- Joined
- Feb 5, 2004
Have you guys heard of the fat acceptance movement? I'm not sure if it's really gained much ground outside of the US. The main premises, at least as far as I can tell, are that if you're obese you need to just accept it and not try and change it, and that it can be perfectly healthy to be obese, even excessively obese. They say that trying to lose weight is a waste of time, only supports the weight loss industry, and that most people do not keep the weight off. They also deny studies that show a connection between obesity and health problems. If you Google "fat acceptance" you will find blogs about it. This is one- http://kateharding.net/. I would love to know what you guys think if anyone's interested.
I'd never heard of that but my gut instinct is that it's pretty irresponsible to promote the idea that being obese is healthy in any way, shape or form.
I personally don't get all the allegations of "fatism" if that's what it's called. That's not to say that it doesn't exist and everyone's experience is different but i've never suffered it. I myself was always a fat child and up until about 7 or so years ago in my mid 20s had my weight fluctuate from anything between 16 stone (224lbs) and 22 stone (308lbs). I always knew I was fat but didn't really care, ate what i wanted and never exercised. It wasn't linked to anything that i have ever consciously known and other than usual childhood teasing (and there was about the same about my weight as there was about many other aspects of me and it was always fairly harmless teasing as opposed to bullying!) i never suffered because of my weight.
The only time i vaguely remember being embarassed was probably not lnog before i decided to do somethign about my weight at my biggest and was in Holland. My parents had gotten into a lift with maybe four other people in it and whe i went to get in the "overload" alarm buzzed - the maximum number of people was not even close to being hit and my weight was what tipped it over the edge, the people in the lift that weren't my parents all laughed. My response was not to be annoyed at the people but to actually be annoyed with myself for letting my weight get so out of hand and ignoring it.
It was only in my mid 20s when i saw my graduation pictures and thought i actually looked spherical that i started noticing that actually tying my shoe laces was getting to be a struggle and there was no way that was healthy, and at the same time decided i wanted to learn to skate.
With that aim in mind i started to watch what i ate, joined a gym and started skating and the weight literally fell off. Obviously i always knew i was big and always knew i'd have to something about it but was putting it off for a rainy day (same with the fact that i smoked and knew one day i'd have to quit).
The reason i've shared so much of this is that i honestly think that if there had been a group advocating staying obese and saying that it was healthy i might have been able to remain as I was and I now know that actually the physical restrictions i had being that weight were enormous, but i didn't know that because i'd never known anything else.
As it is now my weight is prone to fluctuate depending on how "good" i'm being about food and exercise but nowadays it fluctuates between 12 stone (168lbs) and 14 Stone (196lbs).
Ant