to think Cosmo threw these models under the bus?

[Hangingover]

AIBU to think this caption choice was deliberate to cause a Twitter-shit-storm (with the side effect of loads of horrible comments about the models)? Feels like they took something positive and deliberately twisted it to make people angry.

My mother had exactly that build. She died last year, aged 95.

I'm overweight and I'm trying to exercise and diet my way out of it. I know it's not healthy. A friend of mine who is thin and fit as a whippet had to have serious abdominal surgery last year. She contracted septicemia and the doctors said she only survived because of her size and fitness. (her overweight sister told me this) That has seriously focused my mind on trying to achieve and maintain a healthier body size. I agree it is incredibly irresponsible to promote obesity as healthy.
I absolutely Hate the "body shaming" "slut shaming" movement, or whatever the fuck it is.
You can't tell anyone the fucking truth anymore!

Trouble is, fat people can’t win. You show photos of us exercising and everyone says ‘well that’s unhealthy, she obviously doesn’t do that every often’ but if we don’t exercise we get told we’re unhealthy and lazy! Anyone with half a brain can tell that the point of the headline is to get rid of the stigma around fat people exercising. You can be happy in your own skin whilst also wanting to lose a bit of weight and get fitter!

You could have read the caption on your own picture. It says 11 women.

@GrimDamnFanjo

Well I'm hoping the article explains why the model is healthy?

That 'model' is Jessamyn Stanley a yoga teacher who 'has made a career out of breaking down barriers to wellness activities like yoga, making the practice accessible to everybody and every body'

I've followed her on Twitter for years, she released a book last year on yoga and health and wellness. She believes wellness and health is for you and you only and is not performative to others expectations. She is stronger and fitter than many slimmer women younger than her.

@SheldonesqueIsUnwell

I am a fat auld hoofer.

Apart from a 36 hour battering with some sort of stomach bug, I have never been off sick. Not in nearly 40 years of working. (Including school/school time jobs)

I shake most things off well - within a day or two.

People could look at me and think I’m a fat lazy lump but I walk everywhere, then walk dogs, work long days and nights and care for older family and neighbours. I have the odd lazy day but it isn’t that often.

Every test (blood pressure/blood sugar etc fall within the healthy range) - Im just a big lass.

Yes I could do with losing weight but compared to a lot of my colleagues who look ‘better’ than me, I’m healthier than a horse.

Just the size of one too.

I find this mind set really worrying.

It's great that you have had such good health so far.

But being a 'fat auld hoofer' will almost certainly cause health difficulties at some stage in the future.

It's totally fine to be happy with the size that you are. I'm not particularly slim myself. But just because blood tests are fine does not mean that your size is not having a negative impact on your health as it almost certainly is.

It's the equivalent of someone who smokes 40 a day saying 'I'm perfectly healthy' - until they're not. Unhealthy ways of living usually don't have an immediate impact on health but long term they most definitely do.

I don’t see the same level of debate about how unhealthy all the dangerously underweight models on the covers of magazines are and how unhealthy that is.

Really? There have been petitions, many many years of people commenting how dangerous it is, and fashion houses promising not to use them anymore. Theres no debate as people largely agree that it's unhealthy and not a good example, so not much to discuss.

Carrying excess weight is a burden on anyone's body- your joints, organs etc no matter how much exercise you do. So no, it's not healthy, regardless of whether a thin person smokes . I agree they likely have done it to provoke debate, if the model promotes body positivity there are plenty of other words to use instead of healthy, which they are not.

You can be overweight and even obese and be perfectly healthy and physically fit.

I’m not saying I am in the very best of health - I’m a size 18-20. I am doing my best to lose weight. But I am stocky with very muscular legs and a huge bosom.

when I started this job many years ago - despite their concerns that I’d not manage or go sick a lot (being a lot bigger than another colleague) I am the only one who has never been off sick. I have regular health checks and apart from my BMI - it really is remarkably good.

The people I grew up with? Loads of health problems caused by alcohol, smoking, eating disorders. A good few are dead. A high percentage of them were very slim. Their parents were the same

The women in my family - bar one - were the same as me. Most lived till late 80s. Some into their 90s. They just went ‘done’.

My size isn’t ideal and I never said it was. But I will take my kind of health over that of those girls I grew up with.

If you think my mindset is wrong for that then fair enough.

Sorry that was for oohmamama

I have been thinking about this recently as I met up with an old friend for a walk. He has been furloughed and walking 20,000 steps daily over last 10 months. His body must be fairly fit now but he still had a big beer belly. I asked about his drinking and he had a couple of bottles of wine a week usually at weekend. I talked with him about a programme I watched a few years ago where a group of morbidly obese people trained for and ran a marathon. They were pretty much all in the 20 stone plus category and I remember being astonished that they could run 26 miles. I do think you can achieve a good level of fitness whilst still very over weight but agree that just carrying the weight is putting extra strain on your joints and heart. But then, having worked in elective orthopaedics, I see sportspeople who have also put a lot of strain on their joints and need new hips and knees!! I am another person who needs to lose a lot of weight but am never off sick. I think personally it is because I am very emotionally resilient but I also still know I need to lose a few stone.

@Jdhshekr

You can be overweight and even obese and be perfectly healthy and physically fit.

You can, for a while.

I haven't read Cosmopolitan for donkeys years - didn't know it was still going - when I did it was all about how to get an orgasm without actually giving details. At least this makes a change. I can't imagine someone so big is particularly healthy and can visualise type ll diabetes waiting in the wings, but it shows she is reasonably fit and healthy all things considered.

I genuinely feel ill the more I weigh. Not psychologically but physically, fat inferences with hormone regulation and insulin resistance and it is four times as hard for me to stay happy and regulate my mood. I'm trying to lose a fair bit of weight right now and even half a stone has made a great difference.

To be fair, I'm in the normal weight range and I can't do what the model in the first photo is doing!!

When they say being fat is unhealthy they don't mean compared to another person, they mean compared to you if you weren't over weight.

This.

Wow I won't be buying Cosmo anymore. Since when is Obesity a good thing? Especially during a pandemic where obese people have a much higher chance of death. Super unattractive and so so unhealthy!!

On one hand, I think it’s great that people are promoting the idea that models come in all shapes and sizes; that you don’t have to conform a perfect and ideal standard.

However, I think it’s dangerous to promote that it’s normal or even healthy to be very overweight. I was two stone overweight and although I’d have liked to have been a bit slimmer, because we are becoming more used to seeing larger bodies, I thought I was fine. I was also very active and thought I was healthy.

I lost the two stone and am in the middle of a healthy BMI. I feel way better, have even more energy and have far more stamina. Like I said, I thought I was fit and active, but without the extra weight, I see a massive difference in my health.

An obese active person may be fitter than an unhealthy fit person, but they are putting themselves at a risk that could be avoided.

Eh, I meant unhealthy thin person

I stopped reading Cosmo a couple of decades ago so I have no idea what it’s usually like. Back then it was full of glamorous images of dangerously underweight women, salacious advice on how to achieve clitoral orgasm, and was working particularly hard on dismantling the taboo against anal sex, and promoting the concept of sexual exploitation as female empowerment.

It didn’t align with my values and I refuse to give it a penny of my money.

@HayJkl

Wow I won't be buying Cosmo anymore. Since when is Obesity a good thing? Especially during a pandemic where obese people have a much higher chance of death. Super unattractive and so so unhealthy!!

Actually there is such thing as the Obesity Paradox where you have LESS chance of dying from strokes and heart attacks.

care.diabetesjournals.org/content/36/Supplement_2/S276

Is the model healthy? I have no idea. She has a lot of fat around the mid section which I understand is unhealthy, however, she may be able to exercise fully and have good blood pressure etc. No idea of her BMI. She appears reasonably supple.

However, come back to that same woman in 15 years - the strain on the knees, hips heart of so much fat .... who knows

Why do they have to shock us with extremes?
What size is a model, size 6-8?
They will use a size 22 model but not a size 12 model. Ever.

I don't know but having been nearly 300lbs I can assure anyone thinking that is healthy, otherwise. Massive risks of pre diabetes, diabetes, fatty liver, low vitamin levels etc, sleep problems, aches and pains especially back... hidden stuff

I completely changed lifestyle, lost a lot of weight specifically for my health and it worked.. all my blood results for the above are amazing now rather than dodgy.

The health at every size message as I understand it is that every ‘body’ has a healthy size. Be that a size 8 or a more, that your body has its own healthy size. It’s not that every size is healthy, my body maybe healthy as a 14 but not a size 8 or 18. We’re so used to seeing a very narrow range of sizes that we have been conditioned to think thin equals healthy.
I know my body is unhealthy a size 8 or a size 18 but healthy at a size 12 or there abouts.