Everyone just hates fat people

[mamabeeboo]

Yes I'm fat and yes I'm taking the WLI.

I've had it out with a friend of a friend during a catch up dinner yesterday and I'm fuming.

I've lost some weight and still have a good 5 or so stone more to go before I'm anywhere near the 'normal' BMI category. So no, I'm not wasting away or disappearing, or losing weight too fast.

The mistake I made was being honest about the jabs. But I stand by it, I think it's important to get healthy, regardless of how you do it, just get there.

ANYWAY, this person has suddenly decided to feel concerned for my health, now that the loss has become noticeable. With some silent nods from others about how you should 'just eat less and move more'. No shit is that what was supposed to do?!

A big discussion about:
just have willpower
just have smaller portions
do it the normal way, you don't know what you're putting into your body
it's not healthy
just put down the fork
it's about dicipline
it's not really losing weight though, is it (huhh??)
it's more rewarding to do it the normal way so you can feel achievement

It's gotten me thinking of how so many people just hate fat people. You want us to pay for being fat, to suffer at the gym doing workouts we don't like or can't do with joint pain and back pain etc. You want us to 'just have willpower' like it's that easy. You want us to try all the diets and fail so you can feel superior with your 'discipline' and that you 'look after your body'.

You hate the fact that these WLI have levelled the playing field.

I said all this yesterday and it became very frosty. These aren't my friends, I was there for the birthday girl, but I won't sit there and take it.

I'm posting because I'd love to hear what you might have heard when talking about WLI. (Or if anyone agrees with the above 🤔)

Do you think protein shakes are cheating too?

Suddenly, all those people who were adamant that they couldn't lose weight are seeing it drop off, for the sole reason that they have something to do the hard work for them.

I know! And alcoholics could just drink less if they wanted to. Not to even mention people with depression, using those drugs to do all the hard work, it's really not that hard to just cheer up. I know, I was sad once, but I have the willpower so got over it. Right?

Seems like slim people are allowed to want to be slim for any reason they want but fat people who want to lose weight are overstepping.

What a funny thing to say. Why on earth would you think people hadn't researched the potential side effects before starting a new medication?
Like, presumably, most people on WLI I researched in advance, read the leaflet fully and assessed that on balance the risk from obesity of not taking them was worse than taking them. You've assessed differently and that's obviously fine, but there's no need to shout 'danger!' vaguely at people!

Depressingly, research has suggested that bigger people are often stereotyped as less intelligent. Doubtless some on here consider us too thick to have made an informed choice.

This post makes no sense

I havent read the whole thread OP and while its too late for you, my advice to others is, just dont tell people. You wouldnt go on about any other medication you're on would you? (well some of us do but we're health bores and all of a certain age!)

How someone loses weight is none of anyones business, its a medical treatment for a medical condition and the focus is on getting healthy. Thats all.

I don't think this is about people who said they couldn't lose weight have found a solution (or maybe for some). This seems to be bigger than an eye roll. Bigger than an "I told you so". Slim people are here getting offended and pissed off that there's a way to be healthy and that plus sized girl they used to see is now almost their size. And they can't bear it.

the slim people can't seem to shake that stones are being lost without sacrifice, punishment at the gym, fighting urges, consistency, discipline and resistance. Because being healthy needs to be earned.

What's the phrase "no pain no gain".

Why does there need to be pain?

Well, plenty of gain (or loss in this case) with no pain here. 👏

Yes I have similar concerns about these methods, but with drugs there is the added risk of side effects.

No, but steroids are.

Gallbladders are bastards thats why.

I'd be surprised if anyone thought it was all slim people...

Analogy:

A: Why are you drowning? You just need to swim to the shore.

B: I can’t swim, I’m trying but I can’t, I’m drowning.

Someone throws in a rubber ring, B grabs it and manages to paddle to shore.

A: See, I was right, you just needed to swim. Why were you saying you can’t swim?

I will continue to shout about it and encourage anyone struggling with weight to consider it if it's a possibility.

I'm hoping the stigma of WLI, just like trans people, gay marriages, mental health issues etc will be obliviated. But it can only be done through discussion.

If you didn't RTFT, then you didn't see that I said there were also overweight people at this table and I didn't want them thinking I have suddenly woken up with the discipline they don't have, and the weight melted off, I have had help. I've felt like a failure in the past when other people have managed to sort their weight, wondering why I can't do it. So for me, honesty was best.

I take Mounjaro and I see strong parallels to when I was taking Sertraline. Both are medications that enable me to control symptoms of something that I am/was otherwise unable to control. That control of symptoms is what enables me to then do the hard work - yes, the hard work - of making changes in my life and devising strategies that I can hopefully carry on past the end of the medication.

The reasons I'm unable to control obesity through willpower alone are as complex and yet as irrelevant to anybody else as the reasons I was unable to control PTSD symptoms through the willpower alone.

It's as straightforward as that.

Exactly, just the slim people who criticise WLI

It's similar to the "all men" brigade. Of course not all.

But there's so many ways you get treated differently it's unbelievable. As someone who has been obese or slightly above average weight, I was treated much better at my slimmest by general society. People wanted to speak to me, sit next to me, make friends with me. I was considered attractive to hang out with in general.

Someone on reddit said they got a promotion after they dropped weight even though they have been doing the exact same thing for years! They were considered better at their job for being slimmer - perhaps they dressed better or carried themselves with more confidence..? But who knows! Either way it had nothing to do with the actual job they were doing, just perception.

Good on you, keep spreading the word

You've rather proven the fatties point here though, rather than the superior thin people's point.
People have been saying for years that all the other methods they tried didn't work... because they didn't work. And now that there is a completely different approach, that tackles hormonal imbalances and insulin production rather than just how many biscuits you eat... that does work.
Since I had my gallbladder removed my body hasn't behaved the way it used to with weight loss and gain. I started to gain weight at the rate I'd previously lost it, despite not changing my low calorie diet at all. With all of the recent news about WLI I now think this was because having it removed triggered insulin resistance. And now there is a medication that is rectifying that problem, that low calorie diet once again allows me to lose weight.
So the hard work that mounjaro is doing for me is correcting my insulin levels so I can burn fat as efficiently as I used to. What a lazy fatty.

To be honest I think WLI are becoming more and more common so it will get to a point that it will be assumed anyone who has lost a significant amount of weight will have used the jabs

Fantastic post

I heartily recommend “Why We Eat Too Much” by Dr Andrew Jenkinson for anyone who wants to understand obesity and why it is so difficult to overcome. One of the facts he discusses is that hunger hormones in an obese person are massively higher than in a non-overweight person and in fact are higher in the obese person at their lowest ie just after eating than the highest felt by a non-overweight person (before a meal).

👏

You can assume but you'll never know for sure. I'm not bothered if people know I'm on it and I don't consider it cheating at all so those comments mean nothing to me. I'm not sure why my choices impact anyone else? Other than reducing the impact on the NHS which people have been bleating on about for years.

This is what’s so annoying! Fat people think thin people are just naturally thin! No. It is years of discipline, painful exercise, missing out on cake you wanted to eat but knew you shouldn’t! I have constant food noise, hunger pangs etc I’d be surprised if you could find someone who didn’t!

Then you fat people are coming along and getting the same results without going through the struggle! I’m not against the injections, I just think they should be available to everyone. Why should one group continue to suffer pain while the other gets an easy, painless solution? Particularly after experiencing years of indulgence in food that thin people have missed out on.

We don’t all think / feel the same way about food.
Some of us have an eating disorder. Others are yo-yo dieters, all or nothing types, some have roaring food noise, others just have big appetites. Some can “just eat normally”. Others work hard a disciplined daily diet. Some people have no interest in food, barely register it. Others love cooking, hosting, eating out, food is a social thing for them. Some are clean eaters, concerned about UPF. WLI will help some of these people.

Whatever you food story, whatever you weight, whatever your fitness level, whatever your health situation. Good luck!