Fat acceptance started out as a good idea. The core of the FA movement sought to end discrimination against fat people. On the face of it, fat acceptance is the idea that fat people are people and have feelings and deserve to be treated with the same respect and esteem as you would offer a thin person.

In this, fat acceptance offers something very positive to add to our world. Too many people look down on fat people. They look at them with disdain, they stare and think it's okay, they judge them. The truth is, that while many overweight people are overweight because of lifestyle choices, not every fat person is overweight because of lifestyle choices. Some have medical issues that have made weight an issue for them. But even if someone is fat due to their own behaviors, it's still not right to treat another human being as less than human and less worthy of love and respect based on their appearance.

This is how fat acceptance reaches out to others, but they also believe it's important to accept who they are and how they look and learn to love themselves and to expect others to treat them with respect. There is an element of self-esteem boosting in the fat acceptance movement that is very healthy. Even if you want to lose weight, you shouldn't look in the mirror and decide you're worthless until you do. Who you are as a person, your soul, is not the vehicle you walk around in. They are two separate elements and when we combine them into one and make our self worth about that, it can only lead to trouble.

And it isn't just the overweight that suffer from putting too much stock in physical size and appearance. Often some of the most beautiful and fit people are the most insecure. Just having great looks is no guarantee of self esteem. Many people who are fat feel that if they lost the weight they would like themselves more. But often the root issues of self esteem go much deeper than that. Sometimes low self esteem can lead to obesity (i.e. emotional eating that leads to weight gain), but the reverse isn't usually true, losing the weight won't necessarily make you love yourself.

Where the FA movement goes bad is when they encourage people, not only to accept themselves, but to accept the fat on their body period as an irreversible and lovely thing. Too much fat on a body is unhealthy. While I know there are many heavy people who have fantastic health, they are the exception, not the rule.

Too much weight on the body leads to serious joint issues, unnecessary aches and pains, mobility problems, heart disease, cancer, stroke, respiratory issues, diabetes, hormonal imbalances including more severe issues like PCOS, the list goes on and on. In fact most chronic health conditions have a lifestyle/weight factor. Some in the FA movement in an effort to totally abdicate responsibility for lifestyle, have begun to lie to others telling them that fat doesn't matter for health.

They cite thin people with major health problems, but being thin doesn't necessarily mean being fit and healthy. If you just have a really fast metabolism and don't exercise and eat Cheetohs and ice cream all day (hopefully not in the same sitting), you're not going to end up in a very healthy place either.

While I have the greatest respect for anyone who wishes to help others gain higher esteem for themselves as people, and while I understand some overweight people cannot lose weight no matter how hard they try, I can't agree with the wholesale intellectual dishonesty in saying fat is not a health risk factor. All medical science contradicts this notion.

And while lifestyle changes even without fat loss will improve your health, too much fat around vital organs can lead the problems.

Learn more about this author, April Wilson.
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