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Loving your body while you're overweight and getting to a healthier weight are not at cross purposes. Shame causes people to dissociate with their bodies which

Loving your body while you're overweight and getting to a healthier weight are not at cross purposes. Shame causes people to dissociate with their bodies which makes exercise and healthy eating harder. The fact that we are encouraged to think of being overweight as a personality flaw makes it much harder for people to lose weight. They take their weight as evidence of their weakness which causes a detrimental cycle. It's also true that popular notions of "healthy weight" are medically inaccurate. Many people who are a normal healthy weight and have no medical reason to lose weight still think they are overweight. There are lots of good reasons to encourage people to think of themselves as healthy at non-skinny sizes.

0xcde4c3db 9y ago
There's also a huge amount of distorted thinking about the relationship between body shape and weight or body fatness. For example, it's extremely common for people to believe (and dishonest elements of the "fitness industry" to promote) that there's some diet or exercise to change a feature that's primarily determined by skeletal structure or muscle insertions (peaked biceps, thigh gap, etc.).
chiefalchemist 9y ago
Sure. Agreed. People can believe whatever they want about their bodies. The issue is the disconnect between healthy body image and actual health. My issue with Oprah (for example) is she sells the love but never the facts. Concequently people believe they're going to be fine with diabetes, as long as they love their bodies. Sorry, but that's a lie. As for shame. Yeah, abuse is wrong. I'm not in favor of abuse. But lies aren't helping either. Normalizing the unhealth is bringing the (healthcare) system to its fat little knees.
- oddlyaromatic 9y ago
  >Concequently people believe they're going to be fine with diabetes, as long as they love their bodies. You make a giant leap here from 'I have value as a person regardless of my physical shape' to 'medical science matters not to me because my self-love gives me magical powers' ... Just wondering what that is about. It seems uncalled for. > its fat little knees. Oh. I'd like to gently suggest you may have a chip on your shoulder about this topic and maybe it's interfering with your analysis.
  - qume 9y ago
    Your paraphrasing of the parent post is incorrect and misleading.
    - oddlyaromatic 9y ago
      I'm open to learning why you think this. I was trying to accurately reflect the message I believe underlies the sentence that I quoted. If you think the statement "people believe they're going to be fine with diabetes, as long as they love their bodies" implies something different, please be specific. It still appears to me that the message is "people who watch Oprah or otherwise develop a positive body image, even if they are overweight, believe this positivity protects them from harmful medical conditions like diabetes that might be related to their body's general condition."
      - chiefalchemist 9y ago
        Why I think what? Glad to clarify. What part of the Oprah propaganda machine isn't clear?
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
maccard 9y ago
> Many people who are a normal healthy weight and have no medical reason to lose weight still think they are overweight. Many of those people probably _are_ overweight. If your bmi is greater than 25 and you’re not weightlifting (and eating to support that), you’re almost certainly overweight. Many people who are overweight are using the love your body campaigns for justification of their weight, when they are actually overweight.
- droopyEyelids 9y ago
  There is nothing humanity does that isn’t used at cross purposes by people who are missing or subverting the original point. The fact is that shame keeps people from being able to engage with their body and maintain the work needed to lose weight.
- erikpukinskis 9y ago
  How can someone with no medical reason to lose weight be overweight? That's a contradiction. Think about what "over weight" means.
  - maccard 9y ago
    Many people who _think_ they're not overweight are in fact overweight. Just because you believe you're a healthy weight doesn't mean you are, and just because you are the same weight as everyone else doesn't mean you are a healthy weight.

0xcde4c3db 9y ago

There's also a huge amount of distorted thinking about the relationship between body shape and weight or body fatness. For example, it's extremely common for people to believe (and dishonest elements of the "fitness industry" to promote) that there's some diet or exercise to change a feature that's primarily determined by skeletal structure or muscle insertions (peaked biceps, thigh gap, etc.).

chiefalchemist 9y ago

Sure. Agreed. People can believe whatever they want about their bodies. The issue is the disconnect between healthy body image and actual health. My issue with Oprah (for example) is she sells the love but never the facts. Concequently people believe they're going to be fine with diabetes, as long as they love their bodies. Sorry, but that's a lie. As for shame. Yeah, abuse is wrong. I'm not in favor of abuse. But lies aren't helping either. Normalizing the unhealth is bringing the (healthcare) system to its fat little knees.

oddlyaromatic 9y ago
>Concequently people believe they're going to be fine with diabetes, as long as they love their bodies. You make a giant leap here from 'I have value as a person regardless of my physical shape' to 'medical science matters not to me because my self-love gives me magical powers' ... Just wondering what that is about. It seems uncalled for. > its fat little knees. Oh. I'd like to gently suggest you may have a chip on your shoulder about this topic and maybe it's interfering with your analysis.
- qume 9y ago
  Your paraphrasing of the parent post is incorrect and misleading.
  - oddlyaromatic 9y ago
    I'm open to learning why you think this. I was trying to accurately reflect the message I believe underlies the sentence that I quoted. If you think the statement "people believe they're going to be fine with diabetes, as long as they love their bodies" implies something different, please be specific. It still appears to me that the message is "people who watch Oprah or otherwise develop a positive body image, even if they are overweight, believe this positivity protects them from harmful medical conditions like diabetes that might be related to their body's general condition."
    - chiefalchemist 9y ago
      Why I think what? Glad to clarify. What part of the Oprah propaganda machine isn't clear?
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

maccard 9y ago

> Many people who are a normal healthy weight and have no medical reason to lose weight still think they are overweight. Many of those people probably _are_ overweight. If your bmi is greater than 25 and you’re not weightlifting (and eating to support that), you’re almost certainly overweight. Many people who are overweight are using the love your body campaigns for justification of their weight, when they are actually overweight.

droopyEyelids 9y ago
There is nothing humanity does that isn’t used at cross purposes by people who are missing or subverting the original point. The fact is that shame keeps people from being able to engage with their body and maintain the work needed to lose weight.
erikpukinskis 9y ago
How can someone with no medical reason to lose weight be overweight? That's a contradiction. Think about what "over weight" means.
- maccard 9y ago
  Many people who _think_ they're not overweight are in fact overweight. Just because you believe you're a healthy weight doesn't mean you are, and just because you are the same weight as everyone else doesn't mean you are a healthy weight.