Fat Discrimination

"As an overweight person with high verbal acuity, I was sure to describe my Peloton practice as well as my plan to eat more plants for ethical reasons. The doctor’s face lit up when I finally intimated an interest in, shall we say, size modification.

Glancing at my blood test results she began describing her professional interest in “metabolic medicine.” What followed was a 20-minute presentation on the advancements in weight loss drugs. Ozempic was the star, but there were other drugs, many of them prescribed off label. The seizure medication might curb snacking. Another might slow digestion if it did not ruin your kidneys. And then, of course, there were the “injectables,” the “gold standard” of weight loss medical interventions.

The only problem was that I was not diabetic.

I was not even medically prediabetic.

The doctor said this with great regret.

...

I switched doctors when I realized one of us was rooting for me to be sicker so I could afford to be skinnier."

Outside of the workplace, the trend of educational and economic elites marrying, befriending and socializing with one another — assortative matching and mating — is also a marked characteristic of our time. Elite homogeneity has a look and the look is thin. So when women say that it is better to be sick and thin than healthy and fat, they are perfectly rational."

Why it matters: There's an economic cost to not being thin.

"Weight stigma is present at every stage of the employment cycle," says Rebecca Puhl, a professor at the department of human development at the University of Connecticut. It's harder to get hired, promoted and paid."

From

Note also : we don't have a way to make fat people permanently thin. Medicare’s Search for Effective Obesity Treatments: Diets Are Not the Answer (PDF) by UCLA reviews 31 studies on diets and recommended that Medicare not cover diet programs because they are not effective enough to be worth Medicare coverage.  News articles summarized these findings here and here.

Being skinny ruined my life. If you’re thin and think to yourself, “why don’t fat people just lose weight?” Please read this

I was the “ideal fat” in the sense that I did everything skinny people wanted me to do. I tried every diet in the book. I exercised regularly. I worked with doctors and dietitians to figure out the best way to lose weight. But nothing worked. I did everything “right” to lose weight, and my weight stayed the same

But the thin people in my life kept telling me that I wouldn’t be happy, attractive, healthy, etc. until I lost weight. So, heartbroken, I came to the conclusion that anorexia was the only option left. It felt safer than bariatric surgery, and was obviously much more affordable

I became the perfect anorexic. 700 cal a day or less, except once a week I allowed myself 1400 cal. For reference, my body required at least 2800 to maintain weight, and at least 1800 to keep my organs and stuff fully functioning. Still, 700 a day, I persisted because everyone in my life told me weight loss was all that mattered. If dieting didn’t work, anorexia had to

And it did. My weight dropped all the way down to 110 pounds. I was skinny - underweight, even - in all sense of the word. The people in my life saw it as a miracle. The ultimate success story. My mother, my “friends,” my doctors, they all congratulated me on my accomplishment

When I confessed my eating disorder to my doctor, he told me, “that’s not the best way to go about it, but I’m glad you lost the weight.” My mother took pictures of me and sent them to relatives to brag

Okay, great. I was skinny. I did what I set out to do. But there were severe consequences

The most obvious was my joint pain doubled, maybe even tripled, to the point that I couldn’t leave the house without a wheelchair

I also developed several health complications, including fatty liver disease and extremely painful GERD. I had to see a handful of specialists and get an endoscopy because of severe stomach pain

My partner, who was the only person who saw my weight loss for what it was (a horrible thing that only happened because of an eating disorder), convinced me to enter a recovery program

For nearly a year, I relearned how to feed myself. I ate everything I was told to eat, nothing more and nothing less. My diet was 100% in the hands of somebody else

And I gained back every pound I has lost. All of the work to become thin went right out the window. It was proven to me that thinness and health were incompatible with my body. If I wanted to be thin, I had to forgo my physical and mental well-being. And vise-versa

Prior to the anorexia, I never once struggled with binge eating. I was naturally an intuitive eater, and I did a good job of having a well rounded diet. After the anorexia, after recovery, I developed a binge eating disorder. I had spent so long starving myself, that my brain and body got stuck in survival mode, desperate to consume any and all calories out of fear that I might starve again. To this day I struggle with binge eating

I did everything thin people wanted of me. I dieted. I exercised. And when all else failed, I starved myself. Now I have liver disease, stomach issues, and BED. Not to mention the loads of mental issues that accumulated as a result of my weight loss journey. During the throes of my anorexia, I had to be hospitalized for suicidal ideation

When you tell fat people to “just lose weight” you are suggesting they give themselves illnesses for which treatments are not always effective. You are asking fat people to destroy their stomachs and livers. When a fat person loses so much weight that they become skinny, they are likely giving up so much of their health in efforts to be treated like a human being

Then I read Gina Kolata's Rethinking Thin, stumbled across the Fatosphere (Shapely Prose and Junkfood Science...anyone remember those blogs?), and I stopped dieting for good. I bounced up back to my old weight in 18 months and have stayed there ever since. My body really, really wants to be fat. I didn't want to battle it, anymore. I wasn't going to win, and I had better things to accomplish with my time and effort.

I lost a lot of thin privilege, a shocking amount, in an incredibly short period of time. You can't ever convince me there isn't thin privilege. I was treated like a completely different person practically overnight. It made me--still makes me--incredibly sad. Fat people are the same people they'd be if they were thin.

Thin people, you would be the same, if you were fat. Do you think you'd deserve the derision you pile on fat people if you woke up fat, tomorrow? You might. Side effects of medications, post-pregnancy body changes, accidents that reduce mobility, illness, and aging can all result in weight gain. Wouldn't you like to be treated like a human being worthy of good medical care, professional respect, romantic value, and basic dignity?

Treat fat people well: because we deserve it, because you might be in our place someday, and because it might save a life.

The ideas AROUND fatness?… Why it is, what it means, whether it’s ‘Good’, ‘Bad’, or Indifferent? These things really CAN’T be quantified. ‘Why’? Because there are to many variable factors involved in what does/does not make individual people, fat. Adding to this morass? There are to many unproven theories (Often taken as ‘Fact’) and insincere motivations (Diet Industry Profit) surrounding and influencing the VERY CONCEPTS of ‘Fat & Health’.

COMPLEXITY.

There are/have been fat people… -Fat from childhood-… Who live to advanced age. WHILE REMAINING FAT. NOT as rare or outlier as One might think. There are fat people who who never encounter the ‘Life Threatening Illnesses’ associated with being fat. Some of the things we’re SLOWLY discovering? Is that many of these types of people?

NEVER ENGAGED IN ANY OF THE WEIGHT ALTERING BEHAVIORS ASSOCIATED WITH ‘Getting Healthy’ (ie; Weight Loss Dieting, Weight Yo-Yo’ing, Radical Weight Loss*). While Activity/Movement/Exercise? Are demonstrating themselves as much-Much-MUCH more significant when it come to increasing Positive Health Outcomes. ‘Well what about Exercise that focuses on WeightLOSS?’… Errrrm… Well… No. Or, at least, not so much. As often happens, a lot of people GIVE UP on WeightLoss Focused Exercise BECAUSE IT DOESN’T ALWAYS PROVIDE OBVIOUS RESULTS. There ARE improvements (Cardio, Strength, Flexibility, Stamina) and they often provide long-term benefits, but these? ARE NOT always visible, easily noticed, nor are they the ‘Desired Goal’ (Loss of Fat/Weight).

Bottom Line? We STILL don’t know why some people are/stay Fat and some people are/stay Thin. We may NEVER know. Until/If We ever do? Fatness will REMAIN a State of Existence and PART of what it is to BE a Human Being.

Social Stigma against this State of Existence? Is pointless, unnecessary, and ultimately destructive.

If a particular individual both is fat and has poor health, it is none of your goddamn business anyway. It's never any rando's business why someone with health issues have them, it is not ever a moral failing to have poor health, and it is not ever ever okay to discriminate against someone for being in poor health.

let’s start with a few pictures of my body shall we

(please ignore messy room i’m in the process of packing)

okay so that’s the body of someone that eats healthy, literally my fave food is broccoli, and i work out 5 days a week, you’d think i’m at ‘’’healthy weight’’’’ right?????

BITCH NOPE

a calorie is the amount of energy released in laboratory conditions to heat water when it’s burned

so in the lab you have an instrument to burn the food and you measure how much of it it takes to heat water a set amount,

this does not in any way reflect how the body works

your body breaks down foods in different ways, for example monosaturated fats break down very slowly but processed sugars break down very fast

so by that logic something that is almost pure carbohydrate would be much worse than something that is almost pure monosaturated fat

not necessarily

oats, for example, are something like 95% fibre, meaning although they are pure sugar the body decides it’s not worth the bother of breaking them down so you get a small fraction of the sugar in the oat

so just going by carbohydrate [aka sugar] content doesn’t work properly either

a stick of butter has WAY more calories than a boiled potato but the stick of butter breaks down over several hours and keeps you satiated longer than that boiled potato that immediately floods your system with sugar, that triggers the response of too much store that for later, which causes a lack in your body which triggers the i’m hungry response

or the peanuts being high protein high fat are the reason why a snickers fills you up longer than a mars bar even though it might have a higher calorie count - because you’re full longer you eat less calories because you don’t go i’m hungry and eat another mars bar 

and that’s all assuming that every body processes food the exact same way

Adding on to all of this up here, hormones play a significant role in fat storage. “Eat less and exercise more” is a fad diet. Losing fat, gaining fat, and maintaining weight has far more to do with hormonal composition in your body than anything. Change your hormonal composition, and your body’s fat distribution is subject to change. This is why dfab people often gain weight when undergoing menopause or after having a hysterectomy (gender confirmation surgeries typically excluded as the subjects are often on testosterone). This is why endocrine disorders are often associated with significant weight loss or weight gain.

Another example of the BMI being bullshit: many professional athletes have very low percentages of body fat while also having a high BMI.

Joe Rogan is considered obese by the BMI, regardless of his low body fat percentage.

Some more examples of actual Olympians:

The bmi isn’t bullshit because it’s inaccurate, it’s bullshit because it’s built on fatmisia

Please watch this playlist on YouTube from @ok2befat (sources are listed for each video)

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzCJI_hV11iFYHnjOPGyVwXaFEo2eEc9S

Thin privilege is not having "fat isn't a disability!!" screamed at you when you park in a disabled bay/use motorised scooters in stores/ask for assistance anywhere.

There is no permanent and safe way to intentionally lose weight. This is true.  

And that means that if you want to truly live a fulfilling and meaningful life, you will need to let go of the fantasy of being thin. You will need to do the difficult self-work needed to unlearn your internalized fat phobia. You may also need to learn how to eat normally without restriction and shame. All of this is difficult. But a lifetime of self-hate, restriction, repeated cycles of weight gains and weight losses, and declining health from the damage caused by under-nourishing your body is far far worse. 

Over fifty years of research conclusively demonstrates that virtually everyone who intentionally loses weight by manipulating their eating and exercise habits will regain the weight they lost within three to five years. And the vast majority will actually regain more weight than they lost. [sources]

In fact, the results of a 10-year study of over 275000 people revealed that the annual odds of a fat person attaining a so-called “normal” weight and maintaining that for five years is approximately 1 in 1000. [source]

Nope. One individual’s experiences do not negate 50 years of scientific research with thousands and thousands of people.

“Just change your *lifestyle* by doing blah blah blah and then anyone can lose weight!”

Nope. Any attempts to intentionally lose weight by manipulating food intake and exercise have the same result. Scientists have tried it all! The result it always the same. Weight regain. 

No. A systematic review of research using the doubly-labeled water method to assess people’s energy needs revealed that healthy adults over age 25 need between 2500 and 3000 kilocalories per day on average. People under the age of 25 need about 500 calories more per day than their adult counterparts. People who are bigger than average (including fat people) also need more energy than average to thrive, as do people who are very physically active. [source] [source] 

“Buuuut the nutrition guidelines say we only need 2000 kilocalories per day!”

Medical equipment? DOESN’T GROW ON TREES. It is not a natural resource. People designed it and people manufactured it and their prejudices determined who it would accommodate and who it wouldn’t. There isn’t a magical forrest where we harvest MRI machines. Chairs with arms weren’t already in waiting rooms when the doctors got there. We don’t build hospitals around natural rock formations that just happen to look like exam tables with a limited weight requirement. Birth control pills aren’t excreted by faeries so there was no choice but to have them not work on women who weigh more than 160 pounds. Those were all decisions. Those are all choices. Just as was YOUR choice to pretend not to see those choices so you could huff and preen about how this is just how things are and CLEARLY no one understands that but your worthless ass.

They’re called children.

Children get special dedicated hospitals with adapted equipment and specialist doctors who know how to treat them. They don’t just get told that it’s too hard to treat them and they’ll just have to wait until they’re adults, and what were they thinking getting sick when they’re so tiny and fragile.

A number of you have been asking for my opinion about the recent study of The Biggest Loser contestants, documenting the long-term metabolic suppression and weight regain that contestants experienced in the six years following their massive weight losses. This graph from the New York Times illustrates the results.

I have read some criticisms of the study, ranging from “they ate the wrong things!” to “they lost weight too fast!” to “they lost too much weight!” Such critiques might hold water if this was the only study demonstrating such effects, but that is simply not the case.  

Scientists have known about the metabolic suppression, hormonal changes, and weight regain that follows weight loss for literally decades. So there is nothing truly new or surprising in the Biggest Loser results. Yet still, many “obesity experts” profess to be shocked!!! amazed!! and stunned!!! by these results, which is… disturbing.

If you are fat and have even been abused or mistreated by a medical professional, know that you are not alone.

Fully 70% of fat people report that they have experienced prejudice or discrimination from a doctor or other health care provider.

This is one of the most dangerous forms of discrimination that fat people experience.

Fear of medical discrimination stops many fat people from seeking medical attention until it is an emergency, which may explain why fat people often fare worse when they contract certain diseases.

Prejudice and lack of training with fat patients causes doctors to offer inadequate medical care to fat patients. For example, fat patients are less likely to receive screening tests for certain cancers, and when they do get cancer, fat patients are routinely prescribed lower doses of chemotherapy than they require, resulting in lower cancer survival rates.  

Many doctors even believe that non-emergency medical treatment should be denied to fat people until they lose weight.

#1- social physics? Not a thing.

#2- Why are we using a scale from the 19th century when we have actual medical tests- like X-rays and blood tests- that will actually tell us if people are sick and what is actually wrong with them? 

In the 19th Century, people thought that masturbation caused sickness and that you could cure people from jerking it by eating Corn Flakes.

Like, are we still leeching people?