Not as sad as it makes me, when I see young women literally killing themselves slowly, putting themselves at serious risk of fertility issues and heightened risk of breast cancer and other lifestyle cancers, sleep apnoea, knackering their knees, hips, ankles and back, putting strain on their heart, making their pregnancies high risk, getting early onset type 2 diabetes, ending up in a mobility scooter by the time they are middle aged, all because we, in our wisdom, have decided that we should destigmatise obesity and encourage 'body positivity.' We've done this so successfully that young people now believe that dangerous levels of obesity are not only nothing to be ashamed of or worried about, they are something to be celebrated FFS.
I am in my fifties and have struggled to manage my weight my whole life. I've had periods of relative slimness where I've managed to be a size 10 to 12 in my 20's then throughout my 30s, 40s and 50s I have fluctuated from a 14 to 16, peaking at a BMI of 35 (which for me was a size 18, I am quite short) during Covid. This coincided with my menopause, mood swings, poor sleep and a lot of boredom / comfort eating and 'rewarding myself' with treats and too much wine to get through that weird time. I've spent the last two years trying to correct that, and it's been hard. I am only managing it now with the help of Wegovy.
My BMI is now 30 but it's still too high and I have a long way to go before I can look and feel properly slim and healthy. I can feel the effect of too many years of being overweight on my joints, my feet and my back in particular. They creak and they ache and they hurt. I've had bloody crippling plantar fasciitis which is exacerbated by being too fat. I've got GERD and a possible hiatus hernia which, if not always caused by obesity, is certainly aggravated by it. I get constant soreness and rawness under my huge sagging boobs, and the breakdown of skin can stink like I am literally rotting alive, unless I use an anti-fungal cream. This is what happens when you get so fat that no air gets into the folds of skin and the moisture is trapped. It's horrific.
I know I huff and puff and wheeze and feel the strain on my heart and lungs when doing anything even a bit strenuous, or having to run or walk very briskly for very long. I know how my flabby thighs rub raw and bleed if I don't wear long knickers designed for fat women to avoid chub rub. Those type of knickers didn't even exist 20 years ago, now they are everywhere because our obesity crisis drives a need for them.
I know how my waist has disappeared and my midriff has thickened in a way that is a warning sign of potential heart problems. I have an unattractive belly overhang and flabby arms, ugly wobbly cellulite thighs and a massive double chin which, even if I manage to get to my goal weight, will never fully go away, just hang around as unattractive loose skin because I am now too old and now lack the collagen needed for it to ping back in place.
So if this is happening to me at a size 16 what the hell is going on with people much, much bigger?
So yes, it makes me very, very sad to see girls less than half my age who are already far bigger than I've ever been, and it took me 50 years to get there. Yet there they are, some of them barely out of their teens and they are twice my size. They can't fit into aeroplane seats. They can barely walk properly. They can't fit their feet into normal shoes. Their otherwise lovely faces are bloated and piggy looking. They lumber around like walruses. Their bellies hang to their thighs. Every time I go into my city I see probably thirty or forty girls and young women in an average day who make me look positively svelte, and I am still a size 16 at 5' 2".
I know that if they don't take action now while they are still young enough, they are setting themselves up for a shortened life of pain, infertility and disability. So yes, it makes me sad. I makes me furious. It breaks my fucking heart that they are being encouraged to embrace what is slowly killing them and to love themselves as they are. It's a disgrace.