Quantcast
Channel: Vibewire » Ryan Selvage
Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 7

The Right to be Fat: Can you be unhealthy and happy?

0
0

For so long we’ve been encouraged  to be happy in our own skin. That generally goes hand-in-hand with being healthy – making positive food choices, remaining physically active and leading a balanced lifestyle. But can you be unhealthy and happy with your body?

In The Biggest Loser: Challenge Australia, we saw an entire town – the most obese in Australia – bring itself down to the national average. Health groups hailed it as a triumph, but not everyone would have felt that way. In May last year, SBS Insight aired ‘Fat Fighters’, a discussion centred around on what it meant to be ‘fat’, as well as the social stigmas tied to that way of living.

The general health of Australia, and indeed much of the developed world, hasn’t improved much at all. Though the benefits of weight loss go hand in hand with a longer lifespan, reduced risk of disease, and better moods, the struggle to achieve a socially acceptable shape is an arduous trial. So it begs the question, should some people simply consign themselves to being ‘fat’?

Of course, there are different levels in defining what it means to be ‘fat’. There are a number of terms we can apply to different body shapes – chubby, fluffy, clinically obese – but there are those on the larger end of the spectrum who feel that the need to be ‘in shape’ is a form of fat shaming.

Being overweight can lead to a myriad of problems including increased risk of stroke, high blood pressure, sleep apnea, diabetes, and heart disease – Australia’s biggest killer. This is perhaps why some argue that obesity is the last form of acceptable bigotry. But many argue that it is their choice to make and the health risks are their own to bear.

Jennifer Lee, an academic from Victoria University prominent through out the Fat Fighters debate, argues that you can be happy and healthy despite being fat, while also calling for a shift in society’s perceptions regarding larger people.

“There tends to be a perception that fat is linked with illness, undesirability, perhaps laziness, glutinous… those kinds of words,” she said. “I tried [to lose weight] for twenty years … just observing the fact that diets didn’t work, that they inevitably failed … so at 28 I started to question what I was doing.

“We have to look at the assumptions that are made, and I would say that you can’t actually tell someone’s lifestyle or health by looking at them. I do think that there’s such a health focus in our country – I call it ‘Healthism’ – a kind of moral obligation for people to be healthy… we need to watch that too.”

Daniel Rasitti, 26, a person trainer from Sydney, said it was important for people to remain happy with their own figure in spite of cultural standards. But he said it was difficult to identify what it means to be ‘fat’.

“The general media considers a ‘fat’ woman to be over a size six-to-eight at best. If this is the definition of fat, then yes it’s okay,” said Rasitti. “Is it okay to be obese? No.

Of course, a person’s cultural weight is entirely contextual. A woman who is 70kg and 160cm wouldn’t be anything remarkable, but in somewhere like Japan that would be large enough to “encourage obesity“.

An arguably objective assessment would be to determine whether they are healthy. Rasitti said using raw numbers to make an judgement about a persons well being is meaningless without context.

“I am 176cm, and weigh 91 kilograms, just above the average for males, of a low body fat percentage, yet on the BMI scale I am considered obese. Go figure,” he said. “In professional sports – AFL being on example – there are players weighing over 140 kilograms, but… these guys are fit… they have to be. They obviously [passed] all of the physicals and medicals”.

Although those who are in that weight range and are considered fit represent only a fraction of the 60% of Australians who are currently obese and cost health system upwards of $60bn. Perhaps Lee is correct in saying that it is difficult to determine a persons health based on their dress size, but the statistics are certainly daunting.

In Australia where people are overworked and we live rather a sedentary lifestyles it quite understandable that the need to compulsion to lose weight can feel like a burden. But Rasitti says that it only takes a re-evaluation of our eating habits –  arguing that health is often about what we put into our bodies.

“Proper nutrition is very important in maintaining positive health,” he said. “In terms of weight loss, it’s about 80-90 percent of total influence. You can train five times a week, but if you’re eating rubbish, you will not lose the weight.”

 


Ryan is currently in the second year of a Journalism degree at the University of New South Wales.

With a keen interest and knowledge of both domestic and international sports, Ryan hopes to one day combine his love for sport and interests in the media in a full-time working role.

Ryan is a frequent contributor at The Roar, and you can follow his tweets @Ryanselvage


 

Main image source: Wikipedia commons, accessible. here

The post The Right to be Fat: Can you be unhealthy and happy? appeared first on Vibewire.


Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 7

Latest Images

Trending Articles





Latest Images