Fat Acceptance and Weight Loss

I came across the following video about fat acceptance on Greta Christina's blog. I agree wholeheartedly: fat is a three-letter descriptor, not a dirty word.



I thought that the woman in the video is quite beautiful, really. Some people, like her, just have a certain radiance about them that makes them beautiful, independent of weight. There are plenty of attractive people of either sex across the spectrum of weight.

My longtime readers know that I lost 68 lbs over the course of twenty months from 2003-2005, with the help of Weight Watchers. I think Weight Watchers is a great program, because it teaches you more than just healthy eating. They incorporate behavioral changes into the program, making it a lifestyle change more than a diet. And these behavioral changes affect more than just your eating habits: they end up permeating your life and help you to make wiser choices in everything, more than just what you put in your mouth.

I'm back in Weight Watchers again, because thanks to pregnancy, I gained everything I had previously lost and more. Since mid-December, I've lost nearly 15 lbs (and since the day before Vinny's birth, roughly 35 lbs total). It has been much slower going this time. But I know that I have a proven track record of weight loss, and I can do it.

In both cases, I didn't decide to lose weight so that others would like me better. I lost weight for my own sake. I had a number of personal reasons, including for the sake of my poor, very weak knees. They were positively creaking in the days leading up to Vinny's birth. They thank me profusely for getting some of the load off them, and as I continue to get lighter they will be even more grateful.

I'll never be skinny. My goal weight is at the very top of the healthy range. Even when I was at that weight before, I was still quite curvaceous and I had a few rolls. I am sure that I could become a stick on legs but I have no desire to do so.

I'm never going to be fashion model material but I am actually glad of that. Fashion ideals distract women from healthier pursuits that would build upon their actual assets. Instead women end up chasing after the elusive ideal look, a look that for most women is unhealthy and untenable. If I were a fashion model, I would need to be one hundred pounds lighter. That's nearly half my weight I would need to lose!

The fashion industry can bite my big behind. Real women have curves and I certainly have no desire to support purveyors of the myth that they don't (such as the trendy stores that the woman in the above video visits).


I put on my excess weight in my twenties, while in graduate school. Growing up, I was never skinny, but I didn't get overweight until then. So I've lived on both sides of the fence. When I was younger, I was probably more judgmental of overweight people than I am now. My outlook has always been the same, but experience as an overweight person has deepened my understanding. I've gone from an academic appreciation to a personal recognition of the truth about fat. I talked more extensively about it in an earlier blog entry.

Being fat is not a character flaw! A person's weight is influenced by many variables, including genetics, personal habits, and priorities. The best way to make sure that you're thin is to have two thin parents, and preferably, four thin grandparents. (I had two thin parents but only three thin grandparents. My sisters don't have the same tendencies to gain weight that I do, nor do most of my cousins, although I am not the only heavy one.)

The reason that I have lost weight in the past and maintained it (except for pregnancy) and am losing weight currently is because I have made it a priority in my life. I have decided that it is important to me to lose weight and keep it off. If at some point my priorities change, then I might gain the weight back. In the meantime, I plan to go back down to my pre-pregnancy weight and stay there.