Glorifying obsesity

[Poppybob]

I find it bizarre that media and social platforms are glorifying obesity. Am not talking about people putting pictures of themselves on social media and living their lives in general, and am NOT saying overweight/obese people should be hiding.... but actual social media stars who are promoting obesity and how good/gorgeous they are etc etc. It's unhealthy!!! Takes 10-20years off your life! The Co - morbidities from being dangerously overweight alone can shorten your life. It's on par with smoking it's so bad for your health. And I worry about my kids looking at this and thinking that it will be OK for them to be very overweight.

i dont know about glorifying but i like the fact that there are different shaped women in the adverts,
big women have still got to wear clothes

The ice skating one. It’s impressive she can do all those moves whilst being that large. However everytime I see that advert I just keep thinking, how many calories is she eating daily to keep that weight on.

This whole normalising obesity isn’t good for society.

This stat really bugs me as there's a very big difference between the lower measurement of "overweight" and obese and the first doesn't necessarily lead to the second

If you look on TV you will see many more women who are underweight than you will see being a healthy weight or overweight.

I don't agree with this at all.

I think how we view weight has changed though, and slim women are being seen by many as 'underweight'.

Maybe we should have to make our own out of king size sheets - that’ll learn us!

My late Mum was obese. I was angry with her for not taking care of her health but she ate for comfort, my Dad left her when I was about five.

She died weighing about 22 stone when I was 42, from complications from a gangrenous umbilical hernia, that wasn't found in time because of her weight.

I see no evidence of this. I see no evidence of glorifying obesity either, i just see acknowledgement that bigger people exist.

bellac11 · Today 11:14
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If a 'thin' person (what is that) said all that about nourishing and loving their body they would be accused of slyly fat shaming

They should use models with a bmi bang in the middle of the healthy range, so what's that, a bmi of 22, 23?
It's 21.75. Though, many women are naturally at the lower end of the healthy weight range, particularly Asian women, so I don't see a problem with anything between 18.5 and 25.
Do you not see anything wrong with saying it’s only okay to see people within this range? Same as the person above who quoted example the tampon ad. So it’s not okay to show a lady of a certain size out exercising? There are overweight people everywhere. Why shouldn’t they see people like themselves? Glorifying something means making it seem aspirational- that’s not what most examples on this thread are, it’s just showing people similar to other people doing normal everyday things

I dont think obesity is glorified as such .Just maybe more accepted than it was?It always seems to be women who are feeling that they should "lose weight" Not men! Most people (esp women) eat due to stress ,feeling overwhelmed by demands of work and a family , feeling surrounded by food as in prep for themselves and DC/DH shopping as well .Instead of pointing at Lizzo for her plus size maybe we could celebrate a "big" girl having a huge talent?

Its really convenient when one is fat/obese to blame a number of factors. I was guilty of this, my busy life, 'emotional eating', price of food etc etc

I was often reassured/comforted by seeing other large women, particularly in the public eye, if they were ok, I was ok.

I would have said I didnt have a choice about being overweight, in reality, Ive had to do some really hard looking at myself and my history in my weight loss journey. There was no emotional eating, it was a convenient excuse. I just like eating food, and eating food is plentiful, affordable, enjoyable, fun, easy. I love cooking so would cook far far too much of very rich foods. I love eating out and years ago would drink alongside it too.

Now I dont have the opportunity to overeat, I dont crave it or miss it, its remarkable, I thought I would have some sort of emotional breakdown that I read about others having but this hasnt happened.

Its very individual so it might not apply to others but it has made me reflect on how we talk about our overeating as something out of our control, but is it? I could kick myself for all the wasted unhealthy years of this.

There was a very sobering thread here a few months ago when a woman asked what advice you'd give your younger self
The overwhelming most popular answer was 'do not get fat'
It was hard to see

Normal women going to work and having jobs fat or not

Not saying they should hide but you are.

Not all, but some over weight people dont choose to be! They and also the ones who choose to be deserve to be empowered and told they are beautiful and so have jobs and friends and relationships and be seen in public.

It's a vicious circle, Everyone deserves to be uplifted. Fat and pretty are too different things.

Stop assuming people's bodies are based on their eating habits (I know some are)

If you're worried about your children thinking it's OK to be fat then teach them otherwise and leave people the fuck alone.

Let's spend Sunday pulling fat people down so we feel more perfect woop. Fuck off

Salome61
Im so sorry x There’s an episode of scrubs where the main guy talks about things that will probably end up killing the people he knows- like stress, smoking, alcohol etc. I don’t think people should blame other people for their Achilles heel. My dad died of lung cancer that they had attributed to his smoking when he was young. If you had told him back them he’d die he’d possibly have tried to stop, possibly might not have been able to. You should try and let go of the blame. X

God this.

I could shake my self if I could go back in time

Im wondering if I will ever undo the damage Ive done for so long. I hope so

What annoys me is that I grew up with the heroin chic and anorexic-looking models in the media, and I think it really affect people around my age (early forties).

But then the switch has been made, not to models of a healthy weight which I would have fully supported, but to obese ones. These so-called "diverse" catwalks and fashion media promote obesity and anorexia but not models that you would find attractive or aspire to look like in real life, e.g. size 8 or 10, or BMI of 19/20/21.

They've simply moved from one destructive portrayal to another.

Very possibly not much more than a normal person. Obesity is complex. It's not simple to fix. It is much cheaper for companies to get away with feeding us processed poison and to make obesity look normal and fun.

The women in the ads you mentioned are indeed overweight but at the same time, very fit so, the health implications for them are not quite as bad.

Many people, my DD included are overweight due to long term steroid use for lifelong health conditions.
She is by no means lazy, strives to be as active as she can and pushes herself as much as her body allows. But people probably look at her and label her as a lazy fat cow.

I wouldn't say the media is glorifying obesity.
I don't see why people like her should be hidden away from society and not be allowed to do the same things as "normal weight" people.

There seems to be no happy medium. If all ads were made by thin people, you would have youngsters thinking that's what we should all look like and would start drastic diets, often leading to eating disorders as well as mental health issues.

Whatever reason people are overweight, they shouldn't be made to feel alienated.
At their end of the day, they are people with feelings.

dieting works longer term for 1 in 4000 people
On average obese people eat fewer calories per day than people with a normal BMI (about 200 less on average)

There is a big difference between overweight and obese. Overweight is probably normal for some people and may confer some health benefits like increased survival post cardiac arrest.

Obesity is rooted in complex physical and psychosocial issues sometimes stemming way back into early childhood and even pre birth. The poster who said their very underweight sister ultimately died from obesity is not atypical. Early childhood malnutrition is a significant risk factor for adult obesity. Social factors in childhood such as poverty, food scarcity etc play a huge role.

If obesity was about gluttony, rich people with their access to more desirable food in greater quantities would be more likely to be obese. This was the way it was for generations. In reality now obesity and poverty go hand in hand and we should look to our society for that. How we are failing to address childhood food insecurity, forcing many adults to live on toast and chips so they can feed their children. How food insecurity and scarcity play into the choices those children make as adults, how they affect their psychological and physiological response to food.

The psychological and physical response to food is bound together. You absorb more nutrients from food you enjoy. Your previous experience of hunger likely impacts your body’s feelings of satiety when consuming meals much later in life. There are ways we can manage obesity as a society but they are far more complex than diet clubs.

However it’s rare many people on threads like this actually gives a shit about the obese or future obese usually they want to feel good because they’re thin. Sadly they often have nothing else in their lives and this is all that’s good about them, clinging onto body size for their worth and value.

Completely agree

how many bloody times does it need to be said. Its scientifically proven for fucks sake.

Normalising Fat bodies reduces the self hatred fat people feel, and by proxy, is more likely to promote happiness, which in turn, encourages better eating habits, more exercise, and weightloss.

As someone who is currently 21st, and has been both heavier and lighter, and who's weight is due to meds, disability, and a shitty metabolism after years of insomnia and chronic pain, you know what threads like this do, where people state adverts representing my body type are 'glorifying obesity' do? Makes me feel angry, and ashamed, and not accepted, and even though i'm currently dieting, makes we want to just say fuck it, and go eat a pack of biscuits, because i have an issue with comfort eating.

We KNOW being fat isn't ok, but stop calling representation 'glorification' its fucking not.

I agree also, it was never like this before the advent of social media.

No, women (especially) should not be judged and shamed for their weight but the pendulum has swung too far and it is, as you say, OP, 'glorification'. That's not ok. It's not about looks, it's about health. It is not possible to be healthy when you are obese albeit you can be the 'healthiest of the bunch'. People take that and run with it and it gives them comfort in the same way that they parrot that Marilyn Monroe was a size 16 (she wasn't).

I keep seeing women doing 'Shein swoops' and posing around in outsize clothes. I'm glad that overweight people have access to clothes that they feel good in but why add the defiance of, "See, gorgeous at any size". It's not needed, not about what you can actually fit into as clothes are being produced at all sizes and it does no good for keeping health in view as the goal.

I don't know what the answer is but social media is a scourge. Whatever good it may do, the bad so, so outweighs it.

There is a lot that the government could do to help, actively help.

Okay, there might be a few people on SM 'promoting obesity', or maybe just not living their lives feeling enough shame to satisfy those who are fortunate enough not to be fat?
There are far far more people in SM promoting unrealistic beauty ideals, filling their bodies with gunk or hacking them to pieces to meet some arbitrary standard of 'acceptable' beauty. Often dying from the consequences of plastic surgery.

If you want to stop obesity, it has to start with the total elimination of upf - its addictive and offers no nutrition and buggers up how our bodies are meant to work. And make real food affordable. But society isn't willing to do that because it's profitable - instead it shakes people for experiencing the consequences of it!

It's shitty to think that fat people shouldn't be on adverts or seen on tv because this is somehow promotion of obesity. It isn't. It's just people going about their lives. We exist and are as entitled to representation in public life as anyone else.

No one wants to be fat. We know it's unhealthy and we try to combat it. Why do you think the diet industry (also full of upf crap) is so successful?

And everything costs the NHS money - car accidents, sports, having babies. Fat people pay for the nhs too!

This sums it up.

People need support not shaming, but also to be in no doubt that being obese is a contributing factor to many life shortening diseases like cancer.

I've put on weight due to health issues but am working to lose it as I know it's not healthy and being in my 50s I want to have an active older life.

Middle aged spread was always common but now I see so many younger people being obese and it worries me for their future health (nothing to do with appearance).

I agree.

I actually despair at the significant percentage of obese children in our primary school and the local secondary schools. Not just overweight or 'not skinny', but fat, obese. They are being set up for a lifetime of health and self esteem problems, and it's already visible in so many of them.

Oh give over. It's not about being "disgusting" it's about being unhealthy. Two very different things. One is a moral judgement, the second is a scientific fact.