Fat (Body) Shaming - Your thoughts?

[FrozenBacon]

Fat shaming is stupid and is a projection of one's own insecurities.

 

[Master_Craig]

Here is an interesting question I ask my friends and it is not meant to fat shame or anything of ill will.

What would be the weight for you to get to that would make you say "enough is enough, I will exercise a little and start changing my diet"?
(still keeping in mind that weight loss is hard)

Very good question!

For me, I started to lose weight when I hit the scales of 130 kg (286 Ibs). The funny thing was that when I started to lose weight, I didn't exactly want to lose weight... well, yeah I did, but my intention at the time wasn't to lose weight, it was to learn self defense. I lost 6 kg (13 Ibs) in my first two weeks of starting judo back in 2009, and I had never lost weight before. Since I had never lost weight before, this is what drove me to continue losing weight. I lost 34 kg (74 Ibs) in nine months. Now my weight floats between 98 - 103 kg (216 - 227 Ibs).

As for losing weight in the past? Mate, I was scared to step on scales, because I didn't want to face the truth. In all honesty though, I didn't need scales to tell me I was overweight, I had other things (apart from people) that would tell me I'm overweight. My reflection. The size of my clothes. How I looked without a shirt on. Getting sweaty so easily all the time. Rarely eating healthy foods (and being criticized and judged for disliking healthy foods). Getting tired and out of breath so easily. Shit man, I remember I always used to take the elevator just because I was afraid of my friends seeing me out of breath if I had to take the stairs somewhere.

I wanted to lose weight. I really did. I tried as well, except all the methods I tried were foolish, "quick and easy" methods delivered to us by the media - websites, advertisements, magazines etc. "Use this particular machine five minutes a day to get ripped abs!" and shit like that. Unfortunately when it comes to healthily losing weight, there is no such thing as "quick and easy", that's a lie. I also tried doing weight loss to the "extreme", e.g. "I'm going to go on a diet and eat rabbit food", but it didn't work. I failed. I felt like a failure. I gave up and I felt "someone like me doesn't deserve to be thin".

Losing weight and getting healthy is hard. It's hard because it takes time, patience and dedication. If you have control over these three things, then losing weight is not hard, but starting to lose weight is very difficult. As I say with a lot of things, the first step is always the hardest and when it comes to losing weight, it's absolutely true.

Like I said before, body shaming (or fat shaming) is not the answer. To me, fat shaming makes people feel like they're helping with "tough love" but really, it's not, and I know from personal experience that being put to shame because of my body did not help me at all. It just made me sad, depressed and it made me feel like I was worthless. It honestly made me feel like a piece of shit.

I believe the answers lie in education, promotion and support. I may sound hypocritical here, but I believe we should try and be comfortable and confident with our bodies. In saying that, I also believe that this should not be an excuse to lead an unhealthy lifestyle. I believe that we should do our best to achieve a healthy lifestyle, again not to try and look good or whatever, but so we can live long, fulfilling lives for ourselves and with our friends and families. To be "healthy" does not mean you have to be an elite athlete or a sports model, it just means eating a mostly healthy diet and doing some sort of regular physical exercise throughout the week.

In my opinion, team based sports is an excellent form of physical exercise. You not only exercise from playing and training/practicing but it can allow you the opportunity to make new friends, be a part of a community and develop goals for yourself in your chosen sport. This is one of the reasons I found success in my own weight loss.

I also believe for those who want to change their diet and exercise, that you can't do it hard straight away. I believe you need to ease yourself into it. If you decide you're going to change your diet by living off a small amount of food like salad and doing heaps of running on a treadmill, then unfortunately you're most likely setting yourself up for failure. I think this is why people give up (myself included as I mentioned earlier), because when they start, they try and do it to the extreme because they think that's what they need to do. This is where education can play an important part.

I'm just making an assumption here, but I think people who are overweight may want to lose their weight. Like it's been said, if we had the option to just... magically be lean and healthy, I'm sure we would all do it. I think people are afraid of losing weight because of the difficulties involved. They may have tried before and they may have failed and given up, so maybe they're afraid of failing again. Maybe they haven't tried yet but they've heard it's hard and they don't want to? People fear change, change is hard.

TV shows like The Biggest Loser don't help at all. Those shows are a pile of shit. They make out that they're helping the people on it but really, they're doing everything to the extreme and there's been a lot of reveals about how dodgy those kinda shows are, e.g. when they do their "weigh ins" and such. Those shows don't help.

Obesity is unfortunately an epidemic and people need help. Fat shaming however is not the answer. The answer lies in education, promotion and support.

 

[intoTheRain]

Here is an interesting question I ask my friends and it is not meant to fat shame or anything of ill will.

What would be the weight for you to get to that would make you say "enough is enough, I will exercise a little and start changing my diet"?
(still keeping in mind that weight loss is hard)



For me that weight would be 200 pounds. If the scale ever hit that point I would seriously do something. (I am 5' 11" and do not build muscle)
This number obviously goes higher and lower for other people and that is ok. This is just a poll and some people may even not have a number.

240 for me. Still at a reasonable bodyfat % around 220-230. If i ever stepped on the scale and it said 240 it'd be panic mode. I've always done the traditional "bulk and cut" method, but have learned over time it is completely pointless as a natural lifter, if not almost a hindrance to progress.

I'll admit I'm having troubles this time around getting back down to the bodyweight I want to be at, (200). But when I get there I am never "bulking" again. For the past 5 years it's simply been an excuse for me to eat in excess and end up overweight.


I'm near my natural limit (which isn't all that great), and would never juice for health reasons. So bulking serves no purpose at all.

 

[C_nate]

People are not being properly educated and that is the problem.

This I can agree with, but it is not the entire problem. That pic is a response to people who've had to endure probably years of shit being throw their way for being different. Making fun of fat people goes back way further than fat acceptance. And making fun of fat people was generally never frowned upon until recently.

And the thing is, I don't even agree with it, but if that is what some people need to have a little confidence in themselves, so what? Why even care? Everyone is always so caught up in telling everyone else how to live.

Do you honestly believe even for a moment that there is going to suddenly be this national acceptance of fatness as a healthy alternative lifestyle?

Fat acceptance isn't about extolling the virtues of how great it is to be fat. It's saying, Hey, don't treat me like I'm less of a person than you because I'm different. And like I said, the ones yelling the loudest about how great it is are the ones still working through their various issues with it. Telling them the equivalent of, "hey you're full of shit." isn't going to do much more than make them squeeze their eyes shut tighter and press their hands over their ears harder.

And what is to say that living the "healthy lifestyle" would even make them happy? Some people are overweight and perfectly content with their life. Making them conform to some regimen for the rest of their life just might make them miserable. Would you force them to do it anyway for the "greater good"? Just like some people think having lots of money will solve all their problems and then they find out the hard way that it sometimes makes their life even worse.

To me, the way to handle it is like they do with smoking. Inform people, warn them, and then let them make their own decisions.

Here is an interesting question I ask my friends and it is not meant to fat shame or anything of ill will.

What would be the weight for you to get to that would make you say "enough is enough, I will exercise a little and start changing my diet"?
(still keeping in mind that weight loss is hard)

To answer your question, that would be the weight I'm at now. As I've said, I've put on about 25 lbs after my dad died and it's time to get it under control.

 

[Master_Craig]

That's a great photo of you and your family, C_nate. Thank you for sharing that with us.

To me, the way to handle it is like they do with smoking. Inform people, warn them, and then let them make their own decisions.

Very wise words. I agree with this completely.

To answer your question, that would be the weight I'm at now. As I've said, I've put on about 25 lbs after my dad died and it's time to get it under control.

I was about 305 at the time and just losing this extra 25 and getting back down to that would be a good start. It's tough. I try to do things here and there, but I realize that until I learn how to eat more healthy on a regular basis I'm never going to see the results I want.

Sorry to hear about your father. That's terrible news. I'm also sorry to hear about your weight gain after your father's passing. When I was twenty two, one of my closest friends passed away and during that time, my grand mother was also about to pass. It was one of the worst times in my life and I did resort to unhealthy foods as a source of temporary comfort, which wasn't good for my health at the time.

I'm not a professional, but if you would like any advice on nutrition and exercise, I am happy to try and help. I'm sure there are others here in this community who would be happy to lend a hand and advice if need be.

 

[Sourdeez]

The HTC Vive could be good for weight loss.
http://cardsagainstobesity.com/fitness/ ... ight-loss/
(wtf are cards against obesity?)


I am actually interested in logging my weight before and after I start using the Vive. Not only will I be standing and moving more but I will be drinking less coke as it would require I take off the headset.
I wonder if motion sickness will keep people from playing for a super long period of time. I have the Dramamine ready anyways.