It is often said that perfectionism is the enemy of everything. And nowhere is this truer than in our apparent obsession with weight loss and slimming techniques. Of course, it is always desirable and healthier to have a flat stomach. However, the amount of discrimination that fat and overweight people have to endure because of society’s obsession with weight loss and unreal slimming standards is sickening. Being fat has pretty much become a social stigma and the amount of fat-shaming that some people have to go through in their daily lives has often driven many of them to resort to highly dangerous slimming treatments.
One thing that people who resort to fat-shaming often fail to understand is that each and every individual’s body dynamics are different. A type of figure that works for one individual may not necessarily work for another. Also, the amount of stress and anxiety that people are under due to fat-shaming often causes psychological and mental health disorders and many have to seek professional help as a result. Often times, fat people resort to starving themselves in an effort to lose weight and find some acceptance in society. This ends up doing more harm than good.
You Can Be Overweight But Still Be Healthy
This may sound contradictory but the fact is that not everyone who apparently seems fat and overweight is actually having health issues.
He or she may even be healthier than your average slim and slender individual. Just like being thin is no guarantee of good health, in the same way being overweight is not simply a sign of health issues.
In essence, there is nothing wrong with being fat and overweight. We have been conditioned by society and brought up to uphold certain unrealistic and prejudiced standards. One of them is the obsession with a slim figure and an utter disregard and contempt for fat people. Our popular media, both mainstream and social, also repeats the same message over and over again that fat or overweight equals bad. Our television shows depict virtually no body positive characters or storylines of any kind. Also, the diet industry today has become a multi-million dollar industry and a huge part of its advertising/promotion campaigns is focused on fat-shaming to entice people to consume more of their weight loss products (pills, fat-burning belts etc).
Appearance Doesn’t Equal Good or Bad Health
You cannot pronounce someone as healthy or unhealthy simply by looking at them and judging their body shape. Good or poor health is the consequence of an individual’s choices. It is, of course, good to eat well and exercise irrespective of body shape and size. But what is more important is to live healthily and strive for personal well-being, instead of losing weight by hook or by crook.
Nothing Wrong With Being Fat
Certain notions and stereotypes have held strong in almost every era, stuff for which there has never been any scientific explanation or justification. For instance, about 3 generations ago we believed that women could not become good business leaders, politicians, administrators, or academics. About 2 generations ago, we started to realize that women were just as capable and intellectually gifted as men. However, people of colour and non-white races were still considered inferior and uncivilized. About a generation or so ago, we started to realize that there was nothing that made white people superior to other races. Though it has taken a while, but the world is finally starting to realize that being fat is not as much of a doomsday scenario as it is made out to be. Different fashion campaigns have started using plus-size models in a bid to promote body positivity and encourage people to feel more comfortable in their own skin.
In an age where our body is an integral part of our identity, believing or propagating the notion that being fat is a bad thing will only cause unimaginable stress for countless individuals. What is needed is to be more considerate and understanding towards fat people and help them to practice acceptance of their own bodies while simultaneously pursuing a healthy lifestyle to ensure personal well-being.
You Can Fat and Happy
You do not have to justify anything to anybody and you most certainly do not have to accept other people’s versions of what you should or should not look like. Ultimately it is your body and you should have complete control over it. Own your imperfections and wear them on your sleeve with pride. Trust yourself and trust the journey. While being overweight is not ideal by any means, your body fat should not be preventing you from living a life full of happiness and well-being.
Recognize that people come in lots of different shapes and sizes and they all have unique qualities and personalities. Accept your own body completely and give a middle finger to the weight loss brigade. Practice healthy eating and workout routines and maintain a healthy lifestyle. You have as much right to be happy and comfortable in your own skin.
No reason to feel bad about being fat as long as you dont have serious health issues. Feeling good about ourselves is key for a good life. But to live a long and fruitfull life, we have to take care of both our physical health and mental health.
nice story @jasimg, I was also fat few years back. Even though no one in my family was fat-shaming me, I always felt sluggish, unenergetic, and slow all the time. I even started to had knee problem.
Since my mother is diabetic then there is a chance I will become one. That is why I started my journey to be healthier (not skinny).
In the beginning I thought exercise will be enough, it turns out eating in calorie deficit (through intermittent fasting) plus exercises helped me to lose weight, became healthier and stronger physically and mentally.
For myself, the danger of accepting ourselves being fat is we become complecent and it leads to unhealthy eating habit and leads to morbid obesity...thus try to always strive to be the best version of yourself in everything that you do including losing that fat into healthy Body Mass Index
peace and blessing
Yeah.
What's important is our priority/goal that we want to achieve. Happiness is our most priority regardless of anything. Even if we get sick in the end, as long as we're happy today. Enjoyment and eating are what most people like and feels happy doing those 'feels good stuffs'.
In my faith, knowledge and experience:
I guess my recommendation to health is as simple as balance.
I guess most people are not aware of this. We only most of the time know/knew the word 'eating'. The word 'fasting' sounds alien to us. A lot of things to search and study on fasting. The popular one maybe not to some is intermittent fasting. I won't go deeper into this. There are a lot more about fasting stuffs to learn from.
Most cultures are already cultured on their scheduled time on eating. Time for breakfast, time for snacks, time for lunch, time for snacks, time for dinner. We are/were becoming slaves of our time. We don't even listen to our body, if its expanding or purging.
"Breakfast is the most important meal of the day!" A food industry slogan?
Even the word 'breakfast' obviously violates the law of fasting. Breakfast means breaking the fast, that's why its called breakfast.
Fasting is traditional, ancient, an old thing. But, in the process, its evolving. There are a lot of varieties to study/learn on fasting.
Anyways, thanks @jasimg for posting up a good health insights.
More power!
Good post bro @jasimg
I really do appreciate your approach @jasimg and I agree, it is important to maintain a healthy balanced life where moderation and structure is applied to ones lifestyle to allow for eating comfort foods as well as healthy options. The 80/20 principle is a great way to keep healthy most of the time with the allowance of treats here and there. I would like to argue that it is not how you look on the outside or how much you weigh on the scale ( I have many metal plates from a life threatening accident and weigh about 7kg's more than I generally 'should' but I don't mind as what I think is most important is how much visceral fat sits in between your organs and skin and bones that determines your general level of body fat. If you are generally active involving regular stretching, body massaging and core stabilizing exercises with a fair amount of cardio- you should have a healthy amount of visceral fat. It isn't the easiest means of determining health as you cant simply stand on a scale and bam!- there's an indicator of how much visceral fat you have, but at least it is some form of true indicator, what do you think?
True that!!
I sort of agree with you @jasming, but for me is finding balance in life; when I was overweight I wasn´t happy with myself but not for how I look but because I couldn’t do the things I wanted to do physically speaking... I think everyone should workout at some point in their lives, but for the right reason, not for vanity or stereotypes.
well said!
I think balance is importance.
Rewards Pool Farmer Alert
He is leasing 30k SP from @minnowbooster then using that to VOTE Up his own 7 Day old comments on random posts at the last minute. Scroll his comments to around the 6 day mark or just go to https://steemd.com/@ryacha21; he has a lot of self love on his own old comments.
HE IS DOING IT OVER AND OVER AND OVER.. He is farming the pool.. If you could help it would be appreciated..
Learn more about this sack of monkey spunk here:
https://steemit.com/shitpost/@pawsdog/the-shit-post-diaries-1-17-18-4
Also kinda a dick move to use the actual good post of another person to post a comment for no other reason to come back and farm it later.
Post Author, @jasimg I do apologize.. This dude makes no actual articles of his own so the only way to draw attention to what he is doing is to comment his comments. My sincerest apologies for cluttering up your blog, outing the abusive self voting behavior of @ryacha21
I agree with you, everyone deserves happiness, but also there is some merit to having a balanced lifestyle.
Health concerns might not appear now but continuing the bad habit of eating junk and never working out surely will take its toll on your body sooner or later.
I want to believe that moderation is key to being happy.
every person on the planet has baggage and the difference is that your baggage is worn on the outside. You have the disappointing reality of having to be transparent. Everyone knows what your struggle is. Everyone else can pretend that they don’t struggle at all. You have to be humbled because this fact about your innermost turmoil is public knowledge. @jasimg
Cat and Rat
Perfection perspection of today's world is sickening. Me and my dear wife trying to not to be a part of that perspection. We are trying to be healthy and eat whatever we want instead. The idea is that: How can you become happier while you don't eat anything you want?
Eat my fellow Steemians, just don't forget to move to not lose your health :)
This post has received a 45.94 % upvote from @booster thanks to: @jasimg.
thanks for share these nice informations ;) we dont have to be fit :D
My aunt is fat since she was young, and until now she is 50 years old, she is very healthy. I think healthy activity, proper sleep time, and food that is not excessive, will make people fat safe in terms of health. Conversely, thin people will still feel sick if not have a good lifestyle. Therefore, be proud to be a fat and healthy person. To my knowledge, many skinny people who love fat people. Fat people love fat people. So, how lucky are they. :D
I believe the most important focus should be health and not image. Try to be healthy and active and your body will fix the image itself. being thin doesn't mean you are healthy, being muscular doesn't mean you are healthy. Don't be fat,don't be thin, don't be buffed. Be healthy.
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stay fit and be healthy, you will be happy
I totally disagree.. even though I wish what you've written could be true! I think that fat and happy are mutually exclusive and can't co-exist. Happiness and well-being are sort of chemical reaction in our bodies, you can't be full of toxins and be happy, toxins are poisoning you. If you are healthy and happy, you just won't be fat.
Not that skinny means happy and healthy - you can be skinny and still be full of toxins and have all sorts of deficiencies..
"Accept your own body completely and give a middle finger to the weight loss brigade. Practice healthy eating and workout routines and maintain a healthy lifestyle." - if you really can do that, you just won't be fat.
I think food is a blessing, what is bad are the extremes, I have a balanced diet, exercise and lots of water, but I do not refuse to eat anything, from time to time I can eat foods forbidden by nutrition and good health. In short, balance.
kidding me? i'd love to be fat! well, for the past few of my teenage years, i've been trying to add weight. i eat severally, like i consume alot cause i'm a foodie, yet nothing works. i'm stuck like this. somebody help meee!!!!
Great Article @jasimg!!
As you said society has changed the perception of beauty in ways that many times are not healthy for individuals, we can observe how magazines show people that might be even damaging his own health in the search of that "perfect" body.
A good shape has to bee the consequence of good habits , as good nutrition and regular excercise, less stress and good sleep. The shape that each body adopt with this habits will be different, being they are ectomorph, mesomorph or endomorph, so this is the conception of a good shape, and it wilk be different for each person.
God Bless Us All!
Being fat was more fun
The most important thing is to be sure of oneself, and we have to like ourselves mainly, in the case that the physicist matters to us... we must think that erroneously the most important thing is not the kilos that we weigh, the most important thing is the percentage of fat that we have....
🍏
Gentlemen, each organism is a different world, it has metabolisms, different needs. We must work more on the basis of raising our self-esteem, it is a very trite but true phrase "The beautiful, we carry it inside" always remember that. Do not engage in seeking acceptance of society, we must begin by accepting ourselves ... Regards
I wouldn’t promote anyone to fat shame others however, I think there need for a conversation about an effort to help change that person's lifestyle for the better. Obesity in no way shape or form is okay and should not be accepted. Considering the different type of genetics and body types, there is no excuse to remain in that state. There are several research studies pointing out the multiple risks of obesity. You stated that fat shaming causes psychological issues, the main causes of those issues stem from there obesity biologically. Also society has pushed this prejudiced standards however, no one can blame society, people need to take ownership of their issues. You can only be happy in the short term being obese. Obesity will lead to several health issues and a very difficult challenges. I have no issue with people being overweight, it is there choice. I have issue with this promotion that it's okay and the individuals are not to blame. I think everyone understands all the risks of being overweight. It's a matter of discipline, obesity is a great opportunity to overcome an amazing challenge.
You're totally right, people don't have to be skinny to be happy. If they're satisfied with the way the look that's fine, but many people struggle every day because they want to look different and loose weight but they can't. Those people need help and encouragement to accept their body first and then work on their shape.
And yes, the media still tell us that we should all be skinny and good looking, but in real life there are so many overweight people that we are getting used to it, so there's not so much fat shaming now
..NICE POST inspiring as a fat person like me
Im not ashamed nor am I afraid of being fat. I gained weight because I am happy with my life and with the people around me. I am confident with my body since people accept me for what I am. Happiness definitely is based on contentment and being satisfied with life whatever body you have.
Very good I like it a lot!
Being fat is okay as long as you keep your self healthy. You are having daily exercise, keeping self away from stress which triggers most of the diseases. Afterall, food is good ;)
I understand what you are trying to say here about accepting yourself for whatever size you are. I to do not appreciate other people fat shaming anyone however, there isn't enough emphasis on the corporations that either produces or supports the same foods that are addicting with barely any nutritional values. This is fat shaming should not over shadow the real problem on this side of the world. Your local grocery store should not be allowing brands that only produce sugary snacks and products. This is the real problem, if we all agree to cut out the source of what is causing the rising obesity, then this whole fat shaming will be left behind us. Out of all the developed nations, USA is the top contender of holding the title of being the most obese per capita in the world. This should be an alarm bell for everyone looking from the outside in.
Amazing! I wrote something similar to this not long ago! https://peakd.com/iamalive/@lydiannreso/10?ref=lydiannreso