Anti diet culture is obsessed with being against “thinness”. What is thinness? Are there real problems with an obese individual wanting to be thin? Let’s chat about it.
Do we distinguish between weight loss in regards to health and weight loss with regards to an unhealthy body image in this scenario? If the case then there's a clear delineation with what's acceptable and what's not.
The conflict that I see is that anti diet culture places greater value on a person's choice to be unhealthy over healthy regardless of evidence that doesn't support their choice.
I believe it is important to distinguish between the reason for wanting to lose weight in the first place. Obviously, losing weight for health related reasons is more justifiable than a distorted body image. I agree the evidence doesn't support the choice to remain obese and act as if that is perfectly permissible. I guess my main point of inquiry is... how does one define being thin from being obese in the first place?
I would think this distinction can be both subjective and objective to every person in some way. Obesity can be easier to spot in some cases but sometimes people are just larger. My fondest client lost over 220 lbs but was still a big guy. He worked his a** off literally and could stand toe to toe with just about every non profession athlete that I've ever met... but people, mostly men of that makes a difference, still had the audacity to tell him that he needed to lose more weight and might want to find a different trainer. Why? Because he didn't have a washboard stomach? Because he was just a big man? He wasn't obese but people placed him in that same group based on the slimmest of connections (n.p.i.).We both took those statements personally, albeit for different reasons. On the other side of that coin, when i was going through BCT and later BUDSI would be complimented on my appearance because of my low body fat percentage. I thought my appearance indicative of my performance until my performance lagged behind the power curve. It took one of my proctors/ dive motivators pulling me aside to tell me that I needed more body fat to survive the training to get me out of the mindset that being thin directly correlated to being healthy.
In these examples 'thin' meant two different things to two different people. We have to judge ourselves on more than appearance. My client was thin comparative to his he was two years prior but was still considered overweight by Navy standards whereas I was considered to be of nominal weight even though my body composition and performance said otherwise.
Do we distinguish between weight loss in regards to health and weight loss with regards to an unhealthy body image in this scenario? If the case then there's a clear delineation with what's acceptable and what's not.
The conflict that I see is that anti diet culture places greater value on a person's choice to be unhealthy over healthy regardless of evidence that doesn't support their choice.
I believe it is important to distinguish between the reason for wanting to lose weight in the first place. Obviously, losing weight for health related reasons is more justifiable than a distorted body image. I agree the evidence doesn't support the choice to remain obese and act as if that is perfectly permissible. I guess my main point of inquiry is... how does one define being thin from being obese in the first place?
I would think this distinction can be both subjective and objective to every person in some way. Obesity can be easier to spot in some cases but sometimes people are just larger. My fondest client lost over 220 lbs but was still a big guy. He worked his a** off literally and could stand toe to toe with just about every non profession athlete that I've ever met... but people, mostly men of that makes a difference, still had the audacity to tell him that he needed to lose more weight and might want to find a different trainer. Why? Because he didn't have a washboard stomach? Because he was just a big man? He wasn't obese but people placed him in that same group based on the slimmest of connections (n.p.i.).We both took those statements personally, albeit for different reasons. On the other side of that coin, when i was going through BCT and later BUDSI would be complimented on my appearance because of my low body fat percentage. I thought my appearance indicative of my performance until my performance lagged behind the power curve. It took one of my proctors/ dive motivators pulling me aside to tell me that I needed more body fat to survive the training to get me out of the mindset that being thin directly correlated to being healthy.
In these examples 'thin' meant two different things to two different people. We have to judge ourselves on more than appearance. My client was thin comparative to his he was two years prior but was still considered overweight by Navy standards whereas I was considered to be of nominal weight even though my body composition and performance said otherwise.