There's a new trend out there, and Whitney Thore followed it too, where fat activists are getting into exercise and doing 5Ks and proving how "healthy" they are and that by doing so they will "prove" it is great to be fat. I do support fat people and others exercising as best they can and doing what they can, but there is something strange about the constant push for proving yourself worthy as a fat person via "fitness" and athletic events by some fat activists. It seems to be a new and strong trend out there.
Some are claiming one fat activist named Ragen Chastain "cheated" on a 5 K race.
https://truthaboutragen.wordpress.com/2016/06/30/road-to-tempe-2016-ragen-the-cheater/
I don't know if Ragen cheated or not but I can't walk 5 miles. Maybe she got in, wanted to "prove herself" as so much of her blog is centered on proving herself to be a great athlete, knew she was in over her had and gave in to temptation. I'd be putting my thumb out for a car ride! But something worries me here, what are the exercising until they drop fat activists trying to prove? That being fat doesn't slow one down? That reality doesn't exist? That they have to match everyone else in athletic achievements to be worthy?
And why do the CICO believers always claim all fat people are lying, what part don't they GET that even fat people who bang their heads on the wall to go feel the burn, and LIVE the lifestyle they are often told to go live like running 5 Ks often are fighting a losing battle with their own bodies!
I had this discussion at that website:
ME: I am confused as to why these large fat people feel they have to compete in races to prove themselves worthy. I have spoken about some of the healthism in size acceptance. It seems there is some dishonesty in their desire to “prove that they are like everyone else”.
I can’t walk a mile even perhaps a block on a good day and it used to be a lot less then that. I walked some yesterday, and had a ton of errands to do on a non-housebound day and my stage IV Lipedema kicked my butt and gave me horrible pain–I swell up terrible from exertion and could barely walk by the end of the day with severe pain. Everyday for me is forcing myself to get through in pain. There are women with high stage Lipedema who end up in nursing homes and wheelchair bound through no fault of their own. The whole exercise and lose weight thing gets subverted on it’s head with this severe disorder. This is a trap I would not wish on my worse enemy. Lipo-lymphedema means all exertion makes my body swell up with fluid.
I believe Whitney Thore has some horrible physical endocrine or other condition, with PCOS can come androgen and other disorders. I don’t know what she eats, but it seems her love for movement and exercise would be taking weight off.
My concern about Ragen is this whole “fat and healthy” thing at all costs. The whole “Im going to compete in a triatholon” bothers me! She’s trying to prove something that is simply not true.
I am looking into joining a gym for the medically fragile hopefully finances will not be a barrier and even there I fear more swelling and bad outcomes but I try. I have done physical therapy to even KEEP walking and yesterday some woman came up to me in shock I can even walk, I was walking through an Aldis I didn’t use to be able to walk in, being told, WOW I am glad you are so brave to keep going. LOL Lady you don’t know the half of the story. She was nice so I don’t blame her.
I wish the fat logic and healthy thin crowd would understand that not all bodies work the same, and many of us have tried to exercise and eat healthy with no where near the same results. The promise of CICO is failing many of us but we just get called liars. Perhaps some of you should ask why are people like Whitney Thore and Ragen holding so much weight on with their desire to exercise all the time?
and I wish that the fat and “I want to walk 5 miles” and prove I’m just like thin people crowd, would get a clue too. Weight does slow people down. I have taken issue with the likes of Marilyn Wann for years. They can’t claim the fat is NOT holding them back. It’s not reality. There is also the healthism and the underlying message that the only good fatty is the one who can walk in triatholons and who will push themselves until they drop like Whitney Thore. My lungs went before I got fat too.
http://fivehundredpoundpeeps.blogspot.in/2011/01/health-at-any-size-and-healthism-in.html
CICO BELIEVER: The “promise of CICO” isn’t failing you. You are. Eating less would help your finances, as well as whatever conditions you have. If you can’t affect the calories out then affect the CALORIES IN.
Frankly I don’t care how hard it is for you to put less food in your mouth, do it.
ME:
I did, it’s not working.
You all adhere to that like a religion. Look at those women, one even danced until she collapsed and ended up in the hospital. They are still fat. Why isn’t the exercise burning any of the fat off? Even if they “overeat” and I don’t know what either eat, shouldn’t it be HELPING the CICO equation?
” Perhaps some of you should ask why are people like Whitney Thore and Ragen holding so much weight on with their desire to exercise all the time? ”
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ANOTHER CICO BELIEVER:
Well, for people like Ragen and Whitney it’s because they are both liars and don’t exercise *nearly* as much as they claim. Whitney was a normal weight until her mom stopped cooking her meals. PCOS doesn’t cause that much weight gain, and it also doesn’t cause her to eat a bucket of ice cream as she did on the show. Ragen is just pathological.
It’s true that there are many reasons why people gain weight, or find it hard or impossible to lose it. And yes, that is often overlooked by the fit crowd, especially if they young and healthy themselves. It is frustrating, I get that. I have severe upper back problems myself and it limits everything I do in life, including exercise.
But the reality is that it’s people like Whitney and Ragen and the HAES crowd that are making it difficult for people who do actually have something physically limiting them. They are so loud and so obnoxious that they are warping the whole size acceptance discourse into a fight between fat and fit, with nothing in between and no nuances left. That’s the real shame.
CICO BELIEVER:
Other than those with Prader-Willi or some other mental incompetence there is no reason any person cannot lose weight. Eating less is not some sort of “journey”. It’s something you do because you realize it would be beneficial and then you just do.
These people are phonies but people who believe that they can’t lose weight aren’t any less delusional.
ME:
Sure [I meant to write some here] people can lose weight but keeping it off is another matter. I’m more then 200 down from my peak and have been for over 10 years but I’m still fat. Who would choose to be fat? You act like everyone’s body is the SAME.
ME:
That seems like an extraordinary weight gain just from having someone not cooking for you anymore. When she was a teen, wasn’t she out with friends or buying things in the school cafeteria? Wouldn't she have an eating disorder making her fat if that was her real problem by her teens? PCOS does cause massive weight gains in it’s more severe forms like Hair-An syndrome. She may need androgen blockers, thyroid pills and a full hormonal workup. I have PCOS, [many women with Lipedema can have multiple hormonal disorders including two thyroid disorders in my case]. I hope she isn’t pigging out on camera, I see a show here or there, but none showed eating except once which was some gross banana sandwich. Didn’t she live at home eating the same meals as her thinner parents?
There’s many people failing to lose weight in USA society, 60 percent of the populace. It’s getting worse too and while I have a “rare fat disorder” which Lipedema is in this stage, something more is going on with everyone. I see people getting fatter and see more people at my super-size, when I was a rare bird in the 1990s.. I think the problem is bigger then everyone failing in personal responsibility. I don’t like the HAES crowd for their denial but I am sick of people calling fat people liars and devaluing their experiences like look how [CICO BELIEVER] clings to his ideology like a religion, you lazy fatties can all lose weight. Between two sides, everyone gets fatter and sicker. You are right about the nuances being lost.
Telling people eat less is failing. These women are failing to lose weight even with shown displays of extreme exercise. Something more is going on. Even if Whitney and Ragen ate a lot, shouldn’t all the exercise at least be holding some of the degree of weight gain at bay? Do you believe they are making up the activity levels?
ANOTHER COMMENTER:
Yes they are lying about their activity levels . Whitney may feel she is burning a lot of calories that doesnt make it true.
Ragen is purposely lying as evidenced right here. She did not complete a 5k, she cheated. Intentionally. With the help of another fat person who claims to be active.
Both are still consuming enough calories to remain fat, regardless of the accuracies of their activity levels.
ME:
Dee why is the response to fat people always that they are lying? You have no proof of what they eat or don’t eat. I see two women who seem overly focused on doing activities usually restricted to the thin and healthy, surely this is bringing more burning of calories then sitting at home on the couch. If one cheated, and I don’t know if she did or not, then it sounds like she knew she was in over her head. So what’s happening? Perhaps CICO isn’t as firm of a foundation as you think.
There is some major irony to me here. Fat activists want to be like everyone else, go and try and exercise doing running events and others usually limited to the thin and healthy but at the very least midsized or under people in very good shape. I am all for people exercising as much as they can and with balance but here we see a tip of the scale to trying to prove themselves at any cost to prove success in athleticism. There seems an extreme push among some of these size activists to prove they can do everything the same thin people can. The reality is they hit endless walls of physical limitations from their obesity. We see those limitations on Whitney Thore's show in full view.
Exercise is supposed to burn calories. They are trying. For some reason, the above exercise is not having the same effect on their bodies in burning calories. Ragen's blog is full of endless stories of exercise, bicycle riding, marathons, this is not someone who did one walk in a year. She got in the public eye for DANCING. She speaks of training for iron mans and more. Same for Whitney Thore, she's active almost in every show I've seen. She got famous for being a DANCER which takes practice and above exercise. They are both still fat. Whitney is entering the supersizes at around 360lbs and Ragen, I believe is still midsized in the upper 200s, though I see some weight changes in her pictures.
Calling fat people liars who obviously are ATTEMPTING exercise, seems a bit dishonest. I worry about the fact fat activists are so into trying to prove to the world their bodies are just like everyone else and the false myth that fat bodies especially over a certain size range are "healthy" in the same way and I worry about the CICO believers, who just yell at all fat people even ones dedicated to extreme exercise as all being LIARS. Our society is so screwed up. The religion of CICO and ideology of extreme size acceptance collide!
