Fat-phobia… I never thought after a decade plus working in the health & fitness field that I would be writing about a concept in which people who are fat (overweight/obese) are calling other people “fat-phobic” when they tell them to lose weight or that being severly fat and overweight is… Unhealthy.
I saw a video online today where an absolutely clinically and severely obese person was saying how their doctor was a “fat-phobic” piece of sh*t for telling them they had to lose a significant amount of weight as well as take medication for their pre-diabetes and high blood pressure if they want to prevent serious health complications in the future.
Man I wish I saved that video so I could share it here now. It blew my mind. We live in a time when it has become very popular to disregard FACTS in order to validate our own or someone else’s FEELINGS.
Let me be blunt with you right now:
Being severely obese is not healthy… AT ALL. And it is… IN FACT… a cause of serious long term and debilitating chronic metabolic diseases. Your early death sentence from being severely obese does not care about your feelings at all.
Here is a list of all the complications that come with being obese:
-Cardiovascular diseases: Including high blood pressure, stroke, etc.
-Diabetes: usually type 2.
-Fatty liver disease.
-Osteoarthritis.
-Reproductive dysfunction.
-Mental health disorders: depression, anxiety, etc.
Now, does that sound good to you? NO.
And so now that you understand the serious health problems that come along with being obese for long periods of time, does that doctor seem like a “fat-phobia piece of shit” ? Or does he seem like a doctor who is trying to help a person get off the path of physical destruction and early death?
Obviously the doctor sounds like someone WHO CARES about the obese person. Because they want them to regain a baseline of physical health so they don’t have all these terrible chronic health problems and also try to extend their life.
But people like the person I saw in this video are convinced that people now have a “fat-phobia” and that you can be “healthy at every size”. You can thank the stupid “body-positive” movement for that stupid saying.
It’s funny because they call it the “body-positive” “movement”… But most of the people saying it barely do any movement at all! Also it’s funny because there is literally nothing “positive” about being obese. Actually, even if your feelings dont approve, factually… Being obese is NEGATIVE (see the list above).
It is true that if you are slightly overweight, meaning you carry a little extra fat on your body, maybe an extra 15-30 pounds… You are not necessarily unhealthy. It is normal actually for people to be perfectly healthy, even optimally healthy, while holding a little more body fat.
But that does not mean there is “health at every size”. Because once you get too fat (obese) you are unhealthy and will continue degrading your health every year of being obese.
And what’s scary in today’s society is that being overweight and obese is so normal now, that what we used to call obese is now just overweight. The reality is, is that most people who are overweight today would have been considered to be obese 30 years ago.
We should not be telling people it is ok to be fat and obese. We should not be telling people it is ok to be lazy and unhealthy. We should not be telling people they can “be healthy at every size”. We should not be coming up with new and meaningless buzz words like “fat-phobic” so people who are obese but want to justify their gluttony can have something to hide behind.
Instead we should be telling everyone the horrors that come with obesity and laziness. We should be associating “body-positivity” with health & exercise. We should be teaching our kids at a young age that being fit, exercising and eating healthy will help them feel and perform amazing in life. We should not be lowering our health standards to avoid hurting people’s feelings, instead we need to be blunt with people and tell them that what they are doing to themselves is killing them faster.
If you’re someone who is overweight/obese and you’re reading this. Don’t take this personal. I don’t judge you, I don’t care how you got to where you are now. What I truly care about is you becoming your healthiest and happiest self. And that comes from two things: 1) Someone (me) telling you straight up that being obese is not positive, it’s negative and 2) losing weight and regaining your physical health.
I have spent over 10 years helping overweight/obese people to lose weight. These are some of the favorite people in my life. Just because you’re overweight doesn’t mean you’re a bad person, or less of a person, or a useless person, or a harmful person. You’re just being harmful to yourself.
I promise you… No one is scared of you because you’re fat. No one has a “fat-phobia”. There is no such thing as “fat-phobia”. Well maybe there are a handful of people out there with a mental disorder who are truly scared of fat people, kind of like that one person scared of pickles (yes this is a real thing from the murray show).
And I promise you… Not one person who I have helped lose weight and get healthy once again, has ever said… “man, I wish I was obese again.”
Losing weight, regaining your physical health and detaching yourself from these crazy ideas will completely change your life for the better. You are probably an amazing person who knows deep down you would like to see yourself slimmer and happier. That vision is possible. You can make a change for the better. Take action on that vision and start the journey today!
Get strong and stay strong,
-Trainer Sam