fat acceptance movement page

[fiercehunter]

An article in which the author says she "stopped dieting" and accepted herself as fat at 18 rather than learning about nutrition & health:
Jean Fain, L.I.C.S.W., M.S.W.: Fat Activist Lesley Kinzel on How to Stop Dieting and Start Loving Your Body

If nothing else, what I try to get people to walk away with is knowing that any decisions they make about their bodies and their health needs to come from a place of self-love, and not self- loathing.

It's all about "self love".

[BestBetter]

Not sure what point you're trying to make...fat people shouldn't love themselves?

[Owly]

So you think self-loathing is a good idea? Fat people deserve the same love and respect as anyone else.

I'd far rather spend time with a fat person who is caring and loving and focuses on her health regardless of weight than a thin person who hates on fat people and obsesses over being skinny.

[FatHappyandCaffeinated]

I agree with the fat acceptance movement in that if someone chooses to be fat and accept and love themselves as such, it's no one else's business. Criticism of folks for being fat because it's "not healthy", "I'm just worried about your life", etc. is usually dreck. The criticism is all too often a way for someone to jack up their own ego by dumping on someone else and we're running out of folks you're allowed to dump on (no more dumping on women, gays, hispanics, etc.), thank God.

If someone asks me about fat and dealing with it, I'll tell them my experience, part of which is I learned to accept myself first, give a finger to the judgementalists and folks who think they have the right to tell me how to live, then I began to get some real progress in making the changes I choose to make in living a life I choose to live.

Bottom line: no one's business but your own.

[magnolia1973]

I gotta say, I can see how people get discouraged through CW weightloss. I see women all the time working hard at exercise and eating next to nothing and staying fat. I'm not saying they should give up, but after 6-8 weeks of starving myself and busting my ass exercise and not getting smaller, it was hard to not just say "OK, I'm fat. Tough Shit".

When you say "learn about nutrition and health"- well, who are you learning from? If you are learning from mainstream people like Dr Oz.... repeat the above cycle to infinity and feel like shit that you are a failure. Learning to eat low fat and whole grains does nothing. I'm not saying its good to be fat, but I can see the decision to get on with your life after the you know, 10th or 15th time CW fails you.

[Owly]

Also, Lesley is an awesome writer, and I love her blog.

[Jodis]

We're ALL in the fat acceptance movement. We love ourselves, we love the fat we get in our food, etc. etc. ;-)

ETA: And on the same page, I found this link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/susan-...ess&ref=topbar

If you are learning from mainstream people like Dr Oz.... repeat the above cycle to infinity and feel like shit that you are a failure. Learning to eat low fat and whole grains does nothing. I'm not saying its good to be fat, but I can see the decision to get on with your life after the you know, 10th or 15th time CW fails you.

Absolutely!

[Jen AlcesAlces]

When you say "learn about nutrition and health"- well, who are you learning from? If you are learning from mainstream people like Dr Oz.... repeat the above cycle to infinity and feel like shit that you are a failure. Learning to eat low fat and whole grains does nothing. I'm not saying its good to be fat, but I can see the decision to get on with your life after the you know, 10th or 15th time CW fails you.

That's the impression I got from the article. She mentioned eating a v*gan diet, feeling miserable and not really losing weight. So many people think v*gan is the pinnacle of good health... and if it doesn't work for you, you start to feel hopeless. (BTDT).

I really hate fat-bashing, so I agree with many of her points... particularly about fat people deserving respect like everyone else. No we don't have the right to shame others, in fact there were studies showing that shaming fat people did not help them. Instead, shaming them caused them to gain more weight. There's really no excuse for that.

The thing I most disagree with her on is about Mrs Obama's Let's Move program (or whatever it's called). Yes, she is targeting obesity, but I don't recall there being any shaming. Just encouragement to get active and stay active. Nothing wrong with encouraging that, in my opinion. The author mentions feeling discouraged to exercise due to her size, so you think she'd be in favor of a program that encourages people of all sizes to be active. Oh well.

Nothing wrong with loving yourself no matter your size... often that alone is enough to trigger some positive changes.

[BlkSabbath74]

I agree with loving yourself, but accepting yourself as overwieght just seems like giving up.

I mean, we can get all bubbly-cuddly about our feelings, but that doesn't change the biological fact that it is unhealthy to be overweight, nevermind obese.

I won't bash anyone for the way they choose to live their life, and I certainly don't expect anyone to adhere to the size-zero standards of models, but the fact remains that being fat is not a good thing.

[Bosnic]

I accept large amounts of fat... when it's on my plate.