But at the other end of the spectrum, should we attempt to force society to accept extreme obesity with its share of health ills as just the norm for some people?

Although there are many with physical problems that make it difficult or impossible to lose weight, there are just as many or more who just prefer not to make the lifestyle changes that bring about a healthy body weight. I’m not talking about yo-yo dieting or attempts to make ourselves pencil thin. I’m talking about true lifestyle changes in eating and exercising that allow our bodies to be healthy and free of aches and pains.

There are health consequences associated with excess weight just as there are health consequences associated with being underweight.

I think we are indulging in some serious denial here if we are seriously overweight due to our lifestyle choices yet so fervently wish to deflect our responsibility for ourselves onto society by declaring that society is solely in the wrong and unjustly engaging in fat discrimination practices.

Does any one of us truly feel that we are at our best when we are too heavy to see our feet to tie our shoes or too heavy to pick up a child or grandchild or too heavy to walk a short distance without losing our ability to breathe in and out at a normal rate?

Does any one of us enjoy wearing clothes that require elastic waistbands or extra fabric to feel the least bit comfortable? Does any one of us enjoy shopping for clothes and being unable to find anything at all that we can fit into?

I don’t think any one of us has sufficient powers of self delusion to convince ourselves that we are perfectly happy being obese or that we would not jump on some magic pill in a New York minute if one were to come along that would truly melt our pounds away with no effort on our part.

It’s natural for us to want to generalize from our own experience to everyone’s experience, but there are so many factors involved, it’s really difficult to do that.

(I really have to go pack now, but thanks for replying and discussing!)

Since I’ve been exercising, I do feel much healthier. I would, however, agree that it has less to do with my size than that I’m actually exercising – my size is holding steady at 14/16 now (down from that 24), and exercising more seems to have little effect on that. I’m very rarely ever in any pain anymore, other than seasonal allergies, I rarely get sick, and I have energy to actually go out and do things. That’s what matters to me.

I think the ‘for your health’ concern is one of the most damaging, since there is no strong causation between fatness and poor health (correlation is, of course, different), certainly not compared to, for instance, thin people and poor health.

There’s a great article on fatness and health by Kate Harding which makes a lot of good points with supporting studies and articles: But Don’t You Realize Fat is Unhealthy?.

Exercising just to exercise (rather than “dance class”, etc.) was hard to get into, but once I started and realized how much better I felt, I wasn’t about to stop.

So yeah, it’s one thing to accept what you look like and stop comparing yourself with impossible ideals (I wouldn’t even look good at a size 0!). It’s another thing entirely to keep up an unhealthy lifestyle just because you’re too lazy/disinclined to change it.

When I commented about how this seemed to be the case, I was reprimanded, the comments deleted, and the friend completely ditched me.

So I’ve a bit of bitterness when it comes to ‘fat acceptance’. But what it comes down to is if you, personally, are happy with your body. If you are, that’s awesome. As long as you’re not lying to yourself, that’s all that really matters.

My mother use to lecture me constantly about my weight. I, on the other hand, try to avoid saying anything about it to my six year old because weight management shouldn’t be what occupy a child’s life. (And I don’t think she’ll have a problem anyway, she’s a tooth pick and likely will grow up to be slim and healthy.)

It’s a sad fact that more and more people are overweight and don’t care that they are. It’s nothing to be ashamed of, but it is something to worry over because being overweight affects health in a major way.