Fatlotofgood.org.au – The delusion of fat acceptance
I’m not a nutritionist and I know practically stuff all about the BMI, yet I can tell you when someone is overweight.
Sure it can be marginally subjective from person to person but there’s always that crystal clear threshold that once crossed, you realise a person is overinflated just that little too much.
Fatties getting the long end of the stick on society is nothing new. Whilst there’s definitely been a shift towards the unrealistically thin stereotype over the last few decades, I’m at a loss to recall a period in history where fatties were looked upon favourably.
If anyone can recall a time then it’s news to me.
Whatever the reason, there’s also been a dramatic increase in our waistlines and with this has brought the notion that it’s ok to be overweight.
Despite my protests, “Let’s not celebrate the fatties just yet“, the fact is that fatty numbers have exploded in the last decade has brought with it a strength in numbers supporting fatties and their body sizes.
Trashing diets, refuting scientific studies and dismissing anyone who suggests being fat as anything but healthy, ‘fat acceptance’ appears to be the centrepiece of this movement.
After writing about Magda Szubanski’s anti-cyclist rant yesterday I saw an inbound link pop up from Australian blog ‘Fatlotofgood‘, run by 30 something year old, size 22 and 130kg ‘Bri King’. As I do with most of my inbound links I curiously headed over to see what the site was about.
The title of the blog post I’d been linked to was ‘I think I’ve recovered now so let’s have some Fat Acceptance 101‘ and as I read on I couldn’t believe the nonsense showcased in the post.
Fat Acceptance is not about encouraging people to gain weight. It is about learning to accept and love who you are at this present moment and working with what you have to have a happy and fulfilling life.
Whilst I’m glad that the site supposedly doesn’t encourage people to put on more weight, what’s all this nonsense about being complicit with not fitting through doorways or causing more damage to footpaths then trees?!
If you’re fat, there’s a reason you might be finding it difficult to have a happy and fulfilling life – YOUR BODY IS TRYING TO TELL YOU SOMETHING!
Diets are not the answer to long term weight loss. There is currently no guaranteed answer to long term weight loss.
Sure, dietS might not be the answer to long term weight loss but surely Bri you’re not suggesting that dieT has nothing to do with it?
I mean really, what you fuel your body with has no bearing on your weight? Next you’ll be telling us breathing in air puts on the kilos.
Fat does not equate with ill health, just as thin does not equate with good health.
Seriously when was the last time you saw a healthy fat person? Why is it that outside our ‘over-consuming, stuff your face till you explode’ society being overweight doesn’t exist? How many fat people are there in poor countries?!
You don’t get fat by being healthy, you do however maintain a healthy weight by living healthy.
I’m not even going to address the thin comment as whaling on thin people doesn’t in any way justify eating more food in one sitting then an African nation eats in an entire year.
Fat people are not all lazy, gluttonous slobs who spend all day sitting on the sofa eating donuts. Just as not all thin people are out exercising daily and eating nothing but leafy greens.
Here’s a newsflash for you, most people have to put some effort into maintaining a healthy weight. Sure there are metabolic exceptions which keep people thin but by and large fat people are the result of their own lifestyles.
Having said that even with the skinny metabolic exception people the fact is that they are burning off their energy somehow before it is stored as fat. For this to happen you have to put the donuts down and get off the couch.
Sorry but there’s no way around this.
You cannot believe everything reported in the media regarding the so called ‘obesity epidemic’.
Forget the media, get off the freaking couch and go have a look for yourself!
Shopping centre food courts are the worst but even walking down a footpath in Melbourne’s CBD – Jesus Christ some people need one of those escort cars carrying a wide load sign to follow them around so that the rest of us don’t get bowled over.
You cannot believe everything you read in Results section of studies – you need to learn how to analyse such studies and consider things such as the sample, the methodology and who is sponsoring the research.
I assume you’re talking about studies into heart disease and the other stuff commonly associated with being fat. Well ok, let’s discount all that, where’s all the studies showing there’s no link between them?
On the most basic of levels being overweight causes extra stress on your body (forget science, it’s clearly visible when you ask a fat person to do anything more physically strenuous than lifting a donut to their mouth) which in turn wears out the heart faster.
Then there’s cholesterol clogging your arteries and everything making the heart work harder again. Yes skinny people can have cholesterol problems, but it’s largely due to the same reason fat people have it – a crap diet.
This shared symptom in no way justifies being overweight.
Show me one doctor who’s going to stand up and say ‘being fat carries no associated health risks’.
Fat people deserve to be treated with the same dignity and respect that average weight people do.
Yeah no.
What then, we remove the hounding of overweight outcasts and it becomes normal. Then one day we wake up and realise average weight is what ‘overweight’ was 10 years ago and overweight is beyond morbidly obese.
Society’s bias against fat people exists for a very good reason, to discourage people from joining the ranks.
The BMI is a flawed measure and not appropriate for categorising body weight.
I don’t care about the BMI so stop hiding behind it.
If I look at you and my eyeballs feel like they’ve just been sodomized, you need to lose some weight.
If you find yourself stuck in a doorway, you need to lose some weight.
If you get into a car and the car groans and tilts to one side, you need to lose some weight.
We don’t need ‘scientific measurements’ to tell us who is and isn’t overweight, it’s blatantly obvious.
There is such a thing as ‘thin privilege’ and it pervades Western society (and probably other societies as well).
It isn’t thin privilege, it’s ‘fat disadvantage’. And as I said before, rightly so. Encouraging people to be fat by reward and preference is dangerous.
People are fat for a variety of reasons. Some people are fat because of medication, some are fat because of genetics, some are fat because they eat a lot. It doesn’t matter why someone is fat. It is irrelevant why someone is fat. Every fatty deserves to be treated with respect regardless of WHY they are fat.
All I see is excuses.
‘waaah the anti-depressants I take to cope with my depression from being fat makes me overweight’
‘waaah *munchmunchmunch* I have fat genetics *munchmunchmunch* it’s not my fault!’
I agree it doesn’t matter why someone is fat but it’s certainly not irrelevant. Respect is earned and you don’t earn it by disrespecting your body. Weight wise your body is a literal physical representation of how you treat it.
Correlation does not equal causation. In other words it has not been proved that fat actually causes diabetes, heart attacks and all the rest. There is a correlation between fat and those conditions but it has not been shown how actual body fat could cause these illnesses and until it has, that is correlation which does not equal causation.
Jesus Christ stop deluding yourself already. This sounds like some bullshit a mother would tell her fat child whilst she makes them a bacon hamburger for breakfast after the child complains about being picked on for being fat.
Fat people put tons more stress on their bodies when doing day to day normal tasks, you don’t need to be a scientist to put two and two together and see how over time this can cause heart attacks.
As for diabetes, hello? Massive sugar laden diets?!
I’m not for a second advocating anorexia but I’ll certainly stand up and say that going around telling fatties it’s ok to be fat is equally as dangerous and destructive.
Fat people are a huge burden on our medical system, are horrendous to look at, damage the environment and expect us all to just accept that it’s in their genetics or some other such rubbish.
Sorry guys, not going to happen. Instead of huddling around the internet in your protected self help groups preaching to each other that being fat is acceptable how about you get off your arses and set yourselves some worthwhile goals.
Being average weight isn’t some exclusive elite club that is difficult to join, you just need to put a little effort in and make some lifestyle changes. Diet (not necessarily dieting), exercise, moderation and balance.
That’s pretty much all there is to it.
Oh and don’t bother trying to hold a discussion on Fatlotofgood, Bri clearly states she’s got her fingers in her ears when it comes to people who don’t share her opinion;
Maybe troll types don’t read newspapers like The Age? Oh well, I am sure they will show their teeth sooner or later and when they do, they will get the same response they always get – NONE. Instant deletion. End of story.
Yes anyone who disagrees with you is a troll. How precious.
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October 1st, 2009 at 2:35 am aussiebear(Quote)
“People are fat for a variety of reasons.”
=> I can only think of one: Bad habits.
I agree though. Coming up with excuses is really saying:
=> “I’m not responsible or accountable for the way I am or my life.”
…Which is just sad.
October 1st, 2009 at 7:41 am scarlett(Quote)
You can’t think of a time when fat was lauded in society? You obviously aren’t a historian then are you? Perhaps you should look into that more before you shoot your mouth off.
Where is your evidence that the number of fat people has increased? Are you just believing what the media tells you? Your piece is full of generalisations, assumptions and stereotypes – most of which are misleading at best and totally wrong at worst. As someone who is classed as ‘obese’ by the stupid BMI, I can tell you I fit just fine through doorways, exercise daily and eat more healthily that most of my thin friends. I know there is no point arguing with people like you because you have your mind made up but really…do some research, read the studies and open your mind just a bit. You didn’t like people dissing cyclists, so why is it ok to diss on fat people? Is hating on people really helping anyone?
October 1st, 2009 at 8:09 am ozsoapbox(Quote)
I thought I made this abundantly clear in my opening.
Why? Even if it was lauded by some culture at some point in time does that make it any less unacceptable?
Lots of things have been lauded throughout history by various cultures; slavery, child sex, polygamy, mysognyny, genocide etc.
Did you even read the article? Go outside and take a look for yourself. Summer is just around the corner and I heard Melbourne aquarium was going to shut down, they can’t compete with what Melbourne’s beaches showcase for free.
Everywhere I go there’s more fat people around. I don’t need the media to tell me what my eyes can clearly see.
I don’t care what the BMI says, if you have flab hanging off your body then you need to lose some weight!
Advocating the murder of cyclists is a little beyond ‘dissing’. As much as I hate the sight of fatties I’m not about to suggest running them down whenever I see them waddling about.
October 1st, 2009 at 8:44 am josep(Quote)
Obviously you attract to yourself and seek out overweight people. Your perception that their are more overweight people around is how well society, media and your upbringing has brainwashed you into believing this. Do some real research and you will find out that there are less overweight people today by percentage than there was 50 years ago. The statistics are inaccurate due to who gains from the distortion of the statistics. Use your brain and see through the illusion. Your anecdotal account of the number of obese people you see is hardly a scientific or accurate approach.
October 1st, 2009 at 9:12 am ozsoapbox(Quote)
I attract overweight people when I go outside for a walk…?
‘Hey there’s OzSoapbox! Quick evacuate Maccas we need to go stand around him OMG CAN’T RESIST THE ATTRACTION!’
…riiiiiiight.
Where?! Worldwide or in Australia. Can you show me one of these studies??
In one breath you tell people not to trust scientific studies because they are done by evil masterminds with ulterior motives (such as this study in the Medical Journal of Australia conducted by, weight for it… university academics), and with the other you rubbish people for giving their personal observations. Then you cite imaginary and run around telling people it’s ok to be fat.
It’s time to wake up and smell the vegetable oil.
October 1st, 2009 at 1:08 pm James(Quote)
Where do we find this ‘real research’ ?
“The statistics are inaccurate” so how could we trust the research?
You can’t seriously reckon that the amount of fat people hasn’t increased in the last 50 – 100 years can you?
If the amount of machinery and the sedentary & easy lifestyles, and the use of computers and TV’s combined with the reliance on cars & buses hasn’t increased the girth of the nation I’ll eat my hat, it’s low carb.
October 2nd, 2009 at 8:11 am Mezza(Quote)
While I agree with the author of that site that no one should be ridiculed/treated badly because of their size, I did find it strange that she was almost promoting obesity as being good for you. There were lots of positives, but the only drawbacks seemed to be the ones which others caused (being made fun of in the media/clothing etc..). This woman is SERIOUSLY overweight (Size 22) and there is so much evidence of issues with cardiac/gasto/renal/arthritic complications that to say that she is not only happy with her health, but encouraging others her size to be also happy…it’s a worry. I don’t know about you but how many overweight 70yo have you seen?? or 60yo?? Quite rare. Also begs the comparison with a deluded smoker – “no I am healthy!!” “those studies that show that smoking is bad for you are biased”
October 2nd, 2009 at 9:01 am ozsoapbox(Quote)
This is one of the major argument points in rebuttal of ‘fatties cost us more in healthcare’.
The response is usually ‘but we die younger!’ as if this is somehow a good thing!
Of course then there’s the paradox of being fat doesn’t cause health problems but they just mysteriously die off well before the national average age…
October 21st, 2009 at
[...] previously written about Fat Acceptance and after reading about Mason’s story inevitably found myself back at [...]
August 23rd, 2010 at 4:07 am Trish(Quote)
I am pissed off at those sites that preach fat acceptance. I have been fat before and thought at one point that would be my life. One day, I had an epiphany or something and the weight just fell off.
I had always known why I was fat and how to lose it; and this from the ages of 12 to 16 (not a good time to be fat) I was never stupid enough to delude myself into thinking everything I was doing wasn’t directly causing me to be fat, or that my fatness wasn’t the reason I couldn’t bend over properly and had angina-like symptoms at 15. And I can’t go over to their stupid sites and tell them that it is possible to lose weight, as if they didn’t know.
Of course deep down they know they don;t have to be fat; but they love their f’n food too much.
They are actually very similar to pro-anorexia sites in the sense they think they know better than the medical community. When anas don’t immediately have health problems or die of their eating disorder, they think they’ve showed everyone else that it’s healthy to be ana and everyone else is just trying to ‘get them’ by telling them they’re unhealthy.
Remind you of someone?
November 13th, 2010 at 7:04 pm melzliee(Quote)
i am an overweight female (according to my bmi), i am a vegan and eat only healthy foods. i have been overweight for about three years following the death of my son when i took solace in food. but since i have been moving out of that experience i am back on track, but still considered “fat”. the way you look at “fat” people (and i’m not sure how “fat” is “fat” for you) is inhumane and cruel.
also, if you start at the very beginning of history, the venus of wildondorf (the female symbol of fertility) was an extreme obese female form. throughout history the female form has shifted and changed according to fashion. within renaissance times the volumptous female figure was de riguer, with artists using “rubenesque” models, fleshy and robust. there are many larger sized women is african cultures also.
whilst i am not particularly an advocate of fatness, i am an advocate of healthy. i find your comments unhelpful, especially when it is true that beauty can come in many forms.
November 14th, 2010 at 1:38 am ozsoapbox(Quote)
Hey Melzliee, great to hear you’re doing something about your weight. Make sure you excercise too…unless you’re lucky diet alone might not be enough.
We’ve come a long way since the beginning of history. Stupidly obese might have been cool in the dinosaur ages but thankfully most of us are a bit more educated now.
Good luck with your weight loss, I hope it works out for you.
July 15th, 2011 at 10:45 pm Alexie(Quote)
Wow, found this rant and couldn’t believe that you could expend so many words on something you know so little about.
I spent all of last year sitting in a chemotherapy outpatients clinic, watching women around me with breast cancer get fatter and fatter, because of the hormones and cortisone they were being treated with. One woman put on 20 kilos in a MONTH, taking her from svelte to overweight. From then she just got bigger and bigger.
Do you know what people like you to do people like her when you say things like ‘waaah waah waah’ excuses?
And before you say, ‘but that’s only a fraction of overweight people’, I’d like to see your scientific paper. Being stuck in hospital for so long has brought me in contact with people who are on all kinds of medications that bloat them up, or make them obsessively hungry. The fact is, you can’t tell from looking at someone whether they’re fat because of hormone treatments, anti-depressants or cortisone, or fat because they eat too much.
What you can tell, is that nastiness like this adds unbearable stress to people who are already struggling with the worst things possible.
Shame on you.
July 16th, 2011 at 9:52 am ozsoapbox(Quote)
Uh, people with chemotherapy usually look a bit different to those stuffing their mouths with big macs 24/7 hey?
No scientific paper of course, but how about the majority of the fat population aren’t getting chemotherapy? If you need scientific proof to back that claim up you’re a lost cause.
Who cares? If and when they’re done with their treatment it’s motivation to get back to work maintaining themselves and if it’s terminal, well hey – I’m sure they’ve got better things to worry about than their weight.
You seem to have had some personal experiences with hospital induced obese patients and have managed to project that onto the entire fatty population of Australia.
…good luck with that.
July 16th, 2011 at 5:29 pm Alexie(Quote)
Nope. A woman on maintenance for breast cancer, a patient who is taking anti-depressants and someone on Prednisone may present as just another fatty walking down the street.
Do you know that iatrogenic induced weight can be intractable? That it can actually change your metabolism so that you extract 10-15% more energy from the same food as everybody else?
The point of this is not to say that everyone who’s fat has a medical condition. Obviously that’s not true.
The point is: you can’t tell by looking at someone how they got fat. Which means much of your mockery is directed not, as you think, at fatty mcfats who stuff themselves with burgers, but at people who are ill.
Good one.
You seem to have had some personal experiences with hospital induced obese patients and have managed to project that onto the entire fatty population of Australia.
…good luck with that.
July 16th, 2011 at 11:38 pm ausGeoff(Quote)
Sorry Oz, but I’d have to disagree with this assertion…
I can only assume you’re incorrectly associating hair loss with chemotherapy when you say chemo patients look “different”? If so, then you don’t know much about chemotherapeutic drugs, particularly the ones that don’t cause hair loss.
Such as Methotrexate, Carmustine, Procarbazine, Sreptozotocin, or Fludarabine to name just a few.
It’s also well-known that several commonly prescribed antidepressants such as Lexapro, Paxil, Zoloft, Tofranil, or Anafranil cause weight gains in around 25% of patients taking these drugs — due to metabolic disturbances.
And regarding the old BMI myths: Scientists from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester are now questioning the accuracy and usefulness of the BMI.
Reviewing data from 40 studies involving 250,000 people with heart disease, they found that while severely obese patients had a higher risk of death, overweight people had fewer heart problems than those with a normal BMI.
Obviously there’s an important difference between “overweight” and “obese” in this case.
I guess my point is that it’s pretty worthless making rash generalisations about “fat” people without knowing anything about their individual histories. And it’s unfair.
July 17th, 2011 at 2:23 pm ozsoapbox(Quote)
Guys we’re probably going to have to agree to disagree on this. As far as actual medical patients walking around with the flab hanging out, I’d consider them collateral damage in the war against fatties.
With over 60% of the Australian adult population currently overweight or obese, if the alternative is encouraging and accepting lard arses so that we don’t hurt a few people on medication’s feelings, then I’m all for maintaining the current stigma against fat people. I just don’t want to have to deal with them in any capacity, professional, social or whatever.
@ausgeoff
Ironically I’m on a regular dosage of Methotrexate at the moment (non-cancer related). I have noticed a change in my metabolism whilst I’ve been on it but haven’t ballooned out. Regular excercise on and off the bicycle has taken care of that. I suppose I could have sat at home infront of the tv and watched my stories all day but despite feeling crook some days, maintained a relatively active lifestyle.
Again, for terminal patients they’ve got bigger problems to worry about than being fat and for everybody else, they’ve got something to work towards once they’re better.
As for heart problems, yeah overweight people might have fewer overall heart problems, but not all heart problems are lethal. When it comes to overweight people lethal heart problems are all that matters. Given the link between weight and heart problems (you don’t have to be a doctor to realise that being overweight causes extra long term stress on your heart) arguing otherwise seems a bit pointless.
Kinda like the climate change skeptics, but that’s a different kettle of fish for another day.
July 17th, 2011 at 6:15 pm Alexie(Quote)
Here’s the thing: the stigma against fat has got nothing to do with health. If it did, there would be rants here against people who go to the beach without sun block. Melanoma is ubiquitous in Australia and it is leeching money from the health system. But where the outrage? (Not that I care about whether people use sunblock or not.) Or there would be rants against alcohol use. Just a small use of alcohol in women leads rapidly to massive increases in the chances of breast cancer, another expensive disease. From a taxpayer’s point of view, women should not be allowed to have one more ml of alcohol pass their lips. (And, to be clear, I’m not advocating that either.)
No, the stigma of fat is because people don’t like the way they look. Since fat people are usually poor people, it’s a way of shaming people for being ugly and poor. But obviously being vile isn’t something decent people do, so they need an excuse for their behaviour. So when people like you make rants against fat people, you give yourself permission to be nasty by claiming it’s all about health. You present yourself as being malicious in the cause of virtue.
Funnily enough, nobody ever changed because they were loathed. Being the butt of jokes and maliciousness is what makes people get even fatter. As the saying goes, you can’t hate someone for their own good, and making them hate themselves won’t result in some magical beautification change
It’s a free country. Feel free to mock and ridicule anyone you want. Just don’t pretend you’re doing it out of some heartfelt concern for their/society’s well being. You’re doing it because you’re enjoying being a nasty git.
And be aware that when you’re vile, you will be including people in your ridicule who are struggling with the after effects of diseases and medications that are making their lives miserable enough already. Enjoy!
July 17th, 2011 at 7:08 pm ausGeoff(Quote)
Fair enough Oz; it’s your choice of course, and I can’t really disagree out of hand with anybody’s personal opinion…
The latest figures (2007-8)I could find for Australians are here: http://mcaf.ee/tqhgo
Finally, it’s also your prerogative not to associate with overweight people in your everyday life, but I’m not convinced that it’s OK to have some sort of personal but very public vendetta against them. Some of my best friends are fairly overweight (to be polite LOL) and they’re some of the most articulate, intelligent people you could meet.
Physical appearances are a very shallow way of assessing someone’s virtue and/or value to society and are pretty meaningless ultimately.
So I’m happy to accept that we’ll just have to agree to disagree. No probs.
July 17th, 2011 at 7:44 pm ausGeoff(Quote)
I agree totally Alexie…
The latest figures I could find regarding health costs (obesity versus alcohol consumption) to the community (whole of Australia) are:
Approximately $2.4 billion a year goes on the direct medical costs of treating obese and overweight people. The indirect costs – lost work productivity, absenteeism and unemployment – are approximately $9 billion a year, for a total of $11.4 billion a year.
Whereas the National Alcohol Strategy 2006-2011 which was developed as a response to the patterns of high risk alcohol consumption that are prevalent in Australia have estimated that about 3200 people die as a result of excessive alcohol consumption and around 81,000 people are hospitalised annually. The cost to the Australian community of alcohol-related social problems is estimated to be $15.3 billion a year.
Says a lot really.
July 18th, 2011 at 1:08 am ozsoapbox(Quote)
@Alexia
People going to the beach without sunblock don’t inconvenience me in my day to day life like fat people do. Same deal with alcohol.
Bingo. That and they are usually annoying.
Dunno about poor but definitely ugly. Nobody wants to look at ugly people so I’m sure you can appreciate that.
I’ve been pretty open about my bias against fat people. Any health issues raised were in response to the fat acceptance mob who are running around delusional that being fat or obese is somehow acceptable and healthy.
Not on my watch fellas.
You’re going to tell me nobody has ever walked into a gym or taken up excerice because they were sick of the stigma that comes along with being fat?
Please.
The only people who don’t are those who are too lazy to do anything anyway and just use victim syndrome as a convenient justification to mask their own abundant laziness and poor lifestyle choices.
Damn right. Criticism isn’t an armchair sport.
Note though that this particular article was addressed to the fat acceptance movement, not necessarily fat people themselves.
@ausgeoff
I wasn’t suggesting otherwise, infact Alexie was the one suggesting fat people were usually poor. Rather my personal beef (fat acceptance rebuttals aside) is the inconvenience fatties cause in day to day life. Hate sharing seats with them, hate being stuck behind them on escalators, hate the smell of them, hate walking down the road behind or towards them…. really there’s just too many things about fat people to hate to list here.
July 18th, 2011 at 12:57 pm ozsoapbox(Quote)
This is what happens when you tell parents being fat is an acceptable and healthy lifestyle choice.
July 18th, 2011 at 8:13 pm ausGeoff(Quote)
I must admit I was pretty horrified when I read this article too…
At least we won’t have to worry about building new retirement villages for these kids when they’re (not) old! They’ll all be dead by age 35.
Seriously though, I put this down to an unacceptable lack of parental control, and parameters on precisely what their kids are eating, AND kids living indoors in front of X-boxes etc. Junk food + inactivity = juvenile obesity.
So, kids obesity can be laid squarely at the feet of their parents — you can’t blame the kids themselves — they don’t have the alleged(!) powers of logic and sense of responsibility that their parents should have.
And look in any shopping mall: Fat parents and… ta daa… fat kids.
For adults, obesity is totally their own lifestyle “choice” (excepting of course in cases of underlying medical conditions) but please mum and dad, don’t project this attitude onto your kids.