Hi all. I was just wondering what everybody thinks about the size acceptance movement? I think from a point of coming to some kind of peace with your weight/physical self it is valid, but I struggle to accept it from a health/wellbeing point of view. Is it healthy to never consider the implications that being morbidly obese can bring?

I also cringe when I hear people use the term '' People of size''. I am all for people learning to come to love themselves and have some inner peace, but should we never consider that being morbidly obese can have terrible consequences?

Susannah

From what I understand of the size accpetance movement (I'm going to call it SAM so I don't have to type it out), WLS would be "bad" because doing something to change your weight certainly couldn't be aligned with accepting and/or being proud of it.

From what I understand of the size accpetance movement (I'm going to call it SAM so I don't have to type it out), WLS would be "bad" because doing something to change your weight certainly couldn't be aligned with accepting and/or being proud of it.

Maybe for some...This one website talked about being healthy @ any weight which I personally don't think is true. I don't see how you can be morbidly obese and be or stay healthy.

Most of the sites I went on talked only societies views and loving yourself.

Perhaps flamed is too strong a word....I think it's obvious if you re read my post that I am not stereotyping anybody, I have already stated that ANY group of a given community can and will have divergent viewpoints. I was referencing a particular website and program I saw on TLC. I realize that those viewpoints don't represent the entire community. Last year members of The Fat Acceptance Community lobbyed Congress to try and prevent Medicare from paying for weight loss surgery. If These type of measures go through, it does not personally affect me because I was self pay and have already had the surgery, but it can certainly impact others who see this as a viable option and this would be their method for paying for the surgery.

Perhaps flamed is too strong a word....I think it's obvious if you re read my post that I am not stereotyping anybody, I have already stated that ANY group of a given community can and will have divergent viewpoints. I was referencing a particular website and program I saw on TLC. I realize that those viewpoints don't represent the entire community. Last year members of The Fat Acceptance Community lobbyed Congress to try and prevent Medicare from paying for weight loss surgery. If These type of measures go through, it does not personally affect me because I was self pay and have already had the surgery, but it can certainly impact others who see this as a viable option and this would be their method for paying for the surgery.

I didn't reference anything you said. All I said was that from the checking out some of the groups it was clear that they all weren't anti-WLS.

I have never heard of the Fat Acceptance Community, so I can't speak on it. I'll try to look them up later. What in the world was their reasoning behind lobbying against WLS. I'm surprised it made it to Congress.....

There reasoning is that if Medicare pays for WLS, it is like saying there is something wrong with being fat. They do not recognize being fat as a "disease" that needs to be treated, like, for instance, heart disease. And I agree with that viewpoint...when I was 20# overweight, I was fine with it, everybody is not meant to be skinny and that has never been my goal. I was considered fat by some people's standards, but not by mine, and I certainly didn't think I had a disease. But 20# turned into 60, and my blood pressure started to creep up and my knees started to hurt. I started seeing members of my family, including my parents, die at an early age secondary to obesity related illnesses, then I had a different take on it and realized that my weight was indeed affecting my health.

On July 15, 2004, the United States Department of Health and Human Services announced a new policy from HHS' Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) removing language in the Medicare Coverage Issues Manual stating that obesity is not an illness. According to the press release "This step allows members of the public to request that Medicare review medical evidence to determine whether specific treatments related to obesity would be covered by Medicare. By law, Medicare covers specified medically necessary services for illness and injury. The prior manual language, because it stated that obesity was not an illness, could prevent Medicare from covering treatments for diseases related to obesity."[27]

This is what they were lobbying against, a change in the language.

"There is no conclusive evidence that gastrointestinal surgery for weight loss increases longevity or improves overall health. There are a tremendous number of deaths and severe complications associated with weight-loss surgeries. Since non-invasive treatments for comorbidity factors exist, the presence of comorbidity factors is not a valid justification for surgery. Therefore, the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance condemns gastrointestinal surgery for weight loss under any circumstances. Until all weight loss surgeries are discontinued, NAAFA urges that such surgeries be restricted to controlled studies conducted by trained medical researchers. Further, NAAFA believes that the psychosocial suffering that fat people face is more appropriately relieved by social and political reform than by surgery."

People of size! We are Judged by every one' every day there is no escape we where a bull eye on are forehead 24/7 I was at the pool twice both times rude insults as these two large men where standing by the poll and a larger gentalmen came toward us, one guy stated at least were not fat as him! and this little desk clerk asked me and my family to leave at a certain time as ( those people them big ladys are coming ) to swim and like to be alone.as she stood there and judged she was smoking and drinking at the same time quik to judge.

HEY LADY GET YOUR MANAGER YOU NEED A LESSON AND HUMANITY AND PEOPLE WITH DISABILTYS WE MAY BE LARGE BUT WE LOVE AND HAVE FEELING LIKE EVERY ONE ELSE AND YOUR WALKING A THIN LINE WITH YOUR HATE FULL WORDS SUCH AS FAT PEOPLE ALL SMELL.

What I feel bad about is that I was raised in a family that LOVED the fat. My sweet aunties, they lavished good food, nutritious, colorfull, and of course the goodies and pastries. We had large portions, and celebrated stoutness. They were all raised practically starved. So to them, fat meant wealth, health and freedom to overindulge. My mindset had to be torqued to recognize that I was killing myself, and then it was way too late and very difficult to loose the weight. So in my situation, fat was where it was at, and so when people tried to discriminate against me for obesity, it was like water off a ducks back. It was simply thier problem.

I think its so sad that there are those that cant feel good about themselves untill they put someone else down. For any reason.

Most of the thin people I know do NOT have to be hungry and do NOT workout an hour a day.

Pay close attention to what these people eat on a regular basis. They have a salad for lunch, not 2 cheeseburgers from McDonald's. They do not eat a lot of bread. They do not snack on sweets between meals. If they drink soft drinks, they choose the diet variety, and they almost never drink alcohol.

I used to work for a former model. She was 60 when I met her. She has been thin all her life, but she works at it - even now, in her 70's. When her waitsbands start to get the least bit tight, she cuts back. But she doesn't starve herself. The first thing she does every morning is eat. And she eats 3 meals every day - nothing in between.

HEY LADY GET YOUR MANAGER YOU NEED A LESSON AND HUMANITY AND PEOPLE WITH DISABILTYS...

You are not "disabled" by obesity unless you are so severely overweight that you cannot get out of bed, cannot walk, etc. You are not any more discriminated against than women (still getting paid less for the same work), minorities, and a hundred other "groups". Short people are discriminated against. I need a step-stool to reach the top shelf in the grocery store, but do they provide one? Nooooooooo.

I have felt the heartbreak of being fat, too, so I know whereof you speak, but let's don't get so focused on ourselves that we forget what REALLY disabled people contend with on a daily basis, with no chance of recovering from their disability - no Lap Band for MS or CP.

Pay close attention to what these people eat on a regular basis. They have a salad for lunch, not 2 cheeseburgers from McDonald's. They do not eat a lot of bread. They do not snack on sweets between meals. If they drink soft drinks, they choose the diet variety, and they almost never drink alcohol.

I used to work for a former model. She was 60 when I met her. She has been thin all her life, but she works at it - even now, in her 70's. When her waitsbands start to get the least bit tight, she cuts back. But she doesn't starve herself. The first thing she does every morning is eat. And she eats 3 meals every day - nothing in between.

That is true of some people, but most of the skinny people I know eat pretty much what they want. There are some people that are health food junkies and stuff, but most that I know eat "real"fast food and stuff. Most of the people I went to college with that didn't gain the freshman 15, sophomore 10 weren't any different from anyone else. Maybe the athletics?

One of my friends is 28 now with 2 kids, people always ask her what she does and eats. She doesn't exercise and doesn't think about what she eats. You can't tell she has had any children. She could barely do the 1.5 miles we had to do in fitness class. Maybe it will catch up with her when she 50. She is a strange one though....I have never seen someone her size that is so consumed with food.

That is true of some people, but most of the skinny people I know eat pretty much what they want.

This really made me resent my former roommate for a while. She literally sat around and had lots of fat and carbs for every meal (sugary cereals, pasta, cheese bread, sweets, etc.). There were many days where she literally ate a couple of bowls of sugary oatmeal or cereal for breakfast, a pasta meal with lots of bread for lunch, and pizza for dinner. If I ate like that, I would have looked like a 5'3" bowling ball. She didn't.

You know Carlene, deep down, I'm annoyed by people who consider obesity a disability. I personally know more than a few people who have gone so far as to get siabled parking permits because they don't want to walk the distance from regular parking. No kidding. Those are the people who need to do the walking. Legitimate pains/disabilities, comorbidities, etc. aside -- I'm talking about people who are "fine", albeit obese.

** edited - "siabled"? What were my fingers thinking? D-i-s-a-b-l-e-d.

That's my husband. He can eat, and eat, and eat. And has been eating for the entire 9 years + that we've been married, and has gained maybe, oh... 30 lbs. Most of which can be attributed to his more sedintary lifestyle now -- he went from riding his bike to work and back, walking up 150+ stairs to get to his apartment, cross-country skiing, etc. to a total couch potato. Or computer chair potato, rather.

I keep telling him... one of these days his metabolism is going to catch up to his age (he's "just" 33 now), and he won't know what happened.