Who are you calling fat?

[cushioncovers]

Anyone watching?

Thank you @OverByYer and @Preparingfor your comments mean a lot. X

I didn’t watch, but did they show older people now suffering from the results of being overweight? It is not healthy at any time of life to carry that weight around, your feet suffer, as do all your joints. Let alone diabetes a really nasty illness and heart problems, breathing problems, etc

Oh my days 🙄 I'm all for body positivity, but Victoria is youngish and not actually that huge! Wait til the reality of being really fat and forty hits!

Wow that Guardian review is interesting. Clearly highlighting the dangers of cults and of allowing anyone to self identify themselves as anything. Amazed that's been allowed in the Guardian.

SLB37 you could clearly tell that you are educated and intelligent as are all the older people in the group pointing out the dangers of being overweight. The young ones seem so so ridiculous in comparison.

There's a need for body positivity, but it's woefully misdirected by Victoria into keeping people as they are.

One of the reasons I got overweight was because I have always rejected imposed beauty standards - so gaining weight wasn't the horror to me me that it would to someone who wants to be conventionally attractive.

But I was never, NEVER in a position to lose the weight without feeling immensely positive about myself in every way, that I was a person capable of achieving it, and a person who deserved to lose the weight and lose it permanently. Heck - I can easily afford a personal trainer and the gym, and tasty healthy food, but had to convince myself that I was worth it - less than 4% of my disposable income!

Babs losing 11 stone quickly then putting it back on is confirmation, to me of my theory that losing the fat isn't nearly as hard as losing the fat habits - low activity, binging, emotional eating etc.

I've spent 18m so far to lose 5.5 stone, and want to lose 2 more in the next six months, but I've been working on a lifestyle change, not punishing myself for my old lifestyle. To me, the effort and self-denial to lose 11st that quickly must involve hating yourself a lot, and I don't have the capacity to do that.

SLB you and your baby are gorgeous, and a quiet voice of reason. You come across extremely well.

Victoria is a manipulative narcissist, did anyone notice how quickly she pointed out Courtney (?) was bigger than her?

The ableist point was disgusting, I'm disabled, my disability makes me disabled and whilst my weight is a problem due to steroids I can change that, I cannot change my disability.

@SLB37 You have the most delightful baby! Please don't think that you in any way jeopardised her health. I'm a "normal" weight and got pre-eclampsia. You are clearly bright and switched on and will be an excellent role model for her.

Gilead
I noticed that about pointing out Courtney's body.
the more I think of it, the more I personally don't believe Victoria and actually find her very manipulative. Her job is to preach this, she isn't going to admit on national TV that obesity can cause ill effects, otherwise she will lose money.
She reminds me very much of that banana girl vlogger from Australia who preached about 'healthy' nutrition with no scientific facts to support her.
I just hope she doesn't drag other people down with her money making scheme,

Yes I thought the Guardian article was a slightly different tone to their usual attitude on self ID matters 😜

SLB37, how did you cope with Victoria?? I would have not been abe to keep quiet!

I wanted to give the lady with a baby a hug when she cried, she's doing such a great job and having that god awful Victoria around is not good for any of them.

I thought some of what Victoria said was probably based in some reality. I do think a lot of the health risks are clunky. Obesity is a huge umbrella term, and while it's thrown about as a complete explanation for many complex medical conditions (that also effect people of a lower body weight) we run the risk of further stigmatisation. Her intuitive eating was also ridiculed which I'm not sure was fair.

The majority of people with obesity feel shame and embarrassment because of their bodies, and I'm not sure any positive can come of those emotions, and so I also champion the idea of body positivity.

But she was hard to take. And she had extrapolated these ideas so far that she wasn't relatable.

I hope they deal with the 95% issue, that there is research that acknowledges obesity is not entirely caused by excess calorie consumption, and sheds light on how to achieve health when the size of your body isn't something that (in the vast majority of cases) can be changed permanently without surgery.

Fat/body shaming and health risks are two different things tho surely.

I actually think one of the valid things she pointed out was the behaviour of being a 'good fatty' - exercising and eating well as a performative thing, being conscious that your choices are being judged.

My mum was bloody awful for this when I was at my heaviest - they live in a national park, and we'd always go on huge hikes, so I'd spend all day doing strenuous exercise to return home to 'good fatty' portions when I was absolutely famished from hours of exercise.

Not that I think she applied it well - the guy losing weight is keeping up a regime, you can't just break them for being on TV.

Victoria was awful, a lot of what she was saying was dangerous and I thought she was incredibly rude to Colin (?) the guest speaker. I think she does have an issue with her size and she's on a mission to keep everyone else fat so she's not as fat as them - hence the comment to Courtney - which means she can accept herself, because she's not the fattest. (That makes perfect sense in my head!) She promotes body confidence and being happy in who you are but she shames people who are try to change themselves because they're not body happy and are trying to be i.e. Del and the guy who was weight training etc.

Courtney has turned herself into a cartoon character with all of that make up to try and hide who she is, she clearly isn't body confident.

The sex worker lady kept banging on about how she was fine with her size, she was happy, having a great life blah blah blah but broke down when they started talking about diabetes. She said it's because it was drummed into her as a child but if she was that happy in herself she'd let that wash over her and it wouldn't have any affect.

Babs shouldn't have let them talk her into standing around in town in her swimming costume. It wasn't empowering, no one was going to be honest in this day and ago of PC madness.

SLB37 I think you have your head screwed on. You were one of the few sensible people in there.

I'm massively over weight. Am I body confident? Some days yes, some days no. Today I'm wearing a new dress that I've had 3 compliments about, I've got make up on and my hair looks nice so today I'm body confident. Tomorrow I probably won't be and that's OK. I don't have a problem being called fat, it's quite obvious looking at me and it's a true fact. But I know that it's not good for me. I'm almost 50, have arthritis in my knees and high BP. So far, things like blood sugars, cholesterol etc are all fine and get tested regularly but they will come a day when they're not fine if I don't sort myself out.

And one day, all of these things will catch up with some of these people in the house and they're in for a massive shock.

I can't watch the iplayer.
I'll check YouTube for an upload later.

@SLB37 You're beautiful your baby is beautiful.
I remember the last programme you were in, you were an inspiration I was cheering for you at the end.
My first MN celebrity.

The lady with the baby said she worked with an obesity charity to get obesity classed as a disease and therefore more help for it's sufferers. I think she said she kept drifting back to the weight she was.

The show was very interesting..the 'fatties' body acceptance coach was the most irritating person...totally blind to the others who were crying out for help to change. "I really don't want Jed to start dieting"..why the hell not? He's unhappy..help him. Hateful woman. Also, I just knew there'd be a sex worker in there...there's a market. She shamed her fellow sex workers by saying she wasn't a skinny drug addict doing it to feed a habit..I'm just it to pay my rent and feed my cat. Don't get me started on the Diabetes thing...Argh..🤬. Watching with interest.

SLB...wow, was that you? How did you cope with the madness ? Modi t say, we're all watching. We were shouting at the TV in our house. My husband and I are supporting each other to change our habits..it's not easy when you get to 50. A quiet voice of reason..never a truer statement made. Beautiful baby ..😍

I agree. Slb was fabulous.

The others were so pretty but make up was nuts wasn’t it.

The town centre stunt was ridiculous - showing how they DID need approval despite what they said.

Body positivity = denial imo

The town centre stunt was ridiculous - showing how they DID need approval despite what they said
I was really touched by it, their bravery, I don't think it was to glamourise obesity, I thought it was really sad how babs hated herself.
Okay being obese isn't healthy but you shouldn't feel so ashamed that you hate yourself.
Another interesting programme on BBC the truth about obesity, there is evidence it is from genetics too.

Ooh - just had a look at twitter, lots of people think body positivity lady is chatting rubbish. Don't like the misogyny on there (not cool calling her a "fat white bitch" for example) but I do agree she's giving out some dangerous advice. I will watch again tonight and hope we hear more from the older guy who goes running and also from lovely SLB and her lovely baby! [Waves at @SLB37}

Call me a massive cynic but without the TV cameras in tow I imagine the high Street stunt would have got a different response.

I don't think people should be shamed for being fat. It should be classed as an illness. There should be more understanding that for many people being fat isn't as simple as, being greedy or having no self control.

But we shouldn't be congratulating people for being fat.

I think it's getting more and more acceptable for women to be overweight because there is a fetish for it and because they lift each other up. In general girls are getting bigger. Look at the young girls now compared to the 80s. I worry that by the time dd is a teenager Tess Munsters body will be the norm. And it's people like Victoria and that happy hooker that will be to blame.

If you struggle with your weight then that's OK, but we should all be aiming for a healthy size even if that's not achievable for everyone.

I just had a wee look at her (Victoria's) website/blog. Had a lot of trouble following the "logic"...