I'm going to post a couple links to sources for the next couple days to hopefully start a conversation in this space! These will fall in the area of Fat Studies and there's some norms you should be aware of:

  • "fat" is taken as a neutral descriptor, think of it as reclaiming the word.
  • "obese" arbitrarily medicalises fatness and Others fat people

I'm a cis man and I have (had) body image issues (in the past)

https://humanparts.medium.com/my-journey-toward-radical-body-positivity-3412796df8ff

I'm queer and fat

https://www.dropbox.com/s/yeefpijtl4s7orv/Flaunting%20Fat%20%E2%80%93%C2%A0Sex%20with%20the%20Lights%20On.pdf?dl=0

I'm queer and not fat

https://www.bitchmedia.org/post/fat-liberation-is-totally-queer

The others don't apply to me and/or I only have the energy/time to read one source

https://highline.huffingtonpost.com/articles/en/everything-you-know-about-obesity-is-wrong/

:sankara-salute:

👉 Part 2 is up

👉 Part 3 is up

  • longhorn617 [any]
    ·
    3 years ago

    But my mother’s story, like Sam’s, like everyone’s, didn’t have to turn out like this. For 60 years, doctors and researchers have known two things that could have improved, or even saved, millions of lives. The first is that diets do not work. Not just paleo or Atkins or Weight Watchers or Goop, but all diets. Since 1959, research has shown that 95 to 98 percent of attempts to lose weight fail and that two-thirds of dieters gain back more than they lost

    Oh wow, that's crazy. When I lost >100 lbs over the course of a year doing keto and carefully tracking my caloric intake (with very little exercise) it must have been the fat fairy that was actually making me lose weight.

      • longhorn617 [any]
        ·
        3 years ago

        It's almost like a bunch of people who did actually have the economic means and time to follow a diet but didn't have the discipline or self-control to follow through with that diet and/or address their relationship to food and overeating once they stopped that diet created a whole movement based around the idea that their weight was actually never a problem at all, providing cover for neoliberal system that has created conditions in which it is genuinely hard for many others to lose weight. Fat people should not be treated differently from anyone else and they aren't bad or immoral people for being fat, but that's not the same thing as saying that me being obese was healthy.

          • longhorn617 [any]
            ·
            3 years ago

            1. Yes, sugar will cause cardiovascular issues and yes that has been poorly reported for various reasons, including economic incentives.

            2. No, fat isn't better for cardiovascular health across the board. Some fats in too much quantity are still in fact unhealthy and can lead to heart disease.

      • mittens [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        they aren't, a fair amount of people are successful initially but gain their weight back between 5 to 10 years, that's what the 5% figure represents. i figure most people start not giving a shit tbh, calorie control is easy on paper but it starts to take over every part of your brain. every trip to the store, every time you hang out with your friends, when you visit your parents you're like "how much calories are in this or that" or "maybe i can make up for this by eating a bunch of tuna at dinner". at some point you're like "what's the point of this, i don't even feel good at all", and stop doing it altogether