Tag: fatphobia

I couldn’t help but think again that some problems might have been at least partially headed off if anyone had pointed some things out to me growing up.

Including that there are actual reasons some people will not fit into single digit clothing sizes, beyond the ever-popular “lack of sufficient determination” đŸ˜” No matter how hard a person might try, things like ribcages and shoulders are pretty hard size limits.

(Even proceeding off the assumption that the base expectations are reasonable, which of course they are not. At all.)

What’s even more disturbing, though, is the number of otherwise mostly rational adults who do not seem to understand this–or want to. Including my mother with her own body issues, the best I can figure, but that’s a story of its own.

My mom is trying to talk me into getting weight loss surgery. Her reasons are that losing weight would be good for my joints, back, and body pain in general (i have arthritis and fibromyalgia) and that people would treat me better. I feel bad man and i dont know what to do

bigfatscience:

bigfatscience:

bigfatscience:

bigfatscience:

bigfatscience:

Oh my dear, sweet Anon. The price that your mom is asking you to pay for social acceptance is far far too high.

And even this terrible list of known harms is incomplete. Almost no studies follow patients for more than one year post-surgery, and the few long term studies that do exist only manage to report data for about 25% of their initial sample – and this includes the research purporting to show benefits of the surgery.

This is a dangerous experimental surgery, and it is criminal how many fat people are pressured into undergoing the surgery without giving true informed consent. Because they simply cannot give consent: The full, long-term health consequences of amputating a large part of an essential organ required for survival are simply unknown at this time.

And the lap band procedure are just as bad.

Between 40% and 60% of people who have the procedure experience major complications, including esophagitis, obstruction due to slippage / pouch dilatation, incisional hernia, and band erosion – the latter occurring when the band erodes the stomach wall, a condition that may never fully heal.

Most people who have the surgery require follow-up surgeries to correct complications, and over 50% of people eventually have to have the band removed due to complications. The other 50% don’t even experience the expected degree of weight loss.

After 10 years, fully 40% of outcomes would be classifies as just “fair,” and another 50% would be classified as a complete “failure,” leading researchers to conclude that this procedure “should no longer be considered as the procedure of choice for obesity.”

[source] [source]

I have fixed the broken links in this post!

Some more findings from a recent large-scale, longitudinal study of Norwegians who either underwent  bariatric surgery or specialized medical treatment for “obesity.”

At six years post follow-up, surgery patients were less likely than the control group to take medication for diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol (though it is interesting to note that remission from diabetes was short lived for many patients; as in other studies, rates of remission decreased steadily over time).

However, compared to the control group, surgery patients also experienced higher rates of the following serious health conditions:

  • 1.5 times the risk of new onset depression
  • 1.3 times the risk of new onset anxiety and sleep disturbance
  • 1.3 times the risk of new onset opiod use
  • 1.9 times the risk of abdominal pain
  • 3.4 times the risk of gastroduodenal ulcers
  • 2.4 times the risk of iron deficiency anemia
  • 4.1 times the risk of hypoglycemia

The also experienced higher rates of the following surgical procedures:

  • 10.5 times the risk of operation for intestinal obstruction
  • 12.9 times the risk of operation for abdominal pain
  • 3.4 times the risk of operation for gallbladder
  • 2.1 times the risk of operation for incisional hernia

For the Anon who needed science to convince their family to stop pressuring them into getting this dangerous, experimental surgery. 

You can also say this to your rude and controlling family: “Back off. This is my body and I decide how to take care of it. Do not mention this surgery to me ever again. If you cannot respect this boundary, I cannot be around you.” Then follow through and walk away/hang up/leave the area if they ever mention it again.”

Not only is diet talk harmful and stigmatizing- it is incredibly boring.

gayharoldfinch:

biddybiddy2:

coffeecakeanddonuts:

ok2befat:

Stop talking about your diet- you are boring everyone around you.

Seriously! RL friends, I love you, but I DO NOT FUCKING CARE ABOUT YOUR NEWEST DIET!

I liked you better before, when you were fat and didn’t care and didn’t have any stupid diets to yak on and on about!

Don’t talk about diets! Share recipes and bring samples.

Don’t talk diets. Talk about fun positive things you can do instead of dieting.

Dont talk diets. Talk about a potluck of favorite dishes.

Don’t talk diets. Talk about fun food adventures you can go on around town. (Hell, plan a trip all around awesome food unique to a location)

Don’t talk diets. Diets are boring, don’t work and are no fun.

This post is not brought to you by Kink. This post brought to you by good ideas everyone can enjoy.

man i’ve been on so many diets for my digestive issues and food intolerances and when people find out the boredom and disinterest is palpable. all i get from them is pity and contempt. so why is it when someone’s on a diet for weight loss they think he whole world wants to know and no one tells them any different?

Okay, I’m borderline plus size, because I’m really petite/short and I’m getting more and more in love with my body because of body positivity and fat positivity! I think it’s totally great. I got a gym membership mostly because I want to exercise for the health benefits (ie, better heart function, sleeping better, stronger muscles etc.) I’m not trying to lose weight but if I do and I’m happy abt it is that internalized fatphobia? (Sorry if this is dumb I just don’t really know much about this)

bigfatscience:

bigfatscience:

ok2befat:

TW for a discussion of weight loss–

This is a kind of a difficult question to answer, b/c what I suspect you are sort of going for is– am I a bad person b/c I want to lose weight? And no. You aren’t. Like, the world makes it super clear that our lives would be easier if we were smaller. And it is exhausting to fight a stigma all the time.

But you didn’t exactly ask that question. You asked, is it internalized fatphobia to want to lose weight. And I think the answer to that question is yes. 

Because when we say we want to lose weight, when the entire world pressures everyone to lose lose lose and be as small and hungry and obsessed as possible– what we are all doing together as a culture is saying that thin is good and fat is bad. That it’s better to do literally anything and suffer any misery than to be fat. And that cultural attitude is fatphobia.

When we know we would have an easier life if we were thinner, we aren’t wrong or confused about that. We would have easier lives if we were thinner. That’s just true. But most people are wrong about why our lives would be easier.

It’s not that being smaller is inherently easier or better. It is that society brings unbearable pressure to bear on fat people and the smaller you get, the more the pressure is eased off. 

But that is a choice we have made together as a culture, not a natural law about body size. 150 years ago, it was not this way. 

It’s not surprising that you would feel relief and happiness at weight loss. Some of the pressure in your life would ease up. People would praise and admire you. It is natural to want those things. You are a human being. It doesn’t make you a bad person.

But the reason you would be praised, why you would be happier and have less pressure on you– is because some other people are being subjected to more pressure, criticism and pain than people should have to bear. For no reason. 

And that is something to keep in mind. 

The reality is that all of us have internalized fat phobia. That is simply how hierarchical societies like ours operate: We expose people to the stereotypes and prejudices that define social hierarchies young and often, and those stereotypes and prejudices become internalized to form scripts that we use to make sense of the world. They also become internalized to form parts of our self-concept. 

This is very basic psychology, it is how the self is born, And it also happens to be one of the most potent tools of oppression that exists. Because if a population can be taught from a young age that oppressive social hierarchies are right and normal and good, and even essential to our very sense of self, then we will conform and uphold those social hierarchies. Even when it hurts other people. Even when it hurts us. 

Recognizing the oppressive beliefs that were spoon fed to us as children, and then working to carefully untangle them from our core sense of self, is the most important anti-oppressive work you will ever do. 

For the Anon in my inbox complaining that body positive spaces do not celebrate people who pursue weight loss “for personal reasons”.

Everyone Loves This Buff Cat

kaijutegu:

justnoodlefishthings:

buzzfeed:

weirdbuzzfeed:

Dr. Dan Smith, a veterinarian in New York, told BuzzFeed News he’s not sure if Buff Cat suffers from a genetic muscle condition, but said, “that boy is an absolute unit.”

“There is a genetic mutation that’s found mostly in some cow breeds that is called double-muscling (look up some pictures, they look fucking swole!) and I’ve heard of rare cases of it in some dog breeds like Rottweilers and Greyhounds, but never in a cat. This might be the first,” he added.

“that boy is an absolute unit.” — a literal veterinarian

here’s a wild thought but maybe the cat is just obese

I dunno, the top-down shows a pretty distinct waist, and the neck definition is pretty good- it’s kinda hard to tell with the fur in the way, but I really am reminded of the double-muscled whippet.

Especially how small the head is in comparison to the rest of the body. It’s a pretty simple mutation that’s risen independently across a few mammal species- it could probably do so in cats, too.

Everyone Loves This Buff Cat

Sleeping is for thin people

thisisthinprivilege:

thisisthinprivilege:

I’m a wreck on a daily basis. I am always tired, exhausted, no energy. I fall asleep at my desk at work. It’s the worst. The cause? Sleep apnea. My wife constantly notices me not breathing, gasping for breath and snoring. Classic, right?

So I go see my doctor, I even get a reference for a sleep study.

The result, though? Yeah, you stopped a couple times but you just need to lose weight (180cm, 130kg) say the sleep people.
Repeats my own doctor.

Okay, so what? I just need to lose weight and then I’ll be fine? Even if I wanted to lose weight (and that’s a whole body image struggle on its own), until I do I just have to live with exhaustion? Because no other solutions are up for discussion. It’s lose weight, the end. Be exhausted until we deem you thin enough to consider other options.

Sleeping well is for thin people.

Sleep apnea and other sleep disturbances actually cause weight gain, btw.

rowantheexplorer:

greenekangaroo:

golbatgender:

jezi-belle:

sea-dilemma:

lolotehe:

serbianslayer:

mightbeunknown:

uacboo:

From Twitter.

is it weird that as i got through the tweet my understanding of it lessens?

If you had a recent ancestor who went through starvation it actually altered their genetics and may have passed down genes to you that make you hold on to fat. So this tweet is more accurate than you’d think.

More on that.

Seriously, my body is expecting the next ice age.

OH MY FUCKING GOD.

MY FUCKING GREAT GRANDFATHER LITERALLY FLED LEBANON DUE TO A FUCKING FAMINE AND MY GRANDMOTHER AND DAD AND I ARE ALL FAT AS FUCKING HELL.

FUCK ME RUNNING I DID NOT KNOW THIS.


That’s going to apply also to anyone whose recent ancestors voluntarily dieted a lot, isn’t it. Diet culture long-term causes more obesity. Sure, it takes decades to show up, but anything you’d hear today about childhood obesity would reflect that. Exercising is still very good for most people, but trying to lose weight shouldn’t be the goal for most people, because a) it usually doesn’t work very well or it comes back and b) your kids or grandkids could end up with extra wonky metabolisms. (And while fat itself is actually not that much of a problem if you keep your fitness up, it can be hard on your joints. That’s actually the biggest health risk if you’re “small end of fat,” under 40, and active–joint problems.)

THAT MOTHERFUCKING ARTIFICIAL FAMINE THAT’S IT I’M GONNA FIGHT THE ENGLISH 

Honestly, “I’m gonna fight the English” is a good reaction to a lot of things.

Source: uacboo

luckynicklausse:

captainsnoop:

i honestly dont know what i would do if healthcare was free here. i feel like i’d go to the hospital and they’d put me in the government funded sickness scanner and they’d be like “holy fuck dude, you got like, syndromes and shit. how are you even walking around right now” and i’d be like “i dunno, i didn’t wanna bother anybody about it” 

#then there are too many working for the #nhs#‘this isn’t america you know! we can’t treat every minor worry like a crisis!’#‘that’s not how things are done here! you don’t need an asthma inhaler what you really need is to lose large amounts of weight!’#and so on #wish i were exaggerating#probably different if they don’t want to discriminate #worst health in my life#and i had a tumor before

Re: clatterbane’s tag, ugh, I’m sorry to hear that. systematic fatphobia is dreadful and I feel like it’s not being treated like it even really
 exists? People seem to either want to deflect to America, like “we don’t have the same level of obesity crisis they have :)” or they want to support gross campaigns like the Cancer Research UK one this spring.
Sorry this reply isn’t particularly constructive, just offering solidarity really.

Re: someone else’s tag about ‘how do they just test you for generally Being Sick?’, my friend and her mom were in a car accident and they were treated at an NHS hospital, and my friend told me that the staff had to run a screening on them as routine and that’s how they found out her mom was diabetic.
to my limited knowledge, screenings are p general but can give indications of warning signs to follow up on although following up can take months if it’s non-urgent / or sometimes even in some urgent cases it can take too long but afaik staff try to ensure you get treated in time / they’re overloaded atm though

Tbf, both those examples which popped into mind were from the same terrible GP. (The first one I registered with, because that was the only surgery I could find accepting new patients for our catchment area. No wonder that guy had room for more patients…)

When my parents were visiting, they ended up staying longer than intended and had to see him for blood pressure medication refills. Just in that type of first appointment, he was blatantly racist enough dealing with my mother that she jumped down his throat. Which he was obviously not expecting, and it was more gratifying to watch than it should have been. He laid off me after that with the really overt stuff, but yeah. Any excuse to brush people off. Not a good situation in general.

Thankfully, that guy was a bit of an outlier. But, as serious a problem as systemic fatphobia is dealing with the US system? I really have run into more problems with it here, for whatever reason(s). Even when my BMI has been in the officially “acceptable” range. That’s a new one.

As with about anything, results are probably going to be much better if you’re not working against various types of largely unexamined bias. And if you’re more familiar with how a system actually works on the ground. Theoretically universal coverage doesn’t necessarily mean that access to appropriate treatment is truly equal, unfortunately. There’s always room for improvement.

(Probably preaching to the choir here, but it’s still worth saying.)