to think I’ve said the wrong thing to my niece about being fat

[RiddleyW]

I’m quite overweight and my 5 year old niece asked me yesterday why my tummy is so big.

I was a bit shocked (which is stupid I know) and just said “oh I eat too much cake”.

However I’m now absolutely kicking myself because my niece is a dreadful eater and her parents have real trouble with it. I’m worried I’ve made things worse. I should have said something bland about bodies coming in different shapes and sizes shouldn’t I?

Do I need to tell my brother and SIL about the conversation do you think? Or just hope niece has forgotten about it already?

Sounds like a sensible and lighthearted response, honestly. Yes, too much cake is excess and will contribute to a fat tummy. But a little cake, fine. I can’t see how your wording will cause her any issues.

It would be a problem if you’d said “because I eat cake”

But you actually said because I eat too much cake

So no problem. You were speaking the truth

Steriods cause weight gain by fluid retention, and by redistribution of fat so that you can look fatter, as well as increasing appetite.

Yes. My friend's daughter is on high doses of steroids after a brain injury. She's not eating well at all, but she looks fat, in the typical steroid way. Her face has filled out massively, for instance. Though I doubt she's taking in even half of the calories that a well child would eat.

The fact that people still imply that someone on steroids is still eating too much, makes those people lives and self images even more difficult. This girl (she's 10, so at a bad age for it) is devastated that she's now "ugly and fat"

The OP doesn’t have cancer and isn’t on steroids. Neither are the vast majority of overweight people.

So that’s pretty irrelevant to the Ops thread.

And not wanting The medical complications that can be caused by obesity isn’t “fat phobia”. It’s logical, rational and emotionally healthy .

You might as well say that people who quit fags for their health are “cancer phobic “ or “ CHD phobic “ or “ COAD phobic “.

It’s another way of judging people who are making good and positive decisions for their own health because it makes you feel guilty.

But eating too much cake does make people fat. What is wrong with telling the truth?

As an aside, even without steroids, being hungry is a perfectly normal state of being; if an individual wishes to maintain a healthy bodyweight, they need to accept being hungry is a normal part of that this is true. Being slightly hungry, satisfied by food rather than sated and stuffed full is a normal healthy feeling.