Body positivity is out of control…

Having children doesn’t make you overweight. I say that as someone who has gained and lost 3 stone with each pregnancy. I gained it because I was eating way too much. I lost it because I stopped.

plenty of people don’t gain so much weight / it’s not a requirement.

Can you please state where I said natural boobs down to belly buttons or being overweight post birth are not ok? It’s this ad hominem argument and sub par debating skills which is why so many MN threads deviate away from the actual question in the thread.

Regardless I don’t necessarily disagree with your definition of body positivity. What I do disagree with the trend for people to celebrate or promote their unhealthy weight and label this as body positivity and from what you have said - this also wouldn’t fall under the definition you have provided.

At least part of the body positivity movement is to encourage people of all weights to exercise.

Most people who go to the gym or exercise are not fat. So people who are worry about being shamed, and they worry about what to wear (most gym clothes are quite exposing) stops a lot of fat people from exercising.

The point is to help people be more healthy from the weight they are and if gaining that confidence to start exercising means they're wearing crop tops or whatever and you have to look at fat people maybe you should suck it up.

Big bag of pasta, bag of baking potatoes, cans of baked beans, cucumber, tomatoes, all cheap & make lots of meals- filming & nutrituos too & not fattening.

Size 12 is not fat ffs 😂😂

I don't want anyone to feel ashamed because they're overweight, some people have eating disorders, some people just grew up eating a bad diet and have never changed, some people are emotional eaters- they're sad so they eat more.
What I would like is for the seriously overweight to look at their future honestly and see how much they will suffer when they're older, and how much harder it will be then to change the habits of a lifetime. I know a few people who've hit their 40s and now have health problems, usually type 2 diabetes, who now need to change their ways and find it really hard, if they'd addressed the problem sooner they might not be ill today.

The obesity crisis is fairly widely talked about, as is the rise of other diet related diseases such as diabetes and some cancers.

It seems to be a systemic problem to me. Processed foods fit more easily into modern life and even helped shape it. Women were able to go out to work in part because they weren’t “tied to the stove” anymore. And as more women worked, the more food companies invested in processed products so mum could quickly whip up fishfingers and chips or pop a frozen pizza in the oven when she got home from work.

Now we have a generation who were raised on these marvellous inventions, me included, and we are learning how bad they are for us. And the health outcomes are beginning to show. So there is a backlash towards scratch cooking where people have the finances, time and inclination.

it’s important we don’t blame individuals when the food supply has been designed a certain way.

Actually shit food hasn't always been available. That's the point. That's the difference. We are now three generations (x, y & z) raised with sugar-laced convenience food; setting up those of them that are more susceptible for sugar addiction.
The tendency to eat poorly and to gain excess weight is incredibly complex as the doctors in the field are now proving. Anyone who says I did it so everyone can is a demonstrably ignorant of the subject.

OP, you might have had a point, but your judgy attitude stinks. This is a very nasty thread... unwatch

The basic idea of Keto is not to eat bread and cereal at all. There are some brands who promote themselves at “Keto Friendly” and are indeed more expensive than regular versions of those products but they’re not really Keto at all, just have fewer carbs. There are no special food purchases required to eat in a Keto way.

It’s been pointed out that there are so many variables to dress sizes it’s almost meaningless. People also argue against BMI, but at least it’s a consistent measure which takes variables into account and has clearly defined boundaries of what’s healthy or not. You might have stood a better chance of a reasonable debate if you’d stuck to that.

I’m so sorry for your loss. I can’t imagine how you must feel.

Sod the size 12 crap. Look after yourself.

This statement about clothes sizes is bobbins.

I bought myself clothes in the high street in France, 6 weeks ago. I'm currently around a 22-24. French clothes, from a normal French shop. And they're only labelled as an XL.

Thanks for clearing that one up then. So stretch marks after childbirth are okay, or small boobs (how French) but not massive tits down to your bellybutton (which ironically then of course makes it harder to do exercise) or being overweight as a result of having children? I don’t think anyone takes pride in their bingo wings. The people that say they do are usually few and far between and brittle as anything. Body positivity is about coming to terms with your shape and your figure and ultimately your size. And accepting is better than self loathing particularly as it relates to then doing something about making strides towards something healthier.

The whole point of body positivity is to accept people for whatever size and shape they are. Nobody is going to be a healthy weight then suddenly decide that they will become obese because it's seen as positive.

Yes people are fatter than they were before and there are a whole load of reasons round it. Some people are fat at a size 12, some people aren't.

Instead of fat shaming or being fat positive all we can do as society is let people be themselves without judgement be it thin, fat, short, tall.

Tackling obesity is a huge project and it's not easy because everyone has their own reasons for it.

I don’t really care a toss about fat adults having body positivity, what really worries me is that so many people don’t seem to see how overweight their children are, with bellies like balloons and chub rub thighs at five. I find it horrendous that very young kids are being set up for a lifetime of ill health through long term and devastating illnesses like diabetes, heart disease and joint problems. And I don’t care if your overweight kid does dance aerobics five times a week and park run on Sundays, if they are overweight and you can’t see their ribs they are carrying too much fat and that is what is going to damage them in the end.

YANBU - in my view 'body positivity' is a genuine concept that has been labelled and misused by certain groups to basically bring unhealthy behaviour and traits into acceptance.

'Body positivity' should be about being and feeling comfortable with your naturally small breasts or the stretch marks you have after child birth. It should not be about taking pride in your bingo wings or the fact that you are obese and overweight and have high levels of visceral fat.

Word salad (no pun intended)

I think you are being unreasonable

Although you might not have struggled to maintain a low weight, it’s not within everyone’s gift - eg time/money/genetic factors

i myself couldn’t get above a size 8 until I was 30 however much I ate, and continuously had people or doctors trying to stage an intervention as my bmi was 17-18. Now I’m 45, it’s very hard to stay below a size 14, even with exercise and a lot less than half the calories I had when younger. It’s given me a real insight into the physiological drivers - ie it’s not just habits and will power.

privilege will play even more of a part as folk get older and metabolisms slow.

pretty shocked at size 12 being your definition of fat as an aside - to be honest your post to me, demonstrates why body positivity is needed!

There's a wonderful vintage clothes shop in our town. They modernise all the sizing so that for example a 1970s 12 is a 2024 8. Blows my tiny brain just a little bit, but chimes with my memories growing up in the 70s and looking back at pics of my mum and her friends. All v slim - slimmer than me and I'm a 10/12/M in modern sizing. Mum wasn't a smoker but many women were. I wonder whether that was a factor in suppressing appetites?

Its a shame BP didn't focus on having enough love for your body to treat it well, so its this incredible thing that you will need to nuture and care for your whole life if you're going to get the most from life. So don't abuse it with poor food, alcohol or by letting it go under used, give it the best food in the right quantities because you deserve that.. etc. Instead typically it's all about what women look like, and worse what men want women to look like (cos men LOVE curvy girls apparantly. Until they love slim ones again...) which is so predictable and such a wasted opportunity.