Be honest — would you rather be anorexic or obese?
May 30, 2008 by angelique
Filed under Women's Health
I can remember an interesting survey I heard about some time ago…
A bunch of kids (they were quite young — perhaps 5 and 6) were asked if they would rather be fat or lose a limb (or some such nonsense.) They predominantly chose losing a limb over having too much weight on their frames.
Now, that’s just horrible.
First of all, who would ask kids such a question? And secondly, why equate being “fat” with the horror of losing a limb?
(Incidentally, I cannot find the original report — if you can, please comment and send the link. I’m not sure I remember the specifics after all these years, though I remember the outcome was anti-”fat”.)
Anyway, I just found another question similar to that one: Would you rather have a wife who is fat or one who is bulimic and looks good all the time?
Most guys who answered said ”fat”. Now, this wasn’t done scientifically, but it’s anecdotally interesting.
Personally, I’d rather have an overweight husband than one who was so obsessed with his appearance that he became impossible to live with. I also wouldn’t want to be with a guy who never allowed himself a taste of homemade cookies or who exercised to the point of potentially harming his body.
But be honest – would you rather be anorexic (or bulimic) or clinically obese (BMI of >25)?
Part of me wants to answer that I’d rather be anorexic-being obese terrifies me. But I don’t want to die either.
But then again, look at all the health problems obesity causes.
Honestly, then, I pick anorexic.
I also have read about the survey about the kids in newspapers in Hong Kong.
Frankly said, I’m clincally obese (BMI>30). I wished that I’m anorexic. However, I hate the feeling of starving, vomiting and hate to be scared of food. More than I hate obesity.
In Hong Kong, anorexia is not in great awareness as people are “brainwashed” by the ads of slimming products. (I also have to thank those ads as people tends to use them more than starve themselves.) People usually regard fat as “lazyness”, “disgusting” and “loser”, which is similar as western countries.
Some of my classmate are too thin (BMI<19), and the still regards themsleves as fat. Just because their waistline was still not lean enough. Some of them even skip lunch, just because they want to keep thin or become thinner.
Once before, I was having dinner with a group of schoolmates. When we were ordering for meal, some of the girls didn’t order rice (main food in chinese meals). People believe that skipping starch can avoid gainning weights. A girl who sat beside me even did not put a pea in her mouth. During the whole meal, she just sat and watching others to eat. That made me feel a bit odd: a fat girl didn’t refuse to eat even she really ought to go on a diet, and a thin girl who don’t need any dieting just refuse to eat.
As I’ve mention before, slimming ads has “brainwashed” people ’s mind in Hong Kong. Just like what “Thinspiration” does, silmming ads usually protraits thin people as beauty. Some of the slimming ads even portraits big bulided people (not only fat people) as ugly. This have lower both thin, avarage, big bulided and fat people’s esteem. So, people have to buy the products. For people who don’t have spare money to buy those products, they choose diets, extreme workouts or meal skipping (most of them not yet starving themselves).
People even looking down at fat people, even discriminate them. Children would bullying at fat kids. I was one of the kids who were being bullied due to obesity. Kids would not playing with you if you are fat, and bad nicknames like “fat pig”, “big belly” or even worse would be called. Even some irresponsible teachers would picking on fat students, and labelled them as “lazy”, “stupid” and “untidy”.
Here’s my confession.
Although, I’m fat. I sometimes making fun of other people who are fatter than me, without hurting their esteem. I know it’s bad even I’m doing it on anyone else.(As I always recieve teases and being picked.) I just tried to adjust my sight, trying not to judge people by their outer beauty.
In the nutshell, being obese is bad to physical health, but being anorexic is bad to both physical & psychological health. If I can stay healthy with my weights, I rather be obese.
But NEVER be anorexic in any situlation.
Well, I think both is bad. I am actually a fat person with ENDOS. I am the extreme of the yo yo dieters. I am 5 10 with a large frame. Right now my BMI is 28, Right now I am 250(size 18), 6 months ago I was 313(size 22)(yuck) I want to get to 160. I have gone as low as 100(size3) and as high as 500(size 26)(although when I was this weight my boobs were huge).
I starve(fast) all the time (also use ipicac, laxitives, intestinal detox aneama’s)and work out 6 hours every day. I cry inside when I see my “thin” friends and how much they eat. I never eat out. never anything fried or sugary.
I do have liver and pancreas problems and hypo thyriodism, which also makes it difficult to lose weight. Sometimes I think If I never obsessed, I might be a heathier weight. I have freinds that are so shallow, if I was ugly, they wouldn’t be my friend. It hurts me because that’s how everyone is. I was a plus size model, but all I want is the weight to be off for good. I think I have had disordered eating habits since I was 7 when my brother poked my in the stomac and told me I had a spare tire. Next day I joined up for soccer and track. I have always been bigger, even when I was playing sports. My diet consists of soy, ricecakes, veggies, water, diet pills and diet soda. Why am I so fat? What I am I doing wrong?
I am 5′7″ and weigh 145 lbs. Two years ago I weighed 120 lbs. Obviously this weight gain has freaked me out and while I am now doing everything in my power to control I think it is likely I suffer from a food addiction. I have a hard time turning down food and when I am not eating I am constantly thinking of food planning out my next meal. When I do turn away a snack or skip breakfast I feel invincible. When I consume more than 1000 cals a day I feel like a failure. All in all, I can tell you with 100% certainty I would rather be anorexic than obese. I would rather be anorexic than fat, chubby, or on the big side. I miss the successful feeling of people telling me I was TOO skinny.
Honestly I’d rather be how I am right now. I thought it through and none of them is less awful. I’m a 17 year old Argentinian girl, and I’ve been overweight since I’m 10 or so. I hate it and my mother does too, but I wouldn’t be anorexic by any means.
After just reading the title of this blog post, I felt like, “OH MY GOD! NO!!!!” And then I read everyone’s comment and here are my two cents:
Sometimes it’s hard for me to determine what clinically obese means, you know? So like, if my bmi is more than 25, that means I’m carrying around more fat on my body than doctors would like me to carry. It means I’m not shopping in Bebe or Zara, right?
Some people can be happy and relatively healthy even if their body has more fat than what society deems appropriate. If my father were a professional football player and I inherited his build then it would be clear for everyone to point to my genes as the culprit for the heavier frame (and pounds, I suppose.) Some people can be clinically obese (again, whatever that means) and not be ashamed of themselves. They can go out to a restaurant and order a meal, wine, and dessert and not feel as though they “shouldn’t” or they “have no right.” And that’s because even though it’s not easy being fat in our culture, they accept themselves and their bodies and don’t apologize for taking up too much space or making the health care system costs skyrocket. We don’t make smokers apologize for their burden on the system. In fact, we allow them to smoke in public places and put non-smokers at risk.
But, I digress. And now I’ll actually answer the question. I have an eating disorder — and so I would rather be anorexic even knowing the sheer hell and pain that comes along with that — but it’s because I’m bulimic that there’s not even a moment of hesitation for me. After over a year in therapy, tons of awareness and knowledge about this disorder, it is still very much alive and VERY healthy in my mind. I choose anorexia because I am sick, but I’m not proud of it by any means.
At first I thought, “Weird.” Because I thought the husbands would have picked the bulimic wife who looks good all the time, rather than having a fat wife.” And then it made sense to me…
They’re not sick like me. They would never want their loved one to go through what I go through, just so they could look good all the time. And so while “fat” certainly isn’t a walk in the park, it sure as hell beats eating disorder each and everyday. Because of my own insecurities (and crazy eating disordered mind) I put my thoughts in the minds of everyone else. I assume others hold the same attitudes surrounding food as I do. It’s why the girl at lunch wouldn’t eat the rice or the peas. My best is that she really wanted to eat — or wishes she could, but that she’s thinking that other people would look at her and think, “She shouldn’t be eating that…”
Is this comment long enough, or what?
However, on a very serious note, I do look forward to the day when the first thing I think when I hear a question like this is, “Obese. But a healthy obese. Like a happy and satisfied and so completely far from disordered that I’m accepting of the obesity as something that just is…like the color of my hair or eyes.” Because that’s something that never ever happens with anorexia or bulimia or binge eating or ed-nos.