Why did I look in the comments...

"Some points of my own: In doing an abundance of research over the years, including speaking with medical professionals, I have found that there is no known disease caused by obesity. Diseases that many state are caused by obesity are actually caused by what a person eats/does not eat, lack of exercise, and, as we are seeing more and more, sometimes caused by heredity. As we also know, there are many slim people who are unhealthy with high blood pressure, high cholesterol, etc. One must not look at an obese person and assume they are unhealthy. I am aware of a number of people who are fat who are healthy. Additionally, fat people are fat for a myriad of reasons, not only because they may have poor eating habits. Yes, most do not eat healthy/get proper exercise. However, there are other reasons as well such as medical. I recall a gentleman who had high cholesterol as well as high blood pressure. His physician strongly advised him to lose weight; he did not. Instead, he changed his eating habits and began an exercise regime. He did not lose one pound. Upon returning to his physician, his cholesterol and blood pressure were at acceptable levels. Height/weight charts were invented by insurance companies. There are a number of ethnic groups that would fail miserably if they were to attempt to adhere to these standards. Yet their bodies are healthy and beautiful precisely as they are. Just as there are many colors of people in this world, there are countless sizes as well. The medical profession has a long, notorious history of placing people in one box.

Due to the media, societal norms, and those around me (even my mother’s negative attitude), I loathed my fat body when I was young. And, yes, it’s perfectly fine to use the word “fat”. It is no different than saying that a person is tall or thin, or whatever. When I was about 26 years old (I’m 53 now), I finally began to love myself for exactly who I was, no matter the size. I wear a regular bathing suit, not a shirt and shorts. I freely tell people my weight, my dress size, my age, etc.; it’s only a number and it has absolutely NO relevance on who you are as a person. One of my therapists whom I was seeing was blown away that I was this liberated; she had never heard of anyone like me. I had learned to fight back against societal norms and against those who hate fat people, and there are a lot of them. Take a look at articles on the internet regarding weight-loss stories and then look at readers’ comments. There are always quite a number of people with horrid remarks against fat people, even comments about having them put to death and comments calling them the most disgusting of names all due to them being larger than “normal”. Whether you’re female or male, please don’t EVER berate yourself for not meeting someone else’s idea of what is acceptable or “normal”. Please always live your life for you and no one else, and keep on fighting the good fight. By the way, my top weight was 400 lbs. I finally stopped dieting and allowed myself to eat whatever I desired, but really began to listen to what my body actually needed. I now weigh 280 lbs. and falling . . . . . ."