Anti-Fatness in Fitness
Takeaway Points:
Anti-fatness and the focus on weight loss does not need to be part of exercise, despite its prevalence in the [toxic] Fitness Industry.
Anti-fatness encourages dangerous practices and behaviors for people, especially when they are supported by anti-fat fitness professionals.
When you take away weight loss as a goal, exercise can focus on mobility/functionality, stamina, and strength, which improve quality of life. These can be practiced at any size, age, or ability.
(This post was contributed by our coach Meg Humphrey.)
Content Warning: anti-fatness, specific body weight talk, body discrimination, disorder eating, injury ideation, negligent medical professionals
What is Anti-Fatness?
In the simplest definition, anti-fatness is the hostile opposition of fat people or body fat in general. The term “fatphobia” is often used as well, but I have been trying not to use that word because a phobia is a diagnosable medical condition, and hating fat/fatness is something society has conditioned people to do in order to keep people scared, oppressed, and spending money.
What our bodies look like directly impacts the way other people and institutions treat us and which life experiences we get. Have you ever gained weight and suddenly lost friends or romantic partners, had people think you were lazy or stupid, or had people question your hygiene or the clothes you wear? Have you ever lost weight and been congratulated and praised, even though you hadn’t meant to or it was a result of a sickness or other painful experience? All of that is anti-fatness. It’s the idea that any amount of weight gain is a moral failure and any amount of weight loss (regardless of method) is desirable.
Many others have put in the time and effort to really unpack fat hate and why it’s a problem for everyone, and I’ve put together a very short, but beginner friendly guide at the end of the blog. Today I’m sharing specifically about my personal experience as a fat person and why anti-fatness needs to be taken out of fitness to make exercise more healthy and inclusive.
Why Anti-Fatness is Harmful in Fitness Spaces: My Abbreviated Personal Experience
I have always been a fat person. I’ve been a fat child, a fat teen, a fat adult. For the majority of my life, my weight didn’t mean anything to me because I could do what I wanted, had great friends, had my own passions. When I got to college and started to naturally lose weight due to walking a lot more across a big campus and eating a little less because I was very busy, I realized my weight was a barrier for other people because they started treating me better. More strangers would be friendly with me during class, I’d get asked on more dates, and I would get that sweet praise about “taking care of myself” and being inspirational. I wasn’t doing anything differently. I was still exactly myself, but instead of being 300 pounds, I was 260.
I was so hungry for that approval mostly because not only was it new, it was the kind of behavior I had seen my thinner friends get all my life. I started going to the gym and counting calories. I was moderate about it at first (taking my rest days and still eating until I felt satisfied), and the more weight I lost, the more nicely I’d be treated which only spurred me to lose more. Of course, the lighter you are, the harder it is to lose weight, so I had to keep getting more and more extreme in order to make the same losses.
I hit my limit when I was 26 (I’m currently 36, for reference). After college, I had worked with several different personal trainers and nutritionists with a huge range of different types of exercises and diets. Those professionals all acted the same in the end: as long as I was losing weight, it didn’t matter how much I was ruining my body and mental health. I was 200 pounds and eating less than 1100 calories a day. I was doing strenuous cardio 2 hours a day 5 days a week while also doing 5-6 hours of heavy strength training per week. What did all of that effort get me?
I was bulimic and anorexic. I was exhausted all the time and got injured during workouts often. I was slipping deeper and deeper into self loathing and depression. I would daydream about being in a terrible accident that would lead me to be hospitalized where I would be forced to lose weight while my injuries healed. “If only that would happen,” I thought, “and then I’ll be able to work hard to stay small.”
While all of this was happening, the trainers and nutritionists would tell me I was doing so great. That I was so disciplined. I was a success story - proof that it could be done. But when the numbers on the scale or tape measure weren’t moving “right,” they said that I could do better. That I could limit myself more. They knew I could do it if I just tried harder, and to see me fail when I was so close was disappointing.
As an adult, the lowest my weight had ever been was 175 pounds (wearing US size 14), which is still considered fat by the vast majority of the world. It’s been 10 years since I stopped trying to be thin, and I’m still not fully recovered. I have chronic sodium and vitamin deficiencies because my body can no longer process food properly to get the nutrients. I don’t get accurate hunger cues and skip meals when I get too stressed. I have recurring shoulder, knee, and ankle injuries because I wouldn’t rest or “take it easy” on myself. I can hardly look at calorie information without the urge to track it and keep forcing the numbers to be less and less and less.
What if any one of those professionals stopped me from pursuing weight loss and talked to me about fitness without focusing on my fat? What if everyone around me didn’t constantly praise how much smaller I had gotten? What if people saw fat people as deserving of respect and humanity, just like thin people?
I put myself through all of that, learned to hate myself, and permanently harmed my body to still be fat. It was not worth it, and I regret being so awful to myself to be more appealing to others. I tell everyone who condescendingly asks if I’m happy with my body that the happiest I’ve ever been was when I was 300 pounds. The times I’ve lived my life to the fullest have been when I wasn’t trying to shrink myself. That’s why I wanted to become a (still fat) personal trainer.
So What’s the Point of Exercise if Not Weight Loss?
Think about what you actually want to do. Do you want to play sports on a community team? Do you want to have better posture and mitigate the effects of sitting at a desk for the majority of the day? Do you want to be able to keep up with energetic kids? Do you want to not desperately groan every time you sit down or stand up? Move furniture around your home? Walk around a neighborhood art festival? Crush a watermelon or pumpkin with your thighs alone? What do you really want to be able to do with your body?
When you take away weight loss as a goal, you can focus on the core benefits of exercise: mobility/functionality, energy/stamina, and strength. It’s these aspects that make working out worthwhile because they will help allow you and your body to do the things you want to do with more ease, more often, and with less recovery needed.
Mobility and functionality focuses on things like your body’s range of motion, balance, and ability to do tasks. This includes anything from everyday tasks like getting up and down from various positions to very specific tasks in sports like how to swing a tennis racket to the best of your ability.
Exercise also helps maintain or build your energy levels and stamina. Obviously we know that people who run marathons, play sports, or powerlift need a lot of stamina. But it also takes a lot of energy to do chores around the house, partake in hobbies, run errands, or look after your pets. Even a few simple exercises that you can do seated at your desk can help clear a fuzzy brain due to the movement increasing blood flow which delivers more oxygen to your brain.
My favorite aspect of working out is building strength. I’ve always been strong and once I put effort into strength training, it was super rewarding. But even if you’re not trying to bench press your enemies, having strong muscles is really important, especially as you age. Building strength, especially around major movement points in the body like the shoulder and pelvic girdles, helps prevent injury, strengthens bones and joints, and supports that important mobility and functionality I mentioned.
Exercises that support these key outcomes can be tailored to any ability level. They can be scaled up for more intense workouts, as well as be modified for people who want or need to do gentler exercises. There are exercises that pinpoint certain muscle groups, so they can help strengthen weaker areas or allow you to avoid areas of your body that need to be left alone.
Once weight loss is out of the picture, you can really focus on why a person should be exercising. It also allows exercise to be accessible and welcoming to people who have had bad experiences with it before (like fat and disabled people). When workouts are tailored to someone’s specific quality of life goals, and not focused on shaming, negativity and all of the other toxic parts of the Fitness Industry, people are more likely to stick with it in the long run. That only leads to more exercise benefits and happier people, which should be the goal of every trainer and fitness professional.
Learn More About Anti-Fatness and Fat/Body Liberation:
The Body Liberation Project: How Understanding Racism and Diet Culture Helps Cultivate Joy and Build Collective Freedom by Chrissy King
Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness by Da’Shaun L. Harrison
“You Just Need to Lose Weight” and 19 Other Myths About Fat People by Aubrey Gordon
Fat Liberation Self-Study Guide (featuring videos, news articles, and more)
Adam’s Note
I’ve often wanted to tackle this topic over the years, but have felt like I don’t quite have the voice or experience to do it justice.
I love this piece, and I think it’s where Meg’s perspective as a coach and as an exerciser shines.
About Meg Humphrey
Meg Humphrey has a passion for learning about how to be comfortable and feel strong in your body. She aims to make fitness and movement accessible to everyone regardless of experience, body size, or ability.
Over the last 15 years, she has accumulated experience in various exercise modalities (including powerlifting, 5x5, CrossFit, kickboxing, yoga, spin, HIIT, and more), and has used this knowledge to help friends and family members craft their own routines. She leads with kindness, compassion, and patience to show that exercise and fitness can be for anyone in any body.
About Adam Fisher
Adam is an experienced fitness coach and blogger who's been blogging and coaching since 2012, and lifting since 2006. He's written for numerous major health publications, including Personal Trainer Development Center, T-Nation, Bodybuilding.com, Fitocracy, and Juggernaut Training Systems.
During that time he has coached hundreds of individuals of all levels of fitness, including competitive powerlifters and older exercisers regaining the strength to walk up a flight of stairs. His own training revolves around bodybuilding and powerlifting, in which he’s competed.
Adam writes about fitness, health, science, philosophy, personal finance, self-improvement, productivity, the good life, and everything else that interests him. When he's not writing or lifting, he's usually hanging out with his cats or feeding his video game addiction.
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