Some months ago, I asked a question to the social justice blog, This Is Thin Privilege, regarding my sleep apnea. That month, my doctor had advised me that I immediately needed to lose weight because it was harshly effecting my breathing and sleep apnea was something I dealt with every night. He also told me that my weight was contributing to a variety of other health problems, including my sore joints. I should note at this time I was eating large quantities of terrible food.
Then I discovered TITP, and felt some hope that my doctor was simply misinformed, and that there’s another reason for my health issues. TITP even told me that there isn’t any evidence to back up that weight is related to sleep apnea.
However, I received a lot of messages from people advising me to not listen to TITP, and to listen to my doctor. This was very hard to do, considering I wanted to hang on so much to what TITP told me.
But I did eventually go back my doctor, and he recommended a lap-band surgery because I was so big (I’m only 5’4, and I don’t even want to mention how big I was. But let’s just say I barely went out the house.) This was in February. It’s now June and I just want to say…
I feel better than ever. I’ve already lost a whopping 64 pounds already, and although I’m still big, I can run better, I can breathe better, and my already sleep apnea has disappeared. I’m also eating better (lots of vegetables) and I have more energy than I can ever remember having, and exercising more. I also feel full faster without having to eat so much.
I decided to type this post because TITP is giving potentially harmful information to its followers. If I listened to their advice, who knows what could have happened. One of the biggest things about the Body Positivity movement is that it gives hope to people like me, and instead of taking responsibility of our lives on ourselves, we’d rather place it on society instead. That’s why I find it so insulting when TITP compares their movement to racism, sexism, and homophobia. We fat people are given all the same rights as our thin counterparts. We are not facing oppression like blacks or gays have. Yeah, sometimes I have a hard time finding clothes or fitting into seats, but thats not the definition of oppression, and I cannot expect entire industries and the entire globe to bend over to my every whim just because I decided to lead my life in a certain way! Life doesn’t work that way! We have to grow up and be strong women, not stay on the computer all day and complain about the problems we face because of our personal choices!
It’s okay to feel fine about your body, but it is wrong to be body positive when you realize the body you have is contributing to your health problems, and you’re completely aware that can be changed.
I wanted to be a big believer in TITP, but going through more of that blog its entirely misleading. Doctors aren’t trying to body shame us when they want us to lose weight, they are doing their job. One of the mods of TITP doesn’t even believe there’s a such thing as healthy eating, which is really misleading! It’s even weirder than many of the problems they describe are experienced by thin people just as much as fat people.
I want everyone to be safe and think about what they are getting their selves into by following TITP. Those people are not doctors, they rely on shady studies on biased blogs as opposed to decades in medical research and science.
If I listened to TITP, I would still have sleep apnea.
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