An Exception
Immobility
Although I am a Fat Activist, I do feel that there is a limit to the amount of weight a person should carry. The concept of weighing too much, in my mind, does not rely upon the number, but upon the health of the individual. If at 500 pounds a particular woman's mobility is restricted, and/or she is housebound or unable to leave her bed, and/or her daily activity is restricted by a sendentary lifestyle, then this is clearly unhealthy.
However, I also know that there are 500 pound people in this world who are perfectly healthy. They can run a mile faster than a supermodel and be wheezing a lot less than their competitor at the finish line. Their blood sugars, cholesterol, and such are all normal and balanced. They eat all their food groups, and pop a multivitamin every day.
The difference between these two characters is that the first person probably does not excercise and therefore has lost the full range of her mobility and flexibility, and therein her health. The remedy for the first individual, to my mind, is not necessarily weight loss, but activity and a healthy diet (diet meaning balance, not restriction.) Yet because of the degree of her illness, she might find it impossible at her present weight to regain mobility, since her weak and underused muscles may have difficulty allowing for movement under the strain of her weight.
The second character didn't lay in bed and eat twinkies for decades at a time. Their muscle mass is proportionate to their fat mass, and their healthy diet helped to build that muscle and also maintain their heart and other organs. You'll often hear that weight puts a lot of pressure on joints, but I argue that if the tendons, ligaments, and muscles that surround the bone of the joint are kept in optimum condition through diet and excercise then this need never be an issue for a fat person. Besides, I've met only one fat person who ever had bad joints (due to a car wreck and then subsequent inactivity) and I've met over a dozens muscled, thin athletes who have had to have knee surgery or middle-aged persons who cannot move at all due to their participation in track and field in younger days.
So, to recap, poor health in fat people is not defined by their fat, but by their lack of excercise and diet (always know that in my vocabulary "diet" simply means eating everything on the food pyramid daily, in approximate proportions, in any quantity within physical comfort.)
Forcefeeding/Manufactured Weight Gain
I feel that forcefeeding or "belly busting" is an unhealthy pratice. This is a fetish of many in the fat admirer community in which a woman is fed huge quantities of food by her lover. This usually involves discomfort, pain, and eventually (ideally, in their minds) results in the immobility of the woman and supersizism (supersize isn't a problem, the method of attaining it is.) I do believe in the right of the individual to practice their sexual preferences. But I feel that this behavior has disturbing psychological roots in sadism and masochism that has been taken to an alarming point.
I am particularly concerned about water weight gain, in which many many gallons of water are consumed. You can actually get high this way, but it's lethal, and it has killed people.
Those of you who may be involved in such practices -- please, consider what kind of man would really want to force you to eat until you gag, until you are unable to move, in some cases until you are killed by this deadly practice. Is he really worthy of your love? Remember that you deserve nothing less than the best.
New Note: Since writing this portion, I ran across a piece of weight-gain fantasy erotica that adjusted my viewpoint on the practice. It's called Flesh On A Woman, a story by Tulsa Brown, and I encourage you to read it. Warning: it's erotica so it's racy! It's different from my description of forcefeeding above in that:
1. the woman isn't pressured into the situation by her lover (it's worthy of note that the author is female), and she is equally aroused by the practice.
2. She does not eat herself into discomfort, and does not become immobile or unhealthy.
3. She does not overeat (meaning she doesn't make herself uncomfortable). Also, she doesn't so much try to gain weight as she does simply let go of the diet restrictions that she has always found to be oppressive. She just allows her body to take its natural form.
4. The actual "feeding" is nothing more than a man blissfully cooking for his lover and enjoying the sensuality of her pleasure in food. There is no force-feeding here at all, there is only nurturing, warmth, and sensuality.
5. Both the man, the feeding, and the sex are all gentle, loving, respectful, and non-degrading. There is no hint of sadism or masochism in this story.
This is actually not at all unlike the relationship I have with my loving husband (indeed, the personality of the hero seemed to be modeled after my husband.) I don't gain weight for him, but he enjoys what fat I have, would prefer that I be heavier but loves me as I am and never pressures me, and likes me to eat because it brings me pleasure to eat. Nothing so unhealthy about that.
Now, it's still my view that many feeders are sadistic, that usually the practice is borderline abusive and unhealthy, and that the feedees are normally low on self-esteem and just want to keep their man at any cost. But clearly there can be exceptions.
Overeating: an Eating Disorder
I also think that it's important to examine when and why you eat. Food provides comfort by releasing endorphins, and some foods even make us feel secure because they remind us of our childhood. Many chronic overeaters describe food as a form of love, filling the void within them.
There's nothing wrong with eating what you want, when you want. However, food should not be used to stave off depression and other feelings as if it was an over-the-counter anti-depressant. It's not. Like alchohol and drugs, food can be abused. And like alchohol and drugs, when you come out of the high, your problems are still there, you will continue to hurt.
Deal with the core issues that may prompt you to eat, don't bury them beneath food. Eat for pleasure, for nourishment, for sensuality, don't use food as a form of escapism. Because it's temporary and overall ineffective.
The eating disorder that causes overeating is a very real thing, like bulimia and anorexia. It's a disease of the mind, a psychological problem that must be addressed. I don't believe that you should restrict your intake, I feel that you should deal with the underlying problems that may push you to overeat until you are uncomfortable. I'm not campaigning against eating large quantities, saying that this is unhealthy. It's the reasons for which you eat that may make it unhealthy.
Just because a person is fat or eats a lot does NOT mean that they are overeaters. So often fat people are simply told that they are overeaters; it's the easiest, most socially acceptable and compassionate explanation after "You're just a lazy bum." So like lambs to the slaughter these poor fat people attend Overeaters Anonymous and get therapy for a mental disease they don't have. I'd guess that 90% of the people in Overeaters Anonymous don't belong there. They don't have an eating disorder. They just have a genetic predisposition to fat, are hungry and like to eat. That's freggin not an eating disorder, that's just being a human being.
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Email: ericaherron@hotmail.com