Fat Is Not the Problem – Fat Stigma Is

I was once obese, but I lost 100+ pounds and have been a normal weight for many years. I believe that the first step towards overcoming obesity is personally accepting that being fat is a problem that you are not willing to accept. The solution is ultimately having discipline. To this day, I still step on the scale every single night in order to be aware of my weight and whether the number is drifting upwards. I'm nominally 200lbs at night and 198lbs in the morning. If the scales says 201, it's not a big deal. However, if it says 202, I know I'm doing something wrong and I address it the next day. I take it very seriously.

I have obese family members who refuse to change their lifestyle. When I talk to them about it, they accuse me of "having an unhealthy relationship with food" and they make excuses that sound exactly like this article. This "fatness apologist" mindset is totally BS. I'm not saying that fatness itself is always the issue and that it cannot be a symptom of another problem. However, I do think that fat people would be better off if they took their weight seriously. Don't make excuses and rationalize it like this article does.

Trying to dig through the blatant and endless moralizing, this is the entirety of the scientific argument:

> Even a quick glance at the weight research shows that, despite decades of trying, there is no evidence that efforts to prevent or reverse “obesity” are successful. In fact, there’s much evidence to suggest that the prescription for weight loss is more likely to result in physical harm and weight gain. The data also refute other longstanding, widespread—and incorrect—notions about health and weight. Like the “fact” that fat is a primary driver in metabolic disease. Or that weight loss prolongs life or improves health. None of this is true. Dogma, myths, and prejudices about fatness have trumped actual evidence in our view of weight and health.

> It is true that many diseases are more commonly found in heavier people. However, that doesn’t mean that weight itself causes disease. Blaming fatness for heart disease is similar to blaming yellow teeth for lung cancer, rather than considering that smoking might play a role in both. And telling people they need to lose weight is a lot like telling someone with a cold to stop sneezing so much—it may not be possible and won’t make the cold go away.

>Focusing on weight—or health behaviors—puts the burden on the individual, deflecting attention from the more pernicious problem: systemic injustice.

Basically, correlation does not equal causation. Also, you are a bigot.

My 2 cents as someone who struggles with being overweight: these guys can take their self-righteous patronizing and shove it. I don't want to be overweight. It's been a huge failure of society to find a scalable solution for obesity. And worse than doing absolutely nothing, or even denying the problem exists, people are trying to attack anyone for admitting there's even a problem.

Ew. This is coming mainstream. I have recently noticed young "american-style" super-fat women, which were quite uncommon in Finland and only associated with some actual physical disorder. Looks to me even that they do this willingly, to be part of the western feminist "body-positive" movement. Could be wrong, could be right, but "ew" anyways.

I fast once a week, and eat once a day. Everyone is over-eating too many calories. We're not in the wilderness in a tribe of 150 people anymore, there is literally a problem of too much food. Imagine gas becomes so cheap, people keep going to the gas station and fill their cars and homes with barrels of gasoline, and then everyone's car is breaking because of all the weight you carry around because gas used to be expensive. I believe in people, they can figure something out. No need to be skinny, but at least the bar should be at being able to walk and do light exercise comfortably.

Shaming people of any kind is counter productive. On some weird level they are correct however, fat is not the problem. Fat is often the symptom of a fatty liver and pancreas and is absolutely a serious life threatening problem that cost people and their government a lot of money and lowers the quality of life. There are hundreds of downstream chronic illness that come from a fatty liver and pancreas, too many to name here. I have been monitoring the governments of the world this last couple of years hoping they might use the pandemic to help solve some of the root underlying causes of bad health. I have not seen any improvements as of yet. No improvements from the FDA around food quality and chemicals. No evolution of the medical industry allowing the adoption of better science and technology. Only temporary improvements in air quality in some areas, but only as a side effect of the lockdown. Air quality overall has not improved.

Scientific American as of late have been posting click-bait articles that attempt to invoke an emotional response and start fights, political and social commentary disguised as science. It is unprofessional and opposed to the scientific community. What happened to them? Did I just shame them?

Is this an april fool's joke? Being fat is obviously worse for health outcomes.

Fat shaming and discrimination are objectively bad. But they aren't a product of a society that has failed us. They're a product of our innate animal inclinations to favor the strongest and fittest. As long as we are a resource and food-rich society, nothing is going to change that.

Edit: On second thought, society has utterly failed us. We've curated a diet of processed foods full fats, sugars, and poisons that stack the cards against anyone who is not genetically or socioeconomically favored. They compare trying to stop obesity to getting rid of yellow teeth to rid yourself of lung cancer. Trying to get people to stop fat shaming while ignoring our diets is exactly that.

Such a harmful message, in fact an ethically loaded and racist message.

I know Italians who do OK but get shuttled into certain kinds of jobs, but never a newspaper writer or professor. They might own a hair salon or have a union job in constructions or something.

They struggle with obesity and diabetes, heart bypass is just a rite of passage.

In the meantime children who grow up with parents who work in media tend to get Anorexia Nervosa. This is a real case of people's minds being colonized.

People from certain populations experience personal destruction from the Standard American Diet and denying that is like denying global warming or denying the holocaust while it was still going on.

As an obese person, as far as I'm concerned they can go advocate for someone else.