Fatshaming

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After a conversation with friends, and with obesity (especially in young people) becoming a bigger crisis than smoking in our society, am I unreasonable to think that as we villanise smoking and drinking, should we fat shame more to encourage people to change their lifestyles. It's certainly worked with reducing smoking rates. Don't attack me (I've lost 2 stone). Just wondering why we target smoking more than fast food?

I'm obese and have a very bad diet on the surface of it. I am on a permanently low fibre, low impact diet. I have to limit (and I do mean limit) the amount of fruit and vegetables I eat on a daily basis. I have to eat white pasta, white bread etc. This diet was worked out for me by a consultant.

Not everything is black or white and I found the OP's original post a tad patronising and some of the ignorance on this topic shown by some posters on this thread shocking.

I've heard in South Korea very few people are overweight and if people start to put on weight everybody feel entities to comment. The low obesity rate is partly attributed to this.

Having said that, fat shaming just isn't very nice. What we do at the moment certainly isn't working but I'm personally not comfortable fat shaming people.

How do you even do it? You see a fat person in the street and shout 'fatso' at them? How are posters suggesting this fat shaming works?

So much concern trolling going on.

Obesity has many causes, including pollution (take a look at the Born in Bradford study results, for example) and nutritional deficit. There are also very few known treatments that are effective and produce long-lasting results.

So what you'll end up is shaming primarily poor people with limited access to nutritious foods and / or living in poor areas with high pollution and people with mental health problems while at the same time not being able to offer them any real strategies to "not be fat".

In addition, a lot of the costly consequences that are supposedly due to "obesity" are really consequences of things like metabolic syndrome, which does play a role in obesity but thin people can be affected as well. So you wouldn't even be shaming the right people.

I'm fat and I can assure you that there is no lack of fat shaming as it is. Doesn't make a difference to my weight, though.

I struggle to see how your suggestion would accomplish anything except make the world an even worse place.

Alternative suggestion: Look into Health At Every Size (HEAS), be nicer to people, help them out, lobby your council to make it more pleasurable to walk places, find ways of encouraging more local shops to sell fresh food. And for your own sake, stop worrying about other people's weight.

There are also very few known treatments that are effective and produce long-lasting results.

Are there any? Apart from surgery? If so what are they?

We already fat shame!!! It doesn’t work

I really wish someone was straightforward with me when I started putting weight on

Me too.

I don't understand how anyone would bring up the subject of another person's weight without being invited to do so. Making comments about another person's appearance is just rude and what you'd expect from children who don't know any better.

Unless you are diabetic (even if you are pre-diabetic) you categorically do not need to worry about the carbs in a single banana.
This is pathologising healthy food.

Shaming is a horrible word to use. As a society we need to address the reasons behind obesity. There have been some shocking articles in the press this week, for example, obesity rates in poor children are double those found in better off children. Another article was about ‘food deserts’, millions of people in this, the 6th richest country in the world, live in areas where they don’t have easy access to shops selling decent food.

My mother used to go on and on about my weight. Made me feel worthless, and i would eat more as i thought fuck it whats the point, im nothing anyway.

Since shes been out of my life my attitude is slowly changing and i am losing weight because i dont feel worthless because im fat (if that makes sense) i still have my slip ups and i have a long way to go but im getting there.

Shaming people is a horrible thing to do and is counter productive.

I'm prepared to be flamed for this but I think the OP has a point.

So many responses on here smack of victim culture - over-eating for emotional reasons or that they can't actually buy healthy food in their town

I live in a big city and over the past decade I've noticed (especially in summer) so many young adult women, who are clearly overweight, wearing skimpy, provocative clothing as if they were a size 10. It gives the impression that they actually think they look normal.

I really think that with a very little bit of effort, anyone, regardless if income, circumstances or location, can eat reasonably healthily.

I went to a large state school in the 70s with students from very diverse backgrounds and I remember there being just two overweight students at the time in the entire school.

@kaybush - can you give an example as to how fat shaming would work. How would we shame fat people?

When I stopped smoking I did so overnight (I wore patches, but I was effectively a non-smoker). Ive given up over-eating, but so far I’m only 20 pounds down and still fat, so please don’t shame me! It really wouldn’t do me any good.

@Strongmummy Gosh I don't want to go there, but my I've heard some rather far-fetched ideas from (usually male) colleagues, mostly in summer!
😬

I'm currently 1.5stone overweight, but I'm losing a steady 2lbs a week on the 5:2 diet, which works miracles and I'd recommend it to anyone who's struggled on other diets.

half the continuing problem of obesity is down to fat shaming though.becasue the cruelty of it doesn't help.
there are too many blurred lines now as to why people are over eating.due to culture.emotion.mental health.school.lifestyle.it isn't just "oh I fancy ten cakes every day" food and emotional health is too linked especially nowadays.
there is actually too little compassion.too little putting work into helping people feel better so therefore they will want to do better for themselves and others.
we need to be teaching people skills.cooking.time with family.how to separate food from mental health.how to afford food.and making thing fair.
shaming will never work.its another cruelty people do not need.

I believe fat shaming is awful. I don't believe that half the problem with obesity is fat shaming. People are greedy with food by nature and see it is a comfort. There is lots of blame on MH issues and obesity, people have always had mental health issues even worse than today as it was shameful and they did not over eat.

Everything in life is a choice even if it is a bad choice you own it. I have made enough in my time. Before I gave up smoking I couldn't bear the thought, I used to say if only it wasn't harmful, then my mind would say feck it give it up next week. I was terrified the next week would be to late. It was to easy to keep smoking than put the hard work and effort in. Denial was comfortable, My excuse I was an addict it was not my fault I was dependent emotionally on a cigarette, or that I have depression so I need extra comfort. I needed to wake up and be responsible for the destruction I was causing, once I started the process the guilt of years left too.

KennDodd even surgery doesn't always produce lasting results. Only one I know if is a longitudinal study of I think US healthcare workers (can't look it up right now) and the only way people were maintaining losses beyond a few years was by eating well below normal calories on an ongoing basis. Which obviously will have problems with adherence.

I think we are sending a very confusing message to young people. On the one hand obesity is becoming a huge problem and yet magazines are putting dangerously obese models inside their pages. It's like half of the UK is trying to stop obesity and the other half is trying to say it's okay. But only that being dangerously overweight is ok. Being dangerously underweight isn't acceptable. It's all very odd.

I don’t know if it is only overweight models in magazines though. Some friends of mine used to work for one of the big fashion houses and they said the models were by and large underweight. If there are a few covers with very overweight models on the front, it pales in comparison to the number of underweight over the years. I don’t think anyone aspires to be obese, but I think telling people it doesn’t make them
subhuman if they are is a great message. Yes, they will probably be less healthy, but they can still wear clothes well and be pretty.

I’m not overweight myself btw, but even I think underweight models and actresses are everywhere. Even the princesses in Frozen look pretty underweight to me. I don’t think it’s exactly a problem to have some overweight models to balance it out.

Or else only have healthy bmi range models? I’m sure there was a a campaign for this a while ago. But that’s unfair to “naturally skinny” people too.

uk.businessinsider.com/most-models-are-underweight-2016-6

According to this^^ from 2016, 94% of models were underweight. That’s what my friends from the industry indicated too.

So no, it’s absolutely not “just ok to be overweight but being underweight is unacceptable”.

I am very overweight, morbidly obese according to the fat scale. I have PCOS and struggle with a lot of it’s symptoms. I don’t eat a lot really and I have a disabled partner, a 6 year old daughter and a dog. I walk. A lot. But I’m fat and hate myself, not just saying that, I really do hate myself. Being fat and doing mostly the right things is shit. Fat shaming me would make me feel worse. Do I know I’m unhealthy at this weight? Of course. Do I want to be slimmer? Fuck yeah. Can I get my mind on my side? Not a hope in hell. Everywhere I go I assess if people are talking about me. I’ve lived in a small village for 6 years now and my daughter is in year 2 at school, the number of mums who have spoken to me is 3. I believe it’s because I’m fat, maybe it is, but to not feel accepted by a group of people in such a small setting is crap. I’m the nicest, chattiest person on the planet, I used to be so confident but people’s comments over the years has eaten away at that. I used to walk with my head held high, now I try to be as small as possible. So no, I don’t think fat shaming is a good idea because for me I already feel shit about myself.

I suspect the reason that there is more obesity than there used to be is not just that people are more greedy than they used to be. We're also much more sedentary as a society than we used to be. In the past, kids played outside all day then went home for their tea. Now they play on their phones and iPads all day. More adults have sedentary jobs and are not nearly active enough, either.

We're supposed to burn all the calories we consume, which of course we're not doing. Hence so many of us becoming overweight.

Obviously convenience food is another factor, where we used to cook from scratch.

My docs KINDLY advised my back issues would be helped by loosing weight.

It worked and I lost 23lb. Now just over my weight at 20 but I'm 48.

I'm happier, fitter, less smelly (yes that's really true) and I thank them for doing it.

I suspect the reason that there is more obesity than there used to be is not just that people are more greedy than they used to be.

I agree. I think we have also lost sight of proper portion sizes.

On another thread there was a pp saying for £15 they wanted a big meal. Actually, in a Michelin starred restaurant, unless you are having a longer tasting menu, the main course portion sizes are about right for an average adult.