For the past ten years I’ve been starving my body in order to maintain my body at a normal wight, but most of my lifetime I’ve been quite fat, so I know a lot about the experience of being fat.

Guessing why fat people are fat is a cultural favorite pastime.  Fat people have to deal with people guessing why they are fat.  We are told to “eat less and exercise more” by people who can’t possible know how much we eat or how much we exercise.  We’re told that no matter what we’re doing - our bodies make it completely obvious that we must not be doing it right.  We  are not doing enough cardio, we are doing too much cardio, resistance training is a must.  We need to cut down on this food or eat more of that food or use this or that new supplement etc.

People are a lot of different sizes for a lot for different reasons. After over 50 years of intense study there is not a single intervention that has been shown to lead to long term weight loss. There is no study that shows that such weight loss would lead to greater health.    

It’s bad enough when people use their limited time on Earth to make random guesses about why fat people are fat, but it’s worse when it comes to “well-meaning”, “concerned” people who think that such “information” constitutes some kind of evidence-based health intervention, and that “evidence based health interventions” are acceptable.

First, they need to take note of the fact that the way that you can identify an evidence-based health intervention is that it is based on evidence, and has something to do with health.  It is not based on somebody’s random guess about why people’s bodies are a certain size and how that size might be manipulated.

Then they need to Butt out.  Giving unsolicited comments or advice to fat people about their bodies is Ignorant, Unkind, and Rude!

So.... potential helpful persons, repeat after me:

"Not My Body, Not My Business"

Yes
to the following excerpt
from an article
by Shannon Kaiser of MindBodyGreen.

 

Instead of looking outside and trying to make things happen, I decided, “I’m over it!”
I'm done trying to be someone I'm not. Instead, I embrace myself as I am in this moment.

Here are 10 limiting things I am done with:

1. I’m done with hiding who I am because I'm afraid I won’t fit in.

2. I’m done with second-guessing myself and pretending I care about things I don’t.

3. I’m done with feeling jealous for friends who have what I want; instead, I celebrate their journey.

4. I'm done with thinking I'm not where I should be. I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be.

5. I'm done with feeling insecure. I have a body that's perfect for me at this time in my life.

6. I'm done with trying to prove anything to anyone. The only thing that matters is my relationship with myself. Approval starts with me.

7. I'm done with thinking things I love to eat, like ice cream (with dairy and sugar) are bad for me.

8. I'm done with thinking I need to be perfect to be successful. People will choose real over perfect any day of the week.

9. I'm done with thinking I'll be happy when I reach that next goal. My life is now. I embrace it fully.

10. I'm done with overthinking everything. Sometimes it just is what it is.