The Pain Of Obesity

The Pain Of Obesity

Oh sure, obesity can cause us physical pain. Back pain, knee pain, neck pain, and ankle pain can all be inflamed by obesity. Our clothes chafe. Our thighs rub together till they are raw. But there is another kind of pain known to every obese man, woman and child.

It is the psychological pain that is felt every time we walk into a room and realize we are the fattest person there. Do you feel a rush of relief when you spot someone obviously heavier than you? You bet.

Fat people suffer from more social bias than an average person can even imagine. One of the most painful stereotypes is that we are unlovable. Even the quickest glimpse of an overweight woman from a train led poet Frances Cornford to assume the lady he wrote of was “missing so much” and was “unloved”.

To a Fat Lady Seen From the Train
By Frances Cornford

O why do you walk through
the fields in gloves

Missing so much and so much?

O fat white woman whom
nobody loves,

Why do you walk through the
fields in gloves,

When the grass is soft as the
breast of doves

And shivering sweet to the touch?

O why do you walk through the
fields in gloves,

Missing so much and so much?

Would an average sized person inspire such malice? I dont think so. When G.K. Chesterton poetically came to the ladys defense, even he couldnt avoid the habit of using the word fat (“fat-head”) as a pejorative.

The Fat White Woman Speaks
By G.K. Chesterton

Why do you rush through the field
in trains,

Guessing so much and so much?

Why do you flash through the
flowery meads,

Fat-head poet that nobody reads;

And why do you know such a
frightful lot

About people in gloves as such?

And how the devil can you be sure,

Guessing so much and so much,

How do you know but what
someone who loves

Always to see me in nice
white gloves

At the end of the field you are
rushing by,

Is waiting for his Old Dutch?

Americas obese are subject to stereotype, unrelenting social bias and tremendous psychological burdens. Obesity may be a medical condition but there are also psychological burdens associated with it.

If you have heard one fat joke too many, maybe this will be the time you will find a weight management plan that works for you.

Remember, most people who have lost sizeable amounts or weight and kept it off tried to do so many times before their success. So do try again, and rid yourself of that stigma. I lost 100 pounds and have kept it off. You can too.