Link to This Fat Old Lady’s blog
Fat Friday – You Can’t Have it Both Ways
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Friday, 13 March 2020
FAT FRIDAY – KEEPING THE FAT BLUES AWAY
Link to This Fat Old Lady’s blog
Fat Friday – Keeping the Fat Blues Away
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Let’s Talk About Intermittent Fasting
Intermittent Fasting or, as I like to call it, repeated short-term starvation, has become all the rage. And while its evangelists would have you believe that it can help everything from inflammation to swimmer’s ear, there are some very real dangers.
It can cause problems for people who are dealing with blood sugar issues, and people who are pregnant. It can lead to decreased alertness, pancreatic damage, and increased cortisol levels and can cause us to develop unhealthy relationships with food and our bodies.
In an excellent piece from Bustle, Nutritional therapist Emily Fonnesbeck, RD pointed out:
Restricting your eating to only certain times during the day ignores your body’s needs, leaves you undernourished, and could cause the pendulum to swing to the other extreme once you do have permission to eat. This type of dysregulated, haphazard and chaotic eating pattern negatively impacts hormone balance, immunity, digestion, and sleep patterns. While intermittent fasting may appear healthy, it has the very real potential to make you unwell.
I don’t think it even appears healthy, but I understand how a world rife with fatphobia and the associated disordered eating would lead people to advocate for starvation.
As always, I want to be clear that people are allowed to do whatever they want with their own bodies. But it does not follow that I have to let them pee on my leg and tell me it’s raining.
Looking through the research that supposedly “supports” intermittent fasting, you’ll find short-term studies, huge drop-out rates, focus on short-term individual numbers rather than overall and/or longterm health outcomes, and a looooot of animal studies.
Reader Jane Lincoln pointed out this study that illustrates many of the issues at once. It compared three groups – fasting, caloric restriction, and a control group. 38% of the people in the fasting group dropped out. Those who were in the fasting group struggled to eat the amounts prescribed. Compared to a calorie restriction group and a control group there were “no significant differences between the intervention groups in blood pressure, heart rate, triglycerides, fasting glucose, fasting insulin, insulin resistance, C-reactive protein, or homocysteine concentrations at month 6 or 12.” The only significant difference was increased LDL (“bad”) cholesterol in the fasting group.
The study concluded, “Alternate-day fasting did not produce superior adherence, weight loss, weight maintenance, or cardioprotection vs daily calorie restriction.”
And since we know that the long-term result of almost every attempt at weight loss through caloric restriction is total weight regain, with many gaining back more than they lost, I think the actual conclusion is that intermittent fasting is just more risk with no benefit. Y’all, if it walks like a fad diet, talks like a fad diet, and harms people’s relationships with food and their bodies like a fad diet – it’s a fad diet.
Was this helpful? If you appreciate the work that I do, you can support my ability to do more of it with a one-time tip or by becoming a member. (Members get special deals on fat-positive stuff, a monthly e-mail keeping them up to date on the work their membership supports, and the ability to ask me questions that I answer in a members-only monthly Q&A Video!)
Like this blog? Here’s more stuff you might like:
Wellness for All Bodies Program: A simple, step-by-step, super efficient guide to setting and reaching your health goals from a weight-neutral perspective. This program can be used by individuals, or by groups, including as a workplace wellness program!
Price: $25.00 ($10 for DancesWithFat members – register on the member page)
Click here for all the details and to register!
This e-course that includes coaching videos, a study guide, and an ebook with the tools you need to create a rock-solid relationship with your body. Our relationships with our bodies don’t happen in a vacuum, so just learning to see our beauty isn’t going to cut it. The world throws obstacles in our way – obstacles that aren’t our fault, but become our problem. Over the course of this program, Ragen Chastain, Jeanette DePatie, and six incredible guest coaches will teach you practical, realistic, proven strategies to go above, around, and through the obstacles that the world puts in front of you when it comes to living an amazing life in the body you have now.
Price: $99.00 Click here to register
($79.00 for DancesWithFat members – register on the member page)
Love It! 234 Inspirations And Activities to Help You Love Your Body
This is filled with thoughtful advice from the authors Jeanette DePatie, Ragen Chastain, and Pia Sciavo-Campo as well as dozens of other notable names from the body love movement, the book is lovingly illustrated with diverse drawings from size-positive artist Toni Tails.
Price: $9.99 softcover, $7.99 Kindle, ($6.95 + free shipping for DancesWithFat Members)
Book Me! I’d love to speak to your organization. You can get more information here or just e-mail me at ragen at danceswithfat dot org!
I’m (still!) training for an Iron-distance triathlon! You can follow my journey at www.IronFat.com .
If you are uncomfortable with my offering things for sale on this site, you are invited to check out this post.
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Thursday, 12 March 2020
Fact: Fatphobia Perpetuates Eating Disorders And Impedes Recovery
The eating disorders community has a serious fatphobia problem and it’s harming people of all sizes. The Academy for Eating Disorders recently made that abundantly clear.
Moving to a Size Acceptance and Health at Every Size paradigm is required if we truly want to prevent eating disorders and allow for full recovery.
I recently wrote about the need to end Fatphobia in Eating Disorder Treatment and Recovery for The Mighty, so I wanted to share it here. Here’s an excerpt:
“We prescribe to fat people the same things that we diagnose and treat in thin people.”
The first time I heard this statement was from Deb Burgard, PhD, FAED, a psychologist who specializes in eating disorder treatment. As someone who is both fat and has recovered from an eating disorder, it resonated immediately. Even when I was being actively treated for my eating disorder, doctors were suggesting I engage in the exact same behaviors that those treating me were trying to help me stop.
There’s a grave misconception in the medical community that weight-loss behaviors are a path to health for fat people…
Was this helpful? If you appreciate the work that I do, you can support my ability to do more of it with a one-time tip or by becoming a member. (Members get special deals on fat-positive stuff, a monthly e-mail keeping them up to date on the work their membership supports, and the ability to ask me questions that I answer in a members-only monthly Q&A Video!)
Like this blog? Here’s more stuff you might like:
Wellness for All Bodies Program: A simple, step-by-step, super efficient guide to setting and reaching your health goals from a weight-neutral perspective. This program can be used by individuals, or by groups, including as a workplace wellness program!
Price: $25.00 ($10 for DancesWithFat members – register on the member page)
Click here for all the details and to register!
This e-course that includes coaching videos, a study guide, and an ebook with the tools you need to create a rock-solid relationship with your body. Our relationships with our bodies don’t happen in a vacuum, so just learning to see our beauty isn’t going to cut it. The world throws obstacles in our way – obstacles that aren’t our fault, but become our problem. Over the course of this program, Ragen Chastain, Jeanette DePatie, and six incredible guest coaches will teach you practical, realistic, proven strategies to go above, around, and through the obstacles that the world puts in front of you when it comes to living an amazing life in the body you have now.
Price: $99.00 Click here to register
($79.00 for DancesWithFat members – register on the member page)
Love It! 234 Inspirations And Activities to Help You Love Your Body
This is filled with thoughtful advice from the authors Jeanette DePatie, Ragen Chastain, and Pia Sciavo-Campo as well as dozens of other notable names from the body love movement, the book is lovingly illustrated with diverse drawings from size-positive artist Toni Tails.
Price: $9.99 softcover, $7.99 Kindle, ($6.95 + free shipping for DancesWithFat Members)
Book Me! I’d love to speak to your organization. You can get more information here or just e-mail me at ragen at danceswithfat dot org!
I’m (still!) training for an Iron-distance triathlon! You can follow my journey at www.IronFat.com .
If you are uncomfortable with my offering things for sale on this site, you are invited to check out this post.
via Dances With Fat https://ift.tt/2UcU5Kj
Wednesday, 11 March 2020
What Can I Do If I Still Wish I Was Thinner?
I got an email from someone who had just completed another round of weight-cycling (losing weight, then gaining it back – often gaining back more than was lost.) They understood that there was almost no chance that they would become thin – especially since they have repeatedly failed.
They understood that the research is clear that the outcome they experienced – total weight regain – is the most common outcome of any weight loss attempt. They were clear that they can pursue health without pursuing weight loss. But they still want to lose weight both because they believe that they’ll have trouble finding a romantic partner, and because they just want life – shopping for clothes, flying in a plane, etc. – to be easier.
If you feel this way I want you to know that you are not alone, this is a very common experience. The fact that we understand that dieting almost never works (and that the chances of success can drop even lower on repeated attempts) doesn’t change the fact that we are a fat person, living in a fatphobic world.
Fatphobia, weight stigma, and weight-based oppression are not in our heads – they are real and fat people experience them constantly in everything from fashion, to travel, to the working out, to medical care and more. The more fat we are, the more oppression we experience and things are even worse for those who are part of multiple marginalized groups.
Still, in my experience, hanging on to the fantasy of being thin (and, at least subconsciously, the idea that I could move myself out of the oppressed group) kept me aligned with diet culture and made it impossible for me to move forward with my life.
One good way to start to take control of this might be thinking about some questions, like:
–Knowing that I will probably always be fat, do I want to believe that the problem is fatphobia, or do I want to believe that the problem is my body?
–Knowing that the most likely outcome is a lifetime of weight cycling, do I want to try to continue to fight my body in the hopes that I can someday be successful in appeasing my oppressors?
–Would I really want a partner who only wanted me if I was thin?
–If being thin wasn’t an option, what would I want to do moving forward?
It can also help to follow fat activists who are living their lives without pursuing weight loss as role models. (Here’s a great thread to get you started: https://twitter.com/SofieHagen/status/1235182106810208257)
For me, my life turned around when I realized that the problem is fatphobia and not my body. As a person who is both queer and fat, I think it helped that I could see parallels between the way that I’ve been treated as a queer person with the way that I’ve been treated as a fat person. This includes the suggestion that these states are changeable, and that the solution to the oppression I was experiencing was to change myself to make my oppressors happy. Completely rejecting these suggestions has made my life immeasurably better.
When I realized that the world is fucked up and my body is fine, it was liberating. I no longer pursue weight loss. I no longer have lists of things that I’m going to do/start/be once I get thin. I no longer participate in my own oppression. I choose to fight my oppressors rather than spending my time, energy, and money trying to submit to their demands.
Was this helpful? If you appreciate the work that I do, you can support my ability to do more of it with a one-time tip or by becoming a member. (Members get special deals on fat-positive stuff, a monthly e-mail keeping them up to date on the work their membership supports, and the ability to ask me questions that I answer in a members-only monthly Q&A Video!)
Like this blog? Here’s more stuff you might like:
Wellness for All Bodies Program: A simple, step-by-step, super efficient guide to setting and reaching your health goals from a weight-neutral perspective. This program can be used by individuals, or by groups, including as a workplace wellness program!
Price: $25.00 ($10 for DancesWithFat members – register on the member page)
Click here for all the details and to register!
This e-course that includes coaching videos, a study guide, and an ebook with the tools you need to create a rock-solid relationship with your body. Our relationships with our bodies don’t happen in a vacuum, so just learning to see our beauty isn’t going to cut it. The world throws obstacles in our way – obstacles that aren’t our fault, but become our problem. Over the course of this program, Ragen Chastain, Jeanette DePatie, and six incredible guest coaches will teach you practical, realistic, proven strategies to go above, around, and through the obstacles that the world puts in front of you when it comes to living an amazing life in the body you have now.
Price: $99.00 Click here to register
($79.00 for DancesWithFat members – register on the member page)
Love It! 234 Inspirations And Activities to Help You Love Your Body
This is filled with thoughtful advice from the authors Jeanette DePatie, Ragen Chastain, and Pia Sciavo-Campo as well as dozens of other notable names from the body love movement, the book is lovingly illustrated with diverse drawings from size-positive artist Toni Tails.
Price: $9.99 softcover, $7.99 Kindle, ($6.95 + free shipping for DancesWithFat Members)
Book Me! I’d love to speak to your organization. You can get more information here or just e-mail me at ragen at danceswithfat dot org!
I’m (still!) training for an Iron-distance triathlon! You can follow my journey at www.IronFat.com .
If you are uncomfortable with my offering things for sale on this site, you are invited to check out this post.
via Dances With Fat https://ift.tt/2Q5FGON
Tuesday, 10 March 2020
Noom – Nothing New, Everything Harmful
I’ve been seeing adds for Noom all over social media for quite a while now. They claim to be a new way to lose weight that can help you keep the weight off for life.
First of all, their commercials are chock full of diet advice that is as old as the hills and has no research to back it as actually creating . (“Eat grapes instead of raisins, drink wine instead of beer, drink a glass of water if you’re hungry, blah blah blah) a lot of the program seems to be based on the old “eat watery, fibery, bulky food so you’ll feel fuller” advice that doesn’t work because your body is a sophisticated piece of machinery and not a lawnmower.
Moreover, how can they claim to be brand new, while also claiming that they can help you keep weight off for life? That claim would have to be backed by some serious long-term research in order to be credible. I asked them for the research – I asked in e-mail, through their website contact, and on social media – including one memorable thread that had 758 comments, to which they replied directly to 757. Guess whose comment did not receive a response?
Spoiler Alert – they could not help me find that information because it doesn’t exist, but we’ll get to that in a minute.
I asked folks on social media to share their experiences and they were truly terrible. Especially for people who chose the option “get fit for good” (rather than “lose weight for good”) because they believed it to be a wellness program, only to be given extremely low-calorie diets, and eating disorder triggers from food moralization to being asked to literally pledge to weigh themselves every single day.
I decided to try their sign up process for myself. The first thing I found was that whether I clicked “Get Fit For Good” or “Lose Weight For Good” I was sent to the exact same process. Pretty disingenuous if you ask me, and another example of companies co-opting anti-diet language to sell diets.
As I went through the demographic questions, I was sad to see that this “modern” weight loss company only gave gender options for “Male” and “Female” completely erasing the existence of non-binary people.
I gave my starting height and weight as 5’3, 300 pounds. I gave my goal weight as 75 pounds as a test – hoping against hope that it would send up a red flag and recommend some kind of counseling. Instead, I got a page that said “You entered 75lb(s) for your ideal weight. This is your goal weight, not the amount of weight you’d like to lose. Would you like to edit your response?” I hit “confirm” and Noom moved me on through its process with no problem.
They showed me a slide that claimed that a study showed that 78% of users in 2016 had “sustained” weight loss over 9 months. It included a graph showing Noom performing better than “restrictive diet” though of course they never give any indication what “restrictive diet” means (and considering some of the people I heard from were given “plans” from Noom that included only 1,000 calories a day I can’t imagine what they would define as “restrictive.”)
There is also the fact that the research shows most people can sustain weight loss for 9 months, but the vast majority gain it back (many gaining back more than they lost) over the next 2-5 years. I would imagine the reason that they are still touting less than 80% of people managing to lose weight for 9 months in 2016 (rather than, say having followed people until now,) is that all those people are having the exact same experience of every other dieter – losing weight short term and gaining it back long-term.
Try this. Work really hard for the next 9 months, then slack off until 2024. Then ask your job if they will give you a promotion based on those 9 months that you actually worked. Let me know how it goes.
But here is the blue ribbon loser question:
“Women in their 40’s who want to reach an ideal weight between 65 lbs and 85 lbs need a slightly different strategy depending on their current lifestyle. Which best describes you?”
I can best be described as slipping into a rage coma Noom, thanks for asking. Newsflash Noom: women in their 40’s who want to reach an ideal weight between 65 lbs and 85 lbs need a VERY different strategy than a weight loss diet!
Of course I didn’t sign up (the last thing I’m going to do is give them money,) and I thought it was done. Then, a few days later I received an e-mail, reminding me that:
From the information you provided, we’ve put together a custom course that will help you reach your goal weight of 75 lbs by June.
You read that right, Noom has put together a plan that will “help” me to lose 225 pounds in (checks calendar) 4 months. Yes, this definitely sounds legitimate and safe.
As far as I can tell, there’s literally nothing new about Noom, it’s the same useless-at-best, dangerous-at-worst shit, different name. Here’s the story in pictures:
Was this helpful? If you appreciate the work that I do, you can support my ability to do more of it with a one-time tip or by becoming a member. (Members get special deals on fat-positive stuff, a monthly e-mail keeping them up to date on the work their membership supports, and the ability to ask me questions that I answer in a members-only monthly Q&A Video!)
Like this blog? Here’s more stuff you might like:
Wellness for All Bodies Program: A simple, step-by-step, super efficient guide to setting and reaching your health goals from a weight-neutral perspective. This program can be used by individuals, or by groups, including as a workplace wellness program!
Price: $25.00 ($10 for DancesWithFat members – register on the member page)
Click here for all the details and to register!
This e-course that includes coaching videos, a study guide, and an ebook with the tools you need to create a rock-solid relationship with your body. Our relationships with our bodies don’t happen in a vacuum, so just learning to see our beauty isn’t going to cut it. The world throws obstacles in our way – obstacles that aren’t our fault, but become our problem. Over the course of this program, Ragen Chastain, Jeanette DePatie, and six incredible guest coaches will teach you practical, realistic, proven strategies to go above, around, and through the obstacles that the world puts in front of you when it comes to living an amazing life in the body you have now.
Price: $99.00 Click here to register
($79.00 for DancesWithFat members – register on the member page)
Love It! 234 Inspirations And Activities to Help You Love Your Body
This is filled with thoughtful advice from the authors Jeanette DePatie, Ragen Chastain, and Pia Sciavo-Campo as well as dozens of other notable names from the body love movement, the book is lovingly illustrated with diverse drawings from size-positive artist Toni Tails.
Price: $9.99 softcover, $7.99 Kindle, ($6.95 + free shipping for DancesWithFat Members)
Book Me! I’d love to speak to your organization. You can get more information here or just e-mail me at ragen at danceswithfat dot org!
I’m (still!) training for an Iron-distance triathlon! You can follow my journey at www.IronFat.com .
If you are uncomfortable with my offering things for sale on this site, you are invited to check out this post.
”
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Monday, 9 March 2020
Bette Midler, Twitter, and How Not To Fight trump
If you follow Bette Midler on Twitter, you know that she is known for biting political commentary against the current “administration.” But recently she used her feed to demonstrate exactly what not to do in the fight against donald:
Is it my imagination, or has Porky added some avoirdupois to his singularly unattractive form? #TrumpbeenSNACKING https://t.co/kPlqOIriFI
— Bette Midler (@BetteMidler) March 7, 2020
Text: “Is it my imagination, or has Porky added some avoirdupois to his singularly unattractive form? #TrumpbeenSNACKING”
I’m not sure she could have made more mistakes here if she tried.
First of all, you can’t believe that fat-shaming is ok for some people but wrong for others. That’s just being a hypocrite. There is no way to fat-shame anyone without reinforcing the idea that it’s ok to fat-shame everyone. Every justification for fat-shaming donald (yes, even that one) is total bullshit.
Second, the answer to the white supremacy, racism, xenophobia, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, ableism, misogyny, sexual assault, grifting, and all the other wrongs committed by donald and his regime is not to fat-shame them and call them names. Even if you agree with donald that name-calling is appropriate behavior, responding to this kind of horror and oppression with name-calling actually minimizes the offenses.
Adding in a bit of food-shaming to the fat-shaming won’t bother donald, but it can harm people of all sizes dealing with disordered eating and eating disorders.
Nobody is obligated to do activism, but if you’re going to be involved, please consider making a base-level commitment to not harm to marginalized groups through your work. The Divine Miss M needs to know better and do better.
Was this helpful? If you appreciate the work that I do, you can support my ability to do more of it with a one-time tip or by becoming a member. (Members get special deals on fat-positive stuff, a monthly e-mail keeping them up to date on the work their membership supports, and the ability to ask me questions that I answer in a members-only monthly Q&A Video!)
Like this blog? Here’s more stuff you might like:
Wellness for All Bodies Program: A simple, step-by-step, super efficient guide to setting and reaching your health goals from a weight-neutral perspective. This program can be used by individuals, or by groups, including as a workplace wellness program!
Price: $25.00 ($10 for DancesWithFat members – register on the member page)
Click here for all the details and to register!
This e-course that includes coaching videos, a study guide, and an ebook with the tools you need to create a rock-solid relationship with your body. Our relationships with our bodies don’t happen in a vacuum, so just learning to see our beauty isn’t going to cut it. The world throws obstacles in our way – obstacles that aren’t our fault, but become our problem. Over the course of this program, Ragen Chastain, Jeanette DePatie, and six incredible guest coaches will teach you practical, realistic, proven strategies to go above, around, and through the obstacles that the world puts in front of you when it comes to living an amazing life in the body you have now.
Price: $99.00 Click here to register
($79.00 for DancesWithFat members – register on the member page)
Love It! 234 Inspirations And Activities to Help You Love Your Body
This is filled with thoughtful advice from the authors Jeanette DePatie, Ragen Chastain, and Pia Sciavo-Campo as well as dozens of other notable names from the body love movement, the book is lovingly illustrated with diverse drawings from size-positive artist Toni Tails.
Price: $9.99 softcover, $7.99 Kindle, ($6.95 + free shipping for DancesWithFat Members)
Book Me! I’d love to speak to your organization. You can get more information here or just e-mail me at ragen at danceswithfat dot org!
I’m (still!) training for an Iron-distance triathlon! You can follow my journey at www.IronFat.com .
If you are uncomfortable with my offering things for sale on this site, you are invited to check out this post.
via Dances With Fat https://ift.tt/2TxQ5oq
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