Body Liberation

10 Very Unpopular Facts About Fat People

Hi Musers. I’ve been writing in defence of fat people for a little over a year now. One of the things that saddens me the most is how much hate people are prepared to spew out. It seems that people are happy to believe fat people aren’t human beings, deserve no respect and that their fatness is all their own fault. This. Is. Crap. 

So here are my ten unpopular facts about fat people. Brace yourselves!

1) Fatness is not the person’s fault

People can quote “calories in, calories out” until the cows come home, but the fact is weight is a much more complex issue. It is affected by gender, genetics, geography, economics, medical conditions, medications and past history of trauma. 

Two people of identical heights could eat identical diets, and their weights would be different.

2) Diets don’t work

Speaking of unpopular facts about fat people, when I posted my article listing scientific studies that proved weight-loss diets are ineffective in 95% of cases, people lined up to tell me it had worked for them. That’s great for them. However, I didn’t say weight-loss diets never work. I said they don’t work 95% of the time and that those who try often end up heavier than they were to begin with. 

Let’s say you went to the doctor for help with a medical issue. They offered you a treatment that had a 95% chance of failure and an 83% chance of actually making you worse. Would you agree to it? If you did agree due to utter desperation and it failed would you blame yourself or the treatment? You’d blame the treatment, of course! Not when it comes to dieting, though. It’s always the dieter’s fault.

3) Fat people can be healthy

Not all fat people are healthy, but not all thin people are either. However, there are many fat people who have normal blood pressure and blood sugar and exercise regularly. Even if they aren’t, though, it’s no one else’s business! Just assuming some one’s level of health just by looking for them is an example of fatphobia. I’m sure that will be one of the most unpopular facts about fat people!

4) Fat people can be fat due to an illness they cannot control

Requiring a fat person, or indeed any person, to be healthy is ableist because not everyone can be. The two are often linked but not in the way you’re probably thinking.

Many health conditions can cause weight gain, including PCOS, hypothyroidism, arthritis, depression (due to cortisol increase), insomnia, menopause and Cushing’s disease. As most people don’t walk around with a badge saying, “Hi, my name is x, and I have X condition”, you wouldn’t know just to look at them. That’s why judging someone on their weight is a really horrible thing to do.

5) Fat people do not owe you a thin body

It’s a sad fact that many people only accept fat people and treat them with any degree of respect if they are actively and visibly trying to lose weight. Who the hell is anyone to tell anyone else what to do with their body?? 

Please don’t try to go back to “concern for health.” Firstly, a person’s health is their business, not yours. Secondly, there are many, many extremely unhealthy thin people, and no one ever expresses concern for their health. 

This includes many tragic stories I’ve read about sufferers of eating disorders who were weeks from death and were still surrounded by people congratulating them for their self-control. Please, please think about that for a second. Congratulating a disorder that is slowly starving them to death! If that doesn’t open your eyes to the scale of the problem, nothing will.

6) Fat people are not all lazy

My mother was fat, and she worked 9-hour shifts on her feet all the time as a nurse in a busy admissions department at the hospital. Before a recent chronic fatigue flare-up, I went to the gym and did strength training 3-4 times per week. A few years ago, I did two circuits classes and two clubbercise classes per week, as well as going for a walk most days. Assuming we never get off the couch is just fatphobic beliefs in action.

7) Fat people do eat balanced diets

Just like people assume we’re lazy, people also love to assume fat people live on junk food and takeaways. I hate to break it to you, but I love to cook. Some of my favourite meals are chicken curry, lasagne, salmon rice and veggies, chicken, kale and bean soup, and lastly, salad.

I love vegetables and fill at least half of my plate with them. Do I eat too much sometimes? Yes, probably. However, my diet is nutritious and balanced.

8) Fatphobia is unacceptable

This is one of the top unpopular facts about fat people. Bashing fat people is seen as acceptable, even encouraged, when every other form of discrimination has rightly become unacceptable and often illegal.

No one deserves to be abused based on how they look, exotically as it’s something they often cannot control. If any of you out there still think this is ok, then I believe you’re a horrible person. No one deserves abuse and discrimination, ever. End of story.

9) Fat people are beautiful

Since I’ve started learning about body liberation, I’ve massively expanded the people I follow on Instagram. I follow people of all shapes, sizes and colours. I follow transgender folx, people in wheelchairs, and those with stoma bags.

The more I look at all these different types of bodies, the more I genuinely see the beauty in all of them. There is so much diversity, and I believe this is a wonderful thing. We are all supposed to be different, supposed to be unique. So why can’t we learn to embrace these differences and spread love and acceptance rather than hate and judgement?

10) Fat people are worthy

Whether you believe it or not, I believe that everyone is entitled to love, respect, acceptance, equal treatment in all fields, including medical, equal opportunities and dignity. Fat people are human beings, for God’s sake! So the next time you want to judge us, or make a fatphobic comment, tell us to “eat a salad”, or talk about how you have been able to lose weight, please don’t!

Everyone is different, every body is different, but what’s not different is that we deserve respect. Is that really so much to ask?

Respect

I ended this article talking about respect because I suspect there may be a lot of hate coming my way. Please believe whatever hurtful, fatphobic comment you plan on making I have heard before, so please don’t.

If you have any genuine questions or comments not covered in this article, please feel free to respond. If it’s something that I have already discussed, though, I won’t respond as I’m not here to get into lengthy debates. 

I don’t believe any of my unpopular facts about fat people should be groundbreaking or a red rag to bull, but sadly I suspect they will be because the world is so fatphobic. However, my hope is that one article at a time, I may be able to help change that.