The Naturally Thin and the Naturally Average

There are those among us who can eat without care and will never get fat. They have a fast metabolism that actually demands that they keep eating. I have known a few of these in my life. I particularly remember Richard, a fellow musician when I was in college, tall and rangy, who ate everything in sight. He was always hungry and always thin. He still is, and he is nearly 60 now. I can claim one advantage: I'd last longer on that desert island.

I have read, particularly over at Shapely Prose (in the comments to a recent post), that many of these thin folks tend to be more accepting of fatties because they recognize how difficult it is to change your weight. I expect this is generally true. It's much easier to empathize when you have a similar, even though opposite, condition.

There is another group, not given an unusually high metabolism but who grew up average weight (so-called) without effort, and who have never wavered from that weight by much. At times they may jump up ten or even twenty pounds during a difficult time, or lose ten or twenty during a different difficult time or because of extra exercise or diet.

I have friends and family members in this group. I can't count how many times I have heard many of them say "I can't eat X" or "I have to stay away from Y" or "If I eat any more I will gain ten pounds". Recently I ate out with a group and one member of this group said she no longer bought a certain type of vegan mayonnaise because it tastes too good. This group is a subset of the larger group of averages.

It's clear from the comments they make about their own bodies that they honestly believe that without their constant vigilance they would lapse into real fatness. It is only their dedication to a good diet and exercise that keeps them from from becoming what I am, in other words. They don't say this but it's clear that's what they think. And some of them really do say it, trying to be helpful. They will point out that they tried this or that diet and lost the 10 pounds that so troubled them. Suggesting I might have similar success. In the case of the thin mayo person above, she believed she would gain astronomical amounts of weight if she indulged her preference for that one food.

It simply is not true. It becomes true, at least to a degree, if their level of diligence becomes an unhealthy need to follow reduced-calorie diets. In other words, if they get on that diet treadmill they may be condemned forever to monitoring their intake. And yet even if they do screw up their own perfectly decent metabolisms in this way it is unlikely they will ever reach the level of fat I reach. There is a lot more going on here than that so-called simple equation of calories in, calories out.

In future posts here I will elaborate on this theme especially because I suspect that the belief that "There but for the grace of my diligence go I" is pervasive in this society and contributes to the general lack of understanding of fat people and to the extreme prejudice against us.

Why now?

Today I read a post in salon.com by a "fat acceptance" chick who maintains a fat blog with two other equally sassy supposedly fat young women. I took a look at this blog - shapely prose - and I admit I was impressed. I looked at the comments on the salon.com article and I was depressed. On Kate's blog is a list of fat blogs, and there are many of them. But apparently many folks out there don't read them or have a clue about weight, about the real story about weight. It won't hurt to have one more voice crying out in this dense wilderness.

So that's why now. I first thought of asking if Kate would like another writer on her blog, given that it already has many readers. Then I thought, no, I'll do my own on my own terms and see where it goes.

Why?

How out of sync could I be? Let's count the ways:

Fat: I may be in the majority here but it's still not cool.
Vegan: Our numbers are rising but we are probably still under 1%.
Grandmother: Not a thirty-something wit.

Aren't there enough fat blogs out there already? you may ask. No. We need a lot more to counter the messages we receive - and send - every day, every hour. My personal mission here? To correct the misconceptions and flat-out untruths rife in today's media, both mainstream and otherwise.

You vegans are annoying holier-than-thous, you say? Sometimes yes, we are. In my case, "holier-than-thou" might not quite work because I'm an atheist. I could have called this Fat Atheist Vegan Blog but I thought, "enough!" And anyway, let's admit it: vegans ARE right. Why not say it loud?

Grandmothers are out of touch? Not this one.

The three titles together mean something, too. The common perception of vegans is that they are thin, in fact rail-thin. Many of us are not. This older generation is also perceived as stuck-in-the-mud, not open to new ideas. So not true, not of me, not of many others my age. I'm here to explode some myths.

So there you have it.