EDIT: Infectious. Fuckin' autocorrect.
My best friend is a victim of fatlogic, and I hate it.
The Friend
She's 5'6'' and weighs 115 lbs, so she's most certainly not fat (actually, BMI calculators put her at about 18.3, so if anything she's underweight) She exercises frequently, and has for-realsies borderline hyperthyroidism (Diagnosed by a doctor and everything!.) She's been instructed by said doctor to eat about 500 extra calories a day to make up for it, which she manages.She's actually gained 10 lbs in the last year and a half, mostly muscle weight due to me helping her with a workout routine and keeping her on schedule. Her family immigrated out of a post-warsaw pact nation, and came here. She loves being skinny, and also hates on the gigantic tubs of lard we have roaming about our beautiful planet. She's taken up amateur tier shitlording as well, though she's not jumped the goat, as it were.
The Problem
She says really dumb shit that she knows is incorrect, but continues to espouse, and it's always some sort of fatlogic corollary. It actually is really detrimental to her gains (muh gains!), to the point where it's been a struggle to get her to bulk up. As a preface, I'm certain she doesn't have an eating disorder, I think she just has a bird-sized stomach, and needs to accept that, so she can prioritize her nutrition better to magnify the impact of her workouts. I'm talking about the ridiculous inverse fatlogic, like these:
I can eat as much as I want and I'll never gain any weight.
(I eat nothing and never lose any weight.)
When I say "that's not how nutrition works." I get the typical fatty line "You don't know my body as well as I do." We're both humans, even if you're borderline hyperthyroid, you still undergo the same chemical processes as literally everyone else alive.
I eat soooo much every day!
(I don't eat very much.)
I've seen how much of your food ends up in the fridge. And it's always some excuse like "I wasn't very hungry today." or "My stomach's upset." To me it's always the inverse of "Today's my cheat day! every day" or "I skipped a meal (third breakfast) so I'm hungry." or "I worked out for 30 minutes, I deserve this double mocha latteccino with extra whipped cream, chocolate shell, and white chocolate shavings!"
Look at how much I'm eating! Proceeds to take home half of her normal sized portion in a clamshell
(Look at how little I'm eating! Three 'salads' smothered in ranch, ham cubelets, bleu cheese and oil.)
You ate 3/4 of a roll of sushi, where most respectable humans can slap down 2, and fatties can (and will, I've seen it happen) do 10.
"I just have good genetics, lol."
(I just have bad genetics, lol.)
I tell her repeatedly that, barring disease, genetics only account for +/- 15% of your total weight, and that diet makes up the bulk of the remainder. Her borderline disease is fairly borderline (she doesn't have to take medication for it, which sometimes makes me question if the prescribing doctor was a fatty trying to cover up her prejudice.)
The Theory
The fact that her family is old-world, and experienced crippling starvation within 3 generations (Thanks Stalin) probably magnifies things because her family probably used to give her shit for eating so little. None of her family are obeasts, but all three of them are 25+ BMI, thuroughly in the 'dadbod' range. I think that might have caused her to develop part of a persecution complex, but the larger issue lies below:
I think that, with the ongoing 'reclamation' of fatness from a disease to an "oppressed social class with cundishuns and guhnetiks," people who have no interest in preserving obesity or FatThink have been forced to swallow it and internalize the rhetoric. With everyone and their idiot marmalade mammoth cousin on Facebook plopping up "Reel Wimmin Hav Curvs" with their meat-flaps, I can see how thin folks who're forced to interact with fatties routinely would try to develop a mechanism by which they weren't constantly under attack for their low weight. I think this may be the exact case, because I hear people tell my friend to eat more, or to 'damn, eat a sandwich!' all the time, and it's infuriating to me, I can't imagine how it must have been to have grown up with that all her life.
The level of aggression of the 'body positive' movement towards anyone not fat is staggering, and it's propensity for ass-backwards logic is well known. Is it possible the reason she uses the inverse of the bullshit reasons that the fatties use is because they use them? When a fatty claims Fat Guhnetiks, and then tries to shame someone for being skinny, doesn't it make sense for someone to claim Thin Guhnetiks?
Discuss.
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[–] GenevieveJenkins 0 points 10 points 10 points (+10|-0) ago
I used to think like your friend. I was/am underweight (but currently gaining), and actually thought that I ate a lot of food. Then, 6 months ago I started counting calories. Turns out I was only getting 1000-1500 a day, so I wasn't eating nearly as much as I thought I was. I think if your friend was to start counting calories she'd come to the same conclusion.
[–] aynus 0 points 6 points 6 points (+6|-0) ago
I don't think this is something limited to her because of where she was born and raised. There have been studies showing that thin people overestimate their caloric intake while the overweight and obese underestimate their caloric intake. It's why calories in/calories out has been "debunked" and "doesn't work for everyone," - because people think they are consuming a certain amount, self-report to researchers who ask (rather than using a urine test like they've done on Secret Eaters), and it becomes a clusterfuck of misinformation due to honest lies.
[–] KADY66103 ago
Just make her watch a bunch of episodes of Supersized vrs. Superskinny. I am sure she will recognize herself in the people on the show.