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

Yeah, I hate my metabolism. Basically one of the things that kept me from getting super depressed when I lived with my former roommate was telling myself that her metabolism would shut down eventually, and then she would learn how it feels.

Don't get me wrong, I know I am 100% the cause of my obesity. But I also feel that it could have been avoided when I was a child. I have been heavy all of my life, but up until I started menstruating, I wasn't obese. When I started my period when I was 10, I think I had just enough extra weight to cause my PCOS to kick in. Then it became this horrible cycle. The extra weight caused my PCOS to get worse, which then made it very easy to gain more weight. Factor in that I had untreated asthma for years that made it very uncomfortable to exercise and bad eating habits ingrained into me by my parents, and I couldn't get out of the cycle.

When you haven't been fat all of your life, I think it is very easy for people to say that everyone has the ability to lose weight on their own. You have experienced being normal. It's different when you have lived with being overweight or obese your entire life. You don't know how to help yourself lose the weight. You don't have the motivation that folks who have been thinner do because you have never experienced what it was like to actually be a normal weight.

Just a few comments, people of size need to be able to feel good about themselves as do all people. The truth is I doubt very much that starting a club or support group will cause that to happen but it is important to have a positive self-image.

I do worry that these support groups sometimes make us feel good about doing things that are harmful, they is some ways allow the individual to forget the guilt that is caused by doing unhealthy things.

I do believe that obesity is not a choice and that we are cursed with an affliction that is almost impossible to overcome. The statistics would tell us that it is almost impossible to overcome obesity without medical intervention and even then the success rate is not 100%.

I don't blame anyone for my obesity and I fully accept all responsibility but I would not be beating it without the band.

Obesity may not be a disease but it is undeniably a symptom of one. It may be genetic, it may be psychological or it may be physiological, it may be as unique as we are individuals but it is not a choice.

We may need to fight it with all our strength but we should also have compassion for those who are, like us, obese.

Judging others for being obese, or short or blonde etc, etc. is wrong.

One of the things I find most interesting about fat people (Me Included) is we have the uncanny ability of being able to justify our obesity at the same time as we judge other obese people.

Lets all agree that it stops here with us and lets start by allowing other obese people to be proud of who they are.

TommyO