Fasting, Tweeting, and Shaming Oh My!
Published 11.6.2016- Can obese people study and opine on how to reduce rates of obesity?
- Should you take advice about weight loss from someone who is overweight or obese?
- Is it fat shaming to discount an obese peoples statements or contributions if they themselves can't "walk the talk"?
I have never heard of Farooqi, but Brownell is one of the talking heads that regularly gets quoted in article, shows and movies about obesity. I agree that Fung was fat-shaming the two speakers, in that the clear implication of his tweet was "the blind leading the blind" and that people who are obese themselves ought not have the role of making policy to fight obesity. Body size does not indicate intellectual worth.
I know of Fung because at he often blogs about type two diabetes (T2D), and he critiqued Dr Roy Taylor's research a bit ago. However, I do not read him with any frequency because his primary interest is fasting. Fasting, Fung would have it, can cure obesity and diabetes and sundry other ills, but he has no actual study data (unlike Roy Tayor) to prove it. Fung simply asserts, and because he's a low carb diet fan his readers accept his words as gospel. I will discuss Fung more in an upcoming piece on insulin resistance.
I wasn't the only one who noticed Freedhoff's response to Fung's tweet, and unlike Freedhoff, this author named Fung and gave him the chance to respond. Fung's response is that he's not fat-shaming, but rather making a point about how obesity is treated in this country. Fung thinks it's not about the energy balance, rather it's about carbohydrates and insulin— and apparently not eating for days at a time. That doesn't change the fact that he suggested that the two keynote speakers shouldn't be leaders because they can't follow accepted diet advice and become thin.
Yes, but…
Thus, my answer to the first and third questions is a definitive YES. However, I'm torn about the second question because if I was looking for someone to provide me with information on weight loss, I would tend to give more credence to someone who has followed the plan being touted and seen results. To my knowledge, Brownell doesn't offer dieting advice to individuals. Rather, his interest and research focus is public policy. Again, of Farooqi I know nothing.I certainly think that people struggling with obesity have a experiences and views that are interesting to read and consider, but I don't think they have is a recipe to help others avoid or escape obesity. Assuming that is the desired goal, of course, a statement I'm adding because I spent too much of my morning reading angry rants written by fat people who are happy in their obese state. As always, if you're happy with your size, then I'm happy for you.
For those who choose, as I did, to alter their body size, however, it's important to learn from "gurus" that knows what they are talking about. And I don't think it's unreasonable to expect that the gurus actually look the size they claim their diet program/way of eating will produce. If someone is on the internet selling or even promoting a plan to lose weight, then it is not fat-shaming to look at the current size and health of that individual as a means to gauge how successful the method is.
To state the obvious, many people find it difficult to lose weight and then maintain that smaller size. Advice that might make it a bit easier to reach that goal is valuable. Sharing experiences and perspectives of failure can be helpful, but please don't hold yourself up as a guru if your methods have not been successful for you. Or if you still choose to do so, don't be surprised when people question the validity of your advice/diet/program/product.
I talk here about what worked for me, and why I think it could work for others, but I certainly am not holding myself as an expert with "the answer" — and my methods worked for me. I could, and to be honest have considered, putting up before and after images to give readers an idea of where I started and where I am currently to provide visual evidence of my assertions. To date though, my nervousness about putting too much personal data on the Internet has ruled the day.
Readers here, therefore, will either accept the truth of my experience based solely on my words, or they will not. This site includes Google ads and Amazon affiliate links, but I am not selling a diet plan or advice. If my method of losing and maintaining weight (eating at maintenance level as determined with the NIH's* calculator for the size you want to be) seems like something that might work for you, great. If not, that's cool too. It costs a reader nothing but time to read my writings here, and I hope they are enjoyable and informative.
Someone who has failed to alter his or her body size using a given method can be a fascinating fellow traveler, someone to commiserate with or empathize with, or simply someone interesting to read or listen to. What they should not be considered to be is a diet "guru" or expert source for nutrition or diet advice. And certainly you should never pay them for their "advice."
NO you should not take diet advice from someone who's obese. Diet gurus/doctors/experts should be lean if they want their advice to be respected and heeded. They should be the example for the protocol they teach.
*NIH=National Institute of Health
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