Why does everyone say they love being fat until they get their hands on skinny jabs?

[Holmints]

I’m seeing this so much on social media. People screaming from the rooftops how they love their bodies. Hate comments come and they combat them with body positivity, I admired them so much.

Lately though, the very people who were oh-so-body-positive are popping back up five stone lighter. Some comment on it and some don’t, as if they’re waiting for people to ask. Hang on a minute, I thought you loved your big body? Did you love being fat or not?

You know you don’t have to read the threads, though right? And if you didn’t engage with the posts on SM, you wouldn’t see them.

I admired their beauty, their confidence, their ‘honesty’. I feel a bit lied to. They helped me feel more confident but it was a sham, they don’t celebrate my body type at all.

I hear you. I am 40s now and weigh 10kg more than I did five years ago, same exercise, same diet. Thinking of giving up toast but fear my life will not be worth it.

Why do people admire honesty? I find it baffling.
I admire reticence.

I’ve been slim and I’m now fat and I find that women are nicer to me now I’m fat and I’m not sexualised by men anymore. But I would love to be slim to look good in clothes and fit health reasons . Because I’m vain . But I know the bitchiness and lewd remarks would start again . Can’t win either way .

How do you know so much about their diets? Or are you making assumptions?

I do agree it’s feels a bit disappointing when people who made their image about being big and accepted use the jabs. To me, it suggests they were never sincere and undermines the message they previously delivered.

Maybe if I were morbidly obese and I felt the benefits outweighed any particular risks. These things can have serious side effects. I'm a bit overweight but I'm very fit so, for me, it's not worth the risk.

I imagine they had tried at various points to lose weight through diet and/ or exercise and failed, realised not being fat was unobtainable for them and so taught themselves to embrace their body. Loathing yourself isn’t healthy.

The injections have meant it is now obtainable for some of the people who weren’t previously able to lose weight to do so. Being thinner suddenly is obtainable, and losing weight comes with health benefits as well as aesthetic ones so it is sensible for obese people to lose it, even if they liked their fat bodies.

Obesity isn’t the only place where there is a body positive movement. I have a close friend who has become disabled and is now a wheelchair user, online she is very positive about her body and proud of her disability, but I also know she would lose her disability in an instant if she had the choice. Just because somebody takes the cure when it’s available doesn’t mean it wasn’t okay for them to feel positive about their body before that cure existed.

Ha! Yeah I also quite like that I no longer get sexually harassed or even randomly groped by men. It's definitely been a silver lining

Yes that's a good analogy too . I am so grateful to wheelchair influencers who made me get the confidence to use one out and about, it has transformed my life. I love my chair and don't feel at all pitiable, it's far better than being housebound. I would give it up in a heartbeat for my health though!

It's not about thinking you're better off fat the idea is loving your body no matter what - as the alternative (hating yourself) is no good for anyone.

I am very fit and strong (and not fat) but I am unattractive regardless and am currently facing significant hair loss as a result of a medical issue. I try very hard to stay positive and focus on the good things. That doesn't mean I wouldn't love to be attractive. I'm not a fucking idiot.

I have never been happy with my fat body and I'm looking forward to injections.

But it seems to me that a lot of the body positivity people are inspiring becuase they're doign the work to make themselves feel better by looking as good as they can. I am not convinced they are that weight by choice, but losing weight is very very difficult for a lot of people (thin people think it's all just poor self control but it's a lot more complicated than that) and so they have to embrace their bodies as they are and aim to be as happy and healthy as they can within that.

I am not wild about the ones who suggest that being overweight is better and totally fine. But I feel those are the minority.

Actually, I have very few processed foods in my diet, no very highly processed foods at all. I grow a lot of my own food, organically, buy organic, humanely raised meat, make pretty much everything from scratch. I'm not putting processed food stuff in my body either.

I am someone who doesn't take any medications unless it's a really good idea to do so. If I were morbidly obese with all the risks that brings, then it's probably a good idea.

Don't deny that these injections can cause some very serious side effects. I don't care if someone else choose to use them, for me I'm not willing to take the risk in my circumstances.

Madness that you assume you know my diet.

If you’re only a ‘bit overweight’ you wouldn’t be eligible anyway.

Maybe they did love their bodies when they were fat, but they know that obesity comes with huge health risks so they took an option available to them to lose the weight for the sake of their health and not their looks.

It’s nobody’s business what size anyone is and whether they have injections or not. People bang on about body positivity etc because people are constantly judging others.

OK, a good bit overweight. But not obese.

You still wouldn’t qualify then. You have to be clinically obese (a BMI of 30) to qualify.

Not everyone. I hated being fat and completely owned that at the time.

Because the principle of body positivity was never about loving being fat, it was supposed to be about being able to live your life without being ashamed of it. Maybe some people took it to the extreme but who can blame them when the shame was still pouring in? Why wouldn't they want to stop the endless criticism and judgement? They can't do anything right, as your post demonstrates.

The word 'could' is doing a lot of work in that sentence.

We live in a culture that promotes body dissatisfaction for women. For some reason fat women think they have a monopoly on this but they really don’t. The western economy is predicated on our dissatisfaction. Imagine the impact in the stock markets if for just one day, no woman bought a product or paid for a service in any way related to improving her appearance.

Body positivity was a push back, and a really important one. But realistically if you have a meaningful option for losing weight, you’d have to be a bit insane to choose an unhealthier body that will potentially cost you decades of life.

But fat women carry an added burden - the hatred directed at them is unreal and unacceptable. And sending a loud “screw you” to people who think it’s ok to hate on other people was important. That continues to be important but not necessarily on the level of the individual.

I’m not surprised that you’re feeling a bit let down. But if you look at those deeper trends that body positivity was trying to counteract - it was never really just about being fat for the sake of it.

You are absolutely entitled to enjoy your body, love what it can do, love its curves, and its cravings, and never feel you have to apologise for not meeting anyone else’s arbitrary standards of attractiveness. I’m

I don’t obsess about other people and their body choices or challenges.

Exactly what I was thinking, @stickygotstuck - beautifully put.