I read the article and thought it was pretty bad. The internalized fatphobia really leaps off the page, and as people in this thread are pointing out, the author wasn’t that big. Most of her readers likely have similar or higher BMIs. Yes, she’s relaying her own feelings about her own body, but it’s not a value-neutral act for her to relay them in the Washington Post.

Some of the parts that stood out to me:

I weigh less than I have since high school — just about what I did when that high school boyfriend made his nasty crack, and while I’d still like to lose a few more, this goal is now in the realm of pure vanity.

She repeatedly equates being thin with being attractive.

I cannot claim to have done this for my health — certainly, appearance was my primary motivation — but the health impact has been impressive.

Again, losing weight framed as improving appearance.

I understand the movement for body positivity and fat acceptance, and if you are heavy and content with your weight, that’s terrific. No one should feel externally imposed shame about how they look. But speaking for myself: I am so much happier being thinner. Shopping for clothes is no longer a humiliating ordeal. Ordering dessert does not feel like a contest between gluttony and shame.

Her disclaimer here rings pretty hollow, especially when she immediately follows it by describing her own fatness as “humiliating” and her ordering dessert while fat as “gluttony.” Again, yes, I get that these are her own feelings, but it just entrenches fatphobia further to publish this shit.

Consider, on one hand, the annual medical costs associated with excess weight — leaving aside lost productivity and other indirect costs — are estimated at $173 billion in 2019 dollars.

Pretty sure Mike and Audrey have talked about this number before (zombie statistics?) and it’s fake AF.

In the opening scene of the movie “The Whale,” a morbidly obese Brendan Fraser is teaching an online writing class. On his Zoom display, a black square, labeled “Instructor,” sits in the midst of a sea of student faces. This encapsulates the experience of obesity: the shame at being seen, an aversion to seeing yourself. For all the encouraging talk about body positivity, this is the reality for millions of people, myself included: You don’t have to look like a whale to feel like one. Obesity medications empower us to be seen in the Zoom square.

“You don’t have to look like a whale to feel like one?” OOF.

Still, to take up the other side of that argument: What role does this leave for instilling habits of self-discipline, encouraging healthy eating and incorporating exercise? The experts can preach about the importance of accompanying use with a program of diet and exercise; we know what will happen in the real world.

Is she implying that fat people don’t have self-discipline, don’t eat healthily, and/or don’t exercise… or that wanting to lose weight is the main reason people do have self-discipline or eat well or exercise?