Yesterday I talked about a song by Tim Minchin that celebrates his imperfect body.  But my trip on the Tim Minchin love train ended abruptly when reader Jayem pointed out his song “Fat Children”.  While he is trying to create a cautionary tale about obese kids, what he has actually done is create a cautionary tale about everything that is wrong with the “War on Childhood Obesity” currently being spearheaded by Michelle Obama, which should really be called the War on Obese Kids.  Let’s examine the messages through the lyrics of Tim’s song:

1.  Assume that fat kids are poor athletes

Macca’s [cookies] might shut them up now that they’re seven
But they wont forgive you when they’re getting picked last for PE

Yup, fat people are unathletic (As you can plainly see in all of the pictures and videos in the comments here). Thanks for reminding me.  I was so busy training for my next dance championship that I forgot that I’m a waddling out of shape slug.  Thank god Tim was here to remind me.

2.  Ignore actual science and just repeat bs, because if enough people repeat a lie, that makes it true right?  Try not to think about how the diet industry has manipulated you into being a spokesperson for a product that makes almost 60 billion a year with a 5% success rate.

So you’re telling me that your family
Has a history of obesity
You got a polycystic ovary
You say “its just the way God made me”

You can blame it on biology
You can blame your physiology
You can point to genealogy
And your social anthropology

You can say you are an ectomorph
That you just cant get the kilos off
Its unlikely, statistically
To be a physical thing

Of course Tim Minchin has the medical and scientific background to shrug off actual scientific research, make broad generalizations,  and give us all a lesson in statistics.  Wait – no he doesn’t.  Cite your research Tim or I’m going to assume that you are just parroting what you’ve heard from the diet industry. Don’t worry, you can protect yourself from any backlash with your air of smug superiority.

3.  Blame the parents

Boombalada motherfucker
Have you noticed that your kids are fat?
What you gonna do about that?
What you gonna do?

NOBODY knows what causes childhood obesity.  There is quite a bit of controversy about the whole concept.  But let’s ignore all of that and blame the parents. Even though we know that there are socioeconomic issues at play.  Even though parents raise several kids and not all of them end up fat. Tim decides to ignore all that and just start scolding adults he doesn’t know who didn’t ask for his opinion.

4. Stereotype

Do not feed donuts to your obese children…

But stop feeding your boy KFC…

you are in the queue at Burger King…

Yes of course all fatties eat fast food all the time.  Sometimes we even commit the ultimate sin, the in -public EWF:  (Eating While Fat).  One of the Public Displays of Fatness, sometimes people (like Tim) get the idea that it’s appropriate to make judgments about our eating, or assume that one visit to a fast food establishment means that that’s where we eat all of our meals.  Of course, if your kid is thin Tim doesn’t care what you feed them because this isn’t about having healthy kids, it’s about having thin ones.

5.  Confuse correlation with causation

She’ll [your daughter] be dead of a heart attack
Before your grandchildren are ten

He’ll [your son] be dead of an aneurysm
Before his own children ism ten

People of every shape and size have heart attacks and aneurysms.  But why have a discussion about healthy kids of all sizes when you can terrify parents that their kid is going to have a heart attack so that they get them dieting at as early an age as possible. Thanks Tim, hell of a job.

6.  Induce a disordered relationship with exercise and a poor body image at as young an age as possible.  Be absolutely sure that kids know that if they aren’t thin, they deserve whatever bad treatment they get.

Send them down to the park
If they don’t wanna go, make em

Tell them they have to jog
Until their jogging shorts fit em
If they hesitate, ask firmly
If they still resist, hit em

And here is was thinking that we should find activity that kids really like and encourage them to develop a life long love of movement, am I an idiot or what?  Thank god Tim was here to tell me that I should let kids no in no uncertain terms that they won’t be worthy until their body is a specific size and that if they don’t achieve that size they deserve to be hit.

7.  Body shame toddlers and elementary school children

He weighs 40 kilos and hes only three
He looks like a clean-shaven Pavarotti

Like a moose whos eaten too much mousse
Your 6 year old miniature Jabba the Hut
Eating half melted Mars Bars from the folds of his gut

Fuck off Tim.  Seriously, fuck right the hell off.  I know this is supposed to be “comedy with a helpful message” but it’s not funny and you aren’t helping anyone. Making fun of three year olds?  Six year olds?  Seriously?

We can end the war.  We should end the war.  We can choose to be for healthy kids of all sizes.  We can focus on making sure that kids have access to healthy foods and safe, fun, movement options that they enjoy.  We can help them achieve not just physical health but also the mental health that can only exist when they are not constantly stigmatized and shamed from the time that they are toddlers. There is nothing, NOTHING, that can be accomplished by being against obese kids that can’t be accomplished by being FOR healthy ones instead.  Let’s be for healthy kids of all sizes.

I adopted a puppy. His name is Prince Charming and he is a Poodle who was found wandering outside, covered with mats and ticks, and rescued by a shelter.  He was on his “last day” at the shelter when he was rescued again by an amazing organization called Austin Pets Alive.  He was then taken in by two foster parents.  Then he came into my life. In addition to being matted and a mess he is oddly sized and his front feet splay out funny.  His ears are too floppy and not the right shape.  He will never, never, never, be a showdog.  Too many imperfections – he does not meet his breed’s standards.

You see, show dog standards are extremely precise and often have little to do with the dogs actual health or personality.  People who breed show dogs professionally go through many litters to find a single champion who fits the mold.  Their standards are almost impossibly high. When we were at the pet store getting his first big batch of stuff, I saw magazines with pictures of perfect showdogs with what appeared to be photoshopping on the cover. Seriously, someone took the time to photoshop a dog.

If this sounds familiar to you then I’m not surprised, it’s exactly what we do to humans. Give one single standard of beauty that’s an impossibility for most people.

The difference between humans and my dog is that humans have somehow bought into the idea that we have to fit in to the single standard of beauty.  We try to change the size and shape of our bodies, wear underpants that constrict our breathing.  We risk death to get fat sucked out of our bodies and get other stuff put in just so that we can meet the ideal.  And if people choose those things I completely respect that, but I would be lying if I said I don’t marvel at a culture where there is plenty of money for research on new liposuction techniques but we have fundraisers for money to research cancer cures; a world where people risk death to have thinner thighs or remove the naturally occurring skin folds from their eyes.

My dog on the other hand, is unphased. I mean he just doesn’t care at all. He hasn’t asked that I do anything about his splayed toes (even though they are a “Major Fault” according to the AKC standards.) He hasn’t asked for an ear reduction or to buy him some doggie Spanx. I had all of his hair shaved off and he wasn’t even upset.

We’re staring on obedience training and we may eventually do agility. I love watching agility competitions where crazy looking mutts who make you wonder “how did that even happen” run around a course a break neck speed and win the day.  So maybe Prince Charming will be an agility dog.  Or maybe he’ll just lay around my house, but I won’t love him any less.

My body will never win a competition for meeting the stereotypical cultural ideal of beauty, but look what it can DO!  I’m an agility person, not a show person.  And even if it couldn’t do anything I wouldn’t love it any less.  It would be sad if I gave my dog more consideration than my body right?

Reader Julie turned me on to a singer/comedian called Tim Minchin and his song “Not Perfect” which I think it sums things up perfectly:

This is my body, and I live in it
It’s 31 and 6 months old it
It’s changed a lot since it was new
It’s done stuff it wasn’t built to do
I often try to fill it up with wine
And the weirdest thing about it is
I spent a long time hating it
but it never says a bad word about me
this is my body and it’s fine
It’s where I spend the vast majority of my time
It’s not perfect, but it’s mine.

I write about underpants a surprising amount on this blog.  Typically it’s the phrase “I am the boss of my underpants, you can be the boss of yours.”  By reader request I even designed a shirt about this, which is to say that I talk about it a lot.

As much as I talk about underpants I don’t think about them very often.  Until a couple of ddays ago when bought some panties at Ye Olde Fat Girl Store.  One pair of panties for 12.50.  They had a 3 for $29 deal going on but, as is typical for me, the panties I wanted didn’t qualify.  I’m not going to post a picture or anything because it’s not that kind of website but trust me they are cute panties and they seemed really expensive but I splurged  (And my sincere apologies to my work colleagues who are reading this and would probably rather not think about my  underpants.).

Anyway, later that day I was in the mall at a comparable store that doesn’t specialize in clothes for fatties and I saw a pair of panties that looked almost exactly like my most recent underwear acquisition.  And they were $3.33.  And they came up to an XL which, according to the chart, was one size smaller than my size.  My CEO brain kicked in and asked  – how does one size justify a 73% increase in price? I considered several options:

Extra Fabric

My panties just don’t use enough additional fabric to justify that kind of price increase.

Volume

Maybe they make more straight sizes than plus sizes?  Except that I can’t look at the health section on CNN without hearing that over 60% of people are big fat fatties so shouldn’t our clothes be cheaper since we make up the majority of clothing buyers? Or is that number grossly exaggerated?

Buying Power

I’ve heard that plus size clothing lines struggle because fat women don’t like to buy themselves nice clothes.  It’s been hypothesized that it’s because we have poor self-esteem or because we are always waiting to buy clothes until we lose weight.  Maybe that’s true but I have a hard time believing that we don’t all buy panties. Even the panties on sale in the fat girl store were $9.60 per pair.  Still a 66% increase.

Bullshit

So what’s the deal with my $12.50 undies? Because right now it’s looking like the stores that don’t want to stigmatize me want to price gouge me because they can. Because fat people need underpants. And if that’s what is happening, then it’s bullshit. If that’s not what’s happening – then I’m looking for an explanation.

Fat people often hear that we should try to lose weight so that we can live a longer, healthier life.  I’m not capitulating, in fact I think it’s crap, but for the sake of argument let’s say that’s true.

First, remember that there are plenty of people who put themselves in a position to have shorter, less healthy lives:

There are the daring:  People who choose to be professional bull riders, race car drivers and stunt people. People who sky dive, bungee jump, and white water raft.  People who live fast and die young with a sex, drugs, and rock and roll lifestyle.  People who try to climb Everest and swim the English channel.

And society typically thinks that’s great.  In fact, most of the people who engage in the activities above are celebrated.  Not because their life will be as long as possible, but because we perceive that it will be as full as possible.

There are the otherwise prioritized: Attorneys, CEOs, social workers, parents and others who are stressed, sleepless, and not eating as well as they should.

Society tends to give them a pass, as long as they are not fat, because they are driven and dedicated.

There are the lifestylers:  People who eat a steady diet of junkfood and never workout because it’s not important to them.

As long as they stay thin, society is either fascinated or oblivious to this.

To be clear, all of these are completely valid choices and I don’t believe that these people should be shamed or judged.

Then we have one last category.  Fat people.  Since fat is simply a physical characteristic, fat people are as varied as any group of people who share one physical characteristic.  Some of us are daredevils, some of us are otherwise prioritized, some of are lifestylers. Some live healthy lifestyles by the public health definition.

Regardless, fat people are told that our body size tells people everything that they need to know about us and that we  have to “do something” so that we can live a longer, healthier life.

Even if we assume that being fat is a choice for every single fat person (and I don’t think it is), the treatment is still unequal when compared to others who choose a “risky lifestyle”.  Nobody is launching a “War against people who don’t get enough sleep”.  If an NFL linebacker needs two seats on a plane people ask for his autograph.  If a fat woman needs two seats on a plane people publicly humiliate her.

I lived a diet lifestyle for many years and I know what that looks like for me. Losing weight, gaining it back, never being happy with myself, my body or my situation.

The thing we’re forgetting about is having the happiest life.  I choose Health at Every Size for the same reasons that I hear from people who choose to skydive. I think that the odds are in my favor and if not I choose the fullest, happiest life – not the longest one.  If a healthy diet and exercise aren’t enough to keep me healthy then I’ve made my peace with that because I’m happy, I feel great, and I love my life.  I’d rather have fewer years of that than more years of hating my body, and trying a strategy that fails 95% of the time.

I think that the odds are in my favor that healthy behaviors gives me the best chance at health. And I get to make that choice, just like others get to choose to eat a vegan raw food diet, do two hours of yoga a day, or drink like a fish or BASE jump, or live in a bubble  if you want.  And maybe I’ll die of a heart attack at 40 and wonder if dieting would have given me more time.  Or maybe they’ll get hit by a bus at 40 and wonder what cake tastes like. Or maybe we can hang out when we’re 90 and talk about how both of our choices were valid.  Either way, we both get to make our own choices.

Huge thanks to Twitter follower @shellymc for introducing me to this great study!

The goal of the study was to see if BMI, waist circumference, and abdominal adiposity (how much fat you carry in your mid-section) were good predictors of cardiovascular disease.

They looked at information for people who did and did not develop cardiovascular disease to see if one or a combination of those measurements could have reliably predicted their disease outcome.

What did they find?

In their words:  BMI, waist circumference, and waist-to-hip ratio, whether assessed singly or in combination, do not importantly improve cardiovascular disease risk prediction in people in developed countries when additional information is available for systolic blood pressure, history of diabetes, and lipids.

In my words:  They found that just looking at body size and shape was not worth doing if you could use actual measures of health.  Which we can.

But I think the real question is – when did we become so medically lazy that we require a study to tell us that?  And when are doctors going to stand up and say that they got into their profession to practice medicine, not guessing and body shaming? (Edit:  Some readers have taken this paragraph to mean that I don’t think that the study was necessary. To be clear, I’m all for the science, what I’m trying to point out is that we’ve abandoned actual medicine in lieu of staring at people fully clothed and making guesses about their health and we shouldn’t require a study to tell us that’s stupid and lazy.)

I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that this is what happens when studies are not funded by the weight loss industry.

I’ve said it before I’ll say it again, body size is NOT a diagnosis. This study points to what should be face-palmingly obvious:  The only thing that you can tell from someone’s size is what size they are.  If you’re looking at someone’s size and drawing conclusions other than what size they are then congratulations – you’ve discovered your prejudices and preconceived notions and what a great chance for you to choose to work on those!  Especially if you happen to be entrusted with that person’s health and well-being.

I’ve had a number of people ask me to comment on this NPR article.  [Trigger Warning: contains diet talk, body shaming, disordered eating discussion etc.)  It’s called “One Woman’s Story” and if that’s all it was I would have no problem with it.  Kara Curtis is entitled to her life experience.  She is allowed to conflate weight with health, weight with fitness, to be ashamed of her body, and to pour “all her energy and untold resources” into being thin. It’s Kara’s life and Kara’s body and Kara gets to choose whatever experience she wants.  It couldn’t have been easy to tell her story like that, she never tried to extrapolate her experiences to others, and I wish her all the best.

To me the problem isn’t this “one woman’s story”, the problem is that it’s basically the only story that we ever see told about fat women, especially from a news outlet.  When I see people like me portrayed on TV, in the movies, in magazines, and on the news with very few exceptions they are self-loathing, desperate to lose weight, unfit, unable to find love (or not even seen as sexual beings), the constant butt of jokes etc. I was once recruited for a reality show that was going to tell the stories of happy fat people.  But the show didn’t get picked up because “nobody cares about fat happy people, and lots of people don’t believe in them”. People don’t believe in me?  Am I a leprechaun? What the…

If NPR ran with something called “Two Women’s Stories” and one of the stories was of a woman who rejected the diet culture and lived a happy, healthy life with Health at Every Size that would seem more like balanced reporting.  Maybe they intend to offer a balanced perspective:  in their More About the Series box they say that they will talk about a “size acceptance” movement (quotation marks are theirs and don’t give me a lot of faith in how balanced this portrayal is going to be).  But that only comes after they say a lot of very questionable things about obesity as if they are given facts.  I hope that NPR isn’t joining the media frenzy OMGDEATHFATISCOMINGFORUS panic and contributing to a culture of body shaming and bullying as a cheap way to get readers and listeners, and I’ll wait to see how I feel about it until after the series is over.

It’s for this and many other reasons that I’m really excited to be in an upcoming documentary about weight and health. (See how I segued into shameless self-promotion? I’ve got skills!)  Darryl Roberts, creator of the incredible documentary America the Beautiful which you can find on Netflix, is wrapping his newest movie and it’s about the conflation of weight and health and BMI and health in the US and I have a part in it! I’m super excited to be able to show a side of fat women that’s rarely seen in the media.  I saw a pre-screening and the movie is amazing and I still kind of can’t believe that I get to be part of it.  If you are going to be at the ASDAH conference in August the movie will be screening there and I’ll be part of a Q&A afterward. I’m so excited!

Enough about me.  The point is that we do not have to buy what the media is selling us.  We do not have to be who we see on TV.  We can be happy, healthy, strong, fat, demanding of respect and certain that we are worthy of love.  The more of us who claim that identity, and the more people who know us and see us living that life, the harder it is for the media to make people believe the negative caricature of us that they like to portray.

If you feel like commenting today I’m curious to know :  Who are your favorite fat role models?

If you were following the comments on Wednesday’s post, then you probably saw this one coming. If you weren’t, the basic background is that a reader suggested that I post a food log.  I said:

No.  I don’t try to prove things to people any more.  I understand that you are well intentioned and where you’re coming from with this, but I’m not going to do it. I’ll post my food log and then I’ll have to deal with 1,000 comments and e-mails where people call me a liar, or tell me what I SHOULD be eating to lose weight, or offer to let me try their weight loss plan for free etc.  I don’t feel like dealing with it and I don’t owe anyone an explanation.

A reader named Barbara made the following comments:

Ragen is an Activist. And unfortunately being an activist has to come with a certain amount of disclosure. You can’t say ” take my word for it”…You can’t say ” I am a fit, healthy, proud fat person who has nothing to hide, and wants to share with the world that you can be fat and healthy” And then say ” No body will believe me if I put the information out there, so I’m not going to” You either believe that you are helping the cause, or you believe there is no changing peoples minds and you are wasting your time.

Barbara is well-intentioned, but from my perspective she is way too into telling me what I can and can’t do.  You are welcome to read my response to that comment on that post but today I want to talk about one phrase in particular:

“an activist has to…”

Personally I don’t feel that those words should be put together in that order, ever. There was room for Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr.,  Harvey Milk and Larry Kramer, Gloria Steinem and Betty Ford.  I am IN NO WAY comparing myself to any of these people but they are all heroes of mine in one way or another and they had very different styles of activism so I feel comfortable that there is room for fat activists who post food logs, and for those of us who do not.

In fact, I think that this is particularly true for fat activists. When we live in a world that constantly pummels us with messages that we are not healthy, not attractive, and not worthy of love, just getting out of bed in the morning and not hating ourselves is a revolutionary act.  When so many fat people think that they deserve to be shamed and stigmatized, standing up for our basic rights to be treated with respect and dignity constitutes activism.

If it seems like I’m picking on Barbara, I’m not.  I believe that she had the best of intentions and I wanted to talk about this because her comments are just representative of things I hear all the time from lots of people – what I’m obligated to do and who I’m obligated to be so that I can meet their definition of an activist. For me, activism is about what we want to be and how we want to be it, not about trying to fit our picture into someone else’s frame.

You be the boss of your fat activist underpants, and I’ll be the boss of mine. I think that we could use a whole lot more fat activism of all kinds and a whole lot less people telling us how we have to do it.

Obesity epidemic, painfully thin, too fat. They are just descriptions with a judgment attached.  It’s just like any other assumption that you make by looking at someone (ditzy blonde, dumb jock)  Judgments about body size aren’t where the true conversation is at. Here’s why:

First, let’s agree that health is not a moral, societal or personal obligation.  People are allowed to smoke, drink, cross the street without looking both ways, bungee jump, paraglide, jump their motorcycle over a series of busses, compete in skeleton and luge, lead incredibly stressful lives, not get enough sleep, cliff dive, eat a diet of fast food, and be sedentary.  People are allowed to prioritize things other than their health.  If you’re about to make an argument that includes the phrase “my tax dollars”, head over here.

Now, consider that health is multi-dimensional and includes genetics, access to healthcare (including money, distance, time, hours of operation, and the ability to get a doctor who will give you appropriate care etc.), stress, environment, and behaviors (which also includes the ability to acquire, store and afford the kinds of foods that you want, as well as access to safe movement options that you enjoy).

Once I wrapped my head around all of that, and made the decision that health was a priority for me, I looked at my options for health:

a.  practice healthy habits

b.  try to increase my access to health care

c.  Try to reduce my stress

d.  Try to improve my environment

e.  Try to make my body smaller

You get to decide for you, but in my case I went with “all but e.”

Once I really looked at health it became crystal clear the the old adage is, at least in this case, true: Size doesn’t matter.  There are people who practice healthy habits who are fat. There are people who eat poorly and are sedentary and thin.  In my experience weight loss and thinness are simply a possible, but definitely not guaranteed, often short-term, side effect of healthy habits. Due to the multi-dimensional nature of health, healthy habits are not guaranteed to produce health, but I think that they have a much better chance of leading to health then doing the unhealthy things  that the diet industry recommends to make my body smaller.

Somewhat inexplicably, some cannot accept that this is the plan at which I arrived after extensive research and they speak to me about it in a way that is completely disrespectful which I find unacceptable.

I suggest a three step plan:

1.  Stop trying to figure out anything about someone’s size except what size they are

2. Make choices for yourself

3.  Respect other people’s choices, even if they aren’t the choices that you would make

Voila – Healthy Respect!

I received an e-mail from reader Melissa who asked some good questions really respectfully, so I thought that I would answer them publicly.  To be clear, when I talk about trolls and such, I’m not talking about Melissa, it just happens that her questions frame a larger debate that I and lots of other fat people deal with:

If study after study shows us a correlation between obesity and the so-called diseases of civilization, aren’t you curious about the potential causal link there? Some of the study authors may be doing bad science, oh yes indeedy, and I’m not implying that the way the media goes about reporting on these things or pushing the “beauty ideal” is the way to go. And I’m certainly not arguing with you that you can’t be fit—all evidence suggests to me that you are. Do you believe that obesity’s correlation with disease is unrelated to the obesity itself and may be a result of other choices that some obese folks make (such as not remaining as fit as you)?

First, there is a reason that “Correlation does not imply causation” is such an important fact. It is the most basic tenet of research. The problem with correlational research is that it only proves that things happen at the same time, it does nothing to prove that one thing causes the other, and if you can’t prove the cause then you don’t know the cure.

• The body size and the health issue could both be caused by a third factor
• They could be unrelated and so losing weight would just mean that they would just have the same problem in a smaller body.
• The health problem could be causing the body size and so weight loss would either do nothing or could even exacerbate the problem.
• They could caused by two different things and then neither issue is treated properly.
• They could both be side affects of a behavior, but the behavior change my help the health problem but not change the size of a person’s body – unfortunately that person may be labeled a “failure” because, even though they reversed their health problem, they “failed’ to reverse their weight.

These are just a few possible scenarios.  I’m not saying a causal link is impossible, I’m saying that it’s not proven and that nobody seems to be too worried about finding out because they are too busy yelling “IT’S YOUR FAULT FATTY EAT LESS AND EXERCISE MORE!!’  Look at the comments these two posts on health and you’ll see story after story of people who received poor medical care because their doctor thought that weight loss was a cure-all.  Hell yes I’m going speak out against this practice and point out every chance I get that there is NOT a proven causal link because lots of people, including medical doctors, think that there is and that lack of simple knowledge can kill people.

The media does an abhorrent job of researching stories about weight and health before they spread them far and wide and so a study wherein 3% of children lost weight on a diet gets the headline “Say Goodbye to Obesity”.  The CDC retracted their statement that 400,000 deaths per year were caused by “obesity related disease”. The retraction stated that only 110,000 deaths could be connected and admitted that “the link was probably weak” but I’ve seen three stories this week that said that according to the CDC 400,000 deaths a year are caused by obesity – which not only ignores the retraction, but also the fact that nobody ever claimed causality except the media.

I’ve never said that I know the answers to these things, I’ve just pointed out that there is evidence that runs counter to the mainstream, and that people are running around acting like they know the answers when they don’t.  And if the media’s numbers are to be believed, it’s putting the health of over a third of Americans (who are “obese”) at risk due to improper medical care.

There are thin people who have diseases correlated with “obesity” and “obese” people who don’t.  I think that we need to stop looking at weight and start looking at health.  We have the ability to evaluate health with everything from blood pressure cuffs to blood panels to VO2 Max scores, so there’s just no reason to look at someone and make guesses about their health based on their size. It’s just cheap, lazy medicine.  Also, when we continually repeat that weight is the “reason” for health issues, it gives thin people a false sense of security that they are healthy as long as their bodies remain small.

I believe that health is a combination of genetics, access, environment, stress, and behaviors. I also think that people’s prioritization of their health and the path, if any, that they choose to get there is nobody else’s business.   Telling people to lose weight to be healthy is telling them to do something that nobody can prove is possible for a reason that nobody can prove is valid and I have a problem with that.  I don’t think that health is a moral, societal, or personal obligation but I do think that if someone is interested in greater health, the best chance that they have is to practice healthy habits. (Actually, statistically the best chance is to be born to wealthy parents with good genes in a city where they have access to robust healthcare but I assume if they’re reading the blog then that opportunity has either come to fruition or passed them by.)

I do not see how blaming everything on a ratio of weight and height and telling people that the solution to their problems is to give their body less food than it needs to survive so that it eats itself thereby becoming smaller and changing their height/weight ratio (despite a marked lack of evidence that that is even possible over the long-term, or that it will solve their problem if it does) is a better idea than telling people that if they want to be healthy they should practice healthy habits and then actually evaluating their health to check their progress.

Lastly  I wanted to note that it might be helpful for ammunition against your detractors if you kept a food log for a couple of weeks and posted it. This, it seems to me, would be as great a testimonial for who you are and how you live as the lovely exercise photos. They may not all believe you’re telling the truth, but some might, and it’s possible that some will then question the old “calories in, calories out” canard. I think that’s a worthy goal. 🙂

No.  I don’t try to prove things to people any more.  I understand that you are well intentioned and where you’re coming from with this, but I’m not going to do it. I’ll post my food log and then I’ll have to deal with 1,000 comments and e-mails where people call me a liar, or tell me what I SHOULD be eating to lose weight, or offer to let me try their weight loss plan for free etc.  I don’t feel like dealing with it and I don’t owe anyone an explanation.

This blog is not meant to be an exercise in persuasive writing and it’s not my job to prove anything to anyone, least of all my detractors.  (To be honest, it wasn’t that long ago that 6 people, including my mom, formed the entire readership of this blog, so the fact that it’s popular enough to have detractors makes me kind of  happy.  Although, of course, not as happy as the fact that I have fans – I can’t even type that without smiling).  I try my best to provide my well-researched, thoughtful, and level-headed (most of the time!) point of view that is outside of what the diet industry spends billions of dollars a year promoting.  I doubt I have a single reader who agrees with everything I’ve ever said.  Some people like my blogs about self-esteem and body size but disagree with what I say about science and statistics.  Some people love my science and stats blogs but say that the self-esteem and body size ones are “fluff”.  Some people get upset that I write blogs responding to criticism.  All of that’s fine.

In blogging as in life, I think that the absolute worst thing that I could do is try to become what I think other people want me to be.  Not only does it not typically work, but it would leave me in a place of being inauthentic which is way worse than being disliked or called a liar.  So my detractors can detract away while my fans – like Melissa – can read this blog and others like it, ask questions, and have intelligent and interesting discourse. Yay us!

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If my selling things on the blog makes you uncomfortable, you might want to check out this post.  Thanks for reading! ~Ragen

I was recently fortunate enough to be a guest blogger on Sociological Images.  I blogged about the Fit/ Fat debate.  One of the commenters is a health care  provider who mentioned the issues that fat people create for health care workers. He/she was very respectful and kept the discussion to the facts.  Specifically mentioning that we are more difficult to turn/lift/carry, people who have more skin folds are harder to keep clean, it can be difficult to adequately feed us in a tube feeding situation because our bodies can require more calories and be Insulin resistant.

I’m not disputing these issues, but I am asking some questions:

1.  If the numbers are true and 30% of the population is actually obese, that means that the health care system is unable to provide adequate care to a full third of the population.  How is that ok?  Why are people not working on solutions? It’s not like this is a new issue – how did the people responsible for our health care not see this coming and get ahead of the issue?

2. How do they provide healthcare for NFL Linebackers? Those guys get hurt all the time and they are huge. Who takes care of Shaquille O’Neal – that dude is 7’1 and 325 pounds and he was injured a lot.

3. Fat bodies aren’t the only ones that cause issues for health care providers.  Elderly bodies, those frail from disease or malnutrition, people with certain disabilities, people with alzheimers/dementia, young children, people who lack sufficient muscle mass, people with severe osteoporosis etc. all pose difficulties for health care providers.  I work with people who are dealing with under-eating disorders and their bodies create tons of difficulties for their health care providers – they are frail, their stats are all over the place, their bodies won’t tolerate food, etc.

The difference between these other situations and obese people seems to me to be that obese people are told that we should “do something about it” or, more correctly, that we should have “done something about it” before we got sick and so we “deserve” our sub-par health care, or at any rate we don’t deserve to have people working on solutions that would allow us to get the best possible care and allow health care workers to provide care for us without putting themselves at risk.

However, the idea that the solution is just for all of us to become thin is problematic at best. Scientifically no study of intentional weight loss has ever shown a long term success rate above 5% so there is some question as to whether long-term weight loss is possible for the majority of people. Even if it is, that doesn’t help people care for the person who comes in right now with a health problem and a large body.

What I am suggesting is that the problem is neither large people nor health care providers.  The actual problem is that the health care providers don’t have what they need to give large people adequate care without putting themselves and/or us at risk for injury/health issues, and that’s not a good situation for anyone.

So I think that instead of pointing the finger at each other, fat people and health care providers should form a team against the problem. For example in some large people turning them face down causes breathing problems because their fat compresses against their diaphragm. They have massage tables with cutouts so that pregnant bellies don’t get squished, why can’t they do the same thing for fat people?  It seems like these problems are solvable if we just put some effort into solving them.