Is Weight Blindness Real?

Published 3.17.2026: I have been reading about weight issues and diets for more than 10 years, and I have never heard of weight blindness before. I went to Google Scholar when I first learned about the concept, and there’s nothing. Apparently it is not a research term. The only thing that came up when I searched was that obesity can affect the eyes, but I’m not going to talk of that. Am I surprised that obesity can affect the eyes? No. But I know nothing about the topic and I’m no sort of medical professional. DO NOT TAKE MEDICAL ADVICE FROM ME.

And unlike weight blindness (a made up term so far as I can tell) no one will be hurt if I opine. Apparently, the concept of weight blindness is that people who have decided to lose weight, but don’t realize just how fat they are, or how much body fat they need to lose. These are obviously not body positivity fans, because weight in that movement can only increase, never decrease. Decreasing your size would be considered “Fatphobic".

Weight blindness seems to have become a thing about a year ago… as I say, I’ve never heard of it and it does not appear to be a research term. But about a year ago, influencers (obviously not fat activists) began to discuss their “weight blindness” as they lost weight. All of the people that I found on YouTube (I don’t know if this is a thing on TikTok (which I don’t have) or Instagram (which I don’t have a personal account for, my offline business does), had already lost the weight. They were talking about the past.

I’ll admit… I think this is stupid. That you don’t think you’re fat probably has to do with the environment in the US. Hell, most people don’t think that I’M fat, though if you look at body fat percentage I’m at the upper end of normal. I surely have extra fat to lose. I type this after having done a bit of googling as to how much fat does the average woman of my age have. And by the body mass index (BMI) I’m overweight, not “normal” weight. For the record, my doctor never complains about my weight.

Is so-called weight blindness just another term for body dysmorphia? I know my daughter deals with body dysmorphia in that she thinks she’s larger than she actually is. Wouldn’t that be the same if you think (for whatever reason, and I’ll get to fat acceptance or activism in a minute) you are smaller than you actually are? In other words, can’t a very thin person have “weight blindness”? But at least online (which is the only place this seems to exist) it’s only formerly obese people who talk about it.

So this time has come to talk (actually rant) about fat activists, or people who accept that being fat (or obese) is healthy. Excess body fat is never healthy. The body compensates until if cannot, so younger fat people may not have bad blood markers… yet. But you know, time only moves in one direction, and ultimately father time comes for all of us. And for fatter bodies, the problems and potential problems are exacerbated.

And the thing is: most of the women (and they are mostly women) touting fat acceptance are young. And those that get old (and not all of them do, some have died) disappear from social media, chased off as being fatphobic if they’ve decided to take their health in their hands.

In fat body positivity or fat acceptance, weight can only change in one direction. It’s fine if your weight increases, but if you’re trying to lose weight, you’re eradicating yourself, or trying to take up less space. It is psychotic.