No idea what age, but I grew up with "fatty, fatty, 2 by 4, can't fit through the kitchen door...fatty, fatty, 8 by 8, can't get through the garden gate...". 6th grade, classmates calling me "fatty acid monster" in science lab... diets in elementary school... you name it, I've probably heard it. It cut me to the quick when the nurse (who was considerably larger than I am) wrote on my chart several months ago the words..."morbidly obese". Talk about a slap in the face....
My mother never would have called me "fat", but I remember the first time I felt bad about my weight being when I was dressing for my 7th birthday party and my mother told me my tummy was too big to wear my favorite unicorn dress.
I was called "fat" many times in the following years by other kids, but no one instance in particular sticks out where that word was used. What I do remember vividly was when, at age 14, a boy in my high school told me that my legs were so big they looked like tree trunks. I was mortified and very hurt. My weight was in the 150s at the time, and I was a few inches shorter than I am now (I recently looked at a copy of my immunization records to see what weights I was at what ages as a teen, as I'm now below my lowest ever adult weight). Oddly, I was also a varsity athlete at the time, and quite fit despite being overweight.
The first time I remember being called fat was in grade 5. Some kids and I were playing tag in the field and when I became "it" one of the boys started yelling "run fatty run". I remember being shocked and running straight into the school and into the bathroom stall and crying. Funny thing is, I was no where near fat.... Kids can be very cruel.
I don't remember the first time, but I was always the 'fat' kid. In the 3rd grade we did some sort of math activity that involved graphing the weights of all the kids in the class. I weighed 75lbs and was the biggest kid in the class and I got made fun of constantly for it. When I was 13 years old I wore a size 13 and was ridiculed daily for it. I was in the hospital once and a doctor told my mom that I was fat. I weighed 145lbs and was 5'4" (healthy BMI). I've been battling for a decade to get back to that weight! I call myself fat everyday in case someone else forgets to, if I could let go of that I think I'd lose the last 5lbs...it's probably 5lbs of hurt and baggage from growing up as the fat kid.
I started getting chubby towards the end of 4th grade, but was never called fat until I was in middle school. My dad constantly called me "Mimi"(after the heavy set girl on Drew Carry, and "Weeble Wobbles" around that time. My sister always joined in, to the point where I was in tears everytime they said something. I remember one specific time in 7th grade. I was with my best friend, and she informed me that everyone called me "Earthquake."...In HS people constantly told me I would be beautiful if I was just thinner...After I graduated and was attending school in NYC, it happened alot. Walking home, people would call me names as they drove by, pointing and laughing. Really took away my self confidence...People don't realize that when they say something hurtful it really does have an impact. I have major self esteem issues left over from years of verbal abuse about my weight, even after losing most of it. Alot of people have bad karma comming back to them for this curtesy of the universe...
Being completely honest.. I don't think I have ever been called fat by anyone to my face. Starting when I was 10, the neighbor girl and I would weigh at the same time, and compare.. she was a year younger, and she was shorter.. and it bothered me that she weighed less. Then my brother started to compare with me, and he was taller, and two years older but I started to weigh more than him as well.. Needless to say, I ended up at least an inch taller than him, and have a much larger build than him, which makes sense as to why I weighed more but it really bothered me.
I don't get called fat, but I get comments like "You're not that bad." which indicates to me that they think I could be smaller or whatnot.
2nd grade, on the playground. Some boys on the monkey bars told me I was fat. I removed my winter coat and went, 'I am not, it's this coat!' very angrily. They laughed at me.
I refused to wear that coat after that, and I started having body issues pretty much right after. The thing is, I was at a healthy weight. I may have been near the high end of my acceptable weight, but I was healthy.
Sometimes I wonder what kind of person I would be, and look like, if no one ever called me fat and only reacted positively to the way I look. I honestly think I never would have become overweight. A lot of my eating stemmed from body issues.
There's a video from my 12th birthday. My mother wasn't there, she was in Cancun. I was skinny as ****, because I had recently had my tonsils out, and they had reopened while healing so I was eating less than usual. At one point during recovery they were force feeding me. I weighed about 74 pounds by the time they were fully healed, and I was about 5'0.
On the video I'm eating cake, and I look at the camera and go, "hey mom, I promise...after today...I'm going to start eating healthy and lose weight!"
Seeing that just...depresses the heck out of me. She used to make 'deals' with me, saying she would buy X item for me if I lost X amount of weight by a certain date. Looking back, I realize my mother had a pretty wicked eating disorder. She was pretty much anorexic whenever she wasn't on steroids for her asthma.
Last edited by napalmtree; 11-09-2011 at 12:35 PM.
Sometimes I wonder what kind of person I would be, and look like, if no one ever called me fat and only reacted positively to the way I look. I honestly think I never would have become overweight. A lot of my eating stemmed from body issues.
It's like you just read my mind. I really do believe I wouldn't have become overweight as an adult if family members never got on my case about my body weight when I was a little girl (when I didn't have a weight problem at all).
It's that concept of your body being the result of your thoughts. If, as a small child, you are told you are fat (even if you are not), then you start to think you are fat. Some girls starve themselves as a result while others eat to feel temporarily better (i.e. emotional eating). I'm definitely an emotional eater, which lead me to my weight gain.
HI! Today is my first time ever on this site, and your posts have helped me ALOT! My entire life I was never skinny,but always in good ...thicker...shape. Now, I have two toddler age children and I weigh what you did when you started. Thank you for stating what you weighed...you said maybe it would help someone...and YES...you helped me! I am hoping that I can use you as a help motivator to me. I am also your height...I am 5 ft 3.5 ..and my goal is about 140. I was there before pregnancy,but now I am almost 2 years since pregnancy and this is really tough to swallow...!!! I AM SO EMBARESSED by my weight and I am having so much trouble losing...I workout 3 to 5 days per week.
Thanks for listening!
-Tammy-
Probably by my mean sister first, around 3rd grade; then by school kids in 4th. In sixth grade, my best friend Louisa said my legs looked like sausages, when I wore white knee socks. Well they probably did but I'll always remember that.
but I'll always remember that.
