The National Institutes of health went to 96 schools in 4 states and implemented regular exercise, healthy lunches and breakfasts, sent home packaged snacks, instructed the children and their parents in nutrition. At the end of three years the 5,106 childrens' weights were no different than that of the children in the control schools that were just like the ones you described.

By all means, schools should offer exercise and healthy meals to children but Michelle Obama's initiative is not called, "Better Health through Better Nutrition" program, she pointedly addresses Childhood Obesity, telling the entire school that it is unhealthy to be fat, while promoting a cure that has been proven not to work.

I'm sure she does not set out to make fat children feel bad, but I can imagine how it must feel to be the fat child sitting in that assembly hearing everyone told that you are wrong and how you need to be fixed because you aren't okay the way you are.

Come on. Kids can't make their own decisions.

That's why we don't let them drink, vote, own a gun, drive, own a credit card or have sex with/marry one another.

And all of these things are probably more insignificant than an 80 year investment in their health.

Kids should be told what to eat, how much to exercise and not to be fat.

At 18 they can make their own decisions.

As a medical writer I appreciate the soundness of your reasoning. Just because X is a risk factor for Y doesn't mean that eliminating X takes away all the excess risk. X may just be a surrogate marker for another risk factor that hasn't been eliminated.

F.

This I find hard to believe. We've gotten to a point where we think it's politically incorrect to suggest that obese people actually eat more than thin people. So what if they eat more? As has been pointed out before, eating -- even stuffing yourself -- is not a moral failing.

I have observed the eating habits of many "naturally thin" people, overweight people, obese people, and people (like me) who've done a lot of yo-yoing, and have noticed patterns consistent enough to lead me to conclude that weight is indeed a function of caloric intake. It sounds almost silly to have to state this, but apparently it's become a no-no, even in the research community.

I have had numerous 5,000-calorie binges in my life. None of my effortlessly thin friends have ever done this. I have a huge appetite and rarely get full. Many overweight people are like me, and most naturally thin people I know get easily full. Many of them simply don't love food as much as people with weight issues.

F.

Where did I say kids should make their own decisions? Did you even read my post? Where I said by all means give kids healthy food and exercise?

What we shouldn't do is what you suggest, tell them "Not to be fat." Because they cannot control whether they are fat or not. They can eat all the fruit and vegetables in the world and play sports from dawn till dark, like some kids I have known and still be fat if they are genetically programed to be that way.

Telling them not to be fat is about as helpful and understanding as telling them not to be short or not to be ugly. It's not a decision you can make for the child, because the NIH and 5000 kids have proved that your methods don't make fat kids thin.

I'm quoting from formal, controlled scientific studies conducted over decades by university researchers. I'm not quoting politically correct conventional wisdom.

But if you'll read my quote, you'll see the study did not say that thin people eat as much as obese people, just that they are as likely to eat emotionally from stress, for comfort etc. The point of the study was to see if obese people have some sort of mental illness or neurosis that causes them to eat too much and the answer was -- no.

Very well said! Many think it is a lazy person's way out....I love myself regardless. and in many minds it sounds like a "way out" "cover-up". "one is too lazy to put in the work".... Yes, being overweight is unhealthy, we all know it! But to be able to say "I accept who I am" is huge.

I've noticed that since dieting became an industry in this country (and I'm reaching way back to when I was in high school and even before), more and more it is viewed as a moral failing to be fat. Being fit and eating "healthy" is somehow considered as almost a moral "good." I find this disturbing.

I agree, I find that very disturbing, too. I think the type of person who, in the 1950's, would have been gossiping about who didn't go to church or who was seen necking in her boyfriend's car, is now turning all that judgmental finger pointing on people who eat cheeseburgers or Heaven forbid, smoke! I once brought in a dozen donuts for a special occasion at my small office for myself and co-workers, some woman who worked down the hall was talking about us all day. You would have thought we we're cooking meth.

i really do not like fat acceptance. I am all for loving yourself no matter what. But I don't think that is what fat acceptance really is.

The majority of people I see in the fat acceptance movement, practice thin shaming, argue & spread lies that being obese is healthy, people who swear that it is impossible to lose weight, or blame others for them being fat, they swear they don't eat or exercise or tried xyz diet plan, so just spreading misinformation and really discouraging others to lose weight and be healthy.

I think people can do whatever they want to their own bodies but I also see it being put off on their children which is heartbreaking. But if someone wants to be fat and loves it good for them, I don't care. But I don't think they should make up lies or be in denial about it. That isn't acceptance to me.

My point of view
 

Personally, for me acceptance of my weight in the beginning (292) would have meant just giving up. I hurt, I was tired, I was just letting go of life and all of the joy I used to know. People can be so cruel and Fat Acceptance for me is just NOT AN OPTION.

I choose to not accept an unhealthy body that was never meant to carry this much weight. Even if society did keep all of its little snickers and mean remarks to itself. I choose to walk more and faster without a struggle, to have other things on my mind than food! I choose to be healthier!

I have chosen to feel more like the woman I want to be in my private moments in bed also with my partner.

32 pounds has convinced me to keep on going.........:carrot: I love myself that much.

Kate

I'm convinced that many people feel powerless, so when the opportunity arises for them to exert some perceived modicum of power over others by judging personal behaviors that our current society deems unacceptable, they grab onto it, assured that they have the moral high ground because the majority is on their side (and we all know that the majority is always right :rolleyes: ). It makes them feel superior, better about themselves, if they wag a finger at others. Of course, they couch it in all the "not-good-for-you/not-good-for-others" language, but I'm convinced it's all about feeling superior and trying to lord it over someone else.

Love these two points! I get so sick and tired of self-righteousness about others' personal habits being couched as an insurance/money concern (not saying that this is true for everyone who makes that point, but I'm convinced it's at the root of many of these arguments). The cost of living in a free society is that we will have to pay for the risks others take---and I will gladly do so.

I've been purposefully avoiding this thread, but I must have felt my ears burning. I try not to get involved in the Fat Acceptance discussions anymore for two main reasons

1. It always seems to turn nasty, deteriorating into fat bashing.

2. The Fat Accetaptance Movement isn't what it used to be, and maybe never was, because of it's intertwinement with Fat Admiration (sexual attraction specifically and often exclusively to fat partners), including fat fetishes and feeders (who sexualized eating and often intentionally fatten a partner).

All that being said, without the Fat Acceptance movement of the 1990's, I am convinced I would probably wouldn't be alive today, and would have become much fatter than my 394 lb top weight.

Much of the FA rhetoric (at that time) was focused on the idea that traditional dieting was more cause than cure for weight gain.

I stopped dieting, and stopped gaining. Simple as that. Wish I had discovered this at 150 lbs (in 5th grade) rather than at 375 (trying to diet for my wedding in 2002 would add another 20 lbs).

Learning to lose weight without triggering the mental and physical backlash that results in bingeing, has been an uphill battle. I stumble and fall, a lot.

And yet, with all I've learned, I'm still susceptible to all the social pressure to crash diet (which never ends well, for me).

My sister got married last summer, and insisted upon a heavy, satin, strapless, tight-bodiced bridesmaid gown. That stupid dress made me ignore everything I knew about myself and crash dieting.

I'm still trying to lose the weight I gained, trying to lose weight for that dress.


I think the biggest problem with our obsession with weight loss, is that we focus on the result, not the cause. Instead of focusing on improving health habits, we punish those who become obese (but not the equally unhealthy thin, couch potatoes) and expect the punishment and ostracism to inspire weight loss.

It would be like trying to prevent and treat lung cancer by punishing cancer patients for having lung-cancer, without ever dealing with smoking directly.

Our nation's food supply, eating habits, and lifestyle habits are becoming less and less healthful, and as social creatures, it can be difficult to swim upstream. Aside from which, change is difficul for most of us.

Then there's the biochemistry of carbs, especially the salt, sugar, fat combination.

It just seems to me that compassion (which often starts with acceptance) tends to motivate much better than blame, contempt, and irritation.

It also makes more sense to focus on the contributing factors, not the result. We ALL need to eat better and move more, and singling out the obese makes as much sense as singling out those with diabetes or heart disease (which we probably would if we could identify them just by looking).

Obesity makes a convenient target, and we like to think it's a simple matter to prevent and fix (and therefore a moral failing if one cannot).

But we've already learned with substance abuse, and other "over indulgence" problems from gambling addiction to overspending, that condemnation only makes the problem worse, and drives it underground (hidden until the problem only becomes more ingrained and even more difficult to treat).

I have never, ever met anyone in real life involved anything like The Fat Acceptance Movement. I occasionally see a representative on the media, but they're usually in defensive mode. And when I do see something about the movement on a forum, the OP is usually deriding it. Were people teased and bullied in school by gangs of obese people?

All to say that it appears that the movement wield so little power, why do people who don't like it give it any attention?

The people who may remark on my weightloss negatively, I'm pretty sure, do not support the Fat Acceptance Movement. Not sure why people lump those who think "Real Women Have Curves" with the Fat Acceptance Movement.