Rant about weight, fat acceptance, obesity and health

[BrokenQuill92]

1. Yes fat acceptance is wrong. Loving yourself is not.

2. When you can pay for my groceries then I'll let you judge my eating habits

3. I give zero fucks about the standard of beauty. I am fat, black ,blind chick, I never had a chance of reaching the beauty standard in first place so fuck it. And I'm not here to please het men. I'd rather geek over HP fan fics anyway.

4. The psuedo concern for the health of fat people is wearing my last nerve. At least the Arbour chick was real about being a bitch.

5. Obesity causes the same amount of strain on the healthcare system as smokers, drinkers, people with eating disorders but because we're unsightly we get nagged the most.

[downbeatplumb]

1. Yes fat acceptance is wrong. Loving yourself is not.

2. When you can pay for my groceries then I'll let you judge my eating habits

3. I give zero fucks about the standard of beauty. I am fat, black ,blind chick, I never had a chance of reaching the beauty standard in first place so fuck it. And I'm not here to please het men. I'd rather geek over HP fan fics anyway.

4. The psuedo concern for the health of fat people is wearing my last nerve. At least the Arbour chick was real about being a bitch.

5. Obesity causes the same amount of strain on the healthcare system as smokers, drinkers, people with eating disorders but because we're unsightly we get nagged the most.

BrokenQuill I have seem photos of you and you are not what I would consider to be unhealthily large. 

It's extremes at both ends which are the issue.
I've known a few girls who have had various eating disorders, some to the extent that they have damaged their health due bullemia or anorexia or in some cases yo yo dieting. So too thin or being over controlling with food is just as bad as over eating.

[Strider]

1. Yes fat acceptance is wrong. Loving yourself is not.

2. When you can pay for my groceries then I'll let you judge my eating habits

3. I give zero fucks about the standard of beauty. I am fat, black ,blind chick, I never had a chance of reaching the beauty standard in first place so fuck it. And I'm not here to please het men. I'd rather geek over HP fan fics anyway.

4. The psuedo concern for the health of fat people is wearing my last nerve. At least the Arbour chick was real about being a bitch.

5. Obesity causes the same amount of strain on the healthcare system as smokers, drinkers, people with eating disorders but because we're unsightly we get nagged the most.

I agree that you should love yourself, no matter what, but that doesn't mean accepting and/or being proud of your own unhealthiness. Basically, what I'm against is a movement that tells unhealthy people that "you're okay how you are and you don't need to change" when that simply is not true.

My concern for obese individuals is real. I honestly do not want anyone to experience immobility and poor health, especially if it is something that is within their power to avoid.

As far as overweight individuals being nagged the most, sorry, that's just not true. Watch television for any amount of time or check out some billboards and you'll see cigarette smokers depicted in some extremely unfavorable and often grotesque ways. I am also against people using tobacco, but why is it apparently okay to rail against one particular health concern with such fervor while ignoring another?

[Ben Davis]

What's up with this fat acceptance movement?

---

I'm not going to be politically correct on this and I'm not afraid to offend people, so here it goes:

My girlfriend is very thin and also fit, she is actually underweight on a BMI scale despite the fact that she looks pretty healthy and her medical checkups turn out fine - Everyone, whether it's family friends or family keeps telling her that she needs to eat and that only dogs go for bones, etc. Honestly, the reason why this bothers her and me is because she was underfeed by her biological parents as a child and they didn't take properly care of her, she has memories of her parents fighting and doing drugs while she was left starving and dirty (she was adopted later) - Everytime someone tells her how skinny bitches are annoying, and how skinny people need to eat, she is reminded of horrible childhood experiences and traumatic teenage year phases (like it happens with most adopted kids when they find out about being adopted) - I'm not the kind of person who supports shaming without constructive criticism, I'm not going to go near fat people and tell them to lose weight, or that they should eat less, just like I don't tell a horribly dressed person that they have poor fashion taste even if it is what I mentally think is true.

The worst part here, is that unlike smokers and alcoholics who are not only taxed on a very high rate (specially in Europe, just imagine paying extra 3.50€ for each pack of smokes and multiply it by 30 years or so of smoking and see how much money that is) but frequently admit that they made poor choices and have unhealthy habits, the fat acceptance movement is seeking to openly promote the idea that obesity and being overweight is fine and healthy, and a lot of their idealisms are based on the idea that people, specially straight men, must feel attracted to fat and frequently obese women. This is just idiotic and it's not going to work. I think the problem with eating is that everyone eats, so it's easy to eat too much, while smoking is something that is not necessary for survival and you can just quit. I still smoke a few cigs a day, and I think it's a terrible habit, I'd advise anyone to NOT smoke and I don't intend to promote non-smokers privilege - In fact, if the rhetoric used for fat acceptance was used for smokers it would be ridiculed right away - Why is body weight a special case?

I don't think not being attracted to fat people is that cultural as people say it is - The truth is we can find examples of art and beauty depicting thin people since the Romans, and even so the fat beauty has only been around when people were super poor and it was considered a sign of wealth. Even if we look at chubby chasers, the majority of these people are looking for folks (specially men looking for women) with a few extra pounds and frequently more fat on the ass, boobs and other body parts they find important - Very few people are actively wanting to date obese folks unless they're obese themselves and can't find a better partner.

I think obesity and fat are health issues that should be addressed and treated like any other public health concern by a matter of coherence, and so I find it idiotic that there's a fat acceptance movement kinda like if there was a smokers acceptance or alcoholics acceptance movement. I don't wish to control people's lives and I don't want to tell them what to eat, it's entirely up to you, but promoting an unhealthy lifestyle and then claiming those who don't agree are brainwashed, culturally restricted and oppressors is just stupid. Grow up.

I have 10 extra Kilograms (22 pounds on average) that I gained over 3 years and I plan to go back to my normal weight, which is less 10-15 kilograms (154 pounds, more or less 70kilograms) - The reason I gained weight is merely because I was lazy and to be honest I started dating, my girlfriend is quite hot and so I stopped caring about my body too much because I don't need to attract women. I'm going back and I know I won't regret it. I know being fat is complicated, there's many variables and problems people face - But to what degree is it really genetic, and how much can we influence our weight?

---

I've not come across any 'fat acceptance' movement. I've encountered a 'body positivity' movement (which tries to encourage people to have self-esteem, irrespective of their physical shape whilst countering intolerance from people who criticise physical attributes & consider them as representative of a target's personality) but not 'fat acceptance'. Likewise, I've never come across anyone who's said "Being fat is healthy". Are you sure you're seeing what you think you're seeing?

[Dystopia]

What's up with this fat acceptance movement?

---

I'm not going to be politically correct on this and I'm not afraid to offend people, so here it goes:

My girlfriend is very thin and also fit, she is actually underweight on a BMI scale despite the fact that she looks pretty healthy and her medical checkups turn out fine - Everyone, whether it's family friends or family keeps telling her that she needs to eat and that only dogs go for bones, etc. Honestly, the reason why this bothers her and me is because she was underfeed by her biological parents as a child and they didn't take properly care of her, she has memories of her parents fighting and doing drugs while she was left starving and dirty (she was adopted later) - Everytime someone tells her how skinny bitches are annoying, and how skinny people need to eat, she is reminded of horrible childhood experiences and traumatic teenage year phases (like it happens with most adopted kids when they find out about being adopted) - I'm not the kind of person who supports shaming without constructive criticism, I'm not going to go near fat people and tell them to lose weight, or that they should eat less, just like I don't tell a horribly dressed person that they have poor fashion taste even if it is what I mentally think is true.

The worst part here, is that unlike smokers and alcoholics who are not only taxed on a very high rate (specially in Europe, just imagine paying extra 3.50€ for each pack of smokes and multiply it by 30 years or so of smoking and see how much money that is) but frequently admit that they made poor choices and have unhealthy habits, the fat acceptance movement is seeking to openly promote the idea that obesity and being overweight is fine and healthy, and a lot of their idealisms are based on the idea that people, specially straight men, must feel attracted to fat and frequently obese women. This is just idiotic and it's not going to work. I think the problem with eating is that everyone eats, so it's easy to eat too much, while smoking is something that is not necessary for survival and you can just quit. I still smoke a few cigs a day, and I think it's a terrible habit, I'd advise anyone to NOT smoke and I don't intend to promote non-smokers privilege - In fact, if the rhetoric used for fat acceptance was used for smokers it would be ridiculed right away - Why is body weight a special case?

I don't think not being attracted to fat people is that cultural as people say it is - The truth is we can find examples of art and beauty depicting thin people since the Romans, and even so the fat beauty has only been around when people were super poor and it was considered a sign of wealth. Even if we look at chubby chasers, the majority of these people are looking for folks (specially men looking for women) with a few extra pounds and frequently more fat on the ass, boobs and other body parts they find important - Very few people are actively wanting to date obese folks unless they're obese themselves and can't find a better partner.

I think obesity and fat are health issues that should be addressed and treated like any other public health concern by a matter of coherence, and so I find it idiotic that there's a fat acceptance movement kinda like if there was a smokers acceptance or alcoholics acceptance movement. I don't wish to control people's lives and I don't want to tell them what to eat, it's entirely up to you, but promoting an unhealthy lifestyle and then claiming those who don't agree are brainwashed, culturally restricted and oppressors is just stupid. Grow up.

I have 10 extra Kilograms (22 pounds on average) that I gained over 3 years and I plan to go back to my normal weight, which is less 10-15 kilograms (154 pounds, more or less 70kilograms) - The reason I gained weight is merely because I was lazy and to be honest I started dating, my girlfriend is quite hot and so I stopped caring about my body too much because I don't need to attract women. I'm going back and I know I won't regret it. I know being fat is complicated, there's many variables and problems people face - But to what degree is it really genetic, and how much can we influence our weight?

---

I've not come across any 'fat acceptance' movement. I've encountered a 'body positivity' movement (which tries to encourage people to have self-esteem, irrespective of their physical shape whilst countering intolerance from people who criticise physical attributes & consider them as representative of a target's personality) but not 'fat acceptance'. Likewise, I've never come across anyone who's said "Being fat is healthy". Are you sure you're seeing what you think you're seeing?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_at_Every_Size

They also have a website. Do you think you can say "I have not heard of X" and use it as an argument? I have never met a pro-bullfighting group, but I know they exist.

B sides, those movements are typically close to each other and some people may even be a part of both movements - Health at every size is about being healthy and eating right while being overweight, which is in itself a good principle, but it fails because there's a tendency to assume it's not fatness that causes health issues even when doctors confirm it is.

[Longhorn]

Of course you should love yourself. You should love yourself enough to change your unhealthy habits that are causing harm to you ._.

But I can sympathize with people on both ends of the spectrum who struggle with weight. It's not as easy as it sounds to lose or gain 'a couple pounds'.

I definitely can't sympathize with movements propagating unhealthy habits in the name of loving yourself. Does not compute.

[Ben Davis]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_at_Every_Size They also have a website.

Thanks for the pointer. I've taken a look and read around the term.

Do you think you can say "I have not heard of X" and use it as an argument? I have never met a pro-bullfighting group, but I know they exist.

I wasn't arguing, I was challenging. I wasn't aware of the existence of the term 'fat acceptance' so I was looking for extra information. I was extra sceptical because there's a tendency for those who might be intolerant of fat people (consciously or unconsciously) to consider any body positivity as 'promoting a fat lifestyle'.

B sides, those movements are typically close to each other and some people may even be a part of both movements - Health at every size is about being healthy and eating right while being overweight, which is in itself a good principle, but it fails because there's a tendency to assume it's not fatness that causes health issues even when doctors confirm it is.

Nothing that I've seen critically challenges the well-established view of health experts: that the more fat you have, the more likely you are to suffer certain medical conditions and the shorter your life-span's likely to be. Instead I've seen encouragement that people need to be accepting of human variety: people are going to be different shapes & sizes, even with the best care taken of their bodies so people need to stop making socio-cultural judgements as a result of individual perceptions of size. There seems to be a clear delineation between the social and the medical aspects of 'fat acceptance'.

Have you any examples of the tendency you refer to?

[Ben Davis]

Of course you should love yourself. You should love yourself enough to change your unhealthy habits that are causing harm to you ._.

Yeah but smoking's llluuuusssssshhhh, drinking's llluuuusssssshhhh, dancing naked in a storm's llluuuusssssshhhh, covering yourself in peanut butter and rolling down a grassy hill's llluuuusssssshhhh

[Longhorn]

Of course you should love yourself. You should love yourself enough to change your unhealthy habits that are causing harm to you ._.

Yeah but smoking's llluuuusssssshhhh, drinking's llluuuusssssshhhh, dancing naked in a storm's llluuuusssssshhhh, covering yourself in peanut butter and rolling down a grassy hill's llluuuusssssshhhh

Yabbut what does that even mean ._.

[brewer]

Lazy, copy paste response:

https://atheistforums.org/thread-35986.h...ulous+life

For some people food is like a drug. The act of eating and/or getting that full/over full/distended feeling gets the dopamine flowing. Unlike a drug, you can't quit eating all together. Well, you can but then you have other issues. Another point, if it's not directly effecting my life I not sure it's something worth getting worked up about. If it's their choice to be obese and accept all of the associated negative consequences (health/society/expense/.......) and I'm not directly effected then I'm OK with it all.