To think ‘big body positivity’ is a thing of the past now?

[Cheeseandpicklecob]

I’ll start off by saying I’m a big girl - currently in a calorie deficit.

I have noticed a trend, particularly since weight loss jabs became a ‘thing’ that not as many people are on about big being beautiful and body positivity anymore.

Lots of current and previously big people, such as myself, are now desperate to lose weight with the jab or on a calorie deficit journey (or both).

I just guess I find it interesting, now that it’s a real possibility for the obese and overweight community, the ‘body positivity at any size’ is heading out of the window.

It’s Megan Trainor that’s pissing me off, all those songs promoting body positivity and calling those of us that aren’t over weight “skinny bitches” and now she’s jumped straight on the WLI injections.

Its like alot of hypes they fad out like the big brow / older mums / lip filler and costa.
Just one hype that wont calm down and thats people none stop banging on about womens right.

As someone who was fat and now isn’t, I think I have an issue with extremes of weight at either end of the scale being used as advertising. Some of the Snag models for example are dangerously overweight, beyond the realms of what I think is acceptable to use to advertise something, just as I wouldn’t want to see extremely underweight people being used either.

It’s a difficult one as obviously very obese people need to wear clothes too, but it’s a tricky line to tread because extreme obesity is dangerous like being extremely underweight is, and I’m not sure we should be being ‘body positive’ when dealing with extreme weight issues. But as someone who has been obese (not extreme I would say but around 4-5 stone overweight) I know how horrible it is feeling fat in a world that prefers slim people.

So I don’t know the answer I suppose other than to say that if we aren’t glamourising anorexia then we shouldn’t be glamourising extreme, morbid obesity and trying to find that balance of accepting oneself but not being disingenuous about the health problems that being at either end of the weight spectrum brings.

Potentially not. Some studies have shown overweight people in their 70s have a lower mortality risk compared to those of lower “normal” weights.

Also, losing weight rapidly eg. with these injections, or any other intervention with extreme results, has a knock on effect on women’s hormones, heart health, bones and muscles, meaning that as they age they might look healthier aka thinner but they’re actually not as physically healthy as someone with more fat but who is stronger generally.

I can see what you mean but how could companies who make clothes for larger people advertise otherwise? Surely everyone should be represented by the companies that serve them, so they can see the fit of the items they’re buying on a body like theirs. Lucy & Yak does a good job of showing their clothes on all sizes. I don’t think it’s “glamourising” its just giving all sizes of people the same opportunities to buy garments.

A part of body positivity nowadays (it has changed a lot) is the idea that everyone should be able to buy clothes and feel good in them. Nothing wrong with that.

And, one economic side-effect of the weight loss injection is that companies are already cutting back on clothes for larger people 🤦🏻‍♀️

Obese isn't overweight - the type of excess weight being referred to is not a little bit fat. Also, weight loss on WLI is rarely rapid other than in a small % of the people using them.

You didn’t say obese though, and neither did I

I don't think most seriously overweight people have ever actually been genuinely happy about it. It was a lie that you can be sexually attractive at any size- sexual attractiveness has always been based on perception of wealth and fertility and in our society overweight is an indicator of poverty and poor fertility.

I think the "fat positivity" movement was only ever an attempt to feel OK when the whole of society is set up to make staying a healthy weight so hard.

Now there's the jabs for it people don't have to pretend they're OK with it any more.

I’ve just literally come across an Instagram post of a mum who is only a little bit above slim, showing her weight loss injections delivery - she said she’s nervous and excited to start them, so hasn’t been on them from before getting to the weight she is now. I was a bit baffled as thought you need to be obese to qualify…

I think you have a point. There’s less emphasis on acceptance and more on the magic injection everyone must get their hands on.

I've noticed that models have pretty much all gone back to being slim/skinny on a lot of clothing sites.

Yes, having a slightly higher body fat percentage has been shown to be beneficial. Not morbid obesity.

That’s absolutely what I struggle with, but conversely we don’t use people who are anorexic to bulimic to advertise clothes to the dangerously underweight so why is it okay at the other extreme? I don’t know the answer, perhaps because being fat is socially unacceptable in a way being very thin isn’t and people don’t tend to aim to get fat like they do to get thin, but perhaps there’s an argument that being super morbidly obese (I don’t mean a size 18, I mean the real extremes, some of the Snag models are size 28-36) is as unacceptable for advertising clothing on as anorexic models. I think there can be a range of sizes accommodated for within the realms of being body positive. And obviously clothes need to be made that large for some people. But the tone of advertising it matters I think. At what point are we normalising extreme obesity v catering for it out of necessity?

My basic weight is 90kg, my app says at 125 I'm 30% fat, 77kg of muscle, 40% skeleton which is high. I wish I could be a standard weight. Not my fault I'm disabled only do 5km a few days a week on my bike takes 15mins to do 5km not even out of breath. All blood stats are normal.

Just seen one of our leading surgeons in the UK and he said the reason I have a hernia is because I'm fat and he couldn't find it. Told me it's because I'm fat and I'm lieing and after a free tummy tuck on the NHS.

Yet Geri a has been found by ultrasound by NHS but that didn't matter because I'm fat.

I have Elhers danlos, HG and have only put in weight due to mobility because of my disability.
You're telling me my problem is I should be like you which set off a eating disorder at 13 because of bullying of my bigger nature.

We are not allowed the same the BMI is flawed not because I want a excuse to be fat. The boys in my family look like natural rugby players. Even now at 125kg I have 51 inch hips and 42 inch waist below the hernia sticking out.

Trust I see how natural big men get treated as a asset. But I get told men are scared of me because they know I could knock them out in one blow.

All the women in our family have shapely legs. I used to hate then so much used to fantise about carving my legs up. Because women like you told me just to go on diet and I couldn't understand why it didn't work.

What easy way is there to lose weight?

Weight loss injections have to be done with exercise and healthy eating and designed for insulin resistance. People who take them and put no working into diet and lifestyle will just put weight back on. There is no easy route to weight loss.

I've long believed the 'body positivity' movement is more about making the best of a bad thing than a genuine celebration of diverse body types. It always seemed to me that if you offered any of these 'body positivity' influencers a magic pill that would make them a size 10, they'd grab it off you in an instant. Ozempic may not be a 'magic pill' but it does offer an 'easy' and reliable way to lose tons of weight quickly. Now that it's available, 'body positivity' seems to have gone out the window.

I think this poster was just saying that weight loss injections are comparably much easier than having to rely on diet and exercise alone, which is quite mentally tough as you have no natural appetite suppression.

She didn’t say you had to go on a diet. Of course there are reasons why losing weight is hard. I do, however, agree that it’s okay to say that being obese isn’t healthy, and I do think that for some people it’s easier to say that you can still be healthy/that being fat is fine than to actually make the change. That doesn’t seem relevant to your situation.

"‘Ozempic arrived and everything changed’: plus-size models on the body positivity backlash | Models | The Guardian" https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2025/apr/15/ozempic-arrived-and-everything-changed-plus-size-models-on-the-body-positivity-backlash

Read about this last week.
I am a size 20/22.
Not doing injections myself although I do need to have bloods checked again soon.
Am not unhappy in my body but nor do I think I should celebrate being overweight.
All the fashion brands were paying lip service while it was a trend/a backlash against "nothing tastes so good as skinny" - it does not surprise me in the slightest that they want lean clothes horses now. Same as the top model shows - after one larger winner, back to slimmy minnies.
It doesn't bother me personally but it would be refreshingly honest for previous larger women (Adele, Rebel Wilson, Alison Hammond etc) to admit recent weight loss wasn't just down to a fitness trainer though.

I agree. When I was heavier I was miserable. It’s the jolly fat person smokescreen.

Now that slim is becoming easier to achieve the biggest flex is indeed being toned and fit. The most ‘ideal’ body type seems to be a combination is stick thin and incredibly toned, with bones jutting out in just the right places (eg visible rib cage on décolletage area) and lines from muscle definition, especially on the abs. Leslie Bibb in White Lotus is an example of what I mean.

Yep. I seem to have floated into a TikTok algorithm of adults who are bragging that they can fit into children’s clothing. 🙄

I don’t think it’s changed at all. In fact I see lots of clothing catalogues with realistic body shapes and I like it because I can see if a model has similar shape to me. When it was all very skinny models it is very unrealistic.

I think it’s still a strong trend. For me though I have always been someone who exercises regularly and eats well except when I have now blown up in my 40s due to having had a kid, hormones and just getting thicker suddenly around the waist (never happened before). So now I’m trying to get back in shape because for me, I’ve never been this weight (except pregnant) and it makes me feel uncomfortable. If I took weight loss jabs I reckon I would get there but for me, it’s not the direction I want to go so it’s the long road of exercising and eating well.

Of course you can. I did for many years. I didn’t feel any of those things you describe. I worked, I worked out, I went on holidays. I went to gigs. I was perfectly content in my body. It wasn’t something I thought about at all.
Ive lost a lot of weight recently due to chemo and I’ve had a mobility issue that’s meant keeping that weight off is better for my needs now, so I’m going to do my best to do that, but you can’t claim no one can be happy in a big body.

I didn’t struggle with my weight when I was just overweight and in my twenties and thirties. But as I became obese and hit my forties it was a different thing altogether.

The tide has turned since weight loss jabs became easily available.

I was around for Tumblr ED culture and it's just reinventing itself on Tiktok, so the poster saying the pendulum swings is more right than they know. I'd rather a movement that tells people they're not worth less as people if they're fat than one which dresses up eating disorders in 'clean girl' aesthetics, but unfortunately it's happening.