Quote:
Originally Posted by SusanB
Oh no Soulbliss, not directed at me personally.
I have, up until recently, thought that most folks see a difference between the process for losing several pounds as opposed to losing from morbid obesity. A journey like mine would be somehow easier and not noteworthy. Nothing to be learned here ... she/he just ate too many snacks and sat down to watch TV for too long ... move along now and let's find a real fat person.
As soon as I thought about posting that ... I'm not sure there isn't. Is there?
You've summed up my feelings exactly SusanB. I've lost a total of 17 lbs to reach my goal. How can I possibly know what an obese or morbidly obese person is going through?
But wait a minute. One of the reasons I didn't ever become obese is that, as a fat child, I experienced prejudice/ridicule from my peers. That was enough to keep me maintaining (with a variety of very unhealthy methods) a normal range body weight for over 30 years. I can only imagine what kind of ridicule someone who has been grossly overweight all their lives faces on a daily basis (even if a lot of it is disguised as "helpful advice").
As for the prejudice against the obese being socially acceptable look at the people we, as a society, reward with status and wealth (the two main markers of a "successful" life in North America). Most of them are so thin as to be skeletal. And we offer rewards to the obese to become thin via contests like "Biggest Loser".
And finally "eat less, move more", though as much of an over-simplification as "you are born, you live, and then die" as a description of human life, is something that I have seen work. In my own experience the move more part took me away from the TV and food and helped bring the weight down. And I've seen the opposite with my DH and his three young nephews. They were all normal weight range until they started moving less and eating more. All became obese (two nephews now morbidly obese) within two years.
Now my DH is starting to move again and take himself away from the TV and food and he's lost 10 lbs without even dieting yet!
Dagmar