You look FAT?!

 

 

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Disclaimer: Skinny shaming is a whole other topic, here we are going to discuss fat-shaming alone

  

FAT-SHAMING! We have all seen either in movies( always the "fat" person is shown in a comical figure) or in real life- in marriages by relatives or even by our parents which have made us develop eating disorder habits unknowingly.

 

DOES FAT-SHAMING ACTUALLY WORK?

 

Each person has a different perspective on this topic. Some might say "I am concerned about them or Body positivity is just encouraging obesity" but does it make them stick to healthy practices?

 

There was a study where overweight people were asked to watch 2 kinds of videos(Side note: They didn't know what the study was for). Group A watched clips showing obese people as lazy or clumsy whereas Group B watched neutral videos. After that, they have presented snacks before them. Results were shown that Group A ate 3 times more as compared to Group B. Thus, Fat Shaming actually makes one eat a lot.

 

Have you heard about emotional eating? 

 

Many people eat chocolate or ice cream to cope up with their pain. Actually, that kind of behavior comes from the fact that those "bad foods" are "not allowed" before, and now they give themselves permission to eat those when they are in pain.

 

So then, does fat-shaming motivate people to exercise more?
 No! Studies have shown that it actually creates a negative image about exercise. Most people reported that when they experienced fat-shaming, they don't want to exercise at all or employ bad exercise habits.

MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE 

This topic is very personal to me because I have experienced my own parents body-shaming me(it was not direct, but subtle ways of telling me to lose weight)I would secretly eat snacks which I love at night which now when I think about it I think I was night-bingeing (that's partly because my parents checked on me every time I ate one of those "bad "foods)
I was having different stages of food guilt, first I didn't go to restaurants or already ate at home and then go out to eat less. Then I started introducing "cheat days" where i "allowed" myself to eat those foods But I actually ate more on those days compared to others and I was scared of my parents cooking because it contained immense amounts of oil and other things because you know Indian cooking (but the reason why they cook like that is a whole other story. Spoiler: Indians are way smarter than we thought)

MY PERSONAL MINDSET

 I was physically tired and lost hair and irritable all the time, I thought I had to go through tough times to lose weight and it will become normalized after few months I tried different diets and failed continuously. I was convinced that I will be happy when I reach my goal weight until I realized I was falling into an eating disorder. So it was a silent battle between myself and food. But now I have a good relationship with my body and food but sometimes someone's comment on my weight triggers me but I have learned how to deal with it.
I am sharing my experience is because you are not alone in this journey and a 16-year-old me didn't have proper knowledge about health back then(i am still learning)

So stop emphasizing that thin bodies are healthy. Naturally thin people can eat unhealthy foods and still look thin. So I would suggest not to comment on anyone's weight be it "you lost weight" or "you look good now" because that means they weren't good enough before.