Miss Fat Piggy's "Curvy Girls" post...has inspired this rant. And warning girls, this is a RAAAAAAAANT.
I could rant about overweight people all day, every day but really, I try to hold it in most days, but reading Fat Piggy's post has really triggered me off, not to mention some of the responses to it. Here is my comment on her post, plus a little more elaboration.
Here is my stance on being "curvy" and being overweight and "having a low metabolism". Sure, there are metabolic disorders that PREDISPOSE you to being fat, but at the end of the day, it's all intake vs. output. There are only 3 disorders in the whole world that I think will totally excuse you from being fat: Angelman's, Prader-Willi and leptin deficiency.
Let's get this straight. Some of the thinnest people I know have PCOS, and NOBODY can blame being fat on having a LOW metabolism because metabolic rate is directly proportional to weight so the more you weigh, the HIGHER your metabolism. Exercise only changes your metabolic rate by a small amount so all that shit about HAVING A LOW METABOLISM IS JUST BULLSHIT. People who are overweight and think they have a "low metabolism" generally are counting their calories wrong. There was a study on these "low metabolism" people and they were compared with those thin people with "high metabolisms" who thought they were thin because they had a "high metabolism".
GUESS WHAT???? They gave everyone radioactive double labelled water, which measures the number of calories that you eat, and those "low metabolism" people ate roughly twice as many calories than their "high metabolism" counterparts. And GUESS WHAT???? The "low metabolism" people actually had metabolisms that were 30% higher than those people who were supposed to have higher metabolisms.
And also people, I give this speech to each overweight patient who tries to sell me the "low metabolism" bullshit. I went through 6 years of medical school bitches, you think you can fool me with that mainstream bullshit??? And yeah, sure, you might have the "obesity gene", the greatest excuse for being lazy any generation has ever had. But GUESS WHAT, only 10% of overweight people have that gene. So 90% of them are just overeating.
Fat people use it as such an excuse for being fat. "Oh I have a low metabolism because everyone in my family has a low metabolism." Bullshit. The reason your whole family is fat is because you all eat the same shit.
I do think that overeating is a behavioural issue, and that is is taught by observing other people's behaviour or is developed as a coping mechanism and you can't really blame people too much for that. However, it is their choice whether or not to continue their pattern, or to make a change.
And NOOOOOOO, weight loss DOES NOT depend on WORKING OUT. So all those people too fat to move, or actually physically disabled in some way (perhaps they lost a limb due to the diabetes they gave themselves from being too fat) have no excuse. 80% of weight loss is diet related. And working out generally makes people more hungry, so they eat more. It's all about the food people. IT'S ALL ABOUT THE FOOD!!!!
No, it's not easy to diet and lose weight. Of course it's not. If it was, nobody would be fat. And yes, food tastes good and food comforts us when we're upset. That's why it's so easy to be overweight. I'm not saying "fuck fat people, it's their own fault so tough titties". I'm not saying that at all. What I am saying is that until they start to really recognise their own eating and behavioural patterns as contributing to them being overweight, they will not be able to lose weight.
If being overweight was really just simply metabolic, I'm sure medical research would be pouring billions of dollars into finding a step in that metabolic pathway to block and then BAM! SKINNY PEOPLE! But that's not happening, because it's not metabolic.
And Angelman's, Prader-Willi and leptin deficiency? BOOM! CHROMOSOMAL DISORDERS! No cure, sorry. But when you don't have the ability to feel full, yes, of course you keep eating.
Don't get the impression that I have a thing against fat people. Not at all. Yes, they might sometimes make my heart sink because they make my job harder. And yes, sometimes all their excuses make me want to beat my head against a wall. But the only reason I feel like this is because I've been on the other end of it.
You only have to witness one failed resuscitation, of a young woman in her 50s, who had a heart attack because of her eating. Doing CPR on this lady, three times my size, while her family stand around me, crying and wailing, her children begging her "mum! wake up!", I only had to see that once to know that I would happily whip and beat every overweight person I come across to avoid that happening to another family.
You only have to go to the amputations ward once, see the young men and women in their 40s and 50s, missing legs due to their diabetes, waiting on super large wheelchairs, going blind from their diabetes, crying about how they are dying because they can't stop eating, yet eating chocolates at the same time to comfort themselves. You only have to see that once to know that you will never care about making a fat person angry, or making them cry if that means that there is a slight chance of the message getting across. At night I weep for the people who are blind from their diabetes, who will never be able to look at their children again.
Yes, I'm harsh. I'm the same with smokers. Seeing one lung cancer patient will do that to you. And I used to run lung cancer clinics. And by the time they get to me, I know they are going to die. These wonderful people, these wonderful caring people, RUINED by eating too much and smoking too much. So yes, I'm harsh. Because I'm trying to save them from themselves. If I don't tell them, then who will?
If women have a natural hourglass, curvy figure, great. If they are fat, then fuck, their fat. And if they don't face it then I will happily see them in hospital after their heart attack or stroke at 45 years of age, or when they are 50 and their knees are worn out because of the massive strain on them. And you know what, then they will have to face a lifetime of medication, and then they will have to face themselves.
What goes around comes around sisters. And if people choose not to do something about their weight today, then they can face the consequences of that decision later.
You know, there is something I'd like to add to this as well. The idea that people are on tv and in movies telling people that it is okay to be average sized, with average size being a fucking size 14. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? that's half the fucking problem in the first place. It is not okay to be a size 14. I was overweight at a size 12 and i'm damn nearly 6 foot. yes, by all means if the average size was a 10 or even a 12, but you can't fucking encourage women to love themselves when it is clearly bad for their health and quite frankly, it is a total step in the wrong direction. 10 years ago the average size was a 10 so in 10 years from now - what? Are we going to be encouraging girls to embrace their average size 18 selves. NO. no. No. Whilst i totally agree that a skinny obsession is a downfall of society, how can it possibly be worse than a movement in society which is telling us that it is normal to be fat and you should be happy with your fatness OR EVEN THAT IT IS OKAY TO BE THAT WAY. It's not. You would never encourage a person to embrace their alcoholism or drug abuse just because it was normal to do so. And for fat people, food is a drug, excess of which is going to kill you. Now I'm not saying that a size 14 is necessarily HUGE, but it is the shift towards the idea that being fat is good and okay. Desirable even. It's not. At all. Because, genetics and biology tells us that invariably people get fatter as they get older, so what started out as a teenage 14 is going to turn into a 40 year old, 700lb heart attack on drumsticks. THINK ABOUT IT PEOPLE. We are encouraging girls to kill themselves, why not just give them heroine and make it quicker. We live in a generation who constantly wants more more more and in doing so, we do little to preach a little self-restraint and again, I'm not talking about us disordered peeps, but what I am saying is that you can't eat doughnuts all day and live till 80. FACT. the average size 14 is OVERWEIGHT - FACT. Average BMI of women in England is 27 - FACT. Obesity is one of the largest killers in the world - FACT. We managed to turn the hippies away from heroine and crack, why can't you stop your child from killing themselves. PUT DOWN THE DOUGHNUT.:) And love you Judith, you totally got me started again :D :D Love you much. Mwah Xo
ReplyDeleteThere are so many fat people that I would like to anonymously email a copy of this blog post. I think I might actually have to.
ReplyDeleteI hope some day you realise that it's just as dangerous to be eating disordered. Inevitably you will be trying to resuscitate someone with anorexia or bulimia and it will hopefully hit home that this could be you. Because let's face it, the shit we do is as much if not more dangerous than a lot of the shit fat people do. Moreover, diabetes is not caused by obesity, it's correlated but there are plenty of thin people with diabetes - correlation is NOT causation.
ReplyDeleteYes I know. It's hard. At last count 11 of my friends had died to ED and most were in their 20's and 'not that sick'. And despite that, I too struggle to change my behaviours.
Good luck. x
faithandmeow. I take your comment about EDs being just as dangerous. Yeah, and I'd agree. Having an ED is no less dangerous than being overweight, the only difference is that the dangers of being underweight are different to being overweight. So yes, valid point, well made.
DeleteI wouldn't even reply to this, except that one of your points is wrong. Diabetes IS caused by being overweight. That is, Type 2 diabetes, or, adult onset diabetes, or non-insulin dependent diabetes. Which is due to insulin resistance caused by the over consumption of calories, obesity being the primary cause. And yes, there are fat people with diabetes and thin people with diabetes, but those thin people, are those with Type 1 diabetes (insulin dependent), which is due to destruction of the islet of langerhan cells in the pancreas that create the insulin.
90% of diabetes is Type 2 diabetes, with only 10% being Type 1. So. TYPE 2 DIABETES IS CAUSED BY OBESITY.
Sorry. I don't mean to be agressive, it's just such an important point. And you had the misfortune of saying a horrendously incorrect statement to a doctor working on the endocrinology team. All of my 3 bosses happen to specialise in diabetes and I happen to work in the busiest diabetes team in my country. Very important. Type 2 diabetes, caused by obesity. Not "correlated". CAUSED.