Why is there is such a poor perception of overweight and obese people?

[Ilovecreamycoffee]

In my home country, not the UK, the vaccine rollout, is so slow and its being prioritised on vulnerabilities such as age and underlying conditions obesity with a bmi of 40 or more being one of them. There's such a poor attitude towards this as if everyone who is obese deserves to die of covid just for being fat and for making macdonalds into their second home. As if everyone who is fat eats macdonalds everyday.

I am overweight obese/with a bmi of about 35.

A lot of my weight issues came from childhood and poverty where my parents fed me a diet that was high in carbs. I suppose because it was cheap. So I had very little nutrition growing up. I was always able to maintain my size at a size 16 until my mid 20s and my weight shot up. At that stage it was definitely a mixture of a poorer food choices thinking they were great like a bowl of special k for breakfast and other marketing stuff. A lot of my issues though was genuinely not having the time for exercise. I don't drive so I walked to work but I learned that wasn't enough. I can remember an episode in work where I went to work on Thursday morning. I suppose to finish on Thursday night but it turned out there I didn't finish until Friday night. There was a bed for me at work to put my head down. I never had a change of clothes or a toothbrush or deodorant. I can remember so many similar episodes. Work took over my life. My time was never my own. Any time I got a day off it was spent catching up with the squalor that gets strewn about from one end of the day to the next. Somehow I was supposed manage to find time to exercise and run off 17 stones of fat and make healthy food choices.

It's only really over the past few years I was able to fine tune my diet to better food choices and habits. I think the biggest change was ditching cereals and going for something more clean like eggs and veg. I do have to rise earlier to get a good breakfast, otherwise I am rushing.

I hate the perception that is online that all fat people eat in macdonalds everyday. When that's not the case at all.

Oh it's well and truly here in the UK and on Mumsnet. Many a poster has complained that people with high BMI who have no one to blame but themselves, is getting the vaccine earlier to, you know, stop them dying.

That's too much for some people though.

I blame the food we sell to people, not the individual themselves. That, along with the terrible advice that all you need to think about is calories and exercise will make you lose weight.

The whole 'treat' and 'snack' culture is literally killing people and we seem to be unable to do anything to stop it. I liken it to cigarettes in the last century.

I'm overweight. I don't see the point in blaming everyone else but myself. I'm overweight because I eat too much junk food. I don't take offence at people who judge me for it. I just didn't have the self discipline to stop eating crap. I've made an effort to clean up my diet over the past couple of weeks in a bid to lose some weight.

Well, the issue of whether obesity is caused by the individual, the environment or a combination is very contentious. You must know that. Threads on the topic here run into their hundreds in hours.

You know it's perfectly possible to eat carbs and have a normal BMI, right?

How is protecting morbidly obese people from something they're more at risk of becoming seriously ill with than their slimmer peers in any way suggesting that they deserve to die from it?

Your logic is ridiculous.

I don't think people should die because they are obese.

You are very obese. I appreciate it must be hard to lose but you are making excuses - childhood diet and a busy worklife - most people could say the same OP. Whether people think you eat McDonalds or not is beside the point. Obesity makes you at risk of lots more health problems, not only susceptibility to Covid. You are the person responsible for your own health and you can lose weight and become healthier (& then no-one will think you eat McDonalds daily so your problem will be resolved).

@PickAChew

How is protecting morbidly obese people from something they're more at risk of becoming seriously ill with than their slimmer peers in any way suggesting that they deserve to die from it?

Your logic is ridiculous.

Clearly the OP is suggesting that people are feeling resentful that overweight people get to ‘jump the queue’, so to speak, due simply to their weight.

I made huge progress last year at losing weight and I have more to go yet by the way. It doesn't happen overnight but I am on the right track.

I feel that the OP is trying to say that obese people don't deserve the judgement we get. Yes its not a good thing to be very obese, I know that, but my poor life expectancy is my punishment for that.

I have been trying to lose weight for nearly 30 years, my parents attitude towards food is very skewed and I'm trying to undo their work on me.

If my parents treatment of me caused me to be a drug addict I'd get more help to recover rather than 'eat less food fattie'.

It’s difficult, I think, because non-overweight people (no matter how empathetic, I think) just can’t imagine themselves as obese, or letting themselves become obese.

My weight has yo-yo’d all my adult life. But it yo-yos within the upper and lower limits of a healthy BMI. Getting to the upper limit of my BMI means my clothes are all too tight, and I look different. When that happens, I take steps to reduce the weight.

It’s not easy, eating less. Food is everywhere. Temptation is everywhere.

In theory, it’s so simple. Eat less. Maybe move a bit more (but let’s be honest - you actually need to be e.g. running 10k a few times a week for exercise to have any real impact).

But in practice, it’s so, so difficult. Not eating when you’re hungry and food - often really delicious food - is right there, is virtually impossible.

But for me - inching up about 5 kilos is enough for me to stop and take steps.

I’m being honest here - I just can’t imagine putting on more and more and more weight, such that I’m obese. I can’t imagine doing that. So it’s difficult getting into the mindset of someone who would. Especially when you think of all the other things it (obesity) comes with - slowing you down, making it difficult to walk up steps, clothes not fitting, the judgment from people, etc, etc, etc.

I categorically don’t think that people with underlying conditions - including obesity - shouldn’t be first in line to get the vaccine.

Can I recommend the podcast Maintenance Phase?

maintenancephase.com

It debunks a lot of myths about wellness, weight, and diet. I have learnt a huge amount about fat people on it.

It's a really entertaining listen as well.

I don’t think people ever understand just how easy it is to become obese. I was always skinny until I lost my thyroid to cancer. I’ve always been a healthy eater. That never changed, but my weight just went up and up and up. It’s taken me nearly 20 years but I think my doctor and I have finally found something that is going to work for me and I’m running with it, watching every calorie and trying to make the most of the medication changes she has made.

None of that matters to anyone else though. They look at me and see a fat middle-aged woman and assume I did something to get myself here. It honestly hurts.

I think some people could eat three times a day at McDonald’s and still be a healthy BMI. A lot of obesity is about portion size as much as anything else. Also sticking to water as your drink cuts out loads of empty calories.

It must be hard @MixedUpFiles when it is medically related weight gain.
However obesity is rapidly increasing in the UK - www.theguardian.com/society/2019/nov/14/obesity-almost-doubles-in-20-years-to-affect-13-million-people
Much of that is down to diet, so that is naturally something people relate it to. There aren't many people in the obese category who got there by eating too much salad.

But aren’t you imagining some of the judgement?

OP and other posters saying they can feel judgement in the way people look at them... people look dirty at other people all the time, it’s often just bitchy trying face or someone thinking about something going on in their life

The majority of people is overweight anyway, so it’s not as if overweight people stand out in any way

A lot of the “judgement” is maybe in your own mind

It doesn’t happen often, but when people shout nasty names out you on public, it’s pretty clear you aren’t imagining public perception.

People are fat for different reasons. Nobody wants to be, of course, but everyone is capable of trying to lose weight, whatever their reason is for being fat.
I don't care much about the vaccine thing really. Whatever.
What does annoy me is the whole 'curvy and proud' thing. I completely agree with different body shapes being on adverts but people who are genuinely fat and at risk of so many health conditions, that's not something to celebrate or encourage.

Disney blue, plenty of people do want to be big/obese. There is a whole movement of body positivity, HAES, extra large models, people who just love being big.

I blame people's parents for not teaching them how to eat properly and well.

Why are people blaming the government or food manufacturers?

What has happened to people's sense of personal responsibility?

I honestly think it's pathetic the way people blame others (the government, shops ANYONE) for their own shortcomings.

Literallynoidea It's not quite so simple as that. If it was then we'd all be slim. I agree that there is definitely a level personal responsibility but that doesn't mean you shame people who are overweight.
I think people judge OP because weight is something that can be changed relatively simply (unless you have an underlying health condition).
However, I don't think people appreciate that whilst theoretically it is simple, it is not easy. I am not overweight. My weight fluctuates but if my clothes become too tight then I know what to do to lose weight. My lovely SIL on the other hand is very overweight. She will lose a stone and work really hard at it but she can't get past that because ultimately she has to work hard at it all the time. Her weight is not high because she gorges on junk. It's because she's eaten a bit too much all her life. That bit too much might be the same as you or me eat normally but for her it means she is 4 stone overweight. I think that must be really hard.
That saying I also have to work to keep my weight down. I exercise 6 times a week. I have four children, two dogs, a full time job and I volunteer in various capacities. I did a workout at 9 30 last night because that was the time I had available. I make exercise a priority.

@Yellowbowlbanana4 stone overweight is like carrying a couple of fullterm preganancies round with you all the time and it IS a lot of over-eating. Like you say most people have to work at it to keep the weight off.

I think a lot of people consume empty calories - booze, fizzy drinks , OPs username suggests creamycoffees - there are little changes people can make that could have a marked difference overtime on them being obese.

My opinion is that it's actually very hard to be obese and it's not something that happens overnight like you had a bad few months of fast food, it's deep ingrained behaviours often from early childhood which are actually really hard to shift. I've never been overweight or obese myself but have a huge amount of respect for people who are and lose the weight as it must be SO hard to motivate yourself day after day and to do it in a healthy sustainable way and basically change the way that your brain is wired.

At the end of the day, people can live their lives how they want and if they are happy with their body being obese no one should judge them for it. I know people who would probably fall into the obese category for whom depriving themselves for long enough to lose enough weight is not worth it. They dress well and are happy with their size. I don't think being obese should be promoted in any way as it is fundamentally unhealthy and can bring on a whole plethora of diseases but you don't know what someone has been through mentally to cause them to be obese so they shouldn't be judged for it.

Fat shaming is a global thing, up there with all the other uglies (racism, sexism, classism). Just deeply ignorant stuff from the great unwashed.

Op your childhood experience mirrors my own in many ways and i feel your pain. I was very thin (medically very underweight and hospitalised as a result)as a child and from a very large, very poor family. I was bombarded with cheap, very processed carby food in a bid to fatten me up. In my teens i started to put on weight but with a lot of effort remained fairly slim most of my adult life. However from about age 40 despite my struggles i have been slowly and steadily gaining weight. I watch what i eat, i eat very little fast food or sugary stuff, i exercise (despite having issues with my back, knees and feet) and find it really, really hard to lose weight. I know my issues, i am a grazer and i am addicted to processed crap, and i struggle every day of my life with it, the thought that people look at me and assume i am a lazy greedy pig who lives in mcdonalds just makes it a hundred times worse.