Anthea Turner - fat shaming and disablist (covid)

[FTMF30]

So Anthea Turner has felt the wrath of pretty much everyone for her recent Tweet. Very silly of her, being someone in the public eye.

I felt she was trying to make a valid point but failed terribly with that offensive cartoon. And what did she mean with the caption "Go for it"?
www.google.com/amp/s/www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/anthea-turner-twitter-fat-shaming-covid-face-mask-b919526.html%3famp

One extra slice of toast a day isn’t going to make you overweight , it’s proper over eating . I’m not taking about someone being a bit chubby I’m talking about overweight

Of course I don't want to stop any medical / health advice.

Suggesting it's easy for people to do so with the increasing pressures of living in a pandemic ? That's what I want to stop

Perhaps you should change your name to "get off your fat arses"

@Tinacollada

Like all fat people have access to the beach or countryside for a brisk walk.

In National lockdown.

And very people with anorexia have MH issues ?!

I've heard it all now

Of course anorexia is a mh issue. I said obesity isn't the same and not necessarily an eating disorder no matter how much people diagnosed themselves.

There you go a typical example, a brisk walk does not need to involve a beach or the countryside. Just a pair of shoes and going outdoors. You can do 10000 steps anywhere which is the inconvenient truth. Even in this weather, but you don't see obese people walking briskly. Anywhere.

Maybe you're not getting out enough.

'Perhaps you should change your name to "get off your fat arses"

Oh I might. Good idea thanks .

@Hubblebubble75

One extra slice of toast a day isn’t going to make you overweight , it’s proper over eating . I’m not taking about someone being a bit chubby I’m talking about overweight

You are wrong. If you overeat by 150 calories a day (assuming toast + butter/marge is about 150 cals on average) for long enough you will become overweight if you don't have a self-regulating metabolism, which not everyone does. That's about 1000 calories a week, so in 3 -4 weeks you will gain 1lb and in the course of a year that will be nearly a stone.

@Beyondfedupnow Thanks. It didn't keep her husband from straying though....AT has always been smug as hell, she went a long way on little talent, and is out of touch with normal lives. She is getting her slim arse handed to her on a plate on Twitter.

But I do think there needs to be personal responsibility for allowing yourself to be overweight, leaving aside those who really do have issues preventing themselves for staying within a healthy range. Normalising and excusing will just make the obesity issue worse. I don't want to live in a country where being slim is the exception. It's a first world problem. In some countries the lack of food is killing them, in the first world the amount of food consumed has the same result. We are an unhealthy country, not just food, but smoking and alcohol.

Helping ourselves as much as we can is all we can do, and I don't mean going for second portions. Somebody mentioned this is not the time to do anything about it, citing homeschooling, lack of gyms etc, people being frazzled. You might not have the time to exercise fiendishly but you could choose beans on your jacket rather than cheddar. I know that is a trite example. I mean that smaller choices add up over time.

@LApprentiSorcier not if you are active and don’t sit on your bum all day ! I can eat a little extra every day if I work out.
Any way just eat less and exercise , it’s not hard. If you want an extra slice of toast and you feel you’re gaining wait cut out the toast or up the exercise

Weight

[quote Hubblebubble75]@LApprentiSorcier not if you are active and don’t sit on your bum all day ! I can eat a little extra every day if I work out.
Any way just eat less and exercise , it’s not hard. If you want an extra slice of toast and you feel you’re gaining wait cut out the toast or up the exercise[/quote]
As I said before, I am not saying that such weight gain is impossible to avoid or reverse. I am saying that you do not have to eat junk food or enormous portions to become overweight.

I actually work in a job related to weight loss...

The vast majority of my clients know exactly how to lose weight - that’s never the issue.

So yep they get practical advice on how.

But by far the most time and effort is spent on trying to boost their self esteem to enable them to actually do that.

Because society constantly tells them that they’re stupid, lazy and worthless - because if they wanted to lose weight they just need to watch what they eat and move more.... and they believe that too.

Every single set back reinforces that and on top of that they’re often too scared to have people see them exercise and too scared to tell people they’re trying to lose weight because they’re so self conscious about it all... and guaranteed no matter which method they’re losing weight with, someone will tell them it’s the wrong one.

So all the - fat people just need to do it, you never see fat people on a walk, they’re all eating junk food... you’re actually helping to create an environment that actually makes it harder for people to lose weight.

@Melange99 I agree with everything you say but I don’t agree with fat shaming or belittling overweight people. There are many reasons why people are overweight, greed being just one of them.
I’ve always been slim bar first pregnancy, second pregnancy I watched what I ate and didn’t gain much.

I took antidepressants for around 18 months many years ago, I gained 3 stone in 6 months, going from 8 stone to 11. I drastically cut calories but the weight wouldn’t shift, it just stabilised. I was constantly famished. I stopped the antidepressants and the weight fell off. Antidepressants make you gain weight. I have heard a theory that if you cut carbs you won’t gain, unfortunately some SSRI’s make you crave carbs.

Lots of overweight people, especially women ‘eat their feelings’ ie. they are happy so have a doughnut or 2, sad so have a family sized bar of chocolate, stressed or too tired to cook so have a takeaway, food is a massive comfort when there could otherwise be none. Criticising overweight people isn’t going to shame them into losing 5 stone, they are more likely to withdraw socially and eat to fill the empty emotional void.
Smug women like Anthea Turner should keep their opinions to themselves.

The thing is every discussion on obesity is immediately shut down as fat shaming. It is one of those subjects that is now taboo. Censorship of the issue is not helping, in the same way as posting an offensive image isn't.

In the area I live I do see lots of people walking, including overweight people going out for brisk walks. I see a lot of overweight BAME people, they seem to have taken on board that covid has a disproportionate effect on BAME and they are trying to reduce the risk. Positive action.

During first lockdown I saw this very overweight young guy with a tracksuit on walking every day, we seemed to go out the same time. I haven't seen him for a while but saw him the other day. Still walking, he looks like he has lost loads of weight.

A lot of people are using this time to introduce positive changes into their lives.

@gottakeeponmovin why did you let yourself get overweight in the first place?

I know this wasn't aimed at me but for me I was 10Lb when I was born.

Part of my mother's abuse was to force feed me when I was little and not have 'healthy' food in the house when I was older. At 16 I had no idea what healthy eating was.

At 17 I was in hospital with gallstones, the dietician who went through the low fat diet with me was the first person to talk to me about fat.

I know now but I don't think my body sends the correct signals for 'hungry' and 'full'.

I also have arthritis (in every joint and sometimes in my eyes) so can barely cook now. I do get meals on wheels, and they do have 'reduced sugar' puddings but not a 'low calorie' option.

I'm not going to criticise MoW, they offer 7 different dishes a day and without them I'd be on supermarket ready meals.

@LApprentiSorcier your definition of overweight is different to mine. An extra slice of toast a day is not leading to someone being a size 18 plus

This is a pinned tweet on Anthea's Twitter. It's an interesting read and no fat shaming, just setting out the facts about obesity and covid.

www.europeanscientist.com/en/article-of-the-week/covid-19-and-the-elephant-in-the-room/

[quote Hubblebubble75]@LApprentiSorcier your definition of overweight is different to mine. An extra slice of toast a day is not leading to someone being a size 18 plus[/quote]
I'm going by the normal NHS definitions. That's why I am overweight - my BMI is 31 so I am obese. I don't have takeaways - I don't mean 'not many' takeaways, I mean no takeaways at all. I haven't been to Macdonalds since the 1990s. I rarely have cake, chocolate etc. But I do gradually gain weight if I eat more than about 1000 calories a day, and it is things like an extra slice of toast, four roast potatoes instead of two, (in pre-Covid days) buying a pre-packed sandwich for lunch at work because I hadn't been organised enough to get a healthy packed lunch together. And since I went through surgical menopause it has been nigh on impossible to shift. It is very de-motivating to stick to 800 calories a day and only lose 1/4 lb a week.

Anthea Turner is a feminist issue. Anyone remember her how to be a perfect housewife show?

Tax the fuck out of sugar, and products containing sugar.
The gov tax the fuck on tobacco. Put the revenue into the NHS.

@LApprentiSorcier Do you do a good diary or anything - just to work out how many calories you do have? I found it useful. I really don’t think an extra slice of toast a day would cause that much weight gain or a few extra potatoes every now and again. My sil always says she eats so well and doesn’t understand her weight issue. I stayed with her for a month - her healthy salad was full of dressings and sides like coleslaw. Full of calories. She thought eating lots of fruit was healthy ( not realising a lot of fruit is calorie laden)
You really don’t need to eat 800 calories - not many can live like that! I have a low carb diet now, I just mainly avoid sugars and have cut out some carbs. I do mild exercise every day like walking. I can most certainly have a treat every day and don’t suffer with being hungry etc

If someone is morbidly obese then there's something else going on with them. 'Healthy' people don't do that to themselves and until the underlying issues are identified and dealt with, obesity is going nowhere.

The cartoon is of a woman on scooter probably because she is too fat to walk , and that is the sad truth, being morbidly obese is often the cause of people becoming disabled as it leads to respiratory problems, problems with the joints, diabetes, depression and anxiety and a whole host of other problems. Not being able to exercise is NOT the biggest factor in being overweight, it is eating 1000s of calories over what you need to eat on a daily basis.

Hubblebubble75 I've done low carb in the past and found it quite successful but frustratingly I have developed acid reflux and anything with fat in seems to exacerbate it, so I am back to counting the calories.

I don't keep a food diary unless I am trying to lose weight. My weight has been up and down several times in my adult life with my BMI being about 19 at its lowest up to 33 at its highest, but it's got a lot more difficult since my surgical menopause - I think my body is determined to cling onto its oestrogen-producing fat cells, because I no longer have any other source of oestrogen.

I do eat fruit because I always try to get my 'five a day' but I don't think I eat loads of it - one or two apples/oranges a day at most. I tend to have cooked veg rather than salad in winter, but I do dress salad in summer.

I gain weight because I eat more than I am expending, but it is a gradual overeat and a gradual gain - the last time I was a healthy weight was about three years ago (through low-carbing) but since I had to stop that, I have gradually gained 3 stone - at a rate of 1-2 lb a month - but it's so hard to reverse because there's no single thing I can cut out - no drastically unhealthy food choices - it's just a bit too much here, a bit too much there.

That's the point I am trying to make on the thread - there must be many people like me who are not wolfing down takeaways and chocolate bars, not having huge plates piled high with food, not frying everything in sight - the stereotype perpetuated by cartoons like Anthea's is just not helpful.

someone is morbidly obese then there's something else going on with them. 'Healthy' people don't do that to themselves and until the underlying issues are identified and dealt with, obesity is going nowhere.

So where were all the morbidly obese people in the 70s and 80s?