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?

My DS is 10 and doesn't arrive home until 7pm. So no, I don't expect him to come in and cook for me. I'd rather be fat.

I wasn't being snarky, it was genuine question whether you had teens who could help.

My apologies, I took it the wrong way. Unfortunately not - he does enjoy cooking but as I'm so limited in what I can eat, it's usually something he makes on the weekend with DH for the two of them and I eat separately. It's taken years to narrow down what I can eat without causing horrific problems unfortunately.

Is there any drug that can be taken to increase metabolism? Would it be possible to prescribe these alongside the steroids or other drugs that decrease metabolism to neutralise the affects?

If so, this is something NHS should do for those affected.

There are weight loss drugs (I've tried many)

I wouldn't advocate mixing them in with other cocktails of medication that may end up counteracting each other

Spent some time in hospital recently. Probably most of the staff there if they stepped on the scales and did a BMI were in the overweight / obese category - and that was in the NHS which is supposed to promote healthy weights.
I don't think outright shaming is the way. But I do think education, strategic taxing on fats / sugars could help as well as curbing advertising slots.....this has been hugely successful for cigarettes, who wants to be seen holding a packet of fags with a dissected tumour on the front?! This country's got a major issue and a long way to go....just embracing obesity with supporting products and services can't be the way forward.

"I think th definition of fat shaming is a little grey as well. For many it's the simple act of mentioning it"

Yep. I've been told off on her just for mentioning that dress sizes are bigger these days.

Fat shaming individuals should always be a no, but discussing obesity for what it is, is very important. Or we face as a society even higher obesity figures in the next generation of children. In a society with obese pre schoolers some hard facts are well overdue.

@CherryPavlova

"Anorexia actually carries a much higher mortality rate - should we skinny shame too?"

Anorexia Nervosa isn't simply being skinny, it is a serious mental illness that causes a lot of physical damage to the body. You shouldn't flippantly compare that to people who are overweight or obese due to overeating or making poor diet choices or just not caring about their diet.

You don't need to apologise, it's an emotive subject, especially when you're stuck between a rock and a hard place and over an internet forum where we only go off what is written. Coeliac runs in my family so I have a little understanding of dietary restrictions, the government need to make food for cases like these more available/cheaper, even if it is just vouchers for sufferers.

that was to @ProfessorMoody

I didn't need anyone else to shame me....I was ashamed of myself. I looked fat in photos, had piles and fat feet and sore knees. I do think with serious dieting it's important to be mentally strong and break through a period of around 3 weeks before you start to see the weight drop. It's like going cold turkey during which your stomach I believe has to physically shrink and adjust to a reduced portion size. I just wonder how many people fail to break through that 3 / 4 weeks of hell (and it is hell) and give up after a couple of weeks believing that they just cannot or are not capable of losing weight??

Pump - I agree, it would be helpful. I know they've stopped prescribing foods for coeliacs recently, and prescriptions here are free, so it's another cut that's been made to the ill.

I know people say fresh fruit, veg and meat is cheaper than junk food, but it's really not if you're in certain situations like mine. It's bloody expensive and impossible to access. I don't know what the solution is, but if research really does say that only 1% of people are obese due to medications and disabilities, then obviously food needs to be tackled.

Yes the way to get people to stop comfort eating is definitely to make them feel worse about themselves . I do think we've lost sight of what normal looks like though. My auntie told me that my uncle is worried I have an eating disorder the other night. I'm a size ten and my BMI is just under 22, plus they see me eating all the time! The answer has to me more education and programs to help people lose weight

I've never understood the revulsion, sometimes dressed up as concern, over how much flesh a stranger has covering their skeleton.

Being publicly fat shamed by some little shitbag teenagers while out shopping lead me to put on more weight - I felt so bad about myself I stopped going out for fear of being humiliated again, and because I was upset and anxious I comfort ate!! I know I'm fat, I'm trying to do something about it but those horrible comments set me way back. So no, fat shaming is not helpful in the slightest

Agree food needs to be tackled but to be fair the education is all out there.

The issue is fatty, sugary food is not just accessible, but it's moreish, it's quick, it feels like a treat, and it's often cheap. Many of us grew up with things like cake being a treat, so we want to treat ourselves after a hard day . It's just too easy to eat the wrong stuff, eating the right stuff and going to thr gym or exercising is hard. It's tough mentally. And it's a way of life.

What dismays me here on here though is the competitive eating threads. There was a recent one where someone had eaten five donuts and was drinking Prosecco, at the time I read it, not one person had thought to ask if that person had a weight issue, was an alcoholic, was suffering mental health issues, had an eating disorder, all the responses were " you're my hero" and " five donuts is a portion size" go you,

However if the poster had said, actually I'm a bulimic, and I will probably purge later, the responses would have been different. But no one asked, they just egged her on.

I'm equally at fault. I read the thread and moved on. I said nothing but also didn't ask. Why? Because I knew I'd be attacked for it, and I couldn't be bothered to engage in an argument at that point. So I moved on without checking the op was ok. And left the rest congratulating and high fiving her for binging. As I'm sure did plenty of others. 😔

^ there's equally the competitive non eating threads were people faint if someone's eaten more than a teaspoon of quinoa and a sniff of a lettuce leaf that day. Are they ever asked if they have an eating disorder or are they patted on the back for being "healthy"?

I think we should "fat shame" but not in the shame sense. I'll probably get this all wrong and offend everyone, but bear with...

I think we should fat shame the same way as we smoke shame. With smoking, there was no "ewww, dirty, stinky smokers, look at you, shame on you" it was a very simple, "this, long term will kill you, so we are putting measures in place to try and make it more difficult for you to smoke." Not really shaming, more matter of fact. It's still your choice/right to not do anything about it.

I think people need to stop being professionally offended when pointing out obesity is a risk to health. That's not fat shaming, it's medical fact. And people need to stop pretending otherwise. It's your right to be fat. It's not your right to try and force society into oppression and denial because you want to act like anyone who suggests losing weight would benefit your health is doing the equivalent of "yuck, you gross big fatty".

It's this silly attitude that enables obesity to the epidemic we now face.

I'm not sure exactly how you'd apply the same smoking style attack to obesity. But yes, it should be more forcibly discouraged. You wouldn't want your children to smoke, why is it OK for them to long term damage their health in another way?

1. I don't think 'shaming' has been the cause of a reduction in smoking, I think it's the ban on smoking in public buildings, education, increasing the legal age, information about passive smoking, increase in price etc etc etc. Not shaming smokers. I have been a smoker. On the odd occasion where people did the PA coughing etc it did not make me want to stop, it made me want to defiantly light up. However, the knowledge that it would kill me and would be bad for my bank balance, children etc etc stopped me.
2. I have also been fat and thin in my life. When I was fat, if people were unkind about my size this made me upset and I ate more comfort food. A support group where we could speak about eating habits and feelings without shame or judgement, however, helped me have a more healthy relationship with food.

If losing weight were easy, it wouldn't be a multi billion pound industry

Anorexia Nervosa isn't simply being skinny, it is a serious mental illness that causes a lot of physical damage to the body. You shouldn't flippantly compare that to people who are overweight or obese due to overeating or making poor diet choices or just not caring about their diet.
but this where fat shaming can lead

Maybe it's not "shaming" wanting people to be healthier ... it certainly put me off cigarettes with all the awful pictures on the packets .. I know it's not the same as if you are addicted to cigarettes or alcohol you can in theory remove them totally from your home .. and life, whereas you have to learn to moderate food and make better choices, maybe food with zero nutritional value should be labelled !!! ( can't see the manufacturers going for this somehow)

@stones that's a really interesting post, I agree with the smoking bit, it's what I was trying to get at, just not as succinctly put as you.

So...

If smoking has been reduced because, it's been made illegal indoors, it's become too expensive, it's socially not as acceptable as it was, the age limit has been increased, we have been forced to acknowledge the heath risks (fellow smoker, the images on the packs now are fecking gross), should we not do the same for obesity?

I smoke a tenth of what I used too. Because I have to stand outside in the cold. Its ridiculously expensive. Its my choice to still have the odd one, but it's definitely had an image shift, and that's directly stopped me smoking as much in public. I guess it's loosely smoke shaming, but it works. I feel a bit embarrassed to light up on my own at times. And I'll live longer for it.

Shouldn't we do the same for obesity? Worry less about someone feeling a tiny bit embarrassed and more about the fact they are going to live a longer and healthier life, for them and their children?