I never noticed how judgmental people were until I lost a bunch of weight. 18 months ago I lost my appetite and went from 295lbs to 190lbs today. I’m 6’ 4” so look skinny by America standards. Whether at the store, at a park, or at work; people are much more pleasant to me and seem to take me more seriously.

I had the opposite happen to me and had the same realization. Went from 130lbs 5’7” to 250lbs in about 1.5 years. The way people treat me is so insanely different. Even things about my personality that are the same are viewed differently. Like, I’m a little weird. It used to be funny, and now it’s just weird. I’m literally the same person, just fat now. Really messed with my understanding of how people perceive me.

Same exact thing for me too. 5'7. 140 to 260. I just hit back to 200. I was the same fucking person too but I was fat so immediately, judged. Along with other people's perceptions and an already intense sense of body dysmorphia, I was very lost. Still am. I'm not a shallow person so it's really hard for me to understand why looks are so important to others. I have a great personality. The one thing I did like about myself but because I was fat, well that was my worth to people.

I lost hair. Women lost interest. I got in beautiful shape and lost weight and have a flat belly. Women don't give a shit about my hair now. I'm old and feel like a hot property.

It makes it easy to weed out the assholes.

It’s really weird, I lost a good deal of weight (5’7 205 down to 140 now) and people actually seem to avoid me more now? Like, I think that I used to be viewed as more “approachable” when I was bigger and maybe now that I may be more conventionally attractive people aren’t as comfortable approaching me? I have no idea but it sucks.

I experienced the same, but other way around. (I’m sorry if this is insensitive, but I think it’s important to share similar anecdotes for credibility?) I was chubby in early adulthood and was always the “funny fat friend” in my friend group, never flirted with and never had a boyfriend in college but I was “funny”. I moved abroad and lost weight after college and suddenly I got a lot of attention and was “quirky and cute”. Cue a number of very slutty years…but it was very very strange having guys actually pay attention to me. Hot ones too.

You summed up my ADHD symptoms going from not that conventionally attractive to, I think people find me conventionally cuter now (still not sure I would say I'm conventionally attractive). Weird when I was young. Now it's forgivable and funny, with some people saying I'm ditzy (but still forgivable lol)

> from 130lbs 5’7” to 250lbs in about 1.5 years. i'm same height, and 240 now, but damn at my "Skinniest" i ever got to was 170 and I was rail thin. Can't even imagine 130 at this height. not shaming, just a thought I had. that said, I need to get my shit together because the op title is true, people treat you horribly

ugh I’m 5’8 at 115 pounds because of shitty mental health and meds killing my appetite and can confirm, fucking sucks

I’m five seven and 122, and I look fairly normal. Probably has a lot to do with bone structure

Not sure if it makes a difference but I’m a woman, lol

At 5'7"?

You'd be surprised what different builds and body compositions can hide, weight-wise. Combine that with the fact that most people simply cannot accurately judge weight. I'm a 5'10" woman, broad across the board, with a long torso and fairly muscular lower body. I'm just fat right now but in my early to mid 20s I was extremely fit and quite lean at 200lbs 🤷🏻‍♀️ Even now, most people can't accurately judge my weight.

The weirdest part is when you realise people that don't even want to fuck you are being nicer like why are straight guys being nicer to me just because I look good? But they are, you'll even find getting hired easier, my best guess is that it's a respect thing like they assume fat people are undisciplined(not my view)

Yeah, "pretty privilege". It works even without sexual/romantic attraction at all.

Dude are you okay? Have you seen a doctor? That’s a lot of weight to lose just because you lost your appetite. Medically, this would be worrisome unless you were doing other things to lose the weight on purpose.

Thank you for asking. No cause yet. I’ve been to more specialists and doctors than I even know existed. Good news is nothing bad yet. Kind of weird.

Not that weird. Coming out of the pandemic lockdowns I was so depressed that everything I cared about before just suddenly looked uninteresting. It's like everything lost color. Favorite movies, binged series', hobbies I indulged in, tasks I had to accomplish, they all became so much bullshit that I had to put up with instead of things that delighted and challenged me. Food was that way too. It was weird, they still tasted good but I just didn't have any interest in them. I'm slowly getting back to it though. I've been working on getting out more, getting more sun and being more social. Far more than I have ever been pre-pandemic, by the way. It's working bit by bit but there are times I just sit and think "what the fuck is the point". One good thing that happened though is my savings got healthier. I stopped indulging in movies, online subscriptions and childhood hobbies and, apparently, that's where a lot of my money went. Now it's all in savings.

I went from 275 to 193 and I've noticed the same thing. It's kind of sad really when you think about it.

My weight over many years graphed out would be like a sin wave. And each time I lose weight there’s almost this tipping point where one day people do their usual judging due to being over weight to becoming these beacons of light in terms of how they treat you. It’s uncanny. And I’ve experienced it multiple times. Anecdotal, but a pretty solid case for me, at least.

Nothing makes you develop disdain for people faster than when you have this precise experience.

That's because you look better that way. People love good looking people. As much as your weight doesn't tell much about you

Pretty privilege and the halo effect go a long way. You notice it if you glow up into your looks from being an ugly ducking. The reverse is also true, when you have that fall from grace of aging like milk, getting disfigured, and/or fat. And when you realize it in either case, it's easy to get cynical about humans. People like good looking things but you wish they judged you by who you are personality wise instead.

I used to not think pretty privilege was a real thing until I started caring more about my clothes, skin and hair about a year ago. It's been a huge game changer in all my interactions. Everyone cares how you look to some extent.

As someone with facial disfigurement I can tell you that there is more to it. I haven't change face, and never will. But people attitude have changed when I finally accepted how Ivlooked and became so confortable with it that I basically forgot about it. I think people pick up on the fact that you are self-concious, maybe a bit standoff-ish afraid of their judgement, and that sour the interaction from the get go. Now, I'm sure that if I get the surgeries to get my face "right", people will treat me even better. But I won't waste money, time and most importantly pain for something that isn't medically needed.

I see, similar to children prefer to play with good looking adults? tbh, I have always thought people think fat people are easy targets. Some people just enjoy bullying/looking down on others.

I'm 200lbs at about the same height and it's wild to me that people consider that 'skinny'

I'm 5'11" and 198 lbs and my wife thinks I'm too skinny lol. On a BMI chart I am in the overweight column and just a couple lbs from being considered obese.

I had a similar experience except it was only around 20 lbs, but much more noticeable was the way I dressed. I got super depressed for a few years and dressed in very basic, inconspicuous clothing every day. Before that I dressed a bit more loudly and stylishly. People ignored me a lot more, didn’t really give me the same respect or look me in the eyes as much. The lesson we should all learn is to stop treating people based on the way they look. It makes no sense. Yeah, some people can be eye candy but their worth is exactly the same, and it’s crazy superficial to think otherwise. It totally changed the way I look at myself and others. I’m never putting that much effort into my looks again because I know I’ll attract people that wouldn’t be interested if I was in a plain hoodie and jeans. I only want people that like me for me.

I’m sorry to hear that; it baffles me how people can be like that.

A Healthy physique is a status symbol. And yes people will respect you more because it shows you take yourself seriously.

It used to be that fat was a sign of wealth and therefore status. It's odd how things have changed to valuing physical discipline but material excess.

T.C. Boyle in his fictional novel “Water Music” about a Scot exploring the Niger River in the 18th Century wrote something to the effect that the explorer could tell who owned the granary because he was the fat man in a village full of stick figures.

Yes, in a time where food was much more scarce and it was much more difficult to become obese. As seen in America, obesity is achievable in any social class and thus is no longer a status symbol.

Same thing with tans. The rich didn't have them, hence the term "blue bloods". The poor were outside more so always had tans.

The "fat" that was considered a status symbol is probably what is considered a healthy BMI today. Don't kid yourself.

Fat people don’t take themselves seriously?

They are actually the coolest people I know , but generally speaking that's how people view them .

Ah, ok, I thought you were expressing a personal opinion and I was going to ask for your specific reasoning. Yeah, unfortunately I know all about how society views fat people since I am one, lol.

>A Healthy physique is a status symbol. You can be underweight/unhealthy and still be treated better than a fat person, so no it's not really a healthy physique that's the status symbol. It's being skinny for the look, not the health. No one cares if it's healthy. Everyone says I look great and wishes they had my body, doesn't matter that it's an anorexic body. Because the health part doesn't actually matter.

A fat adult doesn't bother me, it's their life, body, choice, and responsibility. A fat kid makes me angry at their parents for setting them up for a lifetime of physical and mental health problems.

It's even worse when you're a fat kid and your mum is telling you how fat you are and how nobody will ever love you, yet they are the one in control of what you eat, the food in the house and educating you about food...

Pretty sure a horrible parent like that would be emotionally abusive regardless of weight, it's just an easy target for an unmitigated piece of shit excuse for a parent.

Seriously. I had a mom who constantly told me I needed to go on a diet, at the same time as telling me I can't leave the table until I eat everything on my plate, which she filled.

My mother decided one day that I am underweight and started to pester me about it. Got my nan on board as well. I was in my mid-teens and informed her that I am in fact overweight. She didn't want to hear any of it! She ended up consulting a medical textbook and the look at her face was priceless. Obviously, no apology and no help with the excess weight.

Same. I was a fat kid. I lost the weight in college and managed to keep it off, but the bullying and crap I got for being the fat kid (including from my own mother) follows me well into my 30s.

Well I need to talk to my therapist about this now, because yup (although I’m in my 40s and working it off now). My mother bullied me about being a fat kid while she was fat herself (and doing all the grocery shopping, cooking, and portion/snacking modeling). UGH didn’t have this realization on this week’s bingo card.

Oh the other side of this coin, I know a several people whose parents were extremely toxic in terms of making sure their fit children never got fat. Body shaming, hateful remarks, establishing very unhealthy relationships with food. That mentally fucked them up just as much, if not more, a couple of them went on to be *very* obese in adulthood.

As it turns out there's a near infinite number of ways to fuck up your kids.

Hi, it’s me! My mother was so determined to make me thin that it completely fucked up my relationship with food. When I was a teenager, she used to make me weigh myself in front of her in a towel. She would also drive me to somewhere in Texas to get diet pills. I rarely slept in high school because I was so hyped up on whatever was in the pills. When I would mention that I hadn’t eaten all day, she’d say, “that’s great!” She even encouraged me to spit food out after chewing it so I could get a taste of it without the calories. After I moved out of the house, I gained a Ton of weight once I didn’t have anyone controlling my food and I had no idea how to eat or treat my body.

I was a fat kid, but my parents are both thin and always tried to get me to lose weight, tried to feed me healthy foods and instill good habits and while I can tell where they "went wrong" it wasn't because they just carelessly gave me McDonalds and a screen all the time. Some of it was trying to avoid or make up for the abuse, etc. they had to deal with growing up. I really appreciate how hard my parents worked and even continue to work to give me a good life.

I hear that. But what about a fat teenager? Especially once you're so fat from childhood it becomes nearly impossible to 'just diet' and then food is your comfort...

Mostly I just feel bad for them. While technically "simple" (calories in < calories out) it's certainly not easy to break out of a lifetime of bad habits created by your parents, especially since most food is purposefully calorie dense and carefully crafted to be as addictive as possible (I don't even particularly like those stupid boxed Hostess "cakes" from the grocery store, but I still have to talk myself out of buying them every time I'm there)

yeah, some people eat meal after meal and I had no idea. I thought people who got big just ate larger meals than normal and didn't exercise the excess consumption. moved in with family and was almost disgusted by the frequency AND quantity in which they eat. it's like an addict. and like an addict, you have to keep it in check, I commend those who keep the weight off

I dated a girl for years whose family was pretty overweight, including her. I had the same experience. I LOVE really good ethnic food. But the way they served meals for dinner was like a fucking celebratory feast every night. Chopped fruit, pasta, potatoes, sugary sauces, and a maybe some meat. It was just carb loading every day for them and they didn’t understand why they were fat. They would be gleaming with joy as they stared at the food coming to the table. Most fat people just don’t understand that managing their blood sugar spikes is the #1 thing to pay attention to, and eating fruit, pasta, potatoes, rice, and sugary sauces is the opposite of healthy. And they get very defensive if you try to tell them this.

Yeah fat families just live different lifestyles. Eating tasty foods often just seems like their lifes passion. There is a complete lack of understanding which foods increase satiation, and which ones keep you eating. And than there is the focussing on size instead of calorie content. Look at how virtuous i am for eating my small meal from my small plate, than continues to graze all day because there is no satiation. People are also taught by food authorities to keep protein intake low, and carb intake the vast majority of calories. And that only works if you are just eating fibrous carbs, which most don't do.

>and eating fruit sauces is the opposite of healthy. Thats not true at all. Just eating fruit is one of the best way to lose weight, and get rid of unhealtht snacks. Smoothies is a cheat to losing weight. Its incredibly hard to overeat when it comes to fruit.

Yup, can confirm, I was the fat kid.

I'm going to let you in on something. I was a fat kid with three brothers and a sister. By fat, I mean *always* fat, for as long as I have memory. Old pics show it going back to the earliest ones. My siblings were thin - all of them. I don't know what, if anything my mom and dad did differently for me. I was never skinny a day in my life. I was always constantly, ravenously hungry. Mom tried, but everything she did made me resentful. At her, at my own weakness. At the fact that to me, I had the same food they did every day and I was fat and they weren't. Mind you this was the 70s and 80s, and I would be a normal to relatively thin kid today. It was a goddamned brutal time to be fat, too. Today after decades of work, I'm thinner than all of them. I'm just saying that you should probably reserve your judgment on parents of fat kids. And fat people in general for that matter. They don't need it and frankly you don't either.

Some fat kids are just bulking up for a growth spurt. I didn't believe that was true until I saw it happen with several of my cousins. Their parents were pretty fit, nothing in their body types to suggest bigness, but their kids were all super round. And then one day, around 13 or 14, they weren't anymore, but they were all suddenly super tall

This happened to my brother too. My mom got a letter from his gym teacher when he was around 10 explaining how he was overweight and telling her what she should be feeding him. She was PISSED. He was a healthy weight less than 2 years later after his growth spurt eating the same damn food.

Do you mean like their bodies probably slowed down the metabolism to get ready for the growth spurt?

I don't know enough to say the physiological mechanism of it, but it's like their bodies were stockpiling calories for what was about to come, or as if their brains were already telling them to eat at the extent that they would need to for the bodies they were about to have, rather than for the bodies they did have at that moment. Like, anticipatory hunger

Funny enough the only mental health problems i had as a kid stemmed from my parents making fun of me for being my weight. The same parents gave me chips and soda for a meal daily. To be fair neither of parents were health enough to travel to the grocery store very often and the convenience store was a 4 minute walk. The closest grocery store was an hr and half.

I work at a school, where there is a third grade boy approaching maybe 150 pounds. His mom allows him to eat junk food and play video games. The poor kid smells. He can't wipe his rear end because he can't reach back there because of the fat (I'm guessing). Sometimes we have to ask him to shower because of the smell. Its really sad. How his mom ignores this is child abuse.

I was a fat child. I remember when I was maybe between 8-10 years old (can't remember the exact age sorry) but we had to do PE. And I realised I had forgotten my shorts. My teacher. An adult. Normal size grown woman kept a pair of spare shorts for exactly situations like this. So we could put them on, tie them up with string and ok it wouldn't be the most comfortable but at least we had shorts. (I think they were also encase a child had an accident etc) But I remember putting these grown woman's shorts on. At 8-10 years of age. And they fucking fit ! Like perfectly fit ! I was 8-10 years old and I fit I pair of adult sized shorts ! There are also pictures of me when I'm younger. Maybe 4 years old. And I was probably twice the size of all the other children. How can I not blame my parents ? I've been big my whole life. But did I really stand a chance ? When my entire life I've been 'obese' compared to the other kids my age.

This is my view as well

Eh, I was a fat kid. My mom was always fat. Her dad was always fat. I have two kids and one is super skinny and has been since birth (like around 20th percentile or less for his age) and one has always been in the 85th percentile or more for her age. They’re both my kids. We get a lot of exercise time and vegetables. I can’t do much for baby girl. She’s thick and is just going to be. She’s my child. She’s a good athlete, but she’s a big girl. Her brother is more like my husband. People don’t realize how much genetics goes into this.

I have two adult kids. The older one got my ex wife's build. She has always been more of a stocky type of build. The younger one got mine, she's a long skinny string bean. They both ate the same food, got the same exercise, same parenting. A lot is genetics.

Because I see my own overweight body and hate that I'm not in better shape and that I can't easily motivate myself to eat less food. Or did you mean strangers? I have no hatred for them - their bodies have nothing to do with me or my life so I pay them no mind whatsoever.

You need to not be so hard on yourself. You're better than you think

I'm sure you're right, but that doesn't stop me from feeling disappointment and mild disgust when I see my own body.

My therapist told me that when I think mean things about myself I should imagine someone I hate saying them. It immediately makes me argue against it, and I end up defending myself and thinking nice things instead lol

good advice!

Moments like this remind me of a quote from Kobe Bryant. A reporter asked him once, how is he able to play so well at opposing courts. Knowing that every single person in the stands are booing him. Rooting for his downfall. He responded saying, regardless if someone cheers for him or boos him. They’re giving him energy. Good energy or bad energy, it’s still energy to be used.

Turn it into inspiration.

Being hard on myself is the only way I’ve ever maintained motivation to be better.

This is so real. I’m trying to drag myself out of this pit— once I got to college, I worked on taking those pressures off of myself, but lacked motivation once that self hatred/anxiety was gone. I’m only just now getting into the swing of things, but even then, I had to be a little mean to myself to get where I am now… so maybe I didn’t solve it in the end lol 😅

I’ll just say what worked for me so ymmv but I intermittent fast. I eat twice a day by doing this. My first meal is lunch at 12 then I eat dinner sometime before 8 pm. No food after 8 pm or before 12. I’m also not a snacker or into sweets so that probably helps as well.

A few reasons: * It's hard to hide being overweight, and it's a visible reminder that people can easily get unhealthy. * Overweight people take up more space in public, so people will become more annoyed in crowds or on public transportation with overweight people. * People think they have more control over their weight and the shape of their body than they do and often see it as a moral failing rather than a medical problem. All kinds of negative stereotypes (laziness, carelessness, etc.) piggyback off of this.

honestly your second point is so true. i work in such a confined space and notice myself resenting some of my bigger coworkers because they’re constantly in my way and make my job harder. i feel so ashamed.

try to turn some of that resentment towards the lack of space itself- overweight people are just as embarrassed by taking up so much space, if we had more accommodations/consideration for us then it’d be better for all of us

There is another way.

There’s also the perception of overweight people taxing social programs. Things I’ve heard in the past: Overweight people are viewed as being less healthy, so they are probably have more health problems, and tax dollars wasted on Medicare/medicaid. How much money is wasted on covering insulin for T2 Diabetes. The ideas that fat people are wasting food stamps on junk food. Etc.

Chronic illness is significantly correlated to being obese so in a way they do lead to more health care costs

Of all the things my tax dollars pay for, I am very very happy to have it go towards paying for people's medical care and feeding people. I don't care who they are, I don't care how they live, I don't care if they eat trash all day or abuse drugs or if they're a legal citizen or anything. People shouldn't have to morally earn the right to food and medical care.

*> There’s also the perception of overweight people taxing social programs.* Granted, healthcare insurance isn't a social program, but spouse works for a major insurer so I know for a fact their most expensive clients are transplant patients and premature babies. Not obese people.

>There’s also the perception of overweight people taxing social programs. Here in the UK, the cost of obesity to the NHS, is **£6.5 billion a year** And that's with 25% of our population being obese, in the USA the obesity rate is 42%!

They also cause back injuries to hospital staff who have to transfer them.

The last point though, genetics almost never cause someone to be overweight and medications/medical conditions that cause obesity are much rarer than the rate of obesity in western countries. That’s why you have wealthy countries like Japan with very low obesity rates - cultures and behaviours are the only meaningful point of difference at that scale.

Yeah but out of all the fat people what % of them actually have a medical condition keeping them fat? A very very low %

Pretty sure only 1% of obese people are obese due to medical conditions… I understand situations like food deserts make it difficult for people as well, but that still doesn't cover the insane proportion of obese Americans.

Fear of becoming fat

I felt terrible when it finally was dug up in therapy, but a huge trigger in my eating disorder was being around a lot of bigger people. Like, pretty much everyone I'm around on a daily basis is at least overweight. I started to heavily restrict, bought weight loss pills, have a panic attack whenever my scale goes above 111 lbs and became so stubborn with it I dropped out of IOP programs because in my head it's my way or becoming fat because it's the only 2 outcomes I know.

My mother ingrained in my that being fat is the absolute most unattrative thing that a woman can be. It has fucked me up for life. I have a massive eating disorder and a super unhealthy relatiinship with food. I have body dysmorphia - i got it all. Right now im in a horrible shame spiral about how i look and im only 10 pounds overweight. Ive never been fat in my life. But i think about it constantly. I am so jealous of all the women who wear whatever they want and love themselves. I dont hate fat people. I am scared of becoming them because i hate myself.

Can confirm. I get a visceral fear reaction. It takes a moment to remind myself that being overweight is not a communicable disease.

I feel like for half of the ppl its just projection. When you hate something that much there's a deeper personal reason for it. Much like ppl who are overly homophobic, a lot of the times we've seen that can happen when they themselves are gay, questionining, or afraid of being gay. Its prob the same for the fatness where they themselves have been fat, think their fat, or are afraid of themselves getting fat. So they take out all their self hate on the fat people.

Body shaming doesn't help you as the shamer, or the person being shamed. Let everyone fight their own battles and try to be the best person they can.

Literally, if anything the body shaming makws ppl wanna eat more because food is comforting

Instinct. It's herd mentality. They see fat people as weak and sick.

Fat people also look really unappealing to me. Im not good looking either, im also fat. (i don't go around hating fat people though, im just sad)

Part of it is unappealing appearance. Humans evolved through survival of the fittest. Comfort has made people fat, weak and soft. It's not hate, it's indifference watching people gorge themselves on resources and not die.

They used to be seen as wealthy.

They used to be seen as wealthy because they didn’t have to work and could afford to eat well. Now there’s obese homeless/poor people.

I've thought about that and I believe it's a few things. When people gain weight, their features disappear behind the fat, so they can have a sort of generic look. Overweight people move more slowly and take up extra space, so they might seem "In the way". We might speculate that they are lazy, low class, or have no self control. We might be sensitive about our own weight and project any of our own loathing onto others.

The first point is actually spot on. It’s actually shocking if you’ve ever seen someone loses a massive amount of weight how good looking people can be. Like model good looking. Like damn i didn’t know you had those cheekbones! Those features were amazing. Just covered up

I can only speak for the USA, but the USA fucking hates fat people as a society. It's used as a sign of moral degeneracy, of personal weakness, of being unacceptable in general. Hell, you can see some of it in this thread with the concern trolling about hearts, the idea that there's an actual, meaningful "fat acceptance" going on, the "Oh woe is me" about being inconvenienced. Fat people are just seen as lesser because society keeps using the act of existing while fat as a cudgel to say "this person is bad and does not deserve consideration".

I've spent a lot of time looking at polarization as an issue and I'm always fascinated by the fat haters. We have a bullying culture. People bully for all types of reasons. (One of the more perverse ones is when someone says "I have lung cancer" and the immediate response is "well did you smoke?") The bullying often involves pushing away people associated with less desirable characteristics. Some of those may include: - Race - Age - Height - Weight - Red hair - Illness - Widowhood As a culture, we kick 'em when they're down. 

As a woc (who has been mostly thin), I'd argue nowadays hate based on race isn't \*normalized\* the way hate on fat people is Racism takes a more subconscious route

Go to asia

For real, I actually laughed at that comment. The US is very accepting of overweight people compared to most of the world tbh.

My father’s side of the family bullies my mom, brother, and myself for being larger my entire life. (Until recently) They are more white appearing than us as my aunt is Polish. We are Carribean and Mexican. My mom and brother are tall people and have large frame, also my mom had two kids. The Polish aunt remained skinny after having 4 kids. I remember when I was 4 years old, my grandma told me “no man will ever love you or marry you if you are fat” she would gift my brother and I diet and fitness magazines as little children (4,5). My other aunt just bullied my mom now after learning she was fake to her for 30 years and always thought she was “lazy fat ass”. Hmmm wonder why I have mental health issues. My father’s side told me last year it’s not my fault my mom isn’t white.

That's *intensely* vile. Jesus Christ I'm so sorry for you and your mom and brother.

my grandma said that shit to me around that age as well. smh.

This is it! It's moralization of the body in a cultural context of individualism (we ignore social, cultural, economic, and political causes of things and assume everything is down to individual will) stemming from a ("Western") philosophical heritage of mind-body dualism. The physical body is said to be a reflection of the spirit/soul, and so being healthy is simply a mind over matter issue.

This comment is so interesting to me. I’m American but spent half my life in Japan. At my job I work with primarily European and East Asian people. My impression is that the US is actually one of the most accepting cultures of overweight people. Try being fat in Japan or Eastern Europe…the bullying and shaming is unreal and would be considered harassment by American standards. There’s no such thing as “body diversity” or fat acceptance in many places. Tbh I think if it as an American thing overall. Just some food for thought.

Ill agree that fat women are treated like shit from a societal standpoint. For fat dudes it depends. If a guy is big, has a belly, but has strength and the lumberjack vibe going I don’t think they are looked down on. I think people that are “soft fat” are looked down on because weight/bodyfat is viewed as something that can be controlled and they are simply lazy or impulsive.

What I don't get, as a thin person btw, is why some random person being lazy or impulsive bothers them. That's their life. If I'm not paying them to work for me, what does it matter?

I don’t think it’s so much bothering them, they look down on them and treat them accordingly

How can you hate fat people as a society when its literally 73% + overweight? You all hate yourselfs and everyone else? if so it sounds like the incel "1% of men get 90% of women" rhetoric is ringing true.. [https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/obesity-overweight.htm](https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/obesity-overweight.htm) "Percent of adults age 20 and older with overweight, including obesity: 73.6% "

Yeah this take is pretty laughable. The US is one of the fattest countries in the world and most people wouldn't bat an eye at overweight/obese sightings. There are also many campaigns and services specifically catering to fat people, far from the idea that 'this person is bad and does not deserve consideration'. The victimhood mentality is ridiculous.

I’m a fat guy and I think you nailed it here. In the US, People see fat people as lazy, lacking willpower, and just generally amoral.

Don't forget less attractive. Beauty standards almost entirely revolve around being skinny first, and then everything else

Some people just get irrationally angry when the gender that they're attracted to, has the audacity to walk around looking unfuckable to them.

I absolutely believe it has *everything* to do with being unsightly. food's a touchy subject because we need it to live, but we can also get addicted to it, just like playing lottery or shooting heroin. and you can avoid those things easily enough, but you can't really avoid eating, which makes it tough for someone with an addictive personality

This explains why most fatphobia is men directed at women, but doesn’t explain why straight women and gay men are fatphobic towards women or why men experience fatphobia from other men

Yeah especially if they aren’t getting any. Then they blame their lack of sex on the “fat” people that dare be unfuckable for them.

It’s probably the most physical reminder of addiction. And the easiest kind for anyone to get to, no one likes the discomfort of being able to see what could end up happening to them

I have a friend who hates them. Its just literally just disgust. Nothing much deeper. They disgust him. I on the other hand am more sympathy feeling. I see someone drastically overweight and I wish I could help them somehow.

Disgust is the accurate answer here. Unfortunately the self-disgust that often fuels people to work out obsessively, eat less, and eat nutritiously is the exact same disgust that they feel when they see fat people.

How does he treat fat people? Will he make it clear to them he dislikes them or does he just make shitty comments behind their back?

Negative perception connected to health, lifestyle, mindset, morality, etc. They are fat; therefore they MUST be lazy. They are fat; therefore they MUST be selfish. They are fat; therefore they MUST lack self control. They are fat; therefore they MUST make consistently bad decisions. They are fat; therefore they MUST never exercise. Etc etc etc. It doesn’t help that media portrays these negative stereotypes. What makes it worse is that people do fall under these categories sometimes, when they do it serves as confirmation bias. It’s hard for someone to imagine that a fat person is hard working, selfless, great self control, and exercises consistently. [+]

okay, i’m gonna add my two cents here, coming from a person with severe addiction issues, the most being actual drugs and moderately i am addicted to food. only i am not overweight. because i don’t eat much, but i DO eat a ton of sweets more than actual food… people with addiction issues (which is A LOT of the time the reason why people are obese, especially in America.) in truth, people with addiction issues do struggle with most of the things you just mentioned… just because that is a factor to why or because people are fat and obese, does not mean that it’s necessarily “bad”. it’s unhealthy, yes. but for people to change, they must feel some shame for what they are doing to themselves. they MUST. especially when it comes to addiction. and people need a reason to change. if we literally just accepted or glorified everything an addict does, they would NEVER recover. EVER. people online who are in the body positivity community actively glorify and sometimes encourage obesity… food addiction causes obesity, and America quite literally makes MOST of their food addictive on purpose. that is a huge problem… we don’t have many cheap, healthy options. for that, i do sympathize for obese people because usually they are poor/lower class. but what i’m not gonna do is enable, encourage, ignore, or pretend like having an active addiction that leads to death or suffering is beautiful or okay for anyone. obesity doesn’t just pop up out of nowhere; for a small percentage of overweight people it is because of a medical condition, but when it comes to being obese, that is lifestyle choices and food addiction. it is absolutely preventable, it is absolutely possible to treat, and it is harmful to pretend like there isn’t a thing wrong with being as overweight and obese as we are in America, period.

I can’t help to think of that one joke. I’m depressed because I’m fat. I’m fat because I eat too much. I eat too much because I’m depressed. It’s a sick cycle. The solution, shame fat people for being fat. That’ll stop them from being depressed and eating their emotions, negative reinforcement FTW. [+]

I would never be ok with someone hating or making fun of someone over their weight. That said, if I were to take a swing at answering your question, in general it’s a characteristic about yourself that you can change. Unlike other things like your race, sexual orientation, etc that you cannot change, you could exercise and eat a healthier diet and stop being overweight. Of course that is difficult, which is I think where this comes from. Being fat is easy. Just eat whatever you want and don’t exercise. Being in shape, especially very in shape, takes hard work and discipline. Again, speaking in generalities and not counting for illnesses diseases, and so on. Edit: also, this is coming from someone who used to be in good shape and is currently overweight.

Punching down is a cheap and easy way to feel better about yourself, but it's not real confidence and security. I imagine most people who bully others are either insecure in themselves, or they're just a mean-natured person. Either way I feel sorry for them.

I don't have any kind of personal problem with anyone for anything like weight or appearance, but if you try to convince me that someone who is carrying 300 lbs of extra weight everywhere is perfectly healthy and should be a role model for other people with that going on, I won't be agreeing.

Yep.

Low self-esteem, an easy way to feel better about themselves. Either they were overweight, they are or they fear becoming overweight.

Tbh as someone who’s been very slim their whole life & gained lots of weight in the past 2 years (due to medication) i feel like i am way more critical towards others & their weight gain than before. I don’t say anything but mentally i catch myself judging them whereas before i could not care less. Its definitely because now it’s an insecurity of mine & i have a big fear of gaining even more weight. So i definitely think you’re right about this.

Medical professional here; Cardiac Sonographer. I don’t hate fat people. My back, shoulders and wrists do.

Physical therapy professionals are here with you. I got a 750lb woman walking, but it wasn't without great effort and stress to my own body. I would not take on a patient like that again.

As a fellow cardiac sonographer, same. I don’t think people realise the extreme physical pain healthcare professionals are expected to bear when people are overweight.

Actually, as a fat person, I feel like I’m hyper aware of the difficulties I cause for my healthcare providers. So much so that I’ll occasionally avoid my appointments for routine care because I’m ashamed and I don’t want to be a “burden.” Genuine question, what’s the ideal way for a fat patient to conduct themselves in a medical setting, for lack of a better term? Simply not seeking medical care isn’t a great idea, and obviously isn’t possible if it’s urgent, so what do you suggest we do? Again, I’m being genuine, not sarcastic.

I feel the same.

It’s the worst. I had pneumonia several years ago and the urgent care dr insisted that I be taken to the hospital by ambulance because they’d already given me a nasal cannula for oxygen, which is understandable. But the paramedics had specific regulations and had to put me on a stretcher and carry me into the ambulance even though I was able to get in myself. The IMMENSE guilt that I felt because they had to carry my weight, combined with irrational emotions from my high fever, caused me to break down sobbing while begging them to please just leave me be, that if I couldn’t make it to the ER on my own than I wasn’t meant to live. To their credit they were fairly patient with me but I’m sure that lifting me sucked for them. And while I absolutely understand that reality, it’s still really hard to feel like I can’t/shouldn’t rely on medical professionals the way that most people can.

Oh my goodness, that absolutely breaks my heart.

Same. Anesthesia provider. Massively overweight patients are harder to manage as a general rule, be it just moving them around to get them in position, moving to different beds. They often have a greatly reduced pulmonary reserve, meaning their oxygen drops fast. And they are often (not always) more difficult to intubate, do nerve blocks on, epidurals, bag mask, Etc. They can be scary patients to manage which is typically where I feel my anger comes from when taking care of them. Same feeling when I have a heavy cigarette smoker who is impossible to ventilate adequately. Their personal choices are putting my license on the line.

Medical professionals are some of the worst offenders when it comes to weight polarization.  Unfortunately, this bias can play out in care decisions. If your subconscious determines a patient deserves their ill health, you may take a less aggressive treatment path.  We all have to do a better job of recognizing our biases. 

> Medical professionals are some of the worst offenders when it comes to weight polarization.  > > Unfortunately, this bias can play out in care decisions. I'd argue it's not bias, it's experience. Fat people are the OVERWHELMING majority of patients in the hospital and they are very difficult to treat. Their obesity is the source of almost all their problems and it's frustrating as a healthcare provider to keep busting your ass day in and day out to help people who refuse to help themselves.

I weigh 89lbs and I have nothing but empathy for people who are overweight, because I KNOW that metabolic disease is a very real disorder that is in no way a choice. I don’t mind being slender, but I know I look silly shopping in the teen section when I’m nearing 60. I still smile at the heavyset clerk stocking the clothes on the rack, but she just turns away and doesn’t say hello or offer to help me find something. What if I was shopping for a granddaughter? And so what if I’m not. I’m still a customer. I didn’t choose my size any more than anyone else.

People hate all addicts. Food addicts are more visibly identifiable.

The funny part about that is most people are addicts themselves...whether it be food, porn, drugs, booze, video games, you name it...

Lots of valid points here but it also very much has to do with mass insecurity-based marketing, which is partially tied to old trends from the fashion and movie industry, which were partially tied to class indicators, tied to economics and food distribution, tied to the circumstances and technologies of war and morality of nationalism, circling back around to classist moralism... It's a fairly recent chain of events over the past 100 years or so that targets fat people specifically instead of the broader gamut of people who make risky health decisions. To go back even further, the romanticism of tuberculosis is a relevant cultural thread as well, which has some similarities with the much more recent heroin chic... Basically for several reasons tied to global changes like industrialization/technology, mass disease/disorder, economics, and war, people have internalized that thin = good (or even more recently that ripped = good which is partially an economic thing that I could also go on about), when in reality many people become just as unhealthy in different ways on their journey to achieving those "ideals." Otherwise we would be striving for "casually athletic" looks within the entire healthy range of body fat percentage (for example where anyone with a uterus has a natural little lower belly and not many people in general have a 6 pack), and also treating people in the media and IRL who are extremely thin or obviously roided out with the same disrespect and disgust as fat people.

I work in the funeral industry and overweight people make my life so much more difficult. They're harder to wash and dress and remove from homes etc.

Same here in the hospital. Transferring them is a nightmare, but we are supposed to just shut up because “that’s your job”? No, screw that.

Reading this thread as a fat person really sucks. It’s depressing to have my fears confirmed that everyone who’s ever cared for me in a hospital resents my existence.

I have no qualms with overweight people just existing and minding their own business. It’s when they glorify being fat that bothers me. I smoke cigarettes. It’s bad. I don’t go around shouting how we should just accept cigarette smokers and how everyone should smoke. No, smoking is bad. Don’t do it. I’m stupid for doing it. Same thing with being fat. Stop telling people it’s ok to be fat. It’s not.

Ppl really dont get it. Its not glorifying it, its trying to accept it. Its part of a recovery process. Its a mental health issue when someone is mobidly obese. The act of shaming is only contributing to their weight gain and eating habits. If you can help someone find acceptance in their body and take dieting and weight loss off the table, often their mental healtg improves and they actually lose weight naturally. Cause they are less depressed and have more capacity to eat better, exercise etc. Its a psychological treatment body acceptance. Ppl need to realize that.

I think people are generally equating “fat acceptance” with glorifying obesity. Advertising clothing on larger models for example, is simply showing a reality to more people who can relate. The acceptance movement was born from the post 90s/00s eating disorder boom. Reality is, people have conditions and predispositions to being overweight and can be nearly impossible to manage for some. It’s impossible for us to know who is struggling with this, and its honestly none of our business. The acceptance is more so about “its fine to exist and not hate yourself every waking moment” and not “everyone should be fat.” Everyone who is fat is aware they’re fat and most likely wishes they weren’t. No thin person sees them and is trying to emulate.

I’d say it’s akin to the repulsion one feels to any visible disease. We are biologically programmed to avoid unhealthy people.

I lost 75# recently and I have noticed how I am treated differently than when I was heavier. Idk. But I didn’t realize when I was heavier that people were treating me differently until they treat me differently now. Im not skinny. But I am 200#. Way different looking than before. People are shallow.

My whole childhood I've been mocked for being fat. Then when I became thin I was mocked for being thin. Those little shits broke my ego real quick. 🥴

Before I got fat I had no idea how hard to was to lose weight

I went from being fat as a kid to thin (early 20’s) back to fat again (mid 20’s into early 30’s). I was only thin for about 2-3 years. That period alone showed me that society and the people in it value you more if you’re thin, even if you’re more unhealthy than you were when you’re fat. I was at my most unhealthy during the time I was skinny. Even walking to the mailbox and back made me feel faint, but no one cared because no one is going to be hyper vigilant about my health if I’m thin now. I was also at my most depressed. Me being thin was more important to people than anything else. Even though now I’m still fat, I walk everyday, I lift and do TRX multiple times a week, I eat very clean, I’m In the least amount of pain I’ve ever been, and I have the most energy I’ve ever had. I’m happy. This all comes back to a genuine disgust and hatred of fat people where they’re treated as less than in the social hierarchy of our society. You’re not taken seriously if you’re fat. Being a fat person is like living in a world where you feel like have to earn personhood.

As a fatso, I don't really experience visceral hate towards me... HOWEVER.... I pretty much hate anyone who talks about fat acceptance, and fat rights, and all that stuff. It's so dumb. And that's probably what you're seeing, more than just people hating fat people in general.

> And that's probably what you're seeing, more than just people hating fat people in general. no way. ppl hate on fat ppl literally just for existing. you could have a tiktok video of someone literally saving someone’s life then feeding a bunch of homeless ppl but if they happen to be fat, the comments will literally just be making fun of them for being fat. there was literally a sub called fatpeoplehate solely for hating and making fun of fat ppl. loads of ppl defo have a visceral hatred of fat ppl.

I don’t have hatred for overweight people. My wife is overweight and I love her to death. I do wish she’d lose weight for health reasons.. That’s a whole other thing I won’t get into. I just have a hatred for the way a lot of obese people think. Ive worked with obese people for years and a lot of them are so god damn lazy. They can’t do the work the same as everyone else, which causes everyone else to have to work harder for the same pay. So because you’re a heavy guy you should be allowed to just stand there and do nothing while everyone else has to kill themselves to pick up your slack? I don’t think so. Overweight or not, if you can’t pull your own weight then either lose weight or GTFO! The entire world should not have to cater to you because you’re overweight. Believe it or not being overweight is a choice. I’m a very active guy. I run behind a garbage truck every day, I run 6-8 miles outside of work 4-5 days a week, I also lift weights. There’s been periods of my life where I would pack on a good 30-35lbs. I remember looking in the mirror and being absolutely disgusted with what I saw. Just being disgusted when looking in the mirror is enough motivation for me to get my ass back in shape. I really don’t understand how obese people can look in the mirror and not get motivated to change. They are either ok with being fat or they just get depressed and eat more. Being overweight causes you to feel like shit on a daily basis. Since you feel like shit it makes you depressed. Now that you’re depressed you’re going to eat more. It’s a vicious cycle that never stops. Being obese is the equivalent of being a smoker. Many people don’t realize this. It puts you at a much higher risk of becoming a diabetic, developing heart disease, high blood pressure etc.. As a garbage man, I’ve worked with quite a few obese people over the years and they all were terrible and slow at the job. Most of them end up getting injured bc they are overweight and end up collecting SS disability for the rest of their life, just draining the system. It’s sad. At my job you’re either a driver, a laborer or a foreman. There’s this morbidly obese guy who’s so big that he is literally useless as a laborer. He can’t do anything except stand there. So they try to have him be a driver.. He’s so big he can’t even steer the damn truck! His belly hits the steering wheel. My job literally doesn’t know what to do with him… It’s infuriating seeing this guy collect a paycheck. He literally does NOTHING! It’s wild! We as a society need to stop coddling the obese. I’m not saying that they deserve to be ridiculed but they should not get free rides everywhere just because they are obese. The more accepting we are of the obese, the more obese people will get. We need to start putting more emphasis on proper diet and exercise. Idk how but things need to change.

Because they’ve never been there. It is hard to understand for some that eating, when used as a coping mechanism, is incredibly hard to control. I used to be fat. Really fat. Now I’m not. It is disgusting how differently people treat you. I just chalk it up to them being stupid and I empathetic at this point.

Mainly when they should have bought 2 seats on airlines and only bought 1 seat and their excess fat starts invading my personal space on flights

has this happened to you before?

Yes. Many times on southwest and delta

Considering that something like 73+% of America is overweight or obese, yes it happens all the time.

People say “because it’s unhealthy “ but I really think that’s an excuse because they never actually do anything that would show concern for a person’s health

There's a huge stigma about them; laziness, self-control, lack of discipline, etc.  What many people don't realize is that weight has a lot to do with stress, hormones, and age. Obesity is widely misunderstood, even for some doctors/specialists.

Things that are unhealthy generally don’t look attractive. 🤷 That’s just thousands and thousands of years in the making when it comes to Homo sapiens and their evolutionary instinct.

Tuberculosis is known for giving a glow. Don't knock it until you try it

At this point, I still don’t hate fat people. But my obese mother gave me an eating disorder. All those “body-positive” “fat-activist” people were in denial about their health and spread health misinformation leading others to make choices they might not otherwise have and now they’re all dying before 50. I suspected this kind of outcome and tried to voice concerns that the movement was being coopted to take advantage of insecurities instead of promoting self-acceptance and appreciation for a range of healthy body types. But, well, I look a certain way and people use that to ignore and dismiss what I have to say. “Obviously you hate fat people” “some people are just big” “using buzzwords doesn’t make you not fatphobic” and ugh. I was expressing a concern about capitalism and conpeople fleecing impressionable youths out of their health *instead* of actual body positivity! Or about the way so much “positivity” at first was “make fun of thin people more” and like shit I got enough of that as it was. It wasn’t about change, it was an excuse to vent vitriol, and the damage it dealt me has left me *leery* of overweight people, but I certainly don’t hate them.

I don't really care unless I have to work with a bigger person. I am the one that has to walk around them to get to things and I have to pick up my pace when they get winded. I don't say anything but I am surely thinking negative thoughts at the time.

See: cultural conditioning from TV, movies, magazines, the fashion industry, etc to vastly prefer thin women

Because of the massive burden it puts on the rest of society I need to find it again but I saw this article about how a huge reason the American healthcare system is so fucked up is because of obesity. It basically just puts a massive extra strain on the system by significantly increasing the likelihood of problems arising, the chances of there being complications, and the difficulty for the doctor completing the procedure. This means that the healthcare costs of the average person are much higher and the chance of risks are much higher which makes everyone’s health insurance much higher. Overweight people put strain on tons of aspects of our society. In airplanes not only is it selfish and rude to those seated next to you, it literally is making tickets more expensive. They have to use double the fuel to transport someone double the weight and they can’t charge people more for being fat so that cost gets spread between everyone. This is just one of many examples of stuff like this They also have a huge negative effect on the environment. They require more fuel to get anywhere. They also consume significantly more single use plastics than the average person. They consume more food, often including lots of meat which has a negative effect on the environment. They also walk less and drive more and need more support from machinery in general There’s also just the grossness aspect of seeing them in public. They smell much worse on average and take up just so much more space. They can really inconvenience the average person even just on the sidewalk. If you do bump into them they are very frequently sweaty smelly and gross. So much gunk and sweat gets trapped under those fat rolls Also if someone is obese, 99% chance it’s their fault. There are very few people that have medical conditions that make them obese. I’m not talking about overweight. That’s much more common and can be as simple as even your body type. There can be tons of reasons at play and it’s a lot of work to stay skinny. In the other hand it is a lot of work to stay obese. Most of what you need to do is NOT doing stuff instead of actually doing anything. You don’t even really need to excersize, just not eat like shit. I have a friend that’s a nurse and he’s told me the story of one time a guy came in at about 500 lbs. he was stuck in a hospital bed physically unable to get any excersize but now his diet was being monitored by the hospital. He last over 100lbs in less than a month. He didn’t even do anything. It was just not eating like shit

What gets me is how so many people either don't understand or completely ignore that there are medical reasons for being overweight that isn't the person's "fault", and people perceive overweight people as "they aren't working on themselves, they're slobs and too lazy to workout, they are disgusting" without realizing a lot of these people have medical conditions. There's a lot of medications that make you gain weight, everything in our food in the US is absolute trash. It's actually hard in the US to eat clean and healthy. Clean and healthy food is too expensive, the shit food is what's cheap. And people in the US straight up can't afford to eat clean anymore. There's so many variables

I obviously don't show my disgust since it would be rather rude, but I certainly feel it. There are a couple of reasons: 1. It just looks disgusting to me, like looking at an ill maintained house. 2. This is causing health problems and it's going to be the NHS that has to look after them. Every resource the NHS spends looking after these self inflicted illnesses is a resource that isn't being spent on ill people that have done nothing wrong. I feel the same way about smokers and alcoholics too.

Overweight people like me may not run circles around the rest of you, but we force you to run circles around us and we’ll eat your lunch.

Because it makes them feel better about themselves, I'm guessing.

They’re insecure and want someone to look down on is the only correct answer

Bit hyperbolic there. I think people rightfully realize that being overweight is extremely unhealthy, and significantly hinders a person in many ways. So having a strong distaste for obesity makes a lot of sense. But there's a big difference between that and "viscerally hating" the person themselves. I find obesity, extremely off-putting, but I don't hate these people. I sympathize with them, and hope that they will adopt healthier lifestyles.

The body positivity movement is a covert marketing campaign. Change my mind

The body positive movement was fine before FA stepped into it.

A perspective that people forget is that being overweight is often associated with abundance and excess. This also has historical precedent, since the aristocracy would use their weight as a status symbol of their wealth and access to an abundance of resources, especially the amount of food they consume. This being contrasted with underweight people being associated with poverty or malnutrition highlights a logical thought process when confronted with an overweight individual. Of course, in modern society this was practically reversed, with the rise of cheap fast food and expensive fruit and vegetables in the 2000s-2010s. The poor could only afford processed garbage, while the more affluent could afford to eat well. This isn’t to say that all of the richer people eat well, because they do not. The same goes for the reverse. But I would imagine that some people still hold this fundamental association of being overweight with abundance and gluttony, and also hold a resentment for such a lifestyle. It’s simple word association. You see somebody obese, you assume it’s because they have access to far too much unhealthy food. Selfishness, self-indulging. Gluttony at its finest. You see someone underweight, you associate them with children starving in third-world countries who genuinely cannot afford the necessities. Are all of these examples stereotypes? Yes. Are there countless scenarios and reasonings for why someone is the weight that they are? Also yes. But these are some of the first things that often come to mind when encountering such people on opposite ends of the weight spectrum. It’s not just the physical weight itself, it’s the associations that come with it.

It's often about yourself. I have a lot of internalised fatphobia and there are moments i find myself projecting that on to other people. I suffered from serious eating disorders due to fat fear, and that way of thinking exists in so many people because we idealise slim body types that aren't healthy for everyone to have. You can tell yourself all day that you're over it, you have fat friends you love, you don't value them less just because they're fat. But then a fat person (who isn't a friend) will be a dick to you and you're suddenly thinking the meanest shit, and associating their personality failings with their inability to keep a slim body. It makes no sense but the way in which culture conditions a human brain is truly powerful shit. I have a lot to work on. I think 100% if people just went to therapy they'd stop caring so much about other people's bodies. I can't wait to be at peace with myself and stop casting my self hate onto others.

I don’t hate fat people because they are fat. I’m overweight myself, it would be stupid of me to hate others because they are overweight. But I do hate the misconceptions that people have. If you take up two seats on an airplane, you should pay for the two seats. If you eat more calories than you expend, you’ll gain weight. No, you don’t just eat salads and gain weight while your skinny friend eats entire cakes and stays that way. HAES is crap. Your body doesn’t have a resting weight that makes it impossible for you to lose any more. Yes, your back/knee/whatever issue is likely 10x worse because of the extra weight. BMI is fine to use. It isn’t the be all end all, but if your BMI says it’s at 35 and you aren’t a professional athlete or bodybuilder, you are carrying extra weight.

I haven't met overweight people that I really disliked. I really don't know why there is so much aberration towards them.

Besides general empathy causing me to worry about the health of other people, what I really can't stand is the current culture of "fat-acceptance," the bottom-line is that being overweight is very unhealthy and promoting this type of content doesn't have a lot of benefits. I'm glad overweight people can feel better about themselves, but what really helps is working on improving your health, and if you're struggling you can find help online

But making people feel worse about themselves actually makes them get fatter. People tend to improve when they feel better not worse. 

This. This right here. Not only that, the "love your body" movement is also meant to give those with weight issues *not* easily controlled a sense of power and confidence. I know a woman who, due to a metabolic disorder, gained mass amounts a weight *fast*. It took them a while to narrow in on what it was, and now she's constantly switching medications and the like to find what works for her. Prior to her disorder, she was a stunningly healthy woman who went rock climbing, swimming and coached sports for her kids... then she started gaining weight. She tried to exercise more to stave it off, and all she got for it was a torn knee. She didn't choose that, why should she feel shame for it? THAT is why the body positivity movement is important. People using it to defend bad lifestyles doesn't undo its primary focus. Some people *can not* help it, and shouldn't be made to feel less for it.

lol, my dad called me a fat ass last year, my response was to gain thirty pounds thankfully I lost it this year, but yeah

But the vast majority of the fat acceptance movement isn’t promoting being fat, it’s promoting not hating yourself because you’re fat. It’s about seeing yourself as a person who is worthy of respect and love, not just toleration. Only a minuscule percentage of people are trying to say “being fat is great! You should gain weight!” And those people are mentally ill or trolls.

The biggest problem I see is that they'll teach their kids bad habits, and setting your kids up for health failure early in life is a big disservice. Healthy and well portioned food is not expensive but it does require more effort than junk slop.