Fat links

[sarahmichigan]

I've been accumuting links about size acceptance and fat activism, and here are a few I particularly liked.

Casa Gordita contains a veritable treasure-trove of fat activism links. The page formatting is annoying, but the info is good:

http://www.casagordita.com/fatacc.htm

The website "such a pretty face" is an index of more links for fashion, activism, etc. for fat folks:

http://nodltd.com/leighisfat01.shtml

Learn more about making peace with food and the bathroom scale at "Beyond Dieting" (a commercial site for a therapist who deals in food and body image issues, but there's lots of free information here):

http://www.beyonddieting.com/

A convincing case study supporting the idea that weight-loss and diet drug companies are exaggerating and/or creating the so-called "obesity crisis":

http://www.sirc.org/articles/sponsoring_obesity.shtml

Comments

[purple-marf.livejournal.com]

Not a topic I know a great deal about, but I'm interested in it. In addition to remembering that you're a person who gives great dialogue. ;)

Leaving aside media drivel, I'll agree that dieting is an unhealthy, dangerous habit, I always hated the concept. Every person isn't going to fit the model body type, I'll take that as a given, too. 'Healthy' weight has nothing to do with BMI, and everything to do with how well your particular organs & physical/mental functioning get along with what you eat, and how active you are. In other words, my take is that a healthy weight is one where you're happy, and your food intake is not shortening your lifespan, or negatively impacting your quality of life.

Fat Acceptance kind of bugs me, though. I guess it depends on interpretation. I take my own fat to be a habit to be kicked, like smoking. Does FA refer to the idea of accepting where you are, loving yourself enough to stop dieting & using food as a crutch, and moving on? I'm probably just attaching too much weight to the word 'acceptance' as it seems like such a passive term to me.

One of my problems with some of the articles is that they'll counter statistics with statistics. Personally, I know that as I get more active, I feel better and have fewer health problems - regarless of weight loss. And vice-versa, as my life & weight fluxuate with the seasons. I might be missing the point of the movement, but I feel like a lot of those articles are trying to convince me that my extra pounds are something I need to embrace, instead of giving in to the media conspiracy to make me hate my body. *laugh*

Other bits seem to hint that it's perfectly healthy to carry around a lot of extra weight. Given, it's likelier healthier than dieting, but I know someone who has pretty advanced diabetes, and refuses to believe that a change in his eating/lifestyle would help to make it (and his blood pressure) less severe.

Hopefully that stayed logical, insomnia notwithstanding.

It's hard, because there are good messages in there, mixed up with some really illogical filler. I guess I'm concerned that they're countering misinformation with misinformation, yano?

[sarahmichigan.livejournal.com]

I think that like any movement or idea, people have their own twist on Fat Acceptance (I've been trying to focus on "Size Acceptance" because thinner-than-average and short people, etc. all get stereotyped and discriminated against for their size as well).

I'm fat, so my particular perspective is the challenge big people face, like my post a few back about getting good health care if you're big, because statistically speaking, fat people get substandard health care.

However, I'm not one of the Fat Acceptance crowd who necessarily celebrates being fat over any other size, and I definitely think Americans could use more exericise and better eating habits no matter what size they are. However, I know enough skinny-to-normal people with shitty eating and exercize habits and enough dynamic, active big people who are healthy eaters to know that you can't tell whether someone lives a healthy lifestyle just by the number on the scale.

I do think it CAN be perfectly healthy to be of a size that's generally considered "overweight." I know it's "fighting statistics with statistics," but people who are on the high end of the normal BMI scale to the low end of "overweight" have better mortality statistics than people at the low end of normal. And your less likely to die if you're 75 pounds "overweight" than if your 5-10 pounds under your so-called ideal weight.

Many studies show that, regardless of weight loss, when people start exercising regularly and getting enough fruit, veggies, and fiber, they can improve their blood pressure, heart rate, and insulin issues. So, yes, lifestyle changes are important, but my focus is on exercising and eating well and forgetting what the scale says. There's pretty good evidence that it's nearly impossible for the average person to change his or her body size by more than 5-10 pounds permanently (lots of people LOSE weight, but keeping it off is nearly impossible long-term) but it's eminently possible to change your blood pressure and cholesterol readings A LOT through exercise and wise diet choices even if you don't lose one pound.

[purple-marf.livejournal.com]

Yep, makes total sense to me.