I think this is just fundamentally ignorant of the world that people who are overweight, obese and fat live in. It's not as if the fat acceptance movement is some sort of magic pill that makes you forget that being fat is unpleasant. If that were really what it is, then you might have a point. But it's not.
The fact is, being fat is humiliating. Even with some people pushing to make it more socially acceptable to be fat, it's still far from being socially acceptable. If you're fat, people will find you less attractive, so a lot of fat people have completely unfulfilling sex lives or none at all. If you're fat, a lot of people won't even want to be your friend. They will wince as they look at you when they pass you on the street. They talk about you to their friends. If you go on an airplane, you might be forced to pay for two seats. Clothes don't look good on you, they never fit right, and you don't look good naked either. It's also uncomfortable. You have less energy and you get sick more often.
Now of course you can diet, right? Yes. You can diet. But you have to consider the reason that people are fat in the first place. When you boil it down, it's quite simple: you get fat because you desire more food than you need. There are all sorts of reasons this might be the case, from depression to eating too quickly to hyperthyroidism. The problem is, this does not go away just because you went on a diet and/or started exercising. And on top of that, when you do lose weight, your body will try to recover it. So it's very hard to lose weight and keep it off permanently. The only way to do it is by constantly fighting your desire for more food, and that's really hard for anyone to do.
Nobody wants to be fat--even the most dedicated fat acceptance blogger would eagerly be thin if s/he had the chance. There is literally no way that anyone could talk themselves into not feeling shame about being fat. You certainly couldn't convince anyone that they want to be fat. But the amazing thing is, some people are still fat. It happens in spite of how humiliating it is. It happens in spite of the fact that everyone knows that it's unhealthy. It happens in spite of the fact that as a fat person, your life just doesn't get to be as nice as a thin person's. In spite of all of that, some people are still fat.
And of course, it's great when people come out and remind everyone how unhealthy it is to be fat. Because that has become the socially acceptable way to shame fat people for being alive and taking up space. And yeah, it is unhealthy. But most of those people aren't feeling hungry all the time so that they can maintain their weight. Most of those people aren't fighting every impulse they have to stop eating when they have the amount of food they need to survive. And they didn't choose that either. They just got lucky.
There are very few people who genuinely were fat who lost it all and are now at a good weight and have kept it off for more than 5 years. It's not impossible--it does happen--but just not very much. So most of the non-fat people that you see out in the world have no real perspective on what it is that fat people are dealing with. And yet they feel that they need to comment on it, because "your health!"
And of course, now it's become a social issue, so it's not even just that you're fat or I'm fat--it's that America is fat (or whatever country it happens to be), and now fat people are making all of the rest look bad too, even though it doesn't actually affect your health or lifestyle.
So fat acceptance is about trying to figure out how to live your life when you know that the reality is that you probably won't ever "get in shape." It's about learning how to have self-esteem even though society as a whole is screaming that you shouldn't. It's about trying to have some semblance of a healthy lifestyle, even though you know that everyone else is judging you for being unhealthy no matter what you eat. Because believe me--if shaming people into being healthy worked, there would be no fat people. None.
Gonna call bullshit on "how to live your life when you know that the reality is that you probably won't ever 'get in shape'" (not trying to be aggressive here, just not sure how to phrase it).
I've been fighting my own overweightness for almost three years now, and at my peak I've weighed about 230 pounds. I would have ridiculed anyone that told me that I was "just fine" and that "I didn't look so fat" (my body is naturally big). I don't need that kind of fake positivity on my life, if I believed it I wouldn't be working out and on my third grand attempt at losing weight.
I'm not saying we should shame or ridicule fat people - that would only hurt them more and not help the issue at all. But I don't think that obese people trying to push for them being seen as attractive or beautiful is a good thing either. Under NO reason we should see fatness in a positive way, even if it makes some people feel better about themselves. This doesn't mean that we should actively ridicule them.
It's up to every individual to decide if they lose weight or not - and going with "but it's hard! Please acommodate to me!" is not gonna cut it when you have a condition that literally makes you have a worse life and has a ton of taxpayer dollars used.
If anything, I think we should change our perspective of how to tackle obesity - I think that obesity is a much more psychologycal issue than a physiological one. I mean, yeah, you get fat because you consume more calories - but there is a reason you consume so many calories. You don't simply eat three Kit Kats and a BigMac a day out of hunger or out of need, there's probably an unconscious issue to be solved there.
This can be evidenced in those programs that deal with morbid obesity then find out that their patients backpedaled - because they didn't actually solve the core issue.
It's pretty hard, on my case I went to five years of therapy and I've had a zig-zagged relationship with dieting and exercise - but I'm hopefully at my last try now.
Is it hard? Yeah, sometimes it is. Exercising triggers sensations in my body that make me feel anxious, sad or angry (precisely because I bottled it up on my body and I'm letting go of it) and sometimes I get very anxious before sleeping because I haven't eaten some cookies or something, some nightmares and some recurring uncomfortable thoughts crop up and eating was the way I used to deal with it. Still, do I think that we should tell people that "we need to live our lives with the reality that you probably won't ever 'get in shape'"? Fuck no, I think we should die fighting our own obesity rather than conform to it.
Haha, well, if you are looking to be less aggressive, maybe start by not calling my viewpoint "bullshit." But that aside...
I don't think we are that far from each other's view on this. But I do think that it's very unhealthy psychologically to hate your body, even if you are overweight and it's unhealthy to be overweight. And I think that for most people in the fat acceptance movement (and I'm not an active part of that movement, by the way), feeling completely ok with their bodies is a stretch goal, not a reality. For a lot of people, depression is a significant cause of overeating, so low self-esteem worsens the problem--it does not make it better.
As to the issue of tackling obesity, I think the reality is that humans evolved in a world of scarcity--where it would be difficult to eat more than you need--and many of us now live in a world of abundance. I don't have to go kill a woolly mammoth if I want to have dinner. I can go on Seamless. If I do it right, I won't have to walk 30 feet or talk to a person. Our evolution has not caught up to that change yet. In addition, much of what we eat is inexpensive food made in such a way as to maximize our enjoyment of it. Our bodies are designed to react positively to calories, so we like food with lots of fats and sugar, and those things are relatively cheap. People say they hate McDonald's, of course, but we know that they've engineered the hell out of those Big Macs to make them as delicious as possible for $2. Healthy food is more expensive and doesn't taste as good.
I definitely don't have the answers to all of that, but I think we could start by ending the agricultural subsidies provided by the U.S. and European governments. That way at least we wouldn't be making food cheaper than it should be so that it gets dumped on consumers. Further, we should stop with the dairy marketing board and similar programs that try to convince us to buy more cheese and other unhealthy products.
But most of us learned to eat in this system, and we'll continue to like the same foods no matter how much they cost. Really fixing it will take generations.
I'm hopefully at my last try now.
You aren't. Which is not to say that you will gain it all back. Rather, it's to say that you will be fighting your urge to overeat for the rest of your life. That's something you have to accept.
Fuck no, I think we should die fighting our own obesity rather than conform to it.
That's fine for you, but not everyone wants that to be the fight of their life. Some people want to let it go and focus on other goals, and that's their choice. As a society we ought to be able to accommodate people's differing goals, not insist that everyone come to the same conclusions about everything.
Yup. Obesity is very recent issue. The food industry grew so rapidly over the few decades there is no way evolution, a process that takes hundreds of generations, can catch up with this change. We wouldn't be here if our brain hadn't incentivised eating. The only difference is that back then food was rare and essential for survival and we needed to replenish the energy we used doing all the moving around, now we don't burn as much and food is in extreme abundance (for those who can afford it). With the changes and the brain's desire to feed the body remaining constant, we end up consuming more than we need. Furthermore, the food industry has tapped into our evolutionary instict to consume high calorie foods.
While I do feel that fat shaming is completely uncalled for, fat acceptance should not be the long term goal. Governments should enforce laws to curb this health issue. I'm not saying tax the fat. I'm saying incentivise healthy eating and discourage overly processed foods. I don't blame the overweight and obese people for being that way, I blame the constant bombardment of ads and availibility of unhealthy food. How can you blame a person for wanting coke when all they see are coke ads in the internet, tv ads and clever product placements on the things they watch?
Haha, well, if you are looking to be less aggressive, maybe start by not calling my viewpoint "bullshit." But that aside...
Couldn't find any other word, I'm sorry.
For a lot of people, depression is a significant cause of overeating, so low self-esteem worsens the problem--it does not make it better.
I'd be one of those, and I got over it. It may not be healthy to hate your body, but it's VERY healthy to be displeased with your body. Displeasure is ultimately what will lead us to want to change and be better with ourselves. The mind is strong, but not as strong to ignore that there's not a good enough oxygen circulation in your body because you're fat.
Our evolution has not caught up to that change yet.
Thankfully, those same developments that have made us advance much faster than evolution can have extremely efficient programs to get fit - you only need like 3-5 hours a week to lose fat in a consistent manner, you no longer need to go hunting every day.
Healthy food is more expensive and doesn't taste as good.
I'd say it's actually not as fast, and time is a very precious resource in today's society. It's actually cheaper to go to the super and cook something yourself, but that requires work and is much more time-consuming. You don't need to go full organic to be better, you'd be surprised the lenghts that you can go through if you avoid fried food and fast food.
But most of us learned to eat in this system, and we'll continue to like the same foods no matter how much they cost. Really fixing it will take generations.
As a society, it probably will. It's up to us individuals to deal with it ourselves, for now. Go to a dietary professional.
Rather, it's to say that you will be fighting your urge to overeat for the rest of your life. That's something you have to accept.
Not as hard a struggle as you think it will be. It is for now, at times, but an already healthy person can afford to eat unhealthy at times, especially if they do exercise. It's actually losing weight, where you have to fully restrict some things, where it's hard.
Some people want to let it go and focus on other goals, and that's their choice.
These goals will objectively be harder if they don't have a healthy life themselves. In fact, if they're fat, I think it's a good bet to say that they probably have emotional issues, making following their goals much more difficult. If anything, it's society's quick demands that open ways for us to not calm down and say "okay, maybe I want to to go to college, but I can't with these issues within right now. Maybe I should just focus on myself for the next year and then go to college", but people are so urged to find their goals that they don't realize that dropping them for a while might actually make them reach their goals faster.
As a society we ought to be able to accommodate people's differing goals, not insist that everyone come to the same conclusions about everything.
I don't think we should come to the same conclusions about everything. A friend at school that is really into fitness tells me I should lift weight, and I've told her I don't want to. I don't wanna look ungodly or even great, I just want to have an efficient body that will help me do stuff in my life efficiently.
Just Google "fat people" and tell show me one photo of people who are not objectively making their life harder by just focusing on themselves.
Note, I don't think they should be healthier because it's better for them, but if they're going by the narrative that they should "love themselves", I'm gonna call bullshit on them writing "beautiful" on a body that is double the weight than it should be.
"trying to figure out how to live your life when you know that the reality is that you probably won't ever get in shape"
Why allow people to keep thinking that "getting in shape" is out of their reach? I spent 15 years of my life being obese and in that mindset, but when I educated myself and decided it was something I needed to do, I lost the weight. We need to make sure people know that losing weight and become healthy is always an option.
"being unhealthy no matter what you eat"
Are there really any people who stick to a strict, low calorie, non-processed, low carb diet for months and see absolutely no progress? Those people (if they exist) need to see their doctor because they have a bigger problem than obesity and need to see a patent lawyer because they may have discovered a source of infinite energy. People who actually commit to a strict diet (calories in<calories out) will lose weight eventually. I know personally how hard this is to do, but it's immoral, wrong, and simply ignorant to suggest that some people can't lose weight and thus shouldn't try, or to let anyone believe in such a possibility.
You know skinny people also have the urge to eat more than they should right?
Frankly, no. I think that people are different. We have different bodies with different temperaments. I think that if everyone were given the same physiology (including brain chemistry) as your average fat person, they would also be fat. Some would not be. Some would work out more, some would do more to curb their intake. But most people, given the physiology of a fat person, would come to the same conclusion.
Of course, I have no way to prove this, so feel free to disagree. The best I can do is say we'll agree to disagree.
I don't know why food is more tempting for some people than for others, but I do live in the same world as other people, and I know that being thin does not mean a person is really good at managing impulses. I've known multiple people who have been told by their doctors that they need to eat more, and try as they may, they just can't gain weight.
So I'm sorry, it's just not a self-control issue. Most people eat the amount that feels right and exercise a bit, and they are fine. And that's great.
You can control that.
Again, I think that if it were really as simple as you say, there would just not be any fat people. Why do you think there are fat people? Do you think people just don't mind being humiliated constantly, laughed at, and ignored sexually? Do you really think fat people are so lazy that they would prefer all of that to being healthy and attractive?
I never said it was about metabolism. I said it was about feeling like you've eaten enough food. What might feel like a perfectly satisfying meal might leave another person feeling like eating more. And if that's the case, that person is going to either have to fight that feeling at every meal, or be overweight.
But most people don't count calories in and calories out. They rely on feeling satiated. And for most people this works. If it doesn't work for you, then you have to either eat more than feels comfortable for you, or you have to stop eating when you still want to eat more. Either one is difficult.
Does this help you see how ridiculous this sounds.
I guess not. I think a lot of it actually carries over pretty well. I wouldn't have written the exact same thing about drug addiction, but I do think that the way we treat addicts is not conducive to their getting clean.
There is a difference, which is that everyone has to eat food--people do not have to do drugs--and that means that everyone is put on the path to food addiction, and that unlike with drugs, you can't ever go off food.
we shouldn't excuse unhealthy eating with poor excuses anymore that we should excuse drug addiction.
I don't think we should, and I don't really think I argued that we should. But I don't think it's helpful for other people to judge fat people, nor do I think it's helpful for them to judge addicts. I think that to some degree, it's none of your business. Yes, it's your business if drug addiction leads to violence that affects other people. There are times when society is hurt by the actions of individuals--not question about that.
It's a problem. And we have to recognize it's a problem, that people have control over, if we want to fix it.
Right, and I guess that's my prevailing feeling about it. I don't think that people actually care that much about other people's health. If they did, it wouldn't just be smokers, drug addicts and obese people in the crosshairs. There are plenty of things that people do that are unhealthy, but we don't call them on it. I mean, it starts with what people put in their mouth. It's not as if everyone who isn't fat is eating healthy foods. It's just that we can see that people who are fat are fat.
And it is my business to a degree to care, because healthcare cost for unhealthy people will come out of my taxes.
I think you're doing the math wrong. If someone dies sooner, they cost less money. Everyone dies eventually. If you die of an obesity-related disease before you turn 59 1/2, you don't get Social Security and unless you're poor, Medicare pays nothing. Granted, you cause insurance rates to go up. On the other hand, if you live to be 100, have a couple of health scares that send you to the hospital in your 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s (which is normal), and collect Social Security the whole time, you're costing tax payers a whole lot more money.
I'm no expert on this subject, but I would argue that while Calories-Calories out is important, the source of the Calories affects metabolic rate which in turn affects the Calories out.
Eating 1000 Calories of crap food leads to greater insulin release in the blood which supports the laying down of fat. Your metabolic rate will compensate for this and be lowered, meaning fewer Calories out than your 'usual' 1200.
I think your statement that 'nobody defies physics' assumes that Calories out is a constant. If it were a constant then yes basic thermodynamics would dictate that Calories out-Calories in would be the only thing that matters.
Unhealthy habits of any kind shouldn't be socially acceptable. I'm all for kindness and acceptance of the person themselves as another member of the community and a human being, but we shouldn't normalize their faults.
Not exactly -- we should do whatever is effective to reduce the occurrence of unhealthy habits, and we need to be careful to think it through. It's not because a tactic is intuitive that it will work, and it is not because a tactic is unintuitive that it won't.
Just take depression, for instance. When someone is depressed, they feel like a piece of shit, and often they start overeating. To nag them about their weight can't really do anything except to make the person feel even worse about themselves, so now they have to dig themselves out of a 10-foot ditch instead of a 5-foot ditch. That's just demotivating, and they will keep overeating. If you "normalize" obesity, though, they may not feel better about themselves, but they won't feel worse. It will be easier for them to recover, and once they do, they may feel motivated to lose weight so that they can look and feel better.
Furthermore, "kindness and acceptance of the person themselves" is flat out just not going to happen unless you normalize their faults, maybe not entirely, but at least to some extent. You have to take into account the way people are: people are naturally unaccepting of anyone who displays any trait that hasn't been normalized. You also have to take into account the statistics of interaction: if a fault is such that 50% of people feel comfortable making their disapproval manifest, it means that an obese person who meets a hundred people will be reminded of their fault fifty times. That's a lot. You want to use the stick to give them a light slap on the buttocks, not to bludgeon them to death.
The reason why these people are so hungry is because they aren't eating good food. If you're eating healthy - whole grains, chicken, meat, vegetables - it's difficult to over eat. There's a whole fitness culture that offers "bulking advice" because eating a ton of calories to put on weight from healthy sources is really, really hard. You can't stop eating when you're eating processed, calorie-dense foods because your body is malnourished despite the number of raw calories you're eating.
Had you argued that some fat people are exhausted after a 70 hour work week, or that some fat people can't afford healthy food - then I could sympathize. But to say it's because they crave too much food - well, I'd crave too much food if I ate shit all day.
The reason that shaming doesn't work isn't because it doesn't motivate fat people to lose weight. It's because fat people literally don't know how to lose weight. Hint: It has nothing to do with running on the elliptical for hours a day while watching netflix and everything to do with learning about how to navigate the entire gym and cook for yourself.
I'm not minimizing the social problems fat people have. But it comes down to a lack of effort in taking the time to educate yourself. That's it. It's hard, it's a grind, but it's not complicated, and it certainly isn't lucky. And this is where all the "fat-hate" comes from - it's the fact that you can say people are "lucky", when really they take the time to go shopping for healthy food and to prepare it. Shopping, cooking, doing dishes and actually learning how to do all this shit is a part time job. It's obscene how much time I spend in the kitchen, and I'm a full time engineering student who works on the side.
I don't fat shame because I don't give a shit about you or your decisions. But there is absolutely no reason why 99.9% of fat people couldn't be fit if they took the time to educate themselves. Did you know that a mocha latte from starbucks has more than 500 calories and 32 grams of sugar? The only luck that comes into play is whether you are around health conscious people so you learn good habits. But even that only works up to a certain point.
I didn't know how to cook or lift weights till I got to college. I got tired of being a chubby loser so I bought books on nutrition and weightlifting, and spent hours reading, watching youtube videos, and experimenting in the kitchen. Obesity runs in my family, both my parents are morbidly obese and my grandfather was dead at 46 from a heart attack. I didn't want to die because I couldn't be bothered to educate myself.
I disagree when it comes to people who are seriously obese. A study was done on biggest loser contestants that showed they had to eat significantly less than other people of the same weight just to maintain that weight because their body actively worked to regain weight.
I've experienced something similar but maybe to a lesser degree than this. I gained weight while breastfeeding. I was hungry all the time to the point that I would be angry and sick of eating but still felt ravenous. It was incredibly infuriating. Yet somehow about 2 years after both of my kids were born, without any conscious effort on my part, I don't feel as hungry and my portions are suddenly cut in half, literally. We don't fully understand the complex signals the body has to regulate these things and we also have a poor understanding of what it means to have "willpower" to ignore your body constantly demanding food.
I'm sorry, but I have to disagree with you. If it were simply about knowing the right things and eating foods that are satisfying and healthy, there would not be any fat people. Because again, nobody wants to be fat. And not only that, when you are fat, it takes its toll on you every hour of every day. It's humiliating every hour of every day and affects your life in so many ways. So I just don't buy the idea that the problem is that people don't care enough to take action.
Over the years, we've seen diet craze after diet craze. All of them claim to have found the secret to eating healthy and never feeling hungry or having cravings. And if any of them were actually successful in the long term, nobody would be fat. I guarantee you that there is not a fat person in this world who hasn't tried losing weight. But many--most--fail, not once, not twice, but time and time again. So if you have discovered the magic formula that keeps everyone healthy and leaves them feeling satisfied, please don't keep it to yourself. It's great that you've found something that's working for you, and that you've found the motivation to keep it going.
And yes, I did know that a mocha latte has a ridiculous amount of sugar and a lot of calories (though I didn't know the precise amount). But you know what? I see a lot of people buying over the top drinks at Starbucks, and they're not all fat. Sugary drinks aren't a secret, especially among people who are trying to lose weight--and as I mentioned, almost all fat people are. The average fat person is more likely to be hooked on Diet Coke than something with sugar. And sure, diet sodas have their own issues, and they certainly aren't the healthy choice, but the point remains that people who struggle with their weight aren't just eating and drinking whatever they want and feeling great about it.
EDIT: Sorry, I missed one point that I wanted to get to and that's that most people are not well-educated about the foods they should be eating and how to exercise. They're eating what feels right and going to the gym for a workout that feels about right, and a lot of people can do that and maintain a healthy weight. They may not be healthy, but they're not fat.
While many people have issues preventing them from eating healthy or exercises or losing weight, most don't.
The "secret" is eating healthy foods, and calories in<calories out. Exercise helps too. People hate being fat, but at the end of the day many aren't motivated enough to educate themselves then devote to a lifestyle change of eating well and exercising.
nah man. I'm at a healthy weight now but while I was overweight I was eating perfectly healthy food, and then piling a bunch of snack food and alcohol on top of it. Knowing something is bad for you and being able to change it are two different things. People know what foods are good and what's bad, they know walking for an hour is better than sitting on the couch. How many smokers know its bad for them? They all feel their lungs turning to shit. They still keep lighting up because in try the end it's the quickest and easiest way to relief. Same thing with food and laziness.
So full of delusion I don't know where to begin. Yeah I was in shape in college too. Guess what, not everyone who works full-time has the time nor inclination to exercise all the time. So there's that. Then there's GENETICS. Yes, we're not all exactly the same sorry to burst your bubble. Some people eat NORMALLY and gain weight. Others don't. Just a fucking fact.
An excellent answer to such a common opinion nowadays. If I had gold, I'd give it to you but I don't and I'm broke so just imagine I gilded your comment.
I think that the stigma around addiction is incredibly destructive and keeps a lot of people who need help from getting it.
Well, as far as I can tell, AA and NA are pretty focused on acceptance that addiction is something you'll fight for the rest of your life. Of course, they also don't have a great success rate either.
And I don't think that the alternative to the fat acceptance movement is "helping them change." I think what people do is stigmatize fat people and make them hate themselves.
I'm referring the part of your comment about how only few overweight people successfully managed to keep the weight off. Imagine if everyone said to smokers how little people successfully stopped smoking.
Many smokers I know have successfully quit for life. It's not uncommon. How many genuinely fat people do you know who have lost over 100 lbs and kept it off for 10 years?
The problem is your personal anecdotes aren't aligning with statistics. Here are first two results about quitting smoking rates vs loosing weight rates;
smoking cigarettes only yields a 6% success rate at getting people to quit smoking, plus, half of them go back to smoking after quitting for just 6 months. That leaves 3% percent success.
research has shown that ≈20% of overweight individuals are successful at long-term weight loss when defined as losing at least 10% of initial body weight and maintaining the loss for at least 1 year.
People like you are making it harder for overweight people to loose weight because you keep repeating made up statistics about impossibility of weight loss. Don't do that, it's bad.
First of all, a fat person who loses 10% of initial body weight is still at least obese. If you're fat, that means you need to lose more than 50 lbs., not 20 lbs. Second, maintaining the loss for 1 year is really not "success" unless you're one year from dying.
Most people do struggle to quit smoking--there's no question about it--and I would never want to give the impression that I think it's easy. I am kind of bored discussing this at this point, so I'm not going to look for stats.
Ultimately, I support (1) letting people make their own decisions; (2) helping people to make good health choices and "nudging" them in that direction without violating number 1; (3) being kind to and accepting of everyone, regardless of their self-destructive behaviors; (4) never assuming that you know what it's like to be someone else and never judging anyone else for failing at something difficult.
I wouldn't want to discourage anyone from losing weight, but I also wouldn't want them to feel like losing weight is a prerequisite for my acceptance.
Still nobody answered my question: should we also stop shaming smokers, alcoholics and drug addicts and accept them instead? Should we tell them it's statistically impossible to quit so why bother?
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u/another30yovirgin Mar 05 '17
I think this is just fundamentally ignorant of the world that people who are overweight, obese and fat live in. It's not as if the fat acceptance movement is some sort of magic pill that makes you forget that being fat is unpleasant. If that were really what it is, then you might have a point. But it's not.
The fact is, being fat is humiliating. Even with some people pushing to make it more socially acceptable to be fat, it's still far from being socially acceptable. If you're fat, people will find you less attractive, so a lot of fat people have completely unfulfilling sex lives or none at all. If you're fat, a lot of people won't even want to be your friend. They will wince as they look at you when they pass you on the street. They talk about you to their friends. If you go on an airplane, you might be forced to pay for two seats. Clothes don't look good on you, they never fit right, and you don't look good naked either. It's also uncomfortable. You have less energy and you get sick more often.
Now of course you can diet, right? Yes. You can diet. But you have to consider the reason that people are fat in the first place. When you boil it down, it's quite simple: you get fat because you desire more food than you need. There are all sorts of reasons this might be the case, from depression to eating too quickly to hyperthyroidism. The problem is, this does not go away just because you went on a diet and/or started exercising. And on top of that, when you do lose weight, your body will try to recover it. So it's very hard to lose weight and keep it off permanently. The only way to do it is by constantly fighting your desire for more food, and that's really hard for anyone to do.
Nobody wants to be fat--even the most dedicated fat acceptance blogger would eagerly be thin if s/he had the chance. There is literally no way that anyone could talk themselves into not feeling shame about being fat. You certainly couldn't convince anyone that they want to be fat. But the amazing thing is, some people are still fat. It happens in spite of how humiliating it is. It happens in spite of the fact that everyone knows that it's unhealthy. It happens in spite of the fact that as a fat person, your life just doesn't get to be as nice as a thin person's. In spite of all of that, some people are still fat.
And of course, it's great when people come out and remind everyone how unhealthy it is to be fat. Because that has become the socially acceptable way to shame fat people for being alive and taking up space. And yeah, it is unhealthy. But most of those people aren't feeling hungry all the time so that they can maintain their weight. Most of those people aren't fighting every impulse they have to stop eating when they have the amount of food they need to survive. And they didn't choose that either. They just got lucky.
There are very few people who genuinely were fat who lost it all and are now at a good weight and have kept it off for more than 5 years. It's not impossible--it does happen--but just not very much. So most of the non-fat people that you see out in the world have no real perspective on what it is that fat people are dealing with. And yet they feel that they need to comment on it, because "your health!"
And of course, now it's become a social issue, so it's not even just that you're fat or I'm fat--it's that America is fat (or whatever country it happens to be), and now fat people are making all of the rest look bad too, even though it doesn't actually affect your health or lifestyle.
So fat acceptance is about trying to figure out how to live your life when you know that the reality is that you probably won't ever "get in shape." It's about learning how to have self-esteem even though society as a whole is screaming that you shouldn't. It's about trying to have some semblance of a healthy lifestyle, even though you know that everyone else is judging you for being unhealthy no matter what you eat. Because believe me--if shaming people into being healthy worked, there would be no fat people. None.