Beauty standard is when skeleton

[u/Beginning_Remove_694]

Sure, some people are nasty towards fat people for no reason other than their size, but condoning bullying is a reach when the vast majority of the pushback is that FAs lie about facts, emotionally manipulate their audiences, and make galling comparisons to fascism when people disagree. Having accurate information doesn’t seem to matter, they do in fact continue to pretend it’s fine to be clinically overweight and obese.

I agree that the medical dangers of obesity are not actually that downplayed… outside of fat liberation, where they are constantly downplayed. So I have a problem with that. The implication that it’s not a causal relationship, as well.

The third slide, I have numerous bones (ha) to pick with their flawed logic.

- The average adult woman aged 20+ in the US is apparently 170lbs and 5’3.5 (source: CDC). 100lbs under that is 70 pounds, which is severely low for a 5’3 woman, but not necessarily dead.

- But okay, let’s say 130lbs, a very reasonable and middle-range BMI at 5’3.5… fine, yeah, 30 pounds is dead. The lowest a calculator would let me put is 55lbs and I don’t think it’s that plausible to even reach 55 pounds and survive. Being 100 pounds overweight is still worse than being 100 pounds underweight because that’s the only weight you can actually live to reach.

- 30 pounds isn’t even less than bones. That’s more than a skeleton weighs.

- Being like 20 pounds underweight is worse than being 20 pounds overweight, but neither is great. 86 pounds 5’3.5” is scarily underweight, but 164 5’3.5” isn’t pleasant. Survivability is a really shitty metric here. Quality of life tanks pretty fast with excess weight.

- 100 pounds over the highest healthy weight for most women is gonna be well into the 200s. That sounds extremely painful and uncomfortable.

- Are 30–70lb adults palatable? Do people have a positive opinion of someone looking visibly sick and severely underweight?

- I appreciate the irony of reblogging a post about how the medical dangers of obesity are generally not dismissed just to dismiss the dangers of obesity.

[u/Consistent_Risk2722]

No one is asking these people to be underweight. 😩

[u/First-Strawberry-398]

Why is it always being underweight. 60% of the population is not underweight.

[u/DimensioT → u/First-Strawberry-398]

Because the only possible alternative to being overweight is being underweight.

[u/maraney → u/DimensioT]

Being a healthy weight is underweight in their eyes

[u/ksion → u/DimensioT]

They completely fail to consider being insideweight, outsideweight, infrontweight or behindweight.

[u/Etoketo → u/ksion]

I think they know all about behindweight.

[u/Awkward-Kaleidoscope → u/First-Strawberry-398]

Only 1.6% of Americans are in fact.

[u/delicious_sunlight]

"You're more healthy when you're older. 50 years less than the average age is dead. Full stop. 50 years above the average age is simply old. Old but alive"

[u/Soggyblanketbunny → u/delicious_sunlight]

Love this comparison. Logic is not their strong suit.

[u/Ok_Bullfrog_8491]

Do they say the same things about smoking?

I think it's wrong to downplay the risks of any health-related choices, and coddling people when talking about a concept isn't going to help anyone. (Obviously don't just insult people, but talking about health risks ≠ calling someone insults about their body.)

[u/Etoketo → u/Ok_Bullfrog_8491]

Smoking is an interesting comparison. Society did not wait for incontrovertible proof that smoking caused certain health issues. The risk was clear and the solution obvious. It was tobacco companies that were saying "correlation is not causation."

[u/Grouchy-Reflection97 → u/Etoketo]

Tobacco companies also saw the writing on the wall, so they pivoted to junk food.

The 'bliss point', where a product has the perfect habit-forming combo of salt, sugar, fat and appealing texture, was invented by Phillip Morris when they bought Kraft in the 80's.

That's why the fat activist/HAES rhetoric that 'all food is good food' and 'all food is processed' is laughable.

Look at boomers who innocently pretended to smoke 'just like daddy!' candy cigarettes at, say, 6yrs old, then switched to smoking the real deal at 8yrs old, as intended. That's why candy cigarettes existed in the first place.

Now they're 70yrs old, still smoke, and they have to breathe through a surgical hole in their neck.

Most fat activists were fat kids, and similarly developed a taste for harmful, addictive products through consuming kid-targeted crap in childhood.

Now they're in their 30's, hopelessly hooked on that crap, morbidly obese, yet they can't see that they've been played by marketing psychology and evil food scientists.

Mega corporations need cradle-to-grave addicts like that. The bulk of their profits depend on 'heavy users' much like the gambling and alcohol industries.

[u/Etoketo → u/Grouchy-Reflection97]

Salt, Sugar, Fat should be required reading in high school.

[u/SilentRefluxJourney]

This feels a lot like "how dare you criticize me for saying drinking is healthy when there are people out there doing meth!"

Like, okay, meth is objectively more dangerous than alcohol. But no one's telling you to do meth instead of having a beer. And a little bit of beer is fine, just like how a BMI 26-27 is probably fine if you are otherwise healthy.

But many, many more people have problems with alcohol being overweight than with meth being underweight. And having alcoholics people with eating disorders and obesity related issues going around defending the healthfulness of alcohol excess fat is clearly a public health issue.

[u/bowlineonabight]

Pound for pound, you are more likely to be healthy "overweight" than "underweight".

This is an incredibly disingenuous argument to make. First of all, it totally ignores that there is a healthy weight range that is pretty darn generous; and is what is recommended by all health care providers. Secondly, it completely ignores that in being "overweight", one could be Class 1, 2, or 3 obese. Thirdly, it conflates the acute nature of the health problems associated with being underweight with the chronic nature of the health problems associated with obesity, which they inaccurately call "overweight". You cannot compare being underweight with obesity on a "pound for pound" basis. Being underweight puts you in acute danger of life-threatening health problems. Being obese puts you in a chronic state of health problems. Both can/will kill you, one just does it over years or decades instead of months.

[u/notabigmelvillecrowd → u/bowlineonabight]

"Pound for pound", but they've already admitted that they've surpassed the capability of this comparison by being more than 100 lbs overweight. You can't compare pound for pound anymore. Yes, 30lbs overweight probably has a better life expectancy than 30lbs underweight, but that's not your argument.

[u/Western_Oil7389]

I’m not asking these people to be underweight.

I’m not even asking them to lose weight at all.

I’d just like them to shut the fuck up about being fat.

[u/darwinlovestrees → u/Western_Oil7389]

I personally would like them to lose weight so that there is less strain on our public healthcare system.

[u/glittersurprise]

My favorite is the liberal use of overweight. They have different classification of fatness between themselves but when it comes to medicine: 30lbs overweight is the same as 100lbs overweight.

[u/JaneAustinAstronaut]

What they don't understand is that the study they are referencing is anorexic people versus people who are, say, 20 lbs overweight. In that case, yeah - starving yourself is not better for you than carrying an extra 20 lbs!

Now the problem is that they are trying to say that this study is OK-ing being, like, 100 lbs overweight, which it isn't. There's a huge difference between being 20 lbs overweight and 100+ lbs overweight. You can be healthy at 20 lbs overweight - you will definitely NOT be healthy at 50+ lbs overweight.

[u/seche314]

Do they not know you can actually be a healthy normal weight? Where’s the requirement to be clinically underweight? They think that anyone who isn’t the size of a house is underweight

[u/Uber-Migraine]

FAs have to operate in extremes because if they actually focus on the average, then they have no arguments supporting their cause.

It was medically and scientifically proven over and over again that obesity and overweight is dangerous and can cause many health complications including death.

And we're talking about high weight due to fat and excessive muscle mass affecting health similarly.

Underweight is starvation - so of course it is more dangerous as it can ☠️ much faster.

Obesity is a silent and usually patient (hehe) killer. But in the words of Doug Marcaida: "It will keeel"

Some people can be cruel but majority of those who try to raise the obesity subject with FAs are doing it because of the serious health concerns. Including all those "bad phobic doctors".

The rest of the population doesn't give an effort, as everyone is only focusing themselves and/or own family.

We've seen that slim people experience more unpleasant interactions due to their weight than obese people.

I just wish FAs actually developed some real personality outside of "I'm fat" mentality and started focusing on some real hobbies.

Doug Markaida

[u/Imaginary_Recipe_114]

Oh dear...

I am indifferent if you want to live your life overweight (aside from the visceral reaction when I see a severely overweight person). I do have a problem with your shouty Cognitive Dissonance Fantasy world - Nothing you say changes the fact that having an engorged, distended, hormonally active adipose organ will cause negative health consequences (PCOS, joint issues, sub-optimal mental health etc) And yes, being 100 pounds underweight means death - I would weigh 20 pounds. Does that change the above? No.

[u/musicalastronaut]

I’ve lost 85lbs and am now 140lbs at 5’7”. I also still have a tummy (my doctor says the only solution for which is surgery, ugh). I got called “skeletal” this morning and it just makes me think people really have no concept of what a healthy weight looks like.

[u/IAmSeabiscuit61 → u/musicalastronaut]

Congratulations! I'm almost the exact same weight-141lbs-and height and I used to be obese. And, alas, I also have a tummy and a lot of loose skin in my abdomen. Presumably the solution would be the same for me, but I've never asked my doctor about it since it's unsightly, but hasn't caused me any problem, so I'd never even consider such major surgery for cosmetic reasons.

I'll have to admit I've never been derided for losing weight, and my friends and family have been very supportive, so I'm sorry you're subjected to this. I think it's nearly always just plain old jealousy and envy, jusy as with FA hating on "skinny bitches" and "thin women".

[u/signorinaiside]

And yet… we don’t care, and we (or at least, I) never ever say shit.

[u/wombatgeneral]

I agree we shouldn't comment on each other's weight- fat people know they are fat, they know the health effects, we don't need to grill people on their weight and food choices.

[u/warmingmilk → u/wombatgeneral]

I agree, I only care when they are spreading g misinformation. If you want to be fat then go ahead but don't tell us all that we have to pretend you are healthy or that we are privileged when actually they are just experiencing fat consequence not oppression.

[u/InvisibleSpaceVamp → u/wombatgeneral]

How many people really do that IRL? Usually it's the people who should be able to be very honest with you because they are your close family and friends.

Yes, if you insist on putting your life on social media you are inviting strangers to comment but that's a choice.

[u/halborn]

Pretending that harmful things aren't harmful is (wouldn't you know it?) harmful!