If someone is called an “ob*sity expert,” uses the BMI, and recommends dieting and weight loss, they are not a fucking expert in any sense of the word and should lose their license. They are literally ignoring the basics of unbiased weight science and using an outdated health “tool” by someone who was in no way a doctor and whose work was later used to support eugenics.
Can anyone who knows recommend places to read more about this stuff? I know BMI isn’t exactly great, but as far as I knew (reasonable) diet and exercise are just fine and healthy. What’s the newer science saying?
Exercise is fine. Having a specific diet due to something like an allergy is fine. The problem is diet culture and specifically diets aimed at intentional weight loss. There is not a single method of intentional weight loss (no diet, exercise, pill, surgery, anything) that is scientifically proven to work long term. The science is that 95-98% of people who lose weight gain back that weight (and oftentimes more weight than what they started with) within 3 to 5 years. This has been known for decades but the science is suppressed to keep thin privilege and the weight loss industry going strong. There’s also studies that show that your weight is as determined by genetics as your height, yet we don’t yell at short people to just become taller. Things like disabilities and socioeconomic status also extremely affect weight. In almost every situation, weight is not a choice.
There’s also not a single disease that fat people get that thin people don’t get as well. Any disease “related” to weight is only correlated, there has never once been a study that has proven weight is the cause of a disease. It is completely possible to be fat and healthy at the same time as well. You can even look up the “ob*sity paradox,” which is how people at higher weights actually fair better when faced with different diseases and illnesses than thin people do.
When someone says fat people have worse health, it’s never taken into consideration that fat people receive way worse healthcare than thin people. Not only due to the fact that so many fat people are poor and worse socioeconomic status often means worse healthcare, but also because of plain ol’ fatphobia where doctors will literally refuse to treat fat patients. They’ll even be too disgusted by our fat bodies to do tests that require touching us (there are actual studies about this). And if we ever go to a doctor about a health issue we face, it is always blamed on our weight. There are instances of fat people going to a doctor for pain, being told to lose weight, and then dying a week later due to a fucking tumor that was ignored as a “weight problem.” I know someone who went to a doctor for a collapsed lung and the doctor wrote in his notes that the person’s shortness of breath could be related to the collapsed lung OR their “ob*sity.”
Society has acknowledged that many oppressed groups have worse health due to that oppression. I literally took a class on health disparities in college and it was completely understood that different racial groups had different health outcomes not because [insert group here] is inherently healthier, but because certain groups don’t face as many struggles to receive quality healthcare. And yet even though that is the exact same case for fat people, society still refuses to acknowledge it for us and continues to blame our health on fatness.
I’ve gone on a tangent and don’t feel like finding you all of the studies, but the blog @bigfatscience has links to them all in their many, many posts on fatphobia and health. You can also listen to the podcast Maintenance Phase.
Bottom line: Exercise for joyful movement, not to lose weight. Practice intuitive eating. Intentional weight loss is a fucking scam, and you have been lied to your whole life about fatness being a choice. I hope this helps.
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