A doctor saying lose weight while ignoring other symptoms is medical malpractice. I had a slipped disc in my back (from exercising too hard too fast at the recommendation of my doctor) and was in excruciating pain for weeks and my doctor said it was because of my weight without doing any sort of additional testing. I ended up in the ER one day because I was in so much pain I couldn't move. Finally I was able to get into physical therapy which helped me recover. THAT is the anti-fat bias in medicine that is affecting our quality of care.

Losing weight can help lots of things, but there are many fat people who have not been treated for non-weight-related conditions because the doctor only says lose weight. I think that's what the complaint was actually about.

In the span of 4 months, I went from being able to walk 10 miles easily to not being able to walk across a room and could hardly pick up a cup of tea. I was morbidly obese. I knew this. I was doing my best to lose weight and be healthier. But there is something wrong when you tell the doctor about the sudden onset of symptoms and he tells you that you just need to lose weight. That losing weight is the panacea for all ills. I actually had a severe reaction to one of my medications, which caused the breakdown of my muscles - but the doctor was "TOO FAT. LOSE WEIGHT. GO AWAY." This is the problem. It doesn't help anyone for the only thing to be noticed is someone's weight.

I've been obese most of my life. I'm now overweight, nearly at the healthy weight for my BMI. But it did take "body positivity" to help me loose weight. In the sense that I used to have so much shame and hatred for my body that this perpetuated a vicious cycle of binge eating and purging. Until one day I saw these body positive posts and it just helped me to begin to love myself, this reducing the binges. So there are good things about this, but it's been pushed too far and turned on its head

As a previously fat person, being going to the doctor with a sore throat - lose weight, injury - lose weight, persistent tummy bug - lose weight. None of those problems are caused by weight, and losing weight won't make tonsillitis go away. But when I went into the doctor when I found out I was pregnant with number 2 and said "I am trying to lose weight, so can you advise me as to how to do this safely during pregnancy". The response was "Just don't put any weight on"...Fat people know they are fat, and most would love to do something about it, but often being overweight should be treated as an eating disorder - It is often a mental health issue. People need actual help to lose weight!!! It has been nearly 4 years since I started my weight loss journey but it is a huge physical and psychological journey that will never end!

I think you are misunderstanding Jasmine when it comes to her issues with fat bias particularly when it comes to doctors. You skipped over the "without further analysis part" of the sentence, which I think is critical. She is criticizing the fact that weight loss is always the first thing doctors suggest. They don't look into other possibilities for their symptoms, and even less often do they think that perhaps their weight is a symptom of an underlying issue, not the cause. Even if it isn't, we in healthcare need to acknowledge that larger people are more at risk of serious health complications and often, even if it is due in part to their weight, losing weight will not fix the problem. Healthcare practitioners just continue to tell people to do the very thing many patients have been trying to do for a very long time and sending them on their way with no new knowledge or plan to address their chief complaints. Furthermore, these types of interactions with doctors makes patients less likely to go their doctors, access preventative healthcare, and issues are often diagnosed in later stages with fewer treatment options available. For example, comedian Jen Curran was ignored and told to lose weight when routine postpartum health evaluations continually found protein in her urine. Chronic proteinuria is a significant finding and should be properly evaluated. However, she was just told to lose weight. Jen didn't like that answer, so she found a new doctor which started a process that ended in her eventually being diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a chronic blood cancer. I don't think the original doctor had any bad intent, but clearly he let his bias towards her size skew his actions and that is the problem we need to fix.

I think the thing about doctors at the beginning is being misinterpreted. Some doctors will assume a health complication is purely weight related and will do no further investigation into cause/treatment of that health issue. Yes extra weight can cause a lot of health issues but not every health issue is caused by weight. Reaching a healthy weight won’t always be enough to solve the problem.

I don't see any problem with further fat representation in media. Just a fat character existing doesn't implicitly endorse being fat. Fat people exist - why shouldn't media reflect that? I don't even see a problem with fat people loving themselves or having confidence while being fat. Beauty is subjective and plenty of people are sincerely attracted to fat people (even outside of weird fetishism). I don't think that sentiment implicitly means that a fat person wouldn't work to improve their health just because they don't feel like ending it all whenever they pass a mirror.

You misunderstood the bit about the doctor. She’s referring to doctors refusing to run tests on fat people for non weight related concerns, as well as dismissing any and all concerns as solvable through weight loss.

I was prescribed weight loss for my torrential period and period pain....turns out I had endo. Big fun.

Doctors will prescribe weight loss rather than actually investigating to figure out if weight IS the problem too often. The problem isn’t doctor’s prescribing weight loss, it’s when doctors prescribe weight loss without looking for confounding factors and without listening to their patients’ concerns. The tests may be redundant, but how would the doctor know without running them? That’s their job. I went to the doctor for stomach problems and they ran urine and blood tests and all of my results were fine. Because of that, we know it’s likely a digestive-related issue not a hormonal one and I can go see a gastro-intestinal doctor to get an endoscopy. Their job is to run tests and figure out what’s wrong with you. Not just look at you and assume weight is your only problem. They can tell you you should lose weight, but they should verify that’s the only source of the problem…

When people think they are fat and healthy it’s that they are young. How many 50 year old that are a 100 lbs over weight have no medical issues related to obesity?

Fat shaming doesn’t help people lose weight.

In my opinion, the focus in weight loss can be detrimental because of the stigma and a better approach could be to focus on creating healthy habits.

I work with obese clients. This is far beyond over eating and processed food. Mental health is vital for physical health. Remember this. Always great videos.

Being fat is not healthy but it doesn’t mean they deserve to be treated like trash. And this is coming from someone who was at 250 pounds at one point. It’s hurtful to hear people bringing up your weight constantly BUT you shouldn’t run away from your truth and at a certain weight your only fooling yourself.

If you are 50 pounds overweight and you’re going to a doctor you probably have tried to lose weight at some point. If it had been successful then you wouldn’t still have 50 pounds to lose. So the doctors need to look at why you haven’t lost the 50 pounds and determine whether it is psychological, physical, emotional and help you come up with a plan that will actually facilitate losing the 50 pounds. Just hearing “you need to lose 50 pounds is of no use to anyone. Also… if people have a medical condition and they lose weight and it doesn’t go away they could die because of the amount of time it took them to get an actual diagnosis. And I am well aware that obesity concerning but… telling people to lose weight without going deeper is not a way to help people.

Why can we objectively look at Eugenia Cooney and decide she is unhealthy based on her appearance but when we do it to someone who is obese it is “ fat shaming “? It’s a complete double standard .

I had a suicide attempt. I am 5'9 (176cm) and taller than most girls with broad shoulders, hips, long arms and legs. I had 149 lbs (68kg). When I entered the hospital they immediately asked for my weight (which I guess was important because I took pills). They wrote in my report: "The *slightly obese* girl (149!!!) arrived in hospital". And yes - They had written my weight in brackets with exclaimation marks and all as if 149 lbs was super fat and obese. And keep in mind I'm 5'9. This is what you want to read after a suicide attempt. There were times in my teens when I was between 155 lbs and 165 lbs (70kg-75kg) which isn't super skinny but it's certainly not fat or obese for my height. I remember that doctors treated me as if I was super fat when I was a preteen and teen. I remember that one of them said that I should skip the candy because I want to find a husband one day. I heard all kinds of body shaming as a child and teen when I was maybe slightly chubby at best but not even overweight. This gave me huge body image issues. Looking back I believe it has to do with sexism/misogyny and the body standards we had back then. Of course it were old white men telling me these things.

Having been overweight at many times in my life, the only part about the fat acceptance movement I agree with is that the average person should not comment about or harass you about your weight. Close friends, family and medical professionals should encourage you kindly to get to a healthy weight and provide you tools to do so, because they want you in their life for longer.

Blanket statements about how doctors treat medical conditions differently in overweight vs healthy weight patients in the example of the beginning of this video are so incredibly lacking in context. For example, a general complaint of knee pain is incredibly nonspecific, that’s why we’re trained to ask follow up questions. A simple knee pain complaint with no other context can be due to a myriad of conditions from injury/fracture, osteoarthritis, or septic arthritis, for example. Some diagnoses can be determined clinically and don’t need further testing. Losing weight in an overweight patient with knee pain consistent of osteoarthritis is an appropriate first treatment plan and doesn’t necessarily warrant further work up with no other alarm symptoms. However, knee pain in a patient with effusion and severe pain with significant limitation in range of motion may warrant further work up like imaging or an arthrocentesis. Anecdotal statements like ‘’my overweight friend with knee pain was told to lose weight but my thin friend had x-rays done” doesn’t inherently mean the overweight patient was treated improperly. As doctors, we try to limit unnecessary testing when possible. Testing can not only be costly, but some tests can be invasive and have side effects like radiation exposure. We’re trained to start with the least invasive treatment plans where it makes sense to do so. More testing doesn’t necessarily equal better care, sometimes it can actually result in the opposite, exposing patients to invasive and costly procedures and testing. This is why we’re trained in medical school to ask about risk factors for various conditions and determine the best treatment plan for the individual. No two complaints are ever the same and thus, no two treatments are either. In fact, overweight patients with chest pain are more likely to have acute coronary syndrome than healthy weight patients, and would likely warrant a further work up. It’s all dependent on the nature of the symptoms and the risk factors of the patient so I don’t know how so many people can make such a blanket statement that doctors treat overweight patients worse by nature of their weight. They may be treated differently, as we all should be, based on risk factors for certain disease. It’s important to view the patient holistically in order to tailor the best treatment plan for that particular individual.

Two minutes, fifty seconds in: What the article said was "Doctors are telling fat people to lose weight and -nothing else-, while they order scans, bloodwork, etc for thin people WITH EXACTLY THE SAME SYMPTOMS" This isn't educating fat people, it's putting symptoms on being fat as the cause when they may very well have a different cause. As a fat person I've been there. It's dangerous. Just saying. It took forever for my medical team to figure out I have a very rare genetic anomaly...😔 11:30 minutes in: Agree. I love myself, I'm awesome. My body fat isn't. I'm moving as much as I can, I eat as healthy as I can, I'm losing weight slowly (not least BECAUSE my genetic anomaly makes it very hard for my body to break down fat), but still, if I hadn't stood up for myself at some point I wouldn't even be here to try and lose this freaking weight now. 😑 Does obesity make me sick? Yes. Is it the root cause of all my health problems? Nope. And do I deserve ridicule and patronizing "worried" people telling me to walk more when I literally can't because my freaking body doesn't work normally no matter my weight? Also nope. 🤷🏻‍♀️ 13:34 No you can't. I'm not making unhealthy lifestyle choices. The unhealthy lifestyle chose me. I live in a rural area, I walk more than most people, there's literally no junk food in my house because I cook for my (luckily slim and healthy, none of my kids inherited my defective genes) kids, and I'm on a prescribed liquid formula via a feeding tube for most of my life. No control over the calories that go in my body because I can't eat. My body can't break down fat. I regularly have the fat equivalent of dialysis because of that. Now tell me about my lifestyle "choices". Parentheses why? Well, people aren't just fat because they willingly make bad lifestyle choices. There are many root causes for being fat (mental health comes to mind, childhood trauma), and telling people to "simply lose weight" is equivalent to saying "don't have kidney cancer" to a person with kidney cancer. It needs treatment of the symptoms AND the root causes. And love, care, dignity. 19:32 "We don't need more vegan fat people" We need more vegan people! The planet needs more vegan people. If they're also fat, so what? I don't think making fat vegan's weight a topic or their "brand" is necessary, but if a fat person decides to go vegan and is excited to share their journey, I say hell yeah! Go ahead fat vegan person, I'd watch you! Bonus if it motivates other fat people to go vegan too. 🤷🏻‍♀️💙

I agree with others that the article's point was how doctors assume being overweight is the cause of every malady without doing sufficient investigation. There are studies about this problem for overweight pregnant women whose problems are ignored because the medical system assumes it's obesity-linked. Additionally, I don't think you're up-to date enough on the root causes of obesity which even researchers are still struggling to understand. While the situation isn't totally hopeless, people who have been obese since childhood (which is now a huge number of people) are effectively crippled for weight loss due to hormonal reprogramming. Calories in, calories out simply does not account for a messed up, pro-inflammatory microbiome or insulin resistance which can literally mean that people of the same height, age, and gender could eat the same amounts of food can be vastly different weights. You're very confident in the assumption that someone's physical appearance lets you know if they exercise and what they eat, and the science doesn't necessarily back you up. The HAES movement is dangerous for the reasons you said, but your response is like telling people with malaria to cure themselves with herbal remedies. A few lucky ones would manage to find quinine and be cured, but the rest would slowly sicken and die because to cure deadly, chronic diseases we need modern science and medicine which still do not have good cures for obese people. HAES is extreme, but it is functionally an angry and defensive response to the thinking you partially promote-- the idea that obesity is solely an individual's and not society's responsibility to fix. Who pumped our food full of corn syrup making children sick in the first place? Who insists dieting is the cure without providing largely effective treatments?

Girl, it's right there in the first picture: "doctors regularly advise weight loss, WITHOUT FURTHER ANALYSIS, to fat patients while recommending blood work, CAT scans, or physical therapy for patients of smaller size experiencing the same symptoms." That's the definition of medical bias, and is incredibly common. You even read that quote out loud but chose to completely ignore the part the article is actually about. How did you read that and turn it into: "fat people don't like doctors telling them to lose weight" and "doctors aren't biased, it's just that fat people don't like being criticized", is beyond me. You seem to believe that medical exams are somehow "wasted" on fat patients, which is fifty shades of fucked up. And you also seem to believe that fat = obese, when that's not the case. Fat/overweight people can be healthy just like underweight people can be healthy. Fat/overweight is not the opposite of healthy; it's simply the opposite of underweight. From the way you behave in this video, I'd say that you're definitely biased against fat people. You do all you can to misinterpret their arguments and discredit their experiences. You even compare being fat to cancer. Fat people definitely deserved representation in media. Fat people exist. Just like underweight people exist (in pretty much every movie). Why shouldn't they be represented? Just admit you don't want to have to look at fat people and go smh. Fat is not the opposite of anorexic. It's the opposite of underweight. Underweight people can be healthy, just like overweight people can be healthy. Obese is not the opposite of anorexic, either. The opposite of anorexic is healthy. People have been saying for years to leave Eugenia alone. But again, she has nothing to do with this convo as stated above. And for the last time: stop using fat as a synonym for obese, and stop comparing being fat to cancer.

As an ex fat person, I’m glad you’re on the right side of this for the most part. Being overweight, specifically obese, is not healthy. Period. Miles from “Healthy Crazy Cool” put it well when he said, “worth at every size, not health”.

The balance lies in being against fat-shaming (which means accepting fat models, singers, etc without unnecessarily arguing about they being "ugly") and offering better resources for weight loss. It´s totally possible to promote weight loss by focusing on a positive message about its benefits, instead of criticizing people for being visible in the media while being "fat" and "ugly".

"without further analysis" is a key part you're missing. If you're paying through the roof for medical coverage having a doctor take a reductive view of a physical injury by leading with "you should lose weight" (this happens, a lot) is counter productive. Also saying "Lose weight" is problematic in the sense that "okay what's the proven way to do that." if you're so willing to challenge people's arguments with "where's the basis for that" please tell us the basis for the proven way to lose weight.

In 2018 at 218 pounds I decided I didn't want to see 220, so I changed. I lost almost 50lbs and lots of aches and pains. Unfortunately covid coupled with depression has seen me shoot back up 40lbs. I love myself no matter what but there is no denying that I'm in pain again, it's directly related to my weight. I am on the right track again and am heading in the right direction.

I love the way I look, I love the way my partner looks at me, my fatness makes me attractive in my eyes and their eyes. I love myself. I understand that my fatness is a health risk, and I don’t like the way my fatness makes me suffer; walking or bending over to tie my shoes, finding pants that fit to only learn they don’t fire 2 months later. These reasons are why I want to loose weight even though I love the way I look.

You're worthy is you are obese, you're worthy if you are overweight, you are worthy is you are a healthy weight, you're worthy if you're under weight. The humanity is not up for debate the health is.

It's 100% not okay to make unwanted suggestions about people's health. I really don't think people would be advocating berating people with depression so why are we trying to make out it's okay to look in on a snippet of someone's life and make judgements and suggestions for them? Your doctor's job is to convince people to stop unhealthy behaviours but it has absolutely nothing to do with anyone else.

As someone who works in death care, weight is among the worst comorbidities, but nobody wants to have that conversation.

This is the entire issue: doctors regularly advise weight loss, *without further analysis*, to fat patients while recommending blood work, CAT scans, or physical therapy for patients of smaller size experiencing the same symptoms Absolutely advise weight loss BUT doctor's should also recommend the same blood work, scans, and therapy that they would to a 'normal' weight patient.

One time I had meningitis, and I went to the doctor. They told me that I was experiencing symptoms common to “obese patients with high blood pressure” despite the fact that I didn’t have high blood pressure and they proceeded to use high-pressure sales tactics to try and get me to sign up for bariatric surgery for 20 minutes. My roommate who brought me to the appointment was furious and eventually yelled at the doctor, walked me to her car, and took me to another doctor who diagnosed me with meningitis, which PS can be DEADLY. This is the point, Swayze. Not that doctors shouldn’t ever talk about weight, but that their view of fat patients is so colored by bias that they mis-diagnose or refuse to diagnose serious, life-threatening issues. I’m genuinely curious if you have any fat friends or family. Your understanding of fat bias and the multitude of problems it presents - especially in health and medical settings - is so damn narrow that I must assume you don’t. You ask over and over again for evidence that is readily available with a quick search of Google scholar, but rather than do that, you pretend it doesn’t exist and proceed with your opinions that are literally contradicted by the evidence. This is just ridiculous. Maybe you should stop defending fat bias that LITERALLY kills fat people until you talk to some fat people about their experiences with medical practitioners, hospitals, etc.

She wasn’t saying that doctors need to stop telling people to lose weight. She is saying that they should ALSO work with the patient to see if there are any additional factors.

Heads up the first five minutes of this video UV's based her analysis off of her own misunderstanding of what the writer was saying. The quote was "doctors regularly advise weight loss, *without further analysis*, to fat patients while recommending blood work, CAT scans or physical therapy for patience of smaller size experiencing the same symptoms". The writer was pointing out that some healthcare workers dismiss medical issues as a symptom of simply being overweight and fat people are less likely to get the treatment they need or even a proper diagnosis because of their size. She wasn't saying it was wrong for doctors to recommend weight loss to an overweight patient but to just recommend weight loss when a patient has come to you with any number of possible medical issues and not look any further is dismissive, irresponsible, dangerous, and discriminatory to overweight people.

I just gotta say I’m a so called “healthy” chubby guy. I get test done yearly due to family health issues. This year my test came back good so according to my doctor I am healthy. But we talked about my weight bc in the last year I gained 25lbs. He stressed that while my test were good if my weight gain continues I will likely have negative results in the future. He didn’t say this to fat shame me. This is science. We know obesity leads to other health issues. Some are minor and some are major. I can say since I’ve been eating junk I experience back pain, knee pain, sleeping issues and overall feel crappy. Plus I’m not happy with my body currently. I love myself now and will love myself when I lose the weight. Being fat is OK but I do believe we should all strive to be a better and healthier version of our self and in many cases weight loss results in this. That’s just my two cents.

Yes, obesity is never healthy, but not all illnesses that afflict fat people are caused by obesity or can be cured by just loosing weight. Doctors who just advise to loose weight without checking for other probable conditions definitely have fat bias. It’s a prejudice that has no place in medical diagnostics. Fat badgering also doesn’t work, and can lead to people not going to see a doctor at all because of being ashamed, or it can even provoke an eating disorder. Human MDs are not vets, they work with thinking, planning, self aware animals. To get good health outcomes you can’t separate a corporal illness from the patient’s mind, so every case must be personalized.

I've never been to a doctor who didn't do their job, have you all maybe chose to go to another doctor? I think you are all missing a critical point, both points are correct. there are SOME doctors who are bad, and doesn't do their due diligence in making sure their patients are properly cared for. and being over weight has a solid RESEARCH AND EVIDENCE correlation to a myriad health problems. we live in a country where health insurance is expensive and non regulated. suggesting for more testing when the whole point of a clinic setting is to be the first layer of Healthcare with minimal testing highlights that most of you don't even know what the medical examination process is. The first step is not testing, it's looking at the facts in front of you and seeing if there is a reasonable explanation. if you losing weight doesn't help the knee problem, then it becomes easier to see that there is additional problems. if all roads points to your weight, why charge you $500 extra dollars to see if it MIGHT be something else? that's incredibly irresponsible. I won't even use my own experience because it's anecdotal and irrelevant. I have a doctor that does their job whether I'm obese or not. sometimes we have bad doctors, and sometimes we don't want what's obvious to be the issue. we get so caught up in our own views that we don't see the forest from the trees. the USA alone has one of the worst health populace wise in the world. COVID didn't help. and swayzes observation at the end is correct. if we are saying "body positivity, all bodies are healthy" then stop leaving people who are on the opposite spectrum hate comments about their body. only in America can we even have this discussion right?

I used to be about 10 pounds overweight and even that made me have health problems even tho I wasn't obese. I used to have joint pain, acid reflux, I got tired so easily and had low self-esteem. Losing weight by exercising and eating better made me so much happier. I don't have any health problems anymore and I started lifting weights. Sometimes excess fat and not moving your body IS the problem, even mental health improves when you have the basics right: sleep, diet and exercise.

Only 1:35 in but just popped down to say, I think what Jasmine was criticising was that tests & treatments aren't considered for overweight patients as readily than for those at a lower weights, possibly leading to things being missed. I appreciate reaching a healthy weight can improve or even cure many issues, however, the way I took her statement was that Doctors' knee jerk reactions are: see overweight person; tell them to lose weight, regardless of the issue, which, at best, is unhelpful (as the majority of overweight people *know* they'd be healthier at a lower body fat percentage) & can be downright insulting & delay correct diagnosis at worst

It's not about doctors telling patients to loose weight, it's about assuming that's what's causing the symptoms without further investigation.

I think there is one point you are missing in this topic. Yes, things such as diabetes, heart disease, etc. can be greatly contributed to being overweight. However, having been in healthcare for over 20 years I can tell you that MANY doctors will simply (and often absent of any form of tact) tell them they just need to lose weight and ignore anything the person says. Mysterious abdominal pain? It’s your weight. Irregular periods? Weight. And on and on. VERY often things such as PCOS, abdominal masses, cancers, etc. are overlooked because they treat the weight and not the patient. Now should they discuss weight loss with the patient? Absolutely. But it’s more often the ONLY thing they focus on, often causing the patient years of suffering or sometimes even death. Another is sure people need to realize is that society constantly focusing on a person’s obesity is never going to get a person to lose weight. A person needs to love themselves and where they are before they will ever be successful in weight loss. There is too much scrutinizing and not enough support. At the end of the day it’s not our damn business what someone’s weight, yet look at the comments section of any obese person online. That’s between them and their doctor, and we need to mind our own damn business. There’s a difference between scrutiny and judgement and support and education. We also need to look at the fact that obesity is most often caused by psychological and/or addiction issues. If a person could “ just lose weight” then everyone would be skinny. It is similar to shaming a person with depression or anxiety, or someone with alcohol or drug addiction. It’s a disease. You can’t tell an addict to stop being an addict. There’s a process to it.

I read the title and I'm over here like "nu-uh Swayze isn't anti-fat, she eats tons of nuts and seeds!" Then you started talking....oh lol

I spent six years in the Navy. At the start, I went through the eight week boot camp, just like everybody else. During that time, you're completely encapsulated in the Navy environment, with zero outside influences. At the end, I remember seeing everyone's relatives coming into the graduation hall to watch the graduation, and I could not get over how short and fat everyone looked. It was like watching the mothership from the move Wall-E disembark right into the graduation hall. I say this not to be mean, but to respond to what you said about being afraid that ppl are becoming desensitized to obesity. It's definitely happening, and my reaction back then was living proof of it. Slowly and slowly, obesity is becoming very normal. I'm definitely with you on that it's a problem. I worry about future generations and the health of our country as a whole.

I'm all for body positivity but I have issues with some people within the movement being completely against weight loss. Just wanting to lose some weight or exercise more isn't bad, as long as it's not tied to diet culture (which is BS). That being said, I just had an experience a couple days ago with doctor talking only about my obesity when I went to the appointment for mental health reasons (and I am already working with an RD to help me lose weight in a healthy and sustainable way) which was not helpful at all because he completely ignored my needs. And this is an unfortunate reality to many overweight people. Fatphobia and making fat people feel terrible about themselves doesn't help them get healthier. Treating obesity starts from treating the reasons behind it, such as depression which can cause emotional eating.

I think there are class implications as well. I am not sure if this applies to the USA but here in the U.K. obese people are often from lower classes. They have little knowledge and / or financial resources to eat healthily. Healthy food is a lot more expensive here and it takes longer to prepare. Vegans are most often middle and upper class people, who are thinner because they have more time and resources to look after their well-being.

I think you might have misunderstood, what is meamt by doctors telling their patients that they're fat. The problem is, that they stop there and don't look further. There are people who go from doctor to doctor because noone takes them seriously when they talk about their symptoms. It's okay to tell them, they need to loose weight. It's not okay to dismiss every other possibility after the doctor has been told what's going on.

Also, many doctors make suggestions about weight loss based on BMI, which has not only been proven to have significant issues in accurately assessing health, but is rooted in yt supr*macy and incredibly antiquated

I've been overweight for the majority of my life (usually closer to the "normal" end but i was at lower end of "obese" for a brief couple months). I started struggling with sleep issues around age 11, and because i was still growing while getting VERY little sleep, it ended up causing a lot of other health issues. For a very long time, every specialist i went to only looked at my weight. My only heathcare provider that understood that wasn't what was causing my problems was my primary care doctor. Because so many years were spent being brushed off because of my weight at the time, the damage is done. It's unlikely i'll recover from my heath issues because the majority of the time i was developing into an adult, i was not getting one of the most important things for growth; sleep. Now, as an adult at a normal weight, i have all the same issues i've had for the past decade, except now i'm leaner. if i could chose between being a bit overweight and otherwise healthy from having my health issues taken seriously by medical professionals, and my current situation, i would choose the former. Still have very little idea what's wrong with me. People tell me all the time i'm skinny and look great. Despite all this, i am very anti-HAES. I know a significant amount of excess bodyweight is unhealthy and wasteful. But doctors still need to take fat patients more seriously.

Here's the deal. Just because I'm overweight doesn't mean that I just am sitting around eating oreos and chips. I'm actually a vegetarian who grows over 50% of my food, and my portions are small. I had to fight to find out I had severe hypothyroidism with MTHFR gene mutation along with rheumatoid arthritis. I could exercise 100 hours and lose no weight. So, yes, I had to fight 10 times harder to get the same care someone slimmer would've gotten. It's a real problem. As for "choosing" my body at a body store. Ok, that's a fun analogy, however, that is not how life works. I was assigned my body at birth, and if I cannot love it how it is then I'll never look to take good care of myself.

As a former thin person (not anorexic but underweight and having an eating disorder) I have NEVER had a movement defend people like me....ever. Being underweight caused PERMANENT issues for me as I was a teen when I had these issues. I have NEVER fully recovered and will always have issues because of it. This was over a decade ago. My life and body will forever have the effects and lasting impact of losing weight that quickly and being unhealthy. So why is it ok to "accept" fat people but not the other way around. Being overweight and underweight isn't healthy period.

You are totally misreading that 1st paragraph. What it's talking about is the fact that the weight isn't the only problem an obese person could have. Many doctors don't even try to see beyond the weight. Many over weight people don't Get properly diagnosed until it's too late for things like cancers and and bone damage because the doctor will only see the weight and won't do the proper test to see if there's anything else going on. Your stomachs hurting, oh it's just the weight. Your knees are in pain, oh it's just the weight. It couldn't possibly be cancer. If a skinny person has similar symptoms skinny people will get tests for that but if iit's an obese person then oh it's just your weight

I think most people should leave Eugenia alone. They're not helping her, and few are helping others with anorexia.

I’m with you on this one. I’m obese and I feel terrible in this body. I hate knowing I’m more at risk for all sorts of health issues and I hate how hard it is to find the discipline to lose the weight (although I’m 50 pounds down so far). This isn’t about justice, it’s about HEALTH and facts.

It’s been a long week I thought this was going to be a “anti fart ball” recipe video 😂

I’ve been a vegetarian since 15. I always worked to keep my weight down. I’ve had higher cholesterol at 15- I’ve aways been active. I had my first pregnancy later in life and gained 80 pounds. By 6 months I stopped exercising bc my feet hurt etc etc. Now I’m obese. According to the weight chart I am obese. My daughter is 21 months and I still have 30 lbs to loose. I’m not concerned with fitting into a bikini. I’m concerned with my health. I want to be here for my daughter. My cholesterol is high and the doctor suggests diet and exercise before meds. I agree. I hope to take off the weight and lower my cholesterol for my health. I still think I’m worthy- and should be respected. I wouldn’t be mean to a fat person. I’d want to help them. Let’s walk together rather than eat together. Just my opinion

your first point about doctors need to tell fat people to lose weight: shes not talking about how its not true that fat people need to lose weight, shes talking about the times doctors incorrectly assume the symptoms are caused by weight and not something else that needs urgent treatment. only for the person to find out elsewhere that because the doctor ignored their symptoms their condition is now worsened.

I’ve been asked to lose weight when I had an allergic reaction to a bee sting!

Ooo I love the product videos. Can’t wait

I just started the video, and i think the writer mainly had a problem with the way that weight loss is recommended as a cure-all and other possible causes of illness are often not explored with overweight patients

Theres are many fat people who exercise and eat well. There are many thin people who eat horribly and don’t exercise. Someone’s size is NOT a reliable indicator of health. Period. There is space for both body positivity and acknowledging obesity has it’s health risks. However, someones personal health does not warrant critique or judgment, it’s no ones business but their own! Society celebrates thin bodies all the time, and those bodies aren’t always healthy. So the argument that we shouldn’t celebrate big bodies seems hypocritical. Normalizing unqualified friends to tell other friends they should lose weight is NOT a good idea. There are too many variables, and can cause eating disorders. Again, Let qualified physicians discuss health. Lastly, it’s important that marginalized people are included in these conversations so that we can create solutions that help the most people. I think excluding them because “it’s ineffective” for the cause is a slippery slope.

I agree on the doctor part. My doctor didn't mention my weight, but I was sicker, and had high blood pressure. I looked up my bmi and realized how much weight I had gained. My weight distributed well on my body (it didn't accumulate a lot in one spot) which made it less obvious. But I was surprised to learn I was obese, I thought I was just overweight. My view of normal weight was very skewed, and it made me realize not just how many people around me are obese but how many are morbidly obese.

When I was fat NOBODY told me I was fat, as soon as I started losing weight people accused me of an ED!!

Doctors definitely do have an anti-fat bias to the detriment of their patients, but on the other hand fat causes or exacerbates a lot of issues. Like back pain. So before going down the route of surgeries it's probably a good idea to lose a few pounds to see if it improves. On the other hand, if you show up with a broken leg the answer is definitely not "have you tried losing weight?"

I think it is possible to be both anti fat acceptance and anti fat shaming.

I think you misunderstood the doctor issue. The point is not that doctors shouldn't bring up weightloss to their patients, but rather that doctors have a bias and often prescribe weight loss as the cure for all ails when you are overweight. I had a bad case of shingles at the age of 34, I went in and told the doctor that I worked around 70 hour workweeks, also took a few evening classes, and I had lost around 60 lbs in the past 3 months so it was likely due to the extreme stress I was under. She looks at me and blamed the shingles on my diet and actually had the gall to joke about overeating donuts. I was still obese, but she could very clearly see my recorded weight loss over the short period, not to mention I had just told her I lost weight and had a lot of environmental stress. But my shingles was apparently due to me "overeating donuts" even though I was eating considerably healthy with whole foods at the time. Thank god the shingles was clear cut and I could get medicine regardless, but her making an assumption based on my look rather than actual available evidence is more common than you seem to acknowledge here.

My opinion is based solely on my experience. I have been over 100lbs overweight for the past 5 years, vegetarian and now vegan. I have been steadily working on my weight and am down 30 lbs so far and feel so strong. Unfortunately, the journey to lose weight is long, hard, and full of setbacks. I’ve had real medical issues dismissed by doctors as just a weight issue, and then later was finally diagnosed (if it had been diagnosed earlier I would have had earlier treatment). I do not think that being significantly obese is a healthy option, but there is a lot of ignorance on the time and dedication it takes to lose weight.

what bothers me about this movement is how specific it is, like you were talking about. I've struggled with body image my whole life, but because I happen to exist in a smaller body I've literally been told that I'm not allowed to be or promote body positivity because it isn't meant for me and that I'm "taking away the voices of fat people." I also think the logic is inconsistent. Like, you mentioned Eugenia Cooney. She, and other people with anorexia, gets so much backlash for promoting an unhealthy lifestyle, but no one in this movement seems to give a shit or says anything to or about the people who are on the opposite end of the spectrum and who may have binge eating disorder. Like, look at all the love the mukbang channels get. So, anorexia=bad, binge eating disorder=good? Okay. Lastly, as someone who had anorexia, I had started reading this new eating disorder recovery book and it's just so biased it's ridiculous. the book specifically says we should get rid of words like overweight because "what even is overweight, over WHAT weight? All bodies are different", but yet they use the term underweight all over the book and have no problem with that word. why aren't they also saying "under WHAT weight?" I just can't with it anymore and honestly want no part of any of it.

Hey there, I've followed for a long time but this video has me considering unsubscribing. I have several problems with some of the points you made, which of course no one is going to agree completely, but the most egregious to me is this: the argument, when it comes to doctors suggesting weight loss instead of running diagnostic tests, was severely misrepresented here. You used diabetes as a straw man to argue against. OF COURSE a doctor is going to suggest weight loss to an overweight patient complaining of diabetes-like symptoms. Where this example falls apart, though, is the doctor isn't going to prescribe weight loss and then send the patient on their way. It takes TIME to lose that significant of an amount of weight. These patients could die in the interim. This is a scenario where the development of type 2 diabetes is strongly linked to obesity, as you said, but it is NOT a scenario where a doctor would refuse tests and instead dismissively prescribe weight loss, as was argued within the article; you're arguing something different entirely. The doctor would absolutely run tests, prescribe medication if indicated, and additionally prescribe weight loss. Instead, the problem is doctors dismissing any and all unexplained symptoms of OTHER potential conditions as being somehow linked to weight and therefore prescribing weight loss, even when there is no actual link between the particular condition and obesity, or worse, when the condition itself CAUSES obesity. For example, imagine a fat person presenting with an irregular period that was so heavy and unpredictable that it was immensely negatively impacting the person's life. The article here is arguing against doctors saying "well, being fat causes hormone imbalances, and those hormone imbalances are what's causing your symptoms, so in order to alleviate those symptoms, you have to lose weight," and not running any further diagnostic tests. Why is this a problem? Yes, these symptoms could be due to being overweight, but they could also be due to hypothyroidism or PCOS, among other things I'm sure. If either of those conditions is present, the doctor has just sent this person, whose obesity is caused, at least in part, by that condition, with the instruction to lose weight, despite the easily identifiable condition making that nearly impossible. So now you have a person whose suffering has been prolonged by months or even years because the doctor assumed a causal link between their symptoms and obesity , BUT IN THE WRONG DIRECTION, without performing the most basic of tests as to whether that was true. These tests, meanwhile, would have most likely been given had the person presenting with those symptoms been within the "average" range of size. Regardless, even if the person's symptoms are indeed caused by their obesity, prescribing weight loss and refusing to diagnose further precludes the patient from any kind of medicinal relief. Again, it takes time to lose weight. Telling someone to lose weight before you'll help them is immeasurably cruel when there may well be medications and other therapies which exist and could improve their quality of life to a point where they would even have the mental and physical energy to make the daily choices required to actually lose weight. Saying it's wasteful to run these tests when the person could, in theory, just power through another few months or years of suffering to get rid of their symptoms via weight loss makes it seem like only thin people are morally worthy of treatment and that fat people must suffer for their choices.

Women with PCSO are routinely under diagnosed because weight loss is pushed as main and only option. It takes women years to get diagnosed, treated and supported. All in the meantime suffering guilt and shame about knowing we need help but the world gaslights us.

What's more of a health problem in America right now? (1) Obesity, (2) drug addiction, (3) prescription drug addiction -inclusive of psych meds. If you're overweight, you can make a comeback; if you've got brain damage from #2 or #3, ain't no coming back from that.

you lost me when you started going on about worrying that the body positivity movement is glorifying obesity. I honestly thought you were better than that.

I love “my thoughts will probably offend you”

I mean drug addicts and alcoholics KNOW they are addicted but I have NEVER seen a doctor just ignore that and coddle them and say "yeah its ok to keep drinking/smoking/ shooting up/ taking drugs that weren't given to you". That would be IRRESPONSIBLE. ITS THE SAME IDEA....

What's wrong with a doctor telling people to lose weight or fat? Being fat and overweight leads to health problems such as diabetes, heart disease, strokes, cancer, and more. Plus the leg joints don't like carrying extra weight. I've seen some people that are so obese that they have trouble walking.

I can't believe that this is even remotely controversial. Being overweight is not good for your health. Just like eating a crazy fruit diet isn't good for your health. It's not about "beauty standards" it's about overall health as a population.

I actually think that some drs can be negligent based on patients weight or other parameters. If someone comes in with a terrible cough would we say "stop smoking" and send them on their way or advise that along with meds etc. AFTER running diagnostic tests? Smoking may be the main cause of their condition, or exacerbate it, like if it's a virus or something, but as a dr you'd still have a duty of care to treat. In saying that I agree with everything else you said.

Hi. I enjoy your content. This has definitely been an interesting video. I think it's about two things...1) being happy with who you are/where you are. 2) Not assuming someone is unhealthy or healthy because of their body type. Just assuming that someone's BMI is the reason that they have issues and that weight loss will solve it is shitty. I was told I needed to lose weight to help me get pregnant...when actually...there were physical issues that needed to be addressed. I am also not being taken seriously with some health issues that my doctor just wants to chalk up to me not being on the medication she thinks is best (as apposed to by cardiologist) for my heart. It's not all about my heart, and I know that. She won't listen, because that's all she sees. I think it's more about assessing the individual. Just because someone is skinny, or looks fit, doesn't mean they are healthy. If people can't be accepted for who they are and where they are, how are they supposed to move on in a healthy manner. I think that's the point of being able to be healthy and fat at the same time. Fat shaming is insensitive and cruel. I don't think it's appropriate for non medical professionals to tell anyone else to lose weight, again...I also don't think it's appropriate for medical professionals to just assume that's all they need to solve their problems. I feel like telling some one outright they are fat and need to lose weight is the same thing as people thinking they can just go up and touch a pregnant woman's belly. My body doesn't become someone else's just because I'm pregnant, I don't become less of a person because I am fat. Each person should be taken individually...and that includes by medical professionals. I also don't think that just because a person is vegan means that are anti-fat, or anything like that. I think unfortunately we have all been put its these categories and there is no in-between, no room for varying circumstances.

Love ur channel ❤️

Being Vegan is caring about all living beings! People are animals! Ps love the end of the video lol milks are getting crazy. Now they are phasing out soy as much as possible in our area! And I've heard people standing around the milk aisle as they pick up cow's milk, and talk about never give your little boy baby soy you will be so sorry! So I'm grinding my teeth down trying not to intervene the in the conversation in the second day I heard it in the same store I just went cuckoo! LOL

As someone working in med field, I think docs start with low hanging fruit in general, it’s not they they have a particular bias against fat people. If someone was severely underweight and reported a host of health problems that could be due to being underweight, the doctor will tell them to gain weight and maybe prescribe something to help them do that. I’ve seen this happen. Or if someone’s cholesterol is high, whether they’re a size 2 or 22, the doctor is going to ask them to cut back on certain foods potentially before prescribing them cholesterol medicine for it. Doctors like to eliminate the low hanging fruit because it’s cheaper for the patient and has minimal risk. For example, if gaining some weight solved your anemia, that means you didn’t have to spend money on certain tests or treatments or risk having harmful side effects to a drug. I’ll admit that they can be biased, but more like biased in general.

Lizzo does not care about body positivity anyway. She cares about proving to the world that _she in particular_ is desirable to conventionally beautiful people, in a world that champions conventional beauty standards.

totally agree with everything you said, love the vid as always

I generally agree with you om many things regarding veganism, but here I think you're wrong. It is quite common for fat people to be misdiagnosed (or not diagnosed at all), being told it's weight when time shows it's cancer, broken bones etc. It doesn't happen "sometimes", it happens enough that there are scientific studies on it and enough that fat people are hesitant to seek care in the first place (and that, regardless of your stance on fat and health, should be a bigger consequence to avoid). It is also comming to light that maybe, just maybe, exercise and a healthy lifestyle is more important at a higher weight than losing a few pounds. With new research just this month I believe.

Also - resources. People may be fat and healthy, cause they are fat and wealthy. But usually size doesn't come with money. I'm not American, but from what I hear, in America being poor and fat usually pairs up with skin colour and being female?

Being able to lose weight on a vegan diet is part of the selling point, then again, I think it’s great that Lizzo is vegan, she can reach a greater audience. Lizzo has always been big, so nobody is blaming veganism for her weight or any potential health issues she might have or develop. Lizzo is a great ambassador to the cause.

I have an acquaintance who died a month ago. She was overweight and had back pain. Her doctor wrote off her pain as being too fat. He told her to lose weight. Her problem was Ewings sarcoma. Doctors often ignore symptoms in overweight people, when they would investigate more with normal weight people.

After turning forty I experienced significant phat loss.

I think people are misunderstanding your stance at the beginning of the video, considering at 2:54 you talk about exactly what all comments are saying you’re ignoring, that just asking for weight loss without taking a look at any other symptom is lazy, but it’s a fact that in many (most) cases, weight loss will alleviate a vast array of health issues.

The channel you refered to regarding the 'body store' is called 'my thoughts will probably offend you' 💪

"-milk that was $6 for, what is it, a quarter gallon?" correct me if i'm wrong but i do believe that measurement is called a quart 😂

I'm not gonna add another comment about doctors being biased. I'd rather say, why would anyone think "wooo, this obese person is advocating for animals rights, so I'm not going to be vegan because I don't want to be obese"? I don't think that happens very often. There's actually the opposite stereotype, where people don't wanna go vegan because they associate it with being sickly thin and looking anemic. I think most of your arguments are in good faith, in general, but this one, the "self-care is better advocacy" one, it's a bit biased, yes. McDonald's is generally associated with obese people eating there, and that never prevented my fatphobic family to take me to eat there once in a while. Most people who are very afraid to be obese would probably eat a vegan donut only once in a while, and not 50 per day because Lizzo has been seen eating a vegan donut a few times. Now I'm getting to the part where you say the stuff about friends saying to other friends they should lose weight lacks context and indications about the cruelty of the way that it's said... Really? Like, you know if it was hardly ever and always in a benevolent way, it wouldn't be adressed this way, I mean, you obviously know.

Fat people deserve respect, but being overweight shouldn't be accepted for the vast majority of people.

As a person who used to be fat, and corrected many health issues by losing weight, things I didn’t know were even tied to weight. Doctors suggesting weight loss come from a place of hey these health issues are connected to weight whether it hurts your feelings are not. Doctors aren’t here to massage your feelings. If you go in to the doctor obese they’re going to let you know every time, if you’re seeing them for the first time. Many obese people myself was included in this are ignorant to the connection between hey I’m fat and it’s making me exhausted all the time and my knees hurt. My mom is obese because she’s hypothyroid and she’s working REALLY hard really really hard to lose weight but it’s hard for her. We shouldn’t bully fat people, because a small percent of them are like my mom. But most don’t even connect the junk food they eat to their weight. I have seen it with my very eyes. Doctors are just doing their job. It would be malpractice to ignore weight as a factor.

you should make a video about the terms ‘cage free’, ‘pasture raised’, etc

I am admittedly only halfway through this video, but as someone Fairly Old (in internet years) who discovered Fat Acceptance turned HAES turned Body Positivity an entire-ass decade ago on LiveJournal, I just want to inject a perspective from the trenches. This video, so far, reads very much as "outsider perspective," which is fine, but there's something to be said for hearing the POV of someone into FA or whatever you wanna call it these days. Firstly, I want to get out in front of myself and say that, yes, there is plenty of data out there about health issues and obesity correlating. I'm not going to deny that. But from my experience, I have had my outright, known about, diagnosed disability ignored for years because I was told to lose weight. For transparency: I am 32, currently 367.8 pounds, and 5'8". I'm white; I grew up poor in the south. I have scoliosis with an upper curve of 63° and a lower curve of 119°. I was diagnosed at age 13, and my back has only ever gotten worse since. My GP encouraged me for years to diet!!! and exercise!!! But I am in severe, debilitating pain. I'm also an elementary teacher and the primary caregiver of my parents so carving out time and ability without too much pain to attempt diet!!! and exercise!!! is little more than a joke. For YEARS I was pressed to get weight loss surgery or try keto or try whatever fad diet or do anything to lose the weight because SURELY losing the weight would heal my back. This is... not true. Could it take some of the pressure off? Sure. Will it cure the train wreck that is my spine? Nah. I was pressed about this so much that a year ago I found out my GP had never ONCE laid eyes on my x-rays. But she has pushed me to lose weight for years when I am diagnosed with a literal skeletal disability. When she finally did, her whole worldview changed. How she treated me changed. She said, "holy shit! We have to DO something about this!!" and began treating me as a patient in really severe pain and not a fat patient who needs to be less fat. So, is being told to lose weight by a doctor the worst, most idiotic thing in the world? No. But if I as a teacher can sit through sensitivity training after sensitivity training over the years (which is needed in my profession - not trying to downplay that), then can't doctors do the same? Can't they think hey, maybe there's a reason this fat patient of mine is still fat after all these years. Medical side of this argument aside, like I said, I discovered FA ten years ago. I saw people with lumpy dumpy bodies just like mine in crop tops and bikinis and cute fall fashion and big sweaters and short shorts and like. Being normal. Doing normal things. I loathed myself SO MUCH by the age of 22 that shit was Dark, suffice to say. And sure I'm surrounded by fat people given where I live but they all hate themselves and talk about how they hate themselves very loudly because fat people are SUPPOSED to go through that song and dance to appease the society gods or whatever. So, I very literally credit the FA movement with saving my life. I would not still be here if I hadn't discovered that you CAN be fat and be happy. Are there people who take FA too far? Sure. Anything can be taken too far. Does that make the movement wrong? Ten years later, I gotta say no to that, man. And regardless of yours or anyone else's concern for a fat person's weight, I hope that denying us happiness, confidence, or peace doesn't sit right in your soul because it wouldn't mine.

Would you consider doing a video about your celibacy period?

I lost 60 pounds and all my doctor had to say to me was “not good enough”

Yes, I liked the video which is needed, examines with nuances, qualifiers, analogies etc. Thanks. Btw I've been fat and also thin (which I am now and wish to stay this way) and the amount of fat shaming I encountered was far far less than thin shaming. Here in India and even elsewhere it's perfectly normal and socially acceptable to make fun of lean, thin, slim or "skinny" people,more so young men. To be protected from this ideally a man must be visibly and obviously bloated up and pumped up, with 'Gym' screaming out, metaphorically speaking. But failing heavy bulky muscles, any bulk would do, it seems. Bulging bellied or even frankly pot bellied and pulpy chested men, including men having had hernia or stents, and suffering from hypertension, find it fine to make comments about thin people. I'm often said to look "weak". Looking "weak" with a flattish waist, no diabetes, hypertension or other diseases: I'm quite comfortable with that, thank you. And it's not just young men in India: I met a very pleasant and charming slim and healthy young woman from Vienna who complained that everyone was after her to gain weight. Well, thanks again for the good video.