Yesterday I was on a dating website, and I saw a guy's post, which basically stated that overweight/obese people are inferior to everyone else. After giving a lot of thought, I decided to write this. I don't know if anyone will agree with me or not, but it's something I have to get off my chest, regardless of what other people think.

Yes we are in an obesity epidemic, and yes personal responsibility to have healthy lifestyle habits is key. But it's also true that if you saw an obese person outside, you wouldn't know what they may have or haven't tried so far to lose weight. You're just seeing them at that specific moment. I know that the general trend is to shame people who are obese, but let me tell you from experience that this actually does the opposite of what mainstream society expects; it makes things even worse, in fact. I'm not saying we should ignore the situation, and I'm not saying we should encourage unhealthy lifestyle choices. What I am saying, however, is that support is way more effective than shaming. And healthy people need to do this as well-- I see lots of support groups for obese people that are composed of, well... obese people. But I don't see as much support for obese people that comes from healthy people. I would think that, if they were really as concerned as they claim to be about the obesity epidemic, healthier people would consider a new strategy if the current one they were using obviously did not work.

This is personal for me because I was obese last fall, and now I have lost a lot of weight and am much healthier, and I'm proud of this achievement. But I have to say, I still resent the way healthy people (some of whom may look healthy but don't have habits that are any better, although because they are thin nobody cares) used to act toward me. And how they act toward me now, and the marked difference. Yes doctors also do this, but in this thread the general public is my subject. People are people, whether they are obese, overweight, underweight or normal, and that is that. They all are deserving of respect. So that means not pre-judging when you don't even know them. People are not automatically "good" or "bad" based on their weight. No one can make someone change their habits, it's something that person has to do for themselves, but as I said before, how do you know that obese person you just saw isn't already doing that? Maybe they just came from an appointment with their nutritionist or were taking a walk or something.

Not all healthy people are like this-- my healthier friends were always very encouraging of me and my decision to take better care of myself. They liked me before and they like me know, and that's how it should be. But I get really sick of blogs, articles, commercials and ads in which fat people are being vilified. Exactly how does this help? It doesn't... it just exacerbates an already difficult problem. It doesn't benefit anyone, obese or otherwise. Again, I know some people who read this will disagree, and you are entitled to your opinions. But I am tired of this trend and I just needed to say so.