submitted by judgmentalowl:

I tried to explain to her about the over all damage of the societal hatred of fat, and how detrimental it is to the self esteem of a fat person to say that. And I totally understand about the whole eating healthy and getting exercise thing, but I honestly do not think that shaming people for the way they look is an effective way of convincing them to engage in healthy habits. And what’s more, not everyone who is fat is fat because of unhealthy habits. Sometimes that’s just how our bodies are built. And that is okay.

Because, ultimately, eating healthy and exercising SHOULD NOT be about losing weight and “becoming beautiful”. It should be about becoming healthier.

I genuinely HATE diet commercials and people who say “you should lose weight so you can be pretty and get compliments” because that tells people who are fat that they arent beautiful. That they dont deserve to be happy with their appearance. That they dont deserve compliments. And the self hatred that results from that is so much worse the physical health issues that an unhealthy body will produce. Physical health issues linked to obesity can be treated through healthy eating and a healthy amount of exercise, whereas the psychological damage will stick around for much longer possibly even for the rest of your life.

So rather than preaching weight loss and telling people how to look to be beautiful, we should be teaching healthy eating and exercise habits and encouraging everyone to be comfortable in their bodies.

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Just wanted to add, as I’ve been combing through the responses to my survey on defining health - “becoming healthier” is quite a vague goal for some people. Health is hard to grasp and define in a universal way.

It is always good to encourage good health, but maybe we need to also start encouraging that people define what is good and bad for themselves, as well.

<3 Haley