An Essay About the Experience of Being Fat

[Inner Surfer Girl 12,015]

https://medium.com/@thefatshadow/on-tough-love-and-your-fat-friend-s-health-bec20b13af78#.1q5kwgvpu

This is an excellent and moving essay.

[Sophie74656 1,572]

interesting read.

I understand the experience with the doctors. I had one doctor who I went to for something totally unrelated to weight and he kept asking me what kind of diabetes medication I was on. No matter how many times I said I wasn't diabetic he kept insisting that at my weight it was impossible not to be diabetic.

[VSGAnn2014 12,992]

Absolutely true.

[Cervidae 2,389]

I can SO, so relate to everything she wrote about. It's like a mirror of my life. Great essay, thanks for sharing.

Edited May 4, 2016 by Cervidae

[Christinamo7 4,042]

excellent read. my experience was different at the beginning - because I was around 32 when I became obese - but some of the issues with people judging what I should or should not be eating, or assuming that I was eating a certain way.

My end goal is to be healthier. whether that is at 180 - 160 - or 130 pounds - I am ok with. just planning to stick with my program and see where it settles. I am already off diabetes meds, almost of bp meds and weigh less than the husband. so, if other people do not view me as a success because I don't get thin enough to suit them, I don't really care. I'm a happy girl already and it is only going to get better.

[Cervidae 2,389]

@@Sophie74656 that's ridiculous. At almost 450 pounds, I was not diabetic. The ignorance of some doctors would be funny if it wasn't so terrifying - these are the people we're supposed to entrust our health to? I've been lucky to find a gyno/pcos specialist/primary doctor who are all much more experienced and understanding of me than the idiots my well-meaning but totally misguided mother took me to as a child and young adult.

[Sophie74656 1,572]

@@Sophie74656 that's ridiculous. At almost 450 pounds, I was not diabetic. The ignorance of some doctors would be funny if it wasn't so terrifying - these are the people we're supposed to entrust our health to? I've been lucky to find a gyno/pcos specialist/primary doctor who are all much more experienced and understanding of me than the idiots my well-meaning but totally misguided mother took me to as a child and young adult.

The worst part was my bloodwork from a month earlier was right there in the chart he was holding

[reree6898 1,164]

Following so I can find this thread later. [emoji6]

[4MRB4PHOTO 3,899]

Thank you for sharing this.

[mngreeneyes 674]

My pediatrician put me on a VERY restrictive diet at 6 years old. I spent the better part of the summer between kindergarten and 1st grade losing 20 pounds! That was 1/3 of my body weight at the time. What did I learn from that experience? That I was fat and something was wrong with me. I spent the next 38 years battling the messages of inadequacy I learned at 6. When I had surgery, I needed to lose 140 pounds to get to a healthy BMI. I am more than halfway there. Could I have lost the weight by being encouraged to be more active instead of focusing on my weight? Probably. Would that have caused as much damage to my self image? probably not. I wasted so many years being a volume and emotional eater and it all started when I was 6.

Thanks for sharing.

pam

[gowalking 10,790]

https://medium.com/@thefatshadow/on-tough-love-and-your-fat-friend-s-health-bec20b13af78#.1q5kwgvpu

This is an excellent and moving essay.

Sure is. Lot's of introspection today....

[Healthy_life2 8,322]

@@Inner Surfer Girl

I loved this essay. The experience of obesity hit my self esteem hard. All the negative messages from society and myself. I have worked on myself during my rapid weight loss process.(always learning) Getting my mental heath together has been best gift from surgery.

[WantToBe 77]

Powerful, thanks for sharing ISG.

[fanbrits johnson 2]

I've also been doing a research on it. I needed online dissertation help​​​​​​​. You have some good points I might use