To think that fat people get unfairly bullied?

[Reallytired]

There are those who think that the NHS should not fund essential medical treatment.

It is OK to publically humilate children by weighing them in front of their class mates.

There is a total lack of decent clothes for fat adults and children. Believe that its particularly hard to find nice clothes for overweight children. Surely larger people deserve nice clothes?

And before you ask. I am 5 ft 6in and weight 9 st. I am lucky in that I don't put on weight easy. My slim figure is down to genetics and nothing to do with life choices.

We should accept everyone for who they are and not badger people into starving themselves make them miserable. The press seems to worthship the bodies of those who are so skinny that they are unhealthy. Its abnormal to be size 0.

People with fuller figures should be proud of their bodies and pressurised into attempting to be a totally unrealisic weight.

I am not lazy... I go to the gym 3 times a week, I work out, I am 5 feet 6 and I am sexy.
I am just not a size 0 that the fashions mags tell me I should be.

Come on REAL women come with curves, yes some people are blessed with a size 8 no matter what they eat but for the most part real women have boobs and bums.

I was in the national press at 18 but I am more confident with my post baby body then I was then.

Everyone is who they are and I dont need some arse wipe mag to tell me what to ware, how to act and what size to be,

I am a woman, and I am sexy as hell, despite not being a size 0, its about who you are not how you look, and the sooner we all work that out th better.

I think that suggesting a woman who is a size 8 is not a real woman is pathetic and a sign of insercurity.

I have worn size 8 clothes and I do have boobs and bum. I just don't have love handles.

Beauty is something that is within. Personality is what makes someone sexy.

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Reallytied I am not saying a size 8 woman is not a real woman I am saying that if you a a size 8 or a size 28 you are sexy if you think you are.
I have boobs and bum but no love handles, I can run 13k without breaking sweat.
It is not about size it is about self image and health.

I do not need to be told I should be a size 0 nor should someone be told to be a size 12 or whatever, we are all different shapes and sizes and I will no be put in to a box

i am fat.

actually i think i'm on the clinicly obese section.

and i hate beibng this big.

BUT i am doing something about it, and have joined a slimming class and exercise 3-4times a week. weight is slowly dropping off, but i keep telling myself that 1lb a week is good and not to rush it. yes i have days when i feel i am pigging out (valentines day ate way too much from the indian takeaway) but overall i am getting a grip on my bad eating habits.

what worries me, is that dd1, who is slightly below average for her height is getting a bit of a tummy. but i look at our 'door marks' where we have measured all 3 dd's height for 3 years and can see she has barely grown in height in the last 18months, compared to the previous 18montsh when she grew over 6inches. but i cant get any clothes to fit round her tummy. i am having to look at the next plus size range for her. which makes me as she isnt actually that big. and on the other side i have dd2 who is tall and slim for her age. all of her clothes have aduatble waists pulled into the tightest possible button hole. yesterday she was wearing clothes for 8year olds, she is actually only 5years old. there is actually only 1inch in height difference between dd1+2 and only 3lb in weight difference. i dont know whats going on really there. but it hurts when dd1 says she is fat and needs to lose weight.

my daughter is already getting teased for being tall and slim.

she has a lot of learning delays, too.

i don't know that she'll ever be curvy - she had some fancy femur bone calibration test at 'Sick Kids'/Royal Infirmary for Sick Children in Edinburgh and she came out to be at least 5ft., 10in. at maturity and her own, incredibly lovely paed said, 'If I had to wager, I'd say 5ft., 11in.'

but somehow this 4-year-old is getting this idea that she's a freak for being skinny.

it works both ways is all i'm saying.

this girl is looking in my Easy Living magazine and my Sunday Times and saying, 'Where are the models? I want to be a model.' 'Oh, she's a model. Look at her long legs.'

and where is she getting this idea, because it sure as hell hasn't come from us?

if you're tall and slim, that's all your good for.

and fair enough, if she's explored what's out there and decided on that.

but size 0s are there. and they ain't 5ft. 10in.+.

they're kylie minogue and my bf, darlene.

5ft. even at a stretch and my bf is nearly 50 and been picked on because of her slender stature all her life, especially in the Latin American community where curves are everything.

but it's just as wrong to question the health and integrity of someone who is slim just because they are so.

maybe some are eating disordered and sell their story to the press that they were pressure, a lot aren't and are like the model erin o'connor, who is 6ft., 1 in. and incredibly hurt by attacks on her integrity because she is tall and slim.

I remember reading one comment that was so self-righteous it made me heave. Forget what the thread was about, but someone mentioned Dawn French, and the self-righteous poster said, how could you possibly hold up someone who was doing their arteries such damage as an example. Like she'd seen inside DF's body or something!

It is possible to be overweight and healthy. It is possible to be slim and very unhealthy. But fundamentally it is none of anyone else's damn business what someone does with their body within the law*. Sheesh, that's the whole point of abolishing slavery.

*Although family and close friends may well have an opinon.

And frankly anyone who thinks their slender waistline gives them the right to judge others as somehow morally inferior is ignorant and deserves to be sat on by someone whose waistline is considerable bigger.

Reallytired good post.
I do wonder how old you are though?
I see many people at work(I am a health professional)who would love to be a normal weight. Many of them are very very unhappy with being obese and some of them are actually grateful when I offere them help, saying no one ha ever done that before.
At the end of the day, if you are happy with your size then you don't have aproblem. But I have to add that being overweight /obese is likely to make you have health problems in later life.

edam I disagree-it is my business as a health professional to advise my paients if their weight is making them at higher risk of diseases, in the same way I advise smokers. If they accept help, great, if they don't it;s their choice.

people die from obesity, though .

it's not a good idea just to do nothing about it when it causes premature death.

oh, just a week before yolanda died, she went to her OB (this was in San Antonio, TX, USA), to find out why she wasn't getting pregnant at 39 after falling pregnant after 5 months of ttc at 37 and a successful pregnancy.

and the doctor had scheduled her for further tests and told her her bp was too high and to start trying to lose weight, and extracted samples of blood and urine.

and she got so angry and offended, despite her father's type II diabetes from his overweight and his death at 63 from heart attack. despite her father's two brothers', my uncle and father, mulitple heart attacks starting in their late 30's and 40's respectively, and medicated hypertension.

she wrote my sister, 'she basically told me i was too fat . . . '

and she died.

my father's sister wasn't long after.

she was obese and refused to listen to her doctors' suggestions that she try to lose weight.

she died of coronary atery disease resulting in heart failure at 62.

All this talk about diet and exercise will do it realy pisses me off to be honest.
I am fat - in fact I am bloody enormous.
Since september last year I have been attending four high impact aqua aerobics sessions a week and two swim sessions (swimming, not simply getting in the water and chatting like most people do), I walk at least four miles a day (not including all the other getting around that's normal in a day, I now also walk at least 6 miles every sunday when GS is at his stagecoach group. I have a treadmill whcih I only use occasionally - but at least once a week.
I eat very healthily, do not have any health problems (apart from asthma which I have had since I was 10 and it has actually improved in recent years and a nut allergy). I do not drive and have been on two buses in just over 18 months as we walk everywhere.
I do not buy, cook or eat processed food or ready-meals...everything is made from scratch. I hate chocolate and cannot eat pastries or such due to nut derivatives in them. - Hey I even gave up the Haribo Goldbears 2 1/2 years ago, although I would hardly call one bag a month excessive prior to giving them up.
So tell me why I am getting bigger and bigger?????????????

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it is scientific fact now that all the exercise and dieting in the world won't help obese people.. there is a cut off point where it's just not an effective solution and surgical intervention becomes necessary. I'm not bullshitting, you can all go and look it up on the NHS site.

Obesity is now recognised as a clinical disease which needs proper treatment.. and it's just not acceptable to make snidey comments and judgements on those people who are affected.

I was out to lunch today with some friends, one of whom weighs 29 stone and there were 3 guys at the next table making remarks about her which we could all hear.. she became very uncomfortable as her self esteem is already through the floor and it ruined the day for her. One of my other friends went over to this bloke and pointed out his rudeness and he spent the rest of his meal very quiet and red-faced

Sometimes there's a medical condition whichmakes it hard to lose weight so always get that checked out - thyroid etc.

Sometimes it's psychological over eating - so you want to eat less but don't and find it virtually impossible not to.

Sometimes people are eating more than they think the 500 calorie drink from Starbucks etc

There are very complex reasons but in general for more people if you eat fewer calories than you consumer you will lose weight - virtually no one merged from the concentration camps obese for example.

I agree that some people can't help being fat (illness etc) and some people try and fail to lose weight.

But

I also think for MOST people (ie not all before you all jump in), there is no excuse for obesity. Being a bit fat is fine, food is nice - but to be morbidly obese GENERALLY SPEAKING requires an intake of several thousand calories a day and no exercise. This could be solved by eating less and doing more exercise. It's a simple equation.

If you find swimming expensive (which I agree it can be), there are plenty of free activiites - walking, running, cycling, tennis etc.

I know a lot of fat people who complain that it's not their fault but will happily sit down and eat three sandwiches at lunchtime.

I don't agree with bullying and I think the overweight should be offered support and help and everything they need to lose weight. But SOME OF THEM (ie not all!) need to stop making excuses first.

Branflake - your post was a lot more eloquently put than mine but I agree with you totally.

when i was 14.5 stone my bmi was in the obese range as i 5ft4

i dont think the bmi figures are particularly accurate because even now at around 10 stone i am only in the middle of the optimum bit

i hated being over weight because i hated it

it was umcomfortable
i didn't like my body which wasnt (and still isnt) tidily fat but lumpy and baggy and fat so that my bra didnt fit properly

my thighs rubbed together

my face looked fat

catching a glimpse of myself in shop windows i didnt recognize myself from how i though of myself to what i actually looked like

i couldnt do any physical activities properly eg dinghy sailing I didnt feel comfortable going swimming I got out of breath

i couldnt enjoy myself because i didnt enjoy any social occasions

i didnt want to get undressed in front of my then dp let alone have sex

i knew i looked a lot worse than when we met

i wasnt going to live the rest of my probably shortened life drinking wine and being miserable and developing agrophobia

so i determined to do something about it

i do find it hard to understand why people who are in the vast majority who with a determined investment of willpower wouldnt want to pursue the goal of making themselves fitter and lose weight....i had to go down to a low intake of food and a huge amount of exercise to find the balance which allowed me to lose at a rate of about a pound of a week

but for most people you will eventually find that magic number, not everybody, but most people but it requires a huge emotional and physical effort

it's just not easy and it does seem at times that it will never work but you can't give up

so for those who want to try good luck and there is a much higher chance that you can lose weight you just have to find the tipping point for you and not follow the route that someone else says as we are all different

i did this without slimming clubs or programmes or books or support or faddy diets or slimming meals or even a diet

i just worked it out for myself and drove myself to it

and even tho my dp dumped me in the middle i was determined that i wouldnt get depressed and kill myself i became more determined and i have major mental health problems

so i would encourage people not to give up or believe you cant do it..

I too am fat. I walk everywhere (don't own a car). I know I'm fat because I eat more than I need to, just like all other fat people. To loose weight I'll have to do more exercise or simply eat less, its not a hard calculation. Hate it when you hear fat people giving lots of excuses for being fat, I'm fat because I eat too much, simple.

Agree people shouldn't be vilified for being fat, simply helped to become more healthy.

Lastly, people should only be denied medical treatment because of their weight (under or over) when it increases the risks of the proceedure.

sorry that should have been 'just like most other fat people'.

I know there are some illnesses out that cause people to put on a lot of weight.

"This could be solved by eating less and doing more exercise. It's a simple equation." - it might be a simple equation but it's not a simple action.

And you should talk about "excuses" for obesity but "reasons"

I agree with expat - we must continue to try to do something as illnesses linked to obesity can kill. Whay isn't helpful is stupid platitudes like "fat people are lazy" or poking fun at them (us!).

I think only medical professionals or fat/previously fat should be allowed to discuss the issue! Thin people pointing out to me that its nothelathy being fat just piss me right off. Fat cells (contrary to popular belief) don't clog your IQ you know - only your arteries.

thats what i think coastalmum

i ate less when i was fat than a lot of people and no one would have said i ate too much and i didnt eat sweets chocoltae or cake or puddings

but clearly i ate too much cos once i really analysed it and changed my diet i worked out a different way and it worked

and clearly i was getting enough exercise

for most people there is a point at which it turns around

and people do make excuses

it was a major project for me losing weight..i cant tell you how hard i worked

clearly i wasnt getting enough exercise

i think the diet industry and clubs and magazines and success stories make it seem like it is easy for some people and that is why people get discouraged

no you cant lose weight doing a fabulous inch loss diet for 6 weeks or even 3 months

if you lose half a stone unless you are hugely morbidly obese in a week then it is too much..its water and you will get ill and tired and wont be able to keep it up

physicaly you cant lose mmore than a certain amount week on week and it has to be done slowly..a pound is a good average loss

and your weight goes up and down by as much as 7 pounds so you have to put up with that too