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.

Obese people eat fewer calories than healthy BMI people? Really? 🤔

I think this is an example of the kind of denial some fat activists spout, I think it's great that SM mean we can see a wide range of body shapes, but being obese is unhealthy and I have seen some fat influencers completely deny all the health implications of being overweight as if it's some kind of conspiracy.

Fat people are fat because they can't stop eating, for a number of reasons. I totally get comfort eating because I must put away the equivalent of ten bags of sugar when I'm premenstrual. I don't feel guilty about it because I eat carefully in general. The amount of calories you need is usually a LOT less than what you actually eat. Again, no one is fat because they've seen a fat model and thought 'I need to gain weight.'

Prevention is most important.

When you're obese, you're highly likely to stay obese. I don't think being obese means you should be treated like a disgusting failure. The glorification you're talking about is just normal stuff that helps fat people have enjoyable lives. Which they are fully entitled to do.

I don't think there are many fat people who don't know it has health impacts. They just don't want to sit inside feeling shit the whole time. That doesn't tackle obesity, it just makes for misery.

Almost every overweight person whose eating habits I've witnessed, eat more than slim people, regardless of the price or quality of the food.

And due to the internet, learning to cook has never ever been easier than it is now.

sandberry, your post is delusional. You absorb nutrients from food that is nutritious. If it is and you enjoy it then great but please do not spout that eating a McDonalds will magically provide you with anything other than a short term energy spike and a wallop of salt. There is scant protein or anything else that your body would enjoy, even if your tastebuds do.

I'm not a McD fan but I do love Wimpys and if I have a burger, that's what it will be. I'll enjoy it enormously but I won't kid myself that my body is giving me a high-five. As a sometimes food it's great, it's not a regular thing and believe me, that's something that I've struggled with my whole life.

That's what's dangerous, anybody can say anything and post it anywhere. Somebody will fall for it.

I've been fat as well, a size 12 at my largest and it was fucking miserable. Shopping was miserable, going out was miserable, comparing myself was miserable. It actually made me depressed. No one wants to be fat.

I agree, OP.

You’d think COVID would have put paid to a lot of this. Smokers were largely left alone, but the obese were hit very hard. So much for “you can be healthy at every size.” The NHS is in a poor state for a lot of reasons, but the huge financial impact of type 2 diabetes and similar conditions is a major factor.

I think these comments were mostly because we now know that it's much easier to stay at a healthy weight than to get bigger then spend years yo-yo dieting and trying to lose weight on various diets.

I also know so many people who have issues with things like gallstones which they say have been linked to being on low fat diets then binging then low fat again. These yo yo cycles must muck up our natural rhythms and hormones so much.

@emmylousings

funny how that only applies to obesity, not racism etc.

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

I don't see this at all. I see posters concerned with health.

@EmeraldFox

why? Do we not buy insurance, go on holiday, buy cars etc??

ivdont think obese people should be glamourised, but as awful as it is for you we DO live amongst you. Living normal lives. Sorry about that

“Obesity should be treated like the disability it is, treated and managed and given sympathy and support. At least unlike smoking, alcohol and drug addiction it is harmless to others around them,”

Obesity is harmful to others around them, from passing on potentially bad eating habits to children, to dying early or having other health factors which restrict the lives of their partner and or children.

If you are at the higher end of obesity where you don’t want to leave the house or can’t run around with your kids that is going to have an impact on them.

https://digital.nhs.uk/news/2018/health-survey-reveals-association-between-parent-and-child-obesity

Children of obese parents are more likely to be obese themselves than children whose parents are not overweight or obese, according to NHS Digital figures released today.

I've been fat. Naturally slim child and young adult and it piled on in my forties. In my early fifties I woke up and did something about. i went on a diet. That was four years ago and I remain the same size as my target (healthy) weight. I never understand the mantra that diets don't work. It did for me! I just eat sensibly now, and if I feel my waistband getting tight cut back a bit.

And I worry about obesity on a population level. I couldn't care less whether or not individuals are fat (as I was for a brief period in my adult life). It's the effects on the population as a whole that concern me. We have a creaking NHS but no one seems able to call it and say 'you know what? if we were slimmer it might be better for all of us'.

I agree with you, and I would say exactly the same about someone underweight. Both are unhealthy.

I agree, there’s nothing nice about being obese.

are there social media stars promoting obesity?
are people following them and deciding to eat a whole cake?

@NeverDropYourMooncup Well out! That made me well up.

Must remember, in the face of being told frequently on here, that I'm a sentient being with intrinsic worth' no matter what some posters think.

Willmafrockfit (great name!) - that's just wilful conflation. No, people don't see stars promoting obesity and decide then to eat a whole cake (as you well know!).

It's more a drip-drip of seeing people as 'your tribe' and finding comfort in that. If more and more people around you are becoming larger or the same size as you it leads to feelings of no longer being the odd one out.

If everybody's doing it... why must I not do the same? It's not a conscious thing but that does appear to be what's happening; or what other explanation could there be?

i dont think children feel the same,
look at other overweight children and feel a tribe

they eat what's provided

@Poppybob

that may have been your intention, but day in, day out, these threads immediately change to how disgusting obese people are.

just read some of the comments.

do you not think life is quite hard enough already, without starting yet another thread??

NeverDropYourMooncup, there are many, many women who are triggered by this subject, it's very hard-hitting just as a topic.

There are some threads that I absolutely swerve because I can't take it. This isn't one of them but, if it were, I would have seen the title and back-spaced the hell away from it.

It isn't right to attempt to shut down discussion on this, it's really important. It's just as important that you protect yourself and don't put yourself in harm's way.

@bellac11

...and the problem is??

one is dancing, another is at an exercise class...that's hardly glorifying obesity now is it? Obese people exist, showing them doing 'normal' everyday things is hardly glorifying obesity!

I don't disagree with you. I think that children do look around them though and see what's happening with their peers. They may not be judgemental as adults are but I know that my children were constantly coming to us asking for this or that "because Tommy at schools has this every day".

You're right, children eat what's provided for them - and they take their cues from us so those cues had better be well thought about, give or take some mistakes here and there (many from me!).

People get so funny about overweight people exercising
There's a YouTube channel where she had an ED, and is now overweight and she shows videos of herself at CrossFit etc
Yet she is still doing exercise "wrong" and gets awful comments about her weight
It's like people tell us to get to the gym, and when we do, people take the piss out of it

I completely agree with you, FFSwhatisthis, those adverts - to me - are glorifying exercise, movement and well-being - at any size -and long may they continue. They're extremely positive in my view.