Lovelyish

you’ve been submitting really quality stuff!  :]

I believe healthy habits can arise from places other than self-hate. “Beautiful at any size” doesn’t mean “it’s okay to be obese.” It means it’s okay to not hate yourself for being overweight. Believe it or not, you can lose weight without hating yourself.

No. And yes.

It does promote poor health, but at the same time, Their body weight isn’t an issue until they make it one.Only they will do something about it when they want to.

Look, I think no matter what we do it’s going to have a negative that comes along with it. I think people are going to eat poorly regardless of how much you don’t tell them they’re beautiful anyway. So, I think telling everyone that they’re beautiful no matter what their size isn’t doing any harm that wouldn’t be done if we weren’t making them feel better about themselves. 

Yes it does.
But it’s easier to create pitty than going an hour a day to a gym. 

Sheesh, this question is asked every month on lovelyish.

I’ve seen some people of both genders that are so obese that they need a walker to help them walk, so their weight is impeding on everyday basic functions. at the end of the day, they have to deal with the possible consequences, so you can preach health to them or whatever else, but their choice. I know some people, who have apparent health problems of high blood pressure and cholesterol, fatty liver, trouble breathing walking for short distances, sleep apnea, etc, yet they haven’t done a lifestyle change, which is again, up to them to make that decision. it is like all other bad habits, they know it is bad but do it anyway because they can and choose to continue to be that way. as with most things, there are limits.

loving your body @ being obesie size is NOT healthy. no matter what excuse you may come up with.

I like the idea of encouraging girls to love their own body and not compare themselves to models of unobtainable weights (for me!) buttt of course you must take the self-image advice with a grain of healthy-body salt. 

         Good health > Loving your body.

It doesn’t matter if you’re happy at 800 pounds if it destroys your health and life.

I like the wording of it: Embrace Your Body at Any Size. It doesn’t say love your body so much that you choose to stay that way or gain more weight because the bigger you are, the more you should love yourself. It says to EMBRACE it. It’s for the women that look at themselves in the mirror and think they don’t deserve love from other people or themselves because they’re obese. Because I can guarantee that no obese person loves their body! Get real!
Anyone can see a huge person and think “god, they need to lose weight, they look disgusting,” but how are you so sure they haven’t lost any weight, that they might’ve been bigger before you’ve decided to judge them?
Yes, I am a big girl so you might think I’m playing the double-standard card here, but I do know that losing weight to better my health is ideal, and I’ve been doing it, but I also know that being emotionally healthy is key as well.

When you actually begin to love your body is when you’ll get to a healthy weight. Letting your body be unhealthy is NOT loving it.

Loving your body can be a drive to take better care of it; like someone said, you don’t just lose weight because of hate; it’s actually easier, better, healthier to lose it because you appreciate your body and what it does, what you want it to do, how it feels.  Loving and caring don’t mean we forget or ignore the flaws.  It means we accept them as something currently present and look past them.  It’s rather like loving a person, actually…

However, the campaign as a whole does seem to be misinterpreted a lot of the time.  We need to find that middle ground, where we accept some bodies hold onto more chubb than others, and that exterior appearance is not an indicator of interior health.

*look at title* Yes.

Loving your body comes from taking good care of it. 

I think the “Embrace your body..” movement is only trying to promote girls to stop feeling so insecure about their bodies and to stop seeing overweight bodies as ‘ugly’. If a girl is going to change her lifestyle, it shouldn’t be because she feels horrible and insecure about her current lifestyle but because she strives to be healthy for her particular body type.

Self-acceptance isn’t just for the healthy and beautiful.  If you don’t start embracing your body now, when WILL you start?  When you reach a certain arbitrary weight?  When your blood glucose levels drop to the normal range?  Love yourself now.  Love yourself enough to make a healthy change.

I don’t know why being fat has to be everyones business.  I don’t think it’s wrong for you to love yourself, no matter your size.  If someone is ok with being fat, and unhealthy (or fat AND healthy), that is THEIR business, not yours, or anyone elses.

It promotes bad health, not because there’s anything inherently unhealthy with not being ‘perfect’, but because the people who recite that mantra are almost always the ones who are severely overweight.  You rarely see a girl who’s just “average” say that she wants to “love her body how it is”, it’s normally the girl that’s 50+ pounds overweight (well into the obese category) saying it.

I didn’t realize she’s losing weight. That’s actually really upsetting.

@TheMuppetFairy@xanga - “If someone is ok with being fat, and unhealthy (or fat AND healthy), that is THEIR business, not yours, or anyone elses.”

I’m sorry, I disagree. Bad health impacts everyone else, whether you like it or not. It affects everyone elses insurance costs, costs of medicine and costs of hospital visits, because everyone else has to pay for your bad health. It is my business when my insurance is going up stupid amounts because other people are happy wandering around in dreadful health.

There’s nothing wrong with accepting yourself but it stops at a point. The point is not to get extreme about these views but be realistic. 

Improving yourself never hurts you but rather helps you in the long run. So why not? 

The movement I’m familiar with is “health at any size” that promotes the fact that beauty isn’t what you should strive for, health is- similarly that thin does not = healthy, fat doesn’t = unhealthy. healthy habits = healthy. That’s the important thing.

I believe good habits can stem from loving ones self, being confident in ones self and respecting ones self. And if one starts making healthy habit changes… but happens to not lose much weight, I don’t see why they can’t embrace what they’ve got.  At least they’ve started making healthier habit changes… which is really important.

Fashion, Gothic, photography update

http://hk.myblog.yahoo.com/leo_new363/

http://leonew36.wordpress.com/

http://leonew63.wordpress.com/

I ABSOLUTELY agree with this. I’m glad someone else feels this way, too. Yes, you should accept your body- but take care of it, too!

I love this post. These days, it is so hard to have an opinion on this subject matter without getting a lot of flack for it, so kudos to you for putting it out there. Loving who you are is what is important, but making sure you’re loving a healthy you is even better. 500 pounds and happy? Possible. 500 pounds and healthy? Hell no. I remember when some “fat-support” group came out in defense against people who talked about how unhealthy that woman from Precious is. They ripped people a new one for just worrying that her excessive weight was sending the wrong message. I find it funny that 90 pound girls can constantly get ridiculed without support, but obese women are protected. We shouldn’t be “protecting” anyone who sends out any message other than, “be healthy and happy”. There’s been a big movement for curvy women and I, a size 10, am all for it. What I’m NOT for are articles that take a size 24 woman and say, “look, now THAT’S a real woman!”

Long tangent short, take care of yourself. Then love the body you’re in.

I know a lot of people who would disagree with you and disagree with Jess’s decision to lose weight. I posted on here before about fat acceptance. I’m thin myself but I somewhat follow fat acceptance and a lot of the fat activists believe their doctors telling them about their pre-diabetic symptoms and their need to lose weight are completely full of crap and have no idea what they are doing. That is something I’m not sure I can get on board with. I know of a woman who is a professional dancer and is considered morbidly obese. Not just obese, but “morbidly obese” and she’s doing things physically that most of us here can’t do. She takes care of herself, stays active, eats well….and is still morbidly obese. It kinda shoots down the idea that obese can’t be a good thing.

I think people take the message too literally.  The way I see the body acceptance message is that you should love yourself as a person regardless of what your body looks like.  People should not wait until they are at a healthy size (or a size that is considered beautiful) to love themselves.  People shouldn’t have to be thin or healthy to be worthy of respect or to consider themselves to be worthy of respect.  However, this does not mean they should maintain a lifestyle that is clearly unhealthy.  A part of loving and accepting yourself involves doing things that improve your life and accepting mediocrity is never a good thing.  In terms of your body, this is true whether you are over eating, under eating etc.  It is true that you can be beautiful at any size, but if maintaining a certain size has unhealthy consequences on your life, you should try to improve it.

theyre not sayin go eat a billion cheezeburgers to get fat cuz fat is sexy.
its saying if youre fat, thats ok too.

That is disgusting. I am the same size, and I know I am fat. I know I am unhealthy, and I know I am not beautiful at this size.

This reminds me of the “curvy” issue – where fat, ROUND shaped women are proud of their (non existent) curves.

I’m overweight and I know it. I’m trying to lose it, but I’m not going to wallow in self pity over it. I’m going to be confident and use my personality to charm people while I’m working on my body. 

That’s what this campaign is all about; being happy no matter what stage you’re at with your body.

somehow, yes. embrace your body at any size is a good thing to do, and i appreciate curvy girls for doing that. but if i were their friends i’d tell them that losing weight is good for yourself.

“Embrace your body” does NOT equal “If you’re fat, just become complacent and refuse to change.”  But that is what everyone twists it to mean.  Newsflash: being emotionally unhealthy can be just as detrimental as being physically unhealthy.  There is absolutely NO reason you should have to hate yourself or think your body is disgusting and ugly until you reach a certain weight.  THAT is what embracing your body at any size is about.  It’s about loving yourself and being confident, and that is a far better catalyst for change than listening to the voices all around you that say you’re not good enough because the first number on the scale is a 2.  People who do say that need to get over themselves.

I have been on both sides of the fence…right now I am overweight at 5’11″ and 197 pounds, but I’m way healthier than I was a few years ago when I weighed 157 pounds.  My BMI is higher, but I am in far better shape.  Why?  Because I’ve learned that the people who say you shouldn’t embrace yourself as you are, that you shouldn’t love your body unless you’ve “earned” it, are full of shit.  And I have learned that using self-hate and pictures in Vogue as motivation to lose weight is not as healthy as having a positive outlook and a healthy self-image.  Loving yourself is not the same thing as complacency.  In fact, learning to appreciate your body and what it does for you will most likely cause you to treat it better and, in the process, lose some weight if you have some to lose.

You should try to love your body unconditionally; at 100 pound or 450 pounds. and only when you love your body will you be able to make healthier choices and move towards weight goals.

Yes, accepting obesity and not altering that unhealthy state is bad bad.

No, accepting you as beautiful at any waist/boob/butt/thigh size is mentally healthy.

So..accept the beauty of the human body while healthfully pushing toward a lower weight standard for height/gender/age.

well you know, i had this rather recent realization that, if one is obese, there’s a good chance it’s because they have an eating disorder, stemming from mental/emotional issues.and it’s just as big a deal as anorexia or bulimia.having a few extra pounds shouldn’t be a bad thing, but obesity is, i think in most cases, definitely about emotional problems/trauma/etc.so then, if you just try to lose weight and go at it from a physical angle, it’s gonna be really easy to go in the other direction, and start abusing weightloss instead of food.maybe a lot of people could do with counselling, i think most people could benefit from it! because if the emotional issues aren’t dealt with, the manifestation of them will be there still, just maybe in a different, but just as dangerous form!

I’ve always felt that yes, you should love YOURSELF at whatever weight, but you need to be intelligent enough to realize “Yes I love myself and I accept myself, BUT I AM MEDICALLY OBESE AND SHOULD PROBABLY LOSE SOME WEIGHT BEFORE I HAVE A HEART ATTACK/STROKE/GET DIABETES/ETC”

“Fat and proud” is not a healthy way to live. I love that people of all sizes love themselves and can be happy, but if you really love yourself, you need to try to be healthy.

dead horse is dead.

and yes, it can promote poor health. i don’t support blithe ignorance.

The thing is, I don’t ever remember the movement ever being about accepting your size at the cost of your health. Like you even posted, even the leaders will lose weight if they find they are being unhealthy and their health is deteriorating because of it. And yeah, she had issues with it because she’s had issues with eating disorders in the past (or at least that’s what she said on the Tyra show when she would come on to talk to girls with EDs). But the movement has always been about accepting the size you are when you are healthy. For some girls it is skinny and for some it looks bigger than some would think would be good (but if their bodies aren’t saying otherwise, than who is to say so). And yes, that can mean over 200 lbs. There was someone on Tyra who went on and saw a doctor and got a checkup…she was perfectly healthy and could do what she needed to do throughout the day yet she was close to 250 lbs. She also ate pretty decently and her job involved moving around. Her body just held onto the extra weight and she learned to deal with it and to love her body. Yes that is rare but you never know who is that rare one and assuming that who you’re talking to isn’t can make them hate themselves when they’re doing everything right. Honestly, some of the healthiest people I know are more than 30 lbs overweight or are a few pounds underweight. Most of the people I know who are at a perfect weight are the unhealthiest people I know. Most. Yet everyone says that they should love themselves and the rest of us shouldn’t encourage self-love until we get into a good weight range. BMI (which is normally what determines the ranges for overweight, obese, underweight, and normal) sucks as an indicator. Weight means little and eating and exercising habits mean everything. That is all that anyone leading it that I have heard has said. Yeah some people take it to mean that they can eat whatever the hell they want but then again, there are plenty of people who use the fact that obesity can cause a lot of health issues to support their disordered eating. It goes both ways. 

Can we stop with these posts now? They are very old and getting us nowhere. Let’s just all agree that “healthy and proud” is the way to go and that if that happens not to be an ideal weight to just let it go? How about that? Stop judging based on physical appearance of weight that you may not be able to even judge? (Like how most people tend to think I way 20 lbs less than I do and I’m nowhere near athletic showing that weight is not a good indicator at all.)

Loving yourself where you are doesn’t mean you want to stay unhealthy. In fact, it seems like most people who claim to be ok with being a very unhealthy size really are not. Really loving someone means wanting the best for them, and that includes yourself as well. I don’t need to love myself or my body more or less depending on what I weigh, how old I am, etc. For me, loving myself means loving what I have so much that I want to become the best healthy, balanced me I can, wherever I’m starting from. 

@XoAsianBabioX@xanga - Aw, thanks so much!

@thepsychoticraccoon@xanga - i was going to say something similar.

every time there’s a post about accepting your body everyone jumps to “its okay to be obese” when i think its saying that the girl whos broad, big boned, or curvy is just as beautiful as the skinny stick girl. if it wanted you to think obesity is beauty, it would say that. 

@written_conversations@xanga - “I’m sorry, I disagree. Bad health impacts everyone else, whether you like it or not. It affects everyone elses insurance costs, costs of medicine and costs of hospital visits, because everyone else has to pay for your bad health. It is my business when my insurance is going up stupid amounts because other people are happy wandering around in dreadful health.”

I find your comment interesting.  ”Bad health impacts everyone else…” If this is true then we should make smokers feel bad about who they are because they smoke, make people who drink alcohol feel bad about themselves because they drink alcohol.  We should then tell skinny people who eat unhealthily to not embrace who they are because they are not living a healthy lifestyle.  Bad health may be made worse by being fat, but genetics also play a role.  Someone who is skinny, eats healthy, can still have “bad health that impacts everyone else.”  So I guess if bad health impacts everyone, we should all be taking a real hard look at ourselves, and I guess we should all be getting in everyone elses business so that way we can stop them from being unhealthy.  I see no problem if people want to preach about being healthier, because most people could be eating healthier, but there is no reason we should be telling people not to love and embrace who they are because they are fat.

Embracing your body, whatever its size may be, does not promote bad health.  It just means that you shouldn’t hate yourself for how you look.  

This debate is so old. Does being vastly overweight tend to create health risks? Sure. So what? If people want to take the risks that go with being overweight, let them do so in peace. Just like if people want to take the risks that go with smoking, drinking, skydiving, etc, we should let them do so in peace. Maybe it’s just me, but listening to people explain why they’re justified in getting worked up about how other people live their personal lives is getting tiresome. 

you know what promotes worse health? Telling us that no matter what size we are we are always fat and ugly and disgusting. You know what promotes poor health? Telling a girl recently recovered from bulimia that she needs to go on a diet because the chubbier version doesnt give your old, wrinkly ass a boner anymore. You know what promotes poor health? Ostracizing someone for being larger than you. You know what promotes bad health? Perpetuating the idea that obese and overweight people are totally fucking WORTHLESS. Or how about ridiculing our children for being “at risk for overweight”, which really just means that their BMI is in the HEALTHY range? Believe it or not, someone who is overweight CAN exercise. I do. And I hate it. Don’t get me wrong, I pole dance, and I thoroughly enjoy the activity, but I hate it because I know that every second I’m doing it, my body is being ridiculed. I know that no man would ever want me, and all the girls are secretly thanking God they don’t look like me. I can see their faces, and I see it when I go to the gym. If it was more acceptable for me to simply BE ALIVE, I guarantee I would exercise more, thus being healthier (which by the way, I am significantly overweight and last time I went to the doctor I had a nearly perfect bill of health aside from the thyroid problem that makes me this way and the crushing depression, in part perpetuated by the very thing I am describing.) So you know what REALLY promotes bad health? Hate.

@minha__menina@xanga - That is so bitchy of you to say.  Just because someone is overweight, or even obese, doesn’t mean that they should hate themselves.  You do realize that some people can’t help being obese, right?  Some people take medications that prevent them from maintaining a healthy weight.  For some, they have to choose between looking good or living.  I would choose to live over being society’s idea of “beautiful”

You may be skinny and beautiful on the outside, but I can guarantee that any outer beauty you possess is ruined by your condescension and rudeness.  I’d rather spend my time with fat people who have wonderful personalities than with skinny bitches who think they are entitled to the world because they’re quote/unquote beautiful.

Get off your high horse.  You are no better than anyone else.

@annnyah@xanga - I couldn’t agree with you more.

People view overweight individuals in a vacuum.  As though all in the world a person overweight has to think about is “how fat am I?  How many calories have I consumed today?”  I constantly battle my weight, and I’m most successful when everything else in my life is on autopilot.  But the months and weeks when my business, my family, my job, my household, my many responsibilities are in crisis, I have less time to exercise, and I have to eat whatever I can get my hands on.

If you can tell me the precise number of calories you consumed every day for the last month, then you probably have absolutely nothing else in your life worthy of your attention and you’re probably intolerably boring to be around.  And that’s just flat pathetic.

@the_rocking_of_socks@xanga - This is such a true statement you have to love yourself first before you can change the things that need to be changed

@belleorecluses@xanga - Oh, I didn’t realize that she was overweight herself.  That was harsh of me to say.  But, like you, anytime I see her comment on something weight related she’s unbelievable rude and cruel.  That isn’t the way to be.  Thanks for pointing that out to me. 

If you truly love your body, you will take care of it. Going around saying you “just love your obese body” is really like saying “I’m too lazy to be healthy”.

I think people should love themselves enough to be healthy instead of accepting themselves as overweight or underweight. Let’s face it, this is a very shallow society we live in and inner beauty only gets you so far. 

The bottom line is this – if you’re happy with your body & confident, no one has the right to try to take that away from you. They’re are PLENTY of people who fall under ‘overweight’ who are perfectly healthy, just like there are those on the opposite spectrum that are healthy as well. It depends on you & how you’re taking care of yourself. Weight is never the deciding factor of health unless you’re obese, & even then if they love themselves, fantastic.

I think a lot of ‘fat hate’ is masked as ‘we care about their health!’ No, you don’t. You’re just a judgemental asshole.

@minha__menina@xanga - I’m not saying this as rude, just saying how I see it – but I think you’re just projecting your own self-image out on others. (I think that’s the case with a lot of people, so not just you.) I mean it with sincerity when I say that I hope you realize how detrimental that is towards others & yourself. You deserve better than to have those things constantly looping through your head.

the whole “embrace your body” thing has been taken too far. i think it originally meant, taking in consideration people and especially women are different sizes and shapes, to love the body you were given. embrace the imperfections, not become obese, and still love your body. it sounds harsh, but it’s so true. 
that’s definitely
unhealthy to be obese and continue that lifestyle

NO, it does not promote ‘poor health.’ I’ve lost over a HUNDRED and five pounds and I only was able to do so once I was happy with the skin I was previously in. If you hate your body as a bigger woman, you will not love your body as a thin woman. It does not work that way. You need to respect yourself FIRST. That’s where so many women go wrong.

I think most females would agree that the main motivator for dieting and exercising is to look better (for whatever reason- feeling more beautiful, fit into certain clothes, attracting men). The “Embrace Your Body…” movement is geared at halting the mindset that we as women are not good/beautiful/normal enough because of our weight. It is correct to say that its not good when people take it to the extreme and use it as an excuse to not be healthy but demolishing the mindset that weight=beauty will help people have a correct view of our value as human beings and would therefore help us to realize the importance of staying healthy. 

Its what you eat, not your size.  Eating too many carbs when you dont need them is not good for you. 

@UnrevealedTruth_xo@xanga - Yeah… I think you have a point. You might be right I don’t know. It is kind of true that that I project my own self image on others. I don’t know if you’ve read my blog but if you have maybe you know that I am not fat by choice and that’s why I can’t stand people who has chose to be fat. Being fat makes your life miserable, further than being ugly.

I personally don’t feel I’m too cruel. I just use clear sentences instead of justifying everything i write, like people ALWAYS do when commenting on weight.

thank you so much.
meant a lot.
seriously
thank you.

@ohveryoung@xanga - yeah, and you are so you have the right to be rude to me.

Too two faced.

@belleorecluses@xanga - so…. don’t read me? that easy.

@minha__menina@xanga - We should just… talk. I always liked you. I remember when we used to actually have conversations. I just don’t think you should judge people, that’s all. 

@belleorecluses@xanga - i remember that too. I remember we used to have such long conversations at night and to be honest, i never understood you but then i learned to love you even though i found you somehow weird and like in the clouds. but i also remember that what we had in common was krystalowa (i miss her so damn muchhhhh) and she is long gone…..

i’m not being rude. who i’ve been judging?? just Adele and Demi Lovato…. they are not even real.

@minha__menina@xanga - … Never understood me? I was 13 then, anyway. I bet I was completely in the clouds. Anyway, I never understood you either. Asia had facebook, and MSN, if you have either of those. But I no longer talker to her. She was lovely. 

@belleorecluses@xanga - yes, i never did and still don’t. how can you be so nice? is that you for real? one day you want to kill yourself and three hours later you are talking about super girl powers and beauty… and i’m like what beauty is she talkin about? 

i do have a facebook but i don’t think she remembers me. she was so great, i’ll never forget her.

why do you two aren’t talking? she loved you so so so much. I swear, so mucch. You’re so lucky.

@minha__menina@xanga - I’m all always nice… I’m like a hippie, minus the drugs. a friend of mine calls me Gandhi. I do want to kill myself. I hate myself, but everyone else is wonderful, and I want the best for them. Also, my mind changes like the wind, and I can’t even keep up with it. 

She probably would remember you. 
We just stopped talking at one point… a very long time ago. I loved her too, she was very lovable. 

@belleorecluses@xanga -

you think so? can you link me to her? i’ll be such a creep but whatever, i still care about her.
and don’t worry, nobody understands me………..(haven’t you tell?)

why are you like that?? what’s your science??

It’s amazing that so many people don’t seem to understand that a campaign like “Embrace Your Body at Any Size” probably gets more people into shape than it keeps fat.  Once you accept that you are a good person at any weight, you might finally believe you are worthy of getting into the shape you’d like to be.  Yes, this motto will keep some people “overweight” but then again those people will probably always be overweight for whatever reasons.

The reason for this motto is that society treats overweight people like crap.  Like they are unworthy.  I’ve been super skinny and very overweight and it’s amazing how people subconsciously treat overweight people.  This motto is to remind people that every person is worthy regardless of their weight.  And that acceptance has probably given more people confidence to lose weight. 

I agree completely with your stance. Healthy should be beautiful.

One side wants to claim fat people are unhealthy, poor role models, bad citizens inflating the rest of our healthcare costs, and irresponsible for having extra weight.  The extremists claim fat people shouldn’t be allowed to reproduce, or even be around children… the more “moderate” position is that they are at least setting a poor example.  They want “healthy” to mean “pretty”, and “obese people” to be the newest group of people to discriminate and legislate against.

The other side wants to claim skinny people are holding ridiculous standards, that this “skinny = healthy” thing is just a fad, that mental fitness is more important than physical fitness, and argue that there is more healthcare money spent on bulimics and anorexics every year than on obesity-caused illnesses.  They want “healthy” to equal “doesn’t look anything like a famous person, because all those people OBVIOUSLY are photoshopped IRL”, and take personal offense at the 86-year-old lady at Sam’s Club offering LeanCuisine samples to them (like she does for everyone in the store).

Both sides seem to think, somewhere, that “Good person” has some component that fits precisely on the bathroom scale.

I happen to believe that we should focus on being good people, and if you spend your days sniping at one camp or the other, then weight issues should be a LONG way down on the list of personal problems you need to address.

Obviously, I’m not a good person.

Edit : @ the OP : Good post, with two problems.  First, the line about “I’m not talking about 20 pounds here.”  Please, define for us what X if, is X+20 = Okay, but X + >20 = not okay.  Vague statements sound great sometimes, but if you want to take a stand against something, especially an issue that licensed professionals in an area can’t agree upon, I think you need to set up what your standards are.  The second is the line about “out of shame”.  Does motivation really matter?  Your argument is about health… which, if I believe your thesis that there is a point where obesity becomes unhealthy, then why would it matter their motivation for losing weight?  More to the point, if my friend is 400 lbs, loves his wife and kids, and then loses 170 lbs and becomes an angry bitter dad… you see where I’m going?  Trying to mix the story of emotions and physical attributes is tricky, because no situation is the ideal situation.  It is hard to credit that people will wake up, have a brilliant change of heart, and make a 180 lifestyle change without some emotional trauma.  Shame included.  If you want to promote the lifestyle change, I think we need to respect the gauntlet of possible emotions, and not say “lets call the whole thing off” if there’s a negative thinking pattern.

I agree with you – healthy, full living should be a concern for everyone. And yeah, obesity does usually coincide with a lack of healthiness.

But, as other commenters have said, it’s completely possible (and preferable) for someone to be able to accept their body and still work at losing weight. Self-love is crucial to happiness. Even if someone is overweight and unhealthy, it doesn’t mean they’re repulsive, or disgusting, or worthless, or irresponsible. They aren’t despicable. And I think society seems to think that obesity does mean all of these things.

That’s where the “embrace your body” movement is a great thing. To me, the entire movement means, “embrace your body, embrace yourself, love yourself, be happy”. It isn’t a put down to anyone else, nor is an argument for obesity as the lifestyle of choice. It’s just a reminder that we’re all people and we all deserve happiness and respect. On those two fronts, why the hell should dress size matter?

Health and self esteem are both important. But you can be sick or healthy at any size as well…so we need to make sure people are healthy and know that they’re beautiful no matter their size.

yes it can promote bad health. not everyone is the same. the love your body at any size thing and the i have a thyroid problem are NO EXCUSE to let yourself go and not take care of yourself. just my opinion.