fat shaming. I know many social media influencers have toxic attitudes

But despite being mindful of these things, people who advocate losing weight should not be criticised by advocates for the fat acceptance movement. Weight loss for those who are obese are no different to people who smoke or drug addicts as food addiction is not healthy,

Obese people are conditioned psychologically to think they are eating enough calories when in reality they are maintaining their weight and need to train themselves to eat less and exercise more. Often this requires a personal trainer and perhaps a nutritionist to guide them through a safe routine and I think medical insurance should cover costs to do this.