One of the things I hate about diet culture (amongst everything) is how there’s medication and people go “oh you can also lose weight!”. Like… it feels so gross. I was listening to my news thing with Google and I was listening to CNN and they were talking about Ozempic, and how America advertises medication on TV they played one of their ads and it’s like “this is for people with diabetes, but it can also help you lose weight!” and it’s like so gross. I feel like people with diabetes is trying to just survive the day and not worry about losing weight.
Similar to when I had my psychiatrist appointment to start taking Ritalin, and my psych is like “it’s great for adults because you can lose weight, usually for kids we have to watch them just in case, but for adults it’s great.” And I’m like sitting there, a fat person, just like… ugh. Felt so gross. Like, I just want to be able to make it through the day and get my tasks done, and not procrastinate, I don’t care if it makes me lose weight.
Our society has a very messed up view of weight. You get the same sorts of comments about being sick - someone is really sick and it causes them to use weight and you will have a ton of people piping up with “I could do with some of that” type comments. People with severe illnesses get comments about how great they look because they have lost weight.
The other ones that annoys me is that when talking about food we use “healthy” to mean low calorie, and we call a metabolism that uses lots of energy “efficient” (would you call your car efficient because it uses more fuel?). Yes obesity can be a problem, but thin is not inherently healthy, and losing weight can be a very bad medical sign.
The amount of positive comments I’ve got from certain people when I’ve been unintentionally losing weight over the last year from stress and inactivity and loss of appetite is really not cool. Nobody seems to believe me when I say it’s not a good sign and I am not healthy
It frustrates me that I can do an hour of workout and eat greens and stuff, but yet people will see me as “unhealthy” yet my mate who can eat like 10 dim sims and 2 large chips from KFC but are still hungry. I love my mate, but it is just… wild, that skinny = healthy and fat = unhealthy. Like yes, of course, being fat isn’t always healthy. But you can be healthy at any size and you can be unhealthy at any size. It just makes me so mad and upset that to be considered “healthy” you need to be skinny.
I think it’s not so much the word itself which bothers me as that we push weight loss as an extreme, short-term endeavour which we do to become “healthy” and then stop. So when people think they need to lose weight they tend to go for extreme calorie reductions, meal replacement shakes, and a complete but short-term change in their eating. What people generally should be doing is making much smaller but permanent changes to their diet and lifestyle.
Which is probably when talking about myself I talk about “The Diet” somewhat tongue-in-cheek, because I am not really “dieting” in that regard, its really just a small part of a change towards a permanently healthier diet and lifestyle.
Yeah exactly. When I say my diet is a little out of whack lately I’m taking about my overall nutrition intake not a restricted “cant eat that” one diet.
I lost weight due to my poverty-life. I felt ashamed that I lost weight because I only lost it due to being poorer than I was, so I just tell people I’m OMAD (one meal a day/intermittent fasting) but don’t reccomend it to anyone. Also, in part due to smoking ciggies, they’re appetite supressors. I am very unhealthy, despite eating healthy, as I am usually quite hungry all the time and I lead a very sedentary lifestyle. And yet I am still considered ‘fat’ by society, somehow. Like, no. I will not starve myself further because society (men) thinks I should be 50kg-60kg. It’s hard enough to maintain the 70kg-75kg that I am without slipping further down the scale.
Also, yeah, fat does not mean unhealthy. The only time I would consider it unhealthy is when someone is like, 200kg-400kg. But I also consider it unhealthy to be under 50kg. But I also dont know everyone’s story and am not a doctor or their doctor, both under 50kg and over 200kg could be, and probably are, living much healthier lifestyles than I.
I think it ought to be the norm to not judge anyone for their weight. And those ads for diet pills make me want to hurt someone lol
A few years back I too lost about 15 kgs from being poor. I planned meals carefully, I read food stats on packets, ate sooo many carrots as they are cheaper than potat. So many eggs as meat is expensive. The last thing I was thinking of was the latest food fad espoused by media. I knew I was eating healthier than before. No junk and a better balance.
Husband did not like it even tho he lost weight too. For him healthy food has to be health food, nothing to do with nutrition, it’s a spiritual thing. I remember being very annoyed the times he would eat my dinner, grabbing my food before I served myself because he thinks he can eat as much as he wants, even more if it’s health food, cos more is better right?
I grew up eating healthy but modern media tells us traditional diet is bad, right?
You probably already know this but during ww2 peoples diets were healthier than ever before probably due to the fact that sugar and fats were limited due to rationing.
Yes and no. Fat back then was often plentiful and cheap so a common meal for the poor was left over drippings and bread. What we know now of course is that there are good fats and not so good fats. A small amount of animal fat is good for us but not what they were eating.
I’d also disagree that drippings are not healthy! And imagine if now instead of bread and drippings you just have bread. Pretty sad state of affairs that would be
For all you people interested in “diet culture” and how society views weight, nutrition, health etc, I very strongly recommend the podcast “Maintenance Phase”
Thank you for that recommendation. I’ve just been reading some of the transcripts (which I’m happy to see they have, I’d rather read than listen) and it’s really interesting.
I LOVE Maintenance Phase. Highly recommend it. I also recommend Fad Camp, similar idea as Maintenance Phase but it’s Irish folks. They’ve covered some similar stuff but there’s some interesting stuff in it.
I hate the judgement people lump on us for not being some fucked up influencer / media ideal of beauty and that that pertains to health somehow.
That a psychiatrist passed judgement over your weight when he was treating a neurodivergence (I assume) I find fucking gross too honestly. “Here vunerable person, have my 2 cents worth about your appearance”
CW: Diet culture + medication
One of the things I hate about diet culture (amongst everything) is how there’s medication and people go “oh you can also lose weight!”. Like… it feels so gross. I was listening to my news thing with Google and I was listening to CNN and they were talking about Ozempic, and how America advertises medication on TV they played one of their ads and it’s like “this is for people with diabetes, but it can also help you lose weight!” and it’s like so gross. I feel like people with diabetes is trying to just survive the day and not worry about losing weight.
Similar to when I had my psychiatrist appointment to start taking Ritalin, and my psych is like “it’s great for adults because you can lose weight, usually for kids we have to watch them just in case, but for adults it’s great.” And I’m like sitting there, a fat person, just like… ugh. Felt so gross. Like, I just want to be able to make it through the day and get my tasks done, and not procrastinate, I don’t care if it makes me lose weight.
Our society has a very messed up view of weight. You get the same sorts of comments about being sick - someone is really sick and it causes them to use weight and you will have a ton of people piping up with “I could do with some of that” type comments. People with severe illnesses get comments about how great they look because they have lost weight.
The other ones that annoys me is that when talking about food we use “healthy” to mean low calorie, and we call a metabolism that uses lots of energy “efficient” (would you call your car efficient because it uses more fuel?). Yes obesity can be a problem, but thin is not inherently healthy, and losing weight can be a very bad medical sign.
The amount of positive comments I’ve got from certain people when I’ve been unintentionally losing weight over the last year from stress and inactivity and loss of appetite is really not cool. Nobody seems to believe me when I say it’s not a good sign and I am not healthy
hugs
Yes yes yes.
It frustrates me that I can do an hour of workout and eat greens and stuff, but yet people will see me as “unhealthy” yet my mate who can eat like 10 dim sims and 2 large chips from KFC but are still hungry. I love my mate, but it is just… wild, that skinny = healthy and fat = unhealthy. Like yes, of course, being fat isn’t always healthy. But you can be healthy at any size and you can be unhealthy at any size. It just makes me so mad and upset that to be considered “healthy” you need to be skinny.
The word diet gets me because that doesn’t mean restricted food it means your overall food in take.
I think it’s not so much the word itself which bothers me as that we push weight loss as an extreme, short-term endeavour which we do to become “healthy” and then stop. So when people think they need to lose weight they tend to go for extreme calorie reductions, meal replacement shakes, and a complete but short-term change in their eating. What people generally should be doing is making much smaller but permanent changes to their diet and lifestyle.
Which is probably when talking about myself I talk about “The Diet” somewhat tongue-in-cheek, because I am not really “dieting” in that regard, its really just a small part of a change towards a permanently healthier diet and lifestyle.
Yeah exactly. When I say my diet is a little out of whack lately I’m taking about my overall nutrition intake not a restricted “cant eat that” one diet.
Semiplegic tettany has the added benefit of making people shredded from constant barely controllable muscle spasm.
I lost weight due to my poverty-life. I felt ashamed that I lost weight because I only lost it due to being poorer than I was, so I just tell people I’m OMAD (one meal a day/intermittent fasting) but don’t reccomend it to anyone. Also, in part due to smoking ciggies, they’re appetite supressors. I am very unhealthy, despite eating healthy, as I am usually quite hungry all the time and I lead a very sedentary lifestyle. And yet I am still considered ‘fat’ by society, somehow. Like, no. I will not starve myself further because society (men) thinks I should be 50kg-60kg. It’s hard enough to maintain the 70kg-75kg that I am without slipping further down the scale.
Also, yeah, fat does not mean unhealthy. The only time I would consider it unhealthy is when someone is like, 200kg-400kg. But I also consider it unhealthy to be under 50kg. But I also dont know everyone’s story and am not a doctor or their doctor, both under 50kg and over 200kg could be, and probably are, living much healthier lifestyles than I.
I think it ought to be the norm to not judge anyone for their weight. And those ads for diet pills make me want to hurt someone lol
A few years back I too lost about 15 kgs from being poor. I planned meals carefully, I read food stats on packets, ate sooo many carrots as they are cheaper than potat. So many eggs as meat is expensive. The last thing I was thinking of was the latest food fad espoused by media. I knew I was eating healthier than before. No junk and a better balance.
Husband did not like it even tho he lost weight too. For him healthy food has to be health food, nothing to do with nutrition, it’s a spiritual thing. I remember being very annoyed the times he would eat my dinner, grabbing my food before I served myself because he thinks he can eat as much as he wants, even more if it’s health food, cos more is better right?
I grew up eating healthy but modern media tells us traditional diet is bad, right?
You probably already know this but during ww2 peoples diets were healthier than ever before probably due to the fact that sugar and fats were limited due to rationing.
The types of fats that people were eating back then (animal fats) are not unhealthy.
Yes and no. Fat back then was often plentiful and cheap so a common meal for the poor was left over drippings and bread. What we know now of course is that there are good fats and not so good fats. A small amount of animal fat is good for us but not what they were eating.
I’d also disagree that drippings are not healthy! And imagine if now instead of bread and drippings you just have bread. Pretty sad state of affairs that would be
For all you people interested in “diet culture” and how society views weight, nutrition, health etc, I very strongly recommend the podcast “Maintenance Phase”
Thank you for that recommendation. I’ve just been reading some of the transcripts (which I’m happy to see they have, I’d rather read than listen) and it’s really interesting.
I LOVE Maintenance Phase. Highly recommend it. I also recommend Fad Camp, similar idea as Maintenance Phase but it’s Irish folks. They’ve covered some similar stuff but there’s some interesting stuff in it.
I hate the judgement people lump on us for not being some fucked up influencer / media ideal of beauty and that that pertains to health somehow.
That a psychiatrist passed judgement over your weight when he was treating a neurodivergence (I assume) I find fucking gross too honestly. “Here vunerable person, have my 2 cents worth about your appearance”