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otf_wank's thoughts on weight, stop sharing your thoughts

HOW DARE YOU CALL ME FAT
Mars from Chicken Dinner Candybar does her regular Fat Love Friday and includes Marie from Agent Lover.

Marie is put off by her inclusion on a "fat" list and tells Mars so.

Mars offers to take it down. Marie refuses. Instead, she proclaims on her blog, "oh haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaale no!

Chaos ensues in the comments about fatphobia, body acceptance, fashion sense (or the lack thereof), and kissing-up commentors.

Is Marie brave or is she overreacting?

(I'm in the comments and I know Natalie [the 'overreacting' link], so I am slightly involved in the wank aftermath. It's pretty obvious which side i'm on.)

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Re: Might get some negative feedback on this, but...

herongale
2009-08-05 11:38 am UTC (link)

we're saying weight loss is impossible (for 98% of people)

I'd be interested in a citation on this stat, or at least a description of a vague memory of where you might have heard it. Cuz that sounds like a made up number to me, but I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt.

I'm pretty sure that even if you have the percentile correct, the word "impossible" strikes me as hyperbole. It is never "impossible" to lose weight, not even for people who find it extremely, extremely difficult. For people with certain medical conditions (diabetes, heart disease, sleep apnea), attempts to lose weight are often key to maintaining good health. Not dieting, mind you, but an overall revision of one's lifestyle to include more exercise and less calories. In such cases, the idea shouldn't be to guilt people into trying to lose weight, and they shouldn't be made to feel bad if they are not successful. But if someone is personally motivated to lose weight, it's usually possible to lose a modest 10-15 lbs and keep it off. And there are real benefits to actual, sustained weight loss of this caliber: for diabetics, it can make it easier to achieve proper glycemic control, and for people with sleep apnea, it can decrease the number of apneic episodes they experience in a night.

Being thin is not inherently unhealthy, but many people become thin when they get cancer or other serious chronic illnesses. Sudden unexpected weight loss is often a harbinger of death, but that doesn't mean that people who are thin who have maintained a fairly stable weight throughout their life are particularly any worse off than people who are fat.

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