[Shmead]

I think of "thick" as "overweight but still sexually attractive". Like zatfig.

[Glory87]

Wow, I don't think I ever referred to myself by my weight, I can't remember doing it. It was...the elephant in the room, I never mentioned it or called attention to it. The one time I can remember my doctor talking about my weight, my face went red as fire - the great unmentionable was being mentioned!

Internally, I think I used fat.

[Arctic Mama]

I generally just call myself fat, or heavy, but the euphemisms drive me crazy. I don't necessarily associate anything negative with the terms, I don't do it in a self-depricating manner, so choosing cutesy terms is MAKING it more aberrant or 'bad' for me than it actually is. It's just another description of me - along with short, talkative, smart, loving, etc etc. It just doesn't hold any power in my life as a word, and changing it up doesn't do anything beneficial in my life.

[Cali Doll]

Originally Posted by Raichu

One time I was told by a guy, "Well, you're a BIG girl, not gonna lie to you, not like there's anything wrong with that..." and I got soooo offended for some reason!

I usually refer to myself as a "fat kid" because it's goofy and it gives the impression that I'm comfortable and not touchy about my weight, which is SO not the truth, but nobody wants to be that sensitive person nobody wants to offend... so I just take the brunt of it and pretend I don't care. Like, "are you serious? Nobody saved a sweet potato for the fat kid?" or "Sorry but some of us fat kids can't sprint up the stairs like you do *pant pant*" all with a wide smile.

This is interesting. I have a friend who does this.

"I can't do those things. I'm fat!"
"Slow down for the fat girl, everyone"

I dunno, but it makes me uncomfortable. I didn't realize until your post that it's a way to pretend the person isn't overly sensitive about her weight.

Back to the original topic: I never thought I was fat or overweight (yeah, I was in major denial) so I would ALWAYS be hurt when someone called me fat, heavy, big or whatever. I think I referred to myself as "thick". lol! So, so in denial.

[lucky8]

Cant say ive had anyone say or comment on my weight in a long time , well apart from my dad has the odd dig cos he thinks hes a comidian haha
he calls me sumor wrestler , baby elephant, baby whale etc etc .........all in good fun tho and it doesnt bother me one bit.
Wouldnt say i have a name i call myself , however my best mate and i call each other GUTSEY. And that is something wev always caledl each other , and its a reflection on our weight and or love of food

[bex]

I just say I'm big. And I'm the only one thats allowed to call myelf fat lol. I have a few double standards :P

[MonteCristo]

I never considered myself fat. I thought of myself as "out of shape" or "needing to lose a few pounds". It wasn't until I got my graduation photo that I was like "D@mn! I'm huge!" Now I think of myself as average or normal.

[synger]

I use the term "heavy" mostly. Sometimes "overweight". When I'm speaking medically, specifically about health issues dealing with overweight, I will use "obese" or "morbidly obese", because these are definable medical terms.

"Fat" bothers me, mostly because it's such a trigger word for teasing. And I don't feel any connection to most of the other euphemisms... fluffy, curvy, chubby (which sounds very little-kidish to me), etc.

I do like some of the jokes, though. "I'm not overweight; I'm undertall." "I'm in great shape. Round is a shape!" And of course..

[sarcruze]

I mostly hear all the name calling from my family, how lovely huh? My sister usually calls me fat ***. But I call myself either fat or oBeast.lol.
This guy at work always comes up and says Hey sexy!, and I usually tell him, I don't think your ready for this jelly.lol. He always walks away laughing and blushing. Its been an ongoing joke for a month now.

[blueridgegirl]

I speak French and Spanish and have lived in other countries for extended periods of time, and worked with immigrants here in the US. It definitely varies from culture to culture. "Gordo" or "gorda" for a woman in Spanish doesn't feel as pejorative to me as fat. It's just descriptive, most of the time doesn't feel like it has a judgment attached to it. As in, "So, I'm meeting this person at 3:00. What do they look like?" "Dark hair, wears glasses, 'gordo.'" A reflection of the less fat-phobic Latino cultures in general.

The best word hands down in Spanish is 'hermosa.' Means beautiful (but distinct from linda, bonita, etc) but also implies something that is rich and full. A ripe mango is hermosa. A larger woman who is confident and carries herself well is 'hermosa.' Yes, that's me.

[Beach Patrol]

I find this extremely interesting! -

I have really enjoyed this thread – and I’d say the facts are clear: we know what we are. Whether we say fat, overweight, chubby, “obeast” (heh, that one made me laugh!!!) heavy or whatever, we know … and there’s no hiding it to the world. "Fat" really says it for me, because like one poster said “calling somebody fat is like calling somebody a redhead, it just is.”

Some of us consider "cutesy" terms to be bad, while others of us find it easier to deal with if we apply "chubby" or "fluffy" to our description. Some would rather use the medical terminology (obese, overweight, etc) and some of us don't care what others think but we're our own worst offender ("god I'm so DISGUSTING!") - while others of us can call ourselves fat all day & our friends & family can call us whatever pet name (Jumbo, Baby Elephant, etc) & it's ok.... -OR - it hurts WORSE when a loved one points out our fatness, and yet the minute a STRANGER says something we consider derogatory, we may not act hurt or angry, but we do get smart***.

While several people have made some common annotations, a few of you have truly surprised me! I really like “voluptuous” and LOVE “renaissance lady”!!! “Zatfig” was very unusual - not sure if I'd heard that before! “Gutsey” was kinda cute (IMO) and the spanish words “gorda” and “hermosa” just sound beautiful (I think Spanish is a beautiful language anyway… you could call me dog doo-doo in Spanish & I’d probably just smile lovingly at you!)

Some of you really just made me smile!! Serbrider: “I'm not just the short chubby girl that they can all have fun with... no... I tower four feet over them.” and Warmaiden’s response “There's a beautiful word for this: Statuesque.”

I, myself, do prefer the cutesy names (as I said, my favorite descriptive word for myself is “Chubbalicious”) because it doesn’t seem quite so BAD to me. “Fat” is a very factual word. It can describe 10 pounds overweight or 200 pounds overweight. “Overweight” itself says the same thing, but fat is a “smaller” word & “easier” to say, I guess, LOL!! What about words like "stout... large... plump... corpulent"...??

“Obese”… that’s the most hurtful word in the Beach Patrol dictionary. The regular dictionary says Obese is Extremely overweight, especially weighing more than 20% (for men) or 25% (for women) over their ideal weight determined by height and build; or, having a body mass index over 30kg / m.

And then there's MORBIDLY obese, a medical condition in which excess body fat has accumulated to the extent that it has an adverse effect on health, leading to reduced life expectancy and/or increased health problems, such as the likelihood of various diseases, particularly heart disease, type 2 diabetes, breathing difficulties during sleep, certain types of cancer, and osteoarthritis.

To me, obese says a person is so fat, so far out of normal weight range, that they can’t get off the sofa or buy clothes in any regular store. And I know there are people here who are struggling to lose 200, 300, even 400 pounds or more. I admire these people more than I admire a person struggling to lose 25-50 pounds (such as myself). And yet, I don’t see that 10 or 15 pounds is any big deal (although I’m sure that those who are fraught with even a few extra pounds, it’s a very big deal TO THEM.)

I’m really very proud to be a member of this forum. You’re all quite wonderful people, and I'm cheering all of you on your weight loss journeys.