The Harmful Effects of Weight Loss On Those Around Us
Losing weight isn’t necessarily a good thing.
I recently read yet another account of someone’s weight loss journey. They touted exercise and eating ‘healthy’ as their holy grails. “It’s simply a matter of calories in verse calories out.” That’s what they say as if losing weight is an easy accomplishment to achieve.
Hundreds of thousands of people desire to lose weight, all on the premise of being ‘healthy.’ What nobody told you was that ‘healthy’ is code for ‘thin.’
When we talk about weight loss, we talk about it as a positive thing. Something that should be rewarded because people are actively trying to lose pounds on their bodies.
In a world where we equate thinness with health, we are saying fat people are inherently unhealthy. Being ‘fat’ is seen as being a bad thing. Fat people are gross.
Nobody tells you that losing weight isn’t necessarily a good marker of health.
Nobody tells you that body size isn’t an indicator of health. There are skinny people who aren’t healthy and fat people who are healthy.
To cancer patients and people with eating disorders, losing weight isn’t a good sign. Except that’s how we treat it.
Thin people are lauded for their willpower and healthiness, while fat people are mocked.
We use the guise of concern to shame and troll those who are heavier than us, but we don’t do the same to thin people. We don’t look at a thin person and make judgments about their health. People aren’t concerned about thin people’s health.
I’m not a fat person. I don’t experience the shame and ridicule for my body size. Nobody should have to experience that, but we know all too well that’s not the case.
For further research and reading, one of my favorite resources is right here on this platform — Your Fat Friend. I encourage you to take a look and read about someone else’s experience today. Read more about it here.
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