Being proud of being fat

[General Ludd]

Why the self loathing, PA?

[Lawrence of Arabia]

nah not really, but on days when i dont do sports, i consume around 3000 calories, and on days when i have practice, i consume over 4000 calories. tournament days, i have even more.

im 1.78m (5ft 10.5") and weigh 160 lbs (72 Kg)

[Whaleboy]

So a fat person, who likes the way s/he is, is in the wrong? Do explain?

[Asher]

Just another one of PA's closet insecurities unveiled...

[Az]

I, too, think that being proud of being fat is silly. Being overweight is bad for your health, and not appealing aesthetically.

[Verto]

I don't understand why anyone would be proud of being fat? Is anyone proud that they have cancer?

[Dis]

I think it's okay to feel good about yourself.

It is wrong to insist these people must feel bad, just because they happen to be fat. Being happy is more important than being thin. Even if they are deluding themselves, they will probalby recieve good health benefits from being happy (research has proven happiness can increase good health)

But what I disagree with is people who insist us thin people should also believe being fat is okay.

[Last Conformist]

Originally posted by Japher
Why is more stupid to be proud of something that you can avoid than something you can't than?

Fat Pride vs. Black Pride

I would think ppl should sooner be proud of something that can be acheived or gained instead of something that is unavoidable.

You'd think wrong. Fat pride and black pride are equally stupid.

[ixnay]

http://www.cnn.com/2004/HEALTH/diet.fitness/08/02/fat.activism.ap/index.html

NEW YORK (AP) -- Unashamed of their size, fed up with fat jokes, and angry at the national obsession with dieting, overweight activists are mounting a feisty protest movement against what it calls the medical establishment's campaign against obesity.

"We're living in the middle of a witch hunt and fat people are the witches," said Marilyn Wann of San Francisco, a militant member of the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance. "It's gotten markedly worse in the last few years because of the propaganda that fatness, a natural human characteristic, is somehow a form of disease."

The association, known as NAAFA, holds its annual convention starting Wednesday in Newark, New Jersey, bringing together activists for social events and workshops on self-acceptance, political advocacy and the "fat liberation" movement.

"I hope we can be a viable force of sanity in the midst of hysteria," said NAAFA spokeswoman Mary Ray Worley of Madison, Wisconsin. "I've found allies in all kinds of unexpected places, but overall there's a lot of animosity. Some people act like obesity is the next worst thing after terrorism."

The convention comes as the movement is scrambling to counter federal government pronouncements that obesity is a "critical public health problem" costing more than $100 billion and 300,000 lives per year.

Jeannie Moloo, an American Dietetic Association spokeswoman who counsels overweight clients at her nutrition practice in Sacramento, California, empathizes with the activists' fight against bias, but says they should be wary of oversimplifying obesity-related health issues.

"Some people can be overweight all their lives and not end up with diabetes or heart disease or hypertension," Moloo said. "But the majority are probably going to develop one of these life-altering conditions."

Fat-acceptance groups were dismayed when federal officials announced last month that Medicare was discarding its declaration that obesity isn't a disease. The policy change will likely prompt overweight Americans covered by Medicare to file medical claims for treatments such as stomach surgery and diet programs.

"Obesity is not a disease," insisted Allen Steadham, director of the Austin, Texas-based International Size Acceptance Association. "All this does is open the door for the diet and bariatric surgery industries to make a potentially tremendous profit."

Most fat-acceptance activists endorse the concept of eating healthy food and exercising regularly, but they oppose any fixation on losing weight and contend that more than 95 percent of diets fail. They also decry the rapid growth of stomach-shrinking surgery; the number of such procedures has quadrupled to 100,000 annually since 1998.

Wann depicts bariatric surgery as "stomach amputation" that imposes anorexia on patients and exposes them to long-term risks. Kelly Bliss, a self-described "full-figured fitness instructor" from Lansdowne, Pennsylvania, predicts that future generations will disapprovingly look back on stomach surgery as "comparable to lobotomies."

Bliss, who coaches clients by phone and in fitness classes, subscribes to a philosophy called "health at every size" -- preaching that health, fitness and self-esteem can be achieved independent of weight.

"There's a war on obese people, and I'm treating the casualties - people whose hearts are being ripped out," Bliss said.

NAAFA and others have tried to combat what they see as rampant discrimination against fat people, but progress has been sporadic. Southwest Airlines, for example, resisted protests targeting its policy of requiring large passengers to purchase a second ticket if they can't fit in a single seat.

"People want to fight for their rights, but there's a lot of shame involved," Steadham said. "It takes a whole lot of determination to stick through it to the end."

A few cities, including San Francisco, explicitly outlaw weight discrimination. Michigan is the only state to do so, but its Civil Rights Department said only five of 1,696 job discrimination complaints filed in 2003 involved weight.

Walter Lindstrom, a San Diego attorney specializing in weight-discrimination cases, said overweight plaintiffs usually must prove that acts of bias against them are covered by federal laws prohibiting discrimination against disabled people.

"These cases are more difficult from a proof standpoint, and also because you're dealing with a very unpopular class of clients," Lindstrom said. "Juries are generally disgusted with your average size-related plaintiff. You have to get past that, and have them see the plaintiff as someone with a true medical problem."

Many fat-acceptance activists were heartened by this year's publication of "The Obesity Myth" by University of Colorado law professor Paul Campos, who contends that diet promoters, drug companies and weight-loss surgeons have whipped up an irrational panic over weight.

Campos shares many of the activists' views but says their effectiveness has been limited.

"The movement has found itself marginalized by drawing its membership and leadership from the far extreme of obesity," he said. "It will be more successful if it can attract the two-thirds of Americans who are being told by the government that they weigh too much -- the I-want-to-lose-20-pounds crowd who are starting to feel a certain amount of resentment from the constant haranguing they're getting."

I can't decide what's worse, these idiots who think that being fat is something to be proud of, or all the goddamn Atkins crap everywhere.

[Dis]

they aren't proud of being fat, they are proud of being themselves.

What's wrong with these people being happy?

would you rather they are ashamed of themselves and don't want to go out in public?

The only thing I have a problem with, is when they wear revealing swimsuits . There should be a law against that. But I'm all for these people deluding themselves if it makes them happy.

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

[Last Conformist]

Nah. They should be set on starvation diets till they're back to normal weight.

Weight discrimination
Forced labour camps

[KrazyHorse]

Why shouldn't I make somebody feel bad for being fat? I make them feel bad for smoking...

[Az]

The most annoying thing is when cases like these use legitimate struggles to use their cause. There is nothing wrong about being gay/"coloured"/etc. There certainly is something wrong about being overweight.

Now, I am not saying that people should constantly laugh at overweight people. I just think that these people must recognize that they have a problem, a problem that they can solve.

[Dis]

there is nothing wrong with being overweight.

you can still be overweight and not get diabetes, heart disease, or hypertension as the article states.

Some people eat healthy, excersize everyday, and are still overweight.

Being fit is more important than being thin. And you can be fit and fat at the same time.

[Az]

And you can be fit and fat at the same time.

Oh, I would love to see proof of that.