Tag: health-well-being

Carrie Fisher takes down body-shamers in only 2 tweets.


For virtually four decades, the council has best known Carrie Fisher for her role as Princess Leia.

In that same span, she’s also been a best-selling novelist and memoirist and, simply generally, one of the most open and honest voices in all of Hollywood.

Please stop debating about whetherOR notaged well.unfortunately it hurts all3 of my feelings.My BODY hasnt aged as well as I have.Blow us Carrie Fisher (@ carrieffisher) December 29, 2015

Youth and beauty are not accomplishments, theyre the temporary happy by-products of hour and/ or DNA, ” she added.


In a recent interview, Fisher said she felt pressure to lose weight for the new film.

“They dont want to hire all of me only about three-quarters! Nothing changes: its an appearance-driven thing, ” she tells Good Housekeeping about feeling pressured to lose 35 pounds to reprise her role. “Im in a business where the only thing that matters is weight and appearance. That is so messed up. They might as well say get younger, because thats how easy it is.”

In some recently resurfaced promotional paintings from 1983 ‘s “Return of the Jedi, ” Fisher who had originally been asked to get down to 95 pounds for the role is considered splashing around in water. This despite the fact that the scene in which she wears this outfit happens to occur on a desert planet.( But why let details get in the way of sexualization, right ?)

Her male co-stars Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford haven’t received nearly as much criticism.

Men are allowed to age. Women, on the other hand not so much. While Hamill joined Fisher in undergoing a weight-loss regimen for the new movies, neither he nor Ford were given the same level of public criticism as Fisher.( Don’t read specific comments on any article about Fisher discussing her weight. Trust me .)

And shouldn’t that be what matters?

Read more: www.upworthy.com

What it’s like going to the doctor as a fat person.


I am visiting my family when my hearing cuts out.

Its scary to abruptly lose one of your senses. Everything voices muffled, like the people speaking around me are behind a closed door at the end of a long hallway, distant and unreachable. The pain in my ears is sharp.

I feel my breath shallow and accelerate, anxiety beating its hummingbird wings in my ribcage. First, because something is so clearly wrong. And second, because I will have to go to the doctor, and I am fat.

As I walk into the office, I steel myself for the charm offensive Ill need to wage.

As a fat person, my health is always suspect, and never more than when I step into an unknown doctors office.

The nurse and I chat away as she takes my vital signs, though I still strain to hear her. As we speak, she takes my blood pressure once, then frowns. She takes it again, then another seem. She excuses herself and comes back with another cuff, trying a third period. Nervous, I ask her what the problem is.

Im merely not get a good read, she says, adjusting the second cuff.

Is everything OK?

Its coming back great, but that cant be right. Overweight patients dont have good blood pressure.

Its a familiar moment that Ive come to dread. Even with her trusted equipment, even with the numbers clear as day in front of her, she cannot see that I am healthy. She foresees poor health, and anything better becomes invisible.

I have entrusted her with my health, and she cannot see it.

Eventually, the doctor enters. Both of my ears are infected, and Im prescribed antibiotics.

He gives me detailed instructions on how to use the eardrops and advises me to take all of the medication as prescribed. As the visit wraps up, I ask the doctor if the working group anything else I should do for aftercare.

You should lose some weight .

This moment is familiar, too. It leaves me disappointed and unsurprised. When I seek medical care, many providers only seem to see my weight. Whatever the diagnosis, weight loss is its prescribed therapy. I explain what I feed, how much I exercise, my history of low blood pressure, and general good health. It only rarely influences my course of treatment. Because the biggest predictor of my health, even in the eyes of professionals, is my dress size. I have proven myself an irresponsible proprietor of my own body. Every detail I provide is suspect.

And I am not alone. Many fat people find the doctors office which should be safe, confidential, and constructive is instead a home for shame and rejection .~ ATAGEND Health care providers congratulate fat people for their eating disorder, they tell patients they should lose weight if they want to be beautiful, and fat people are given lecturings on weight loss instead of receiving medical treatment.

Like all of us, health care providers can be products of a culture that teaches us to shame, omit, and be disgusted with fat people.

Often, it can show in their therapy of fat patients.

A growing body of research shows that physicians are less likely to show empathy for fat patients, making many unable to take in important diagnostic datum .~ ATAGEND Doctors are more likely to describe fat patients like me as awkward, unattractive , noncompliant even weak-willed and lazy. Because despite extraordinary training and expertise in medication, health care providers are products of a culture that dishonor and rejects fat people. And those notions notify important, sweeping health care policy decisions. When thin friends and family talk to me about my health, this is a part they almost never imagine: Getting basic health care, from regular check-ups to minor interventions, requires tenacious self-advocacy . Because in medical doctors office just like the rest of the world I am forced to defend my body at every turn just to get my basic needs fulfilled. Unlike other patients, I must prostrate myself, prove that I am worthy of treatment.

And thats stimulated possible by the style we all talk about being fat all of which muddieds our ability to measure health in more complex, precise ways. I think we utilize losing weight and getting healthy interchangeably. We reject fat people accounts of their own weight loss tries, opting instead expressed the belief that they simply havent tried hard enough, or dont know how.

When we talk about fatness as the merely real measure of health, we bypass many other pieces of the puzzle: nutrition, heart rate, blood pressure, sleep patterns, mental health, family histories. We dismiss precise, important measures of health, collapsing all that intricacy into the size of someones body, believing that to be the most accurate and trustworthy measure of a persons health. This is what happens to me. My health is disregarded, all because of how I look.

In order to get accurate diagnosings and real treatments to fat patients, well all need to examine our own thinking about fat people and health.

Changing the conversation around fat and health will take more run than that but its a place to start. Because as it stands, few of us are willing to believe that fat people could have health problems stemming from anything other than their fat bodies.

Read more: www.upworthy.com

Donald Trump’s major fat-shaming problem was on full display at the debate.


Another day, another group belittled by presidential candidate Donald Trump.

Women. People with disabilities. Muslims. Jewish people. Black people. Mexicans. Gay people. Prisoners of war. Transgender people.( Did I miss any ?)

There’s one group, though, that Trump has repeatedly, consistently taunted time and time again throughout his entire career, long before he got into politics and it’s one not sufficient people are talking about.

Trump has great disdain for fat* people. And it was on full showing during and immediately after the first presidential debate on Sept. 26, 2016.

* Note: I will use the term “fat” to describe people in this article. Unlike Trump’s usage, I am using “fat” as an adjective, not an insult .

Let’s break down the three fat-phobic things Trump promoted at( and soon after) the debate with some classic, cold, hard fact-checking.

Trump’s two pennies: After Hillary Clinton pointed out that Trump has called women “pigs, slob, and puppies, ” Trump resurrected and defended his offensive, decade-old remarks against Rosie O’Donnell, claiming “she deserves it, and nobody feels sorry for her.”

Fact-check: Calling O’Donnell a “slob” is a play right out of the Fat-Phobic’s Handbook of Fallacies. Although national societies pushes this narrative, the truth is that being fat does not mean a person is inherently lazy, unhygienic, incompetent, or any of the other negative stereotypes often ascribed to people with bigger bodies including being a so-called “slob.”

Trump’s two cents : In a mind-bogglingly random aside, Trump suggested in the course of the debate that “someone sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds” could have been the one who broke into the Democratic National Committee’s email server a not-so-subtle suggestion that any know-nothing, inept person could do so. Fact-check : Again, Trump perpetuated a apparently inconsequential but actually pretty dangerous connection between undesirable traits and having a body that happens to be fat.

“Trump didnt merely express the standard disgust for fat bodies, ” writer Lindy West penned in The Guardian. “He positioned fat people as hazards to national security. The implications are familiar, even if the context is outlandish: fat people are lazy, bedridden, unscrupulous, untrustworthy, antisocial, gluttonous( for secrets !) and worthless as anything but a punchline.”

West wasn’t the only one unimpressed. Former Republican rival and Trump supporter Rick Santorumwas seemingly just as perplexed as many of us watching at home 😛 TAGEND

Trump’s two cents : During the debate, Clinton said Trump allegedly once called former Miss Universe Alicia Machado “Miss Piggy.” He doubled-down on his attacks against Machado the following morning as though her weight would ever has become a legitimate reason to condemn her as a pageant win explaining in an interview with “Fox and Friends” that Machado had gained “a massive sum of weight” and it had become “a real problem.” Fact-check : In his follow-up interview, Trump didn’t even to continue efforts to deny that Machado’s weight had become an underlying issue for him. And that’s … an issue. Instead of using his platform to help change a sexist, fat-phobic industry standard, Trump allegedly threatened to take her crown away after she’d gained weight, and, astoundingly, invited reporters to cinema her exercising without telling her beforehand in order to reveal the public she was on a weight-loss regimen.

“It was very humiliating, ” Machado said years later of Trump’s treatment. “I felt really bad, like a lab rat.”

Of course , none of this is probably all that surprising to you even if you’re a Trump supporter. Voters have come to expect he’ll gush whatever’s on his intellect, for better or worse. If that entails saying something fat-phobic like bullying overweight people at his rallies, demanding Chris Christie stop eating Oreos, or body-shaming Diet Coke drinkers so be it.

But truly, this isn’t about Trump or whether his fat-phobic remarks will change the presidential race. It’s about how those statements hurt us everyone watching at home.

Fat-shaming is often overlooked, sometimes because it becomes so frequent and so subtle that we get used to it. But we shouldn’t.

Many of us have rallied together in defense of other groups women, Muslims, military families after Trump has insulted them, and rightly so. We should be doing the same right now for fat people.

Again, it bears repeating: “Fat” should not be an insult. It is an adjective. The problem isn’t simply that Donald Trump is calling people fat it’s that he utilizes “fat” as a catch-all term that connotes a whole host of other negative, undesirable qualities.

The prevalence of fat-phobia continues to promote real-world discrimination, and comments like Trump’s only add fuel to the fire.

Fat-phobic biases by medical professionals entails fat people are more likely to receive poor health care services. Being fat means you look more guilty in jurors’ eyes. If you’re fat, you’re more likely to be seen as unhealthy despite the fact you can’t actually tell much about a person’s health simply by looking at their waistline. And because workplace discrimination is a thing, fat girls are more likely to get smaller paychecks than their skinnier counterparts.( Isn’t it fun when sexism and fat-phobia collide ?)

To be clear, Trump’s surely not the only politician who’s built fat-phobic statements although perhaps he’s the worst offender? and expecting him to change his tune before Nov. 8 is unlikely.

I’m not holding my breath, hoping Trump transforms into a body-positivity champion but I am hoping his fat-shaming will spur some backlash from all of us and the route we treat fat people as a society.

I’m hoping Trump’s blunt , non-P.C. style will actually shed a light on how hurtful, ignorant, and dangerous this “tell it like it is” mentality can be when it comes to fat-shaming.

When reality TV show hosts attain fat-phobic statements, it’s a number of problems but when those statements are coming from someone who wants to be the leader of the free world, it’s an utterly unacceptable prove of contempt and discrimination.

Read more: www.upworthy.com

Fining fat people unless they exercise is a bad, offensive idea. Here are 10 reasons why.


“What’s the key to tackling obesity? Fine fat people if they don’t exercising, tell experts, ” wailed a headline in The Daily Mail on Tuesday.

“FINE fat people if they don’t exercising, ” is actually what it told. With “FINE” in all caps. When The Daily Mail shouts, you better believe it yells.

But, um. Fine people for being fat? Like, charge them actual fund? Seriously? This is a thing? Why?

The righteous declaration was based on the results of a single analyse recently published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, which looked at 281 people who had BMIs over 27( around 27 is considered “overweight” on the Body Mass Index scale, although the actual usefulness of BMI as a measure of how fat or not fat someone is has been a source of much dispute ). The researchers rewarded people in one group with $1.40 per day if they met a situated aim of 7, 000 steps. They gave people in the other group $42 up front, but docked them $1.40 per day if they didn’t meet the goal.

Sure enough, the people of the working group that was being fined fulfilled their step aim more frequently.

As a fat person who likes maintaining all my fund as opposed to forking an arbitrary percentage of it over to judgmental scientists, this didn’t genuinely sit right with me. So I did some digging to prove this idea is, in fact, as ridiculous as it seems .

Spoiler alert: It didn’t take much digging.

1. The whole premise of such studies rests on a really shaky assumption.

A money fan. Photo by Steven Depolo/ Flickr.

Researchers tested their monetary loss/ reward hypothesis specifically on fat people. And it’s not astounding it worked! I t’s pretty well-established in psychological research that people are typically more motivated by fear of loss than potential of reward. And, fat people are, of course, people .

The problem is that this particular experimental setup assumes that “obesity” is the opposite of exercise. Which is a bit like saying that going to a French eatery is the opposite of going to a Mexican eatery, or that kayaking is the opposite snorkeling, or that watching “The Bachelor” is the opposite of reaching yourself repeatedly in the head with a small hammer. The the situation is kinda-sorta related, but actually not immediately opposed. You can do/ be both!

It’s hard to blame the experts for framing such studies that style. The assumption t hat fat people are people who don’t exercising and that people who exercising aren’t fat is super-double-plus-infinity ingrained in our culture.

But that’s not actually true.

2. Exerting doesnt inevitably induce people lose weight.

“With obesity levels reaching epidemic proportions. Global experts in the field concentrate on one aim reversing the trend. Key to the combat is encouraging people who are overweight or obese to exercise more.” That’s how The Daily Mail frames the study. Exercise more, shed pounds.

To that I tell: This is Prince Fielder.

Prince Fielder. Photo by Ronald Martinez/ Getty Images.

He’s a professional baseball player. Not only any professional baseball player a really, really good professional baseball player. One of the best, even. In order to be such a good baseball player, he has to exercising virtually every second of every day. He’s constantly in the gym. He runs gale sprints after batting practice. He has to do that high knee thing.

If exerting reliably induced people skinny, Prince Fielder’s torso would look more like Trey Songz’s torso.

Trey Songz x 2= Prince Fielder. Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/ Getty Images.

But he doesn’t. He’s fat. Which is not surprising! And not a bad thing! Lots of researchers believe that exercise has little to nothing to do with weight loss.

“A lot of people probably think I’m not athletic or don’t even try to work out or whatever, but I do, ” Fielder told ESPN in 2014. “Just because you’re big doesn’t mean you can’t be an athlete. And only because you work out doesn’t mean you’re going to have a 12 -pack.”

“OK, ” you’re probably yelling at your screen, “But that’s only one guy! I am a casually professional statistician, and that is what we in the stats biz like to call an ‘outlier.’ Little statistics jargon for ya. Like what I did there? ”

To which I tell: Fine. Exhibit B, suckers.

Take a gander at Cecil Fielder.

Photo by Jed Jacobsohn/ Getty Images.

Back in the ‘9 0s, he was one of the best baseball players alive. He hit over 300 home run in his career, including 51 in 1990. He can probably lift three of you. And he was also fat.

He also happens to bePrince Fielder’s dad.

What are the odds? Two men in the same family a parent and son! both athletes who, when at the top of their game, were better than basically any of their peers, who also happen to both be fat.

It’s almost as if how fat you are has a lot more to do with your genes( and environmental factors) than with the fact that you’re a lazy hobo who only absence willpower and doesn’t deserve respect or even love.

3. You can be fat and in good shape.

The premise of the study presumes the need to force fat people to do more physical activity. But not only is it wholly possible to be fat and not in bad shape, it’s possible to be fat and actively in good shape . Really good shape, even.

Like Mirna Valerio.

( That takes run! You try that shit ). Fat people who could beat you in any tournament of physical ascendancy known to man while still being undeniably, incontrovertibly fat.

Also, remember Richard Simmons?

Photo by Stephen Shugerman/ Getty Images.

He was in amazing shape. Dude was in such good shape he got paid millions of dollars to yell at other people to get in shape. And he was kind of fat.

( Side note: Remember when the mere fact of Richard Simmons’ existence was a joke that people would laugh at? Just “Richard Simmons! ” That was the whole joke. That was all the work you needed to do. Because he was sorta fat and seemed lesbians? People 25 years ago were so dark !)

4. Whos going to enforce this fat person penalty and how?

Sir, please step out of the vehicle. I need to jiggle your belly. Photo by Lennart Preiss/ Getty Images.

OK, so let’s tell we take the conclusion of such studies at face value and “were starting” fining fat people. Who serves the fat people penalties in this scenario anyway? Physicians? Personal trainers? Will cops start pulling fat people over on the street? What if a fat person is driving a auto instead of jogging? That’s not physical activity! Can you be pulled over for driving while fat? What if the fat person is riding a Segway? A fat person on a Segway! Is that exercising? Are enough muscles engaged? Some poor nation legislator will have to miss his daughter’s T-ball game to stay late at the office that are intended to game out the precise policy and legal status of a fat person riding a Segway.

It would be chaos! Bureaucracy will explode! Your taxes will go up!

But I’ll give the paper the benefit of the doubt. The Daily Mail is published in the U.K ., and the laws are different over there. Perhaps they’ve figured out a simple way to go about this. Well only bobby the carriage on the loo! the Nottingham North MP might be saying right now.

And that’s great. Perfect, even. Perfect British solution. Don’t understand it, but perhaps they know what they’re doing.

Next question, though:

5. Let’s back up even a little further. Who decides who is fat and eligible for a fine in the first place?

Your Aunt Caroline. Photo via iStock.

Is it your Aunt Caroline? Because it doesn’t matter how skinny you get, she still thinks you’re fat.( Except when you’re truly fat. Then she thinks you’ve lost weight .)

6. Is this another thing that’s for “our own good? ” ‘Cause lots of people like being fat and/ or genuinely dont give a shit about how much they weigh.

Barney Frank, patron saint of not devoting a shit. Photo by Win McNamee/ Getty Images.

Former congressman Barney Frank once quipped, “The day I die, I will either be fat or hungry.” It’s a sentiment that a lot of fat people relate to. Which makes a lot of sense, as life is finite and food is delicious! So even if you do care about how much other people weigh or how much you weigh, there’s a good chance that other people don’t and they genuinely aren’t all that interested in inane policy solutions to their non-problems .

7. And by the tell, that examined the Daily Mail was citing? It wasn’t as conclusive as the article builds it seem.

meet their aim on more of the days, but their average number of steps didn’t increase by a statistically significant sum over the required baseline.

You’ll also notice that participants weren’t genuinely “fined, ” per se. They were rewarded in advance and docked portions of their reward for not meeting the goal. Which is less like paying a fine, and more like … paying taxes. Which everyone loves to do and is no problem at all. Ever. Right?

8. Why does anyone care how much other people weigh?

Undoubtedly, there are many people in this world who are both fat and don’t exercising. You might think this is unjust. You might experience a upsurge of fury at this thought. You might have half a intellect to burst into the apartment where the fat and lazy people live( we all room together) and shove a container of celery down their throats. You’re just so mad!

It’s an interesting outlook, and it raises a critical question …

Why ?

Why do you give a shit?

Don’t you think it’s weird to care about what another human being weighs. I entail, when you think about it? Would you like to distract yourself from something? Are you bored? Do you need an activity? What about skiing? I ran skiing last February with my old boss, and it was actually pretty fun!

Of course, I’m fat and don’t exercising, so I was pretty much done after 90 minutes, but you’ll definitely do better.

9. Actually?

Just, like, genuinely? Penalty fat people? This is a serious suggestion?

GIF from “Saturday Night Live.”

10. How about we all only STFU about how much other people weigh.

Basically, the best style to get fat people to lose weight is to STFU and mind your own business. It may or may not actually have your desired effects, but it will help you not lose friendships and/ or get punched in the face by people who already know they are fat and don’t need you telling them that’s a bad thing( which is not only unbelievably vexing and rude, it actually does not work to induce people not fat anymore ).

In conclusion, regardless of whether or not they exercise, don’t fine fat people.

In special extra conclusion, here are some fine fat people:

Ooh, 2010 Chris Pratt , you’re fine! Photo by Frazer Harrison/ Getty Images.

Damn, Octavia Spencer ! Photo by Jason Merritt/ Getty Images.

William Howard Taft , you’re not especially fine, but you’re so fat all the presidents when you are stopped being even a little bit fat because why try? And that’s just so much respect right there. Photo by Hulton Archive/ Getty Images.

Rebel Wilson . Nice work! Photo by Eamonn M. McCormack/ Getty Images.

And of course …

Richard Simmons in the ‘9 0s . OG. Photo by Stephen Shugerman/ Getty Images.

Read more: www.upworthy.com

A weight-loss clinic used her photo without asking. So she called them up.


Meghan Tonjes awoke to an interesting Facebook message a few days ago.

It didn’t bringing the best news.

GIF via Meghan Tonjes/ YouTube.

The message was from one of Tonjes’ 237,000 subscribers on YouTube. She’s a popular vlogger, so getting a message from one of them isn’t that uncommon .

But this message was especially … interesting.

A subscriber asked her about an apparent photo of Tonjes being used as an ad at a weight-loss clinic in Georgia.

Yep, the photo was of her. And nope, it was not being used with her permission.

GIFs via Meghan Tonjes/ YouTube.

“I was in shock, ” Tonjes told Upworthy. “Shock soon became anger.”

The tale that accompanied Tonjes’ photo in the ad made matters worse . It claimed that Tonjes’ initials were “D.A.”( nope ), that her weight was 230 pounds( wrong again; she’s actually more like 270 ), and that she was a mother trying to shed fat after having a newborn( three ten-strikes you’re out ).

Here’s what it looked like 😛 TAGEND

“It’s such a misrepresentation of my weight and why I’m at that weight, ” Tonjes explained.

It’s not even that the clinic alluded to the fact Tonjes is fat. In fact, as a fat activist, “fat” is a label she wears proudly.

Tonjes is an outspoken advocate for loving yourself regardless of your shape or size and has been working to end delusions about what it means to be fat for years.

“I think it’s important to remember that the word ‘fat’ is not in itself hurtful, ” she explained in a video back in 2012 , noting she’s not offended by the label. “It’s all the things that you attach to the word ‘fat.’ Call me lazy, call me unmotivated, call me ugly, call me sloppy, call me unhygienic, call me all these other things that people associate with the word ‘fat’ that is not true.”

GIFs via Meghan Tonjes/ YouTube.

She’s onto something. Because while there’s no dearth of harmful stereotypes about being fat like that fat people are certainly unhealthy, that they must absence willpower, or that they’re surely desperate for dates the over-generalizations don’t hold up.( So before you think, “But isn’t Meghan encouraging people to live unhealthfully? ” nah , not at all .)

Tonjes was outraged because the clinic employed her photo to promote a technique of losing weight she surely would not endorse even if they had asked for permission.

“This business is selling a dream of meaningful or long-term weight loss through injections and special drops, ” she told Upworthy. “Now, I’m not a doctor, but … ”

Tonjes did what many of us would do she called the weight-loss clinic’s office and demanded answers. The doctor in charge was apparently on vacation, so Tonjes left a message with the receptionist.

GIFs via Meghan Tonjes/ YouTube.

I just wanted to let the doctor know that I hope that he had a good day off, and I will be contacting my lawyer, ” she says on the phone with the clinic in her video. ” Because that’s unbelievably illegal to use my face as advertising without pay and without notification.”

Although Tonjes threatened legal action in her video, she told Upworthy she believes the conversation around utilizing photos without a person’s permission especially to promote something that person might not support and that might not even be true is the most important thing right now.

“Be critical of businesses utilizing photos like this, ” she told. “Be critical of any business that sells you a dream of overnight change. Protect your brand and your work. “

“I merely want people, wherever they are with their bodies, were told that they are worthy of love and respect, ” she told. “There’s no magical weight or size where life magically starts, so start doing what you love now.”

So far, Tonjes said she has not been contacted directly by( let alone received an apology from) the clinic . Upworthy reached out to the business that used Tonjes’ photo for remark but had not heard back by the time of publishing. The article will be updated should the business answer .

Watch Tonjes’ video below:

Read more: www.upworthy.com

The link between cholesterol and sunshine is something that you should definitely test out.

Are you ready to feel even happier than you already did about bacon? Specifically, cholesterol ?

As happy as Chandler? If not happier? Step into the sunlight( literally) with me .

Let’s go outside!

Everyone with feelings knows that going outside stimulates you feel better. And science concurs!

Scientists have looked at people’s brains when they’re in nature you’re just gonna feel better!


Manmade surroundings lit up the anxiety and stress parts of the brain, and natural environments lit up the parts of the brain that enter into negotiations with stability, empathy, and love.

* pause for me to go outside right quick and do this *

… and we’re back .

You’ve been outside, though. You know how nice it is.

In addition to attaining you feel better in your soul, sunshine is scientifically proven to make you feel better … in your bones!

This is because your skin eats the sun.

This is the part where we talk about cholesterol. The cholesterol doesn’t have to come from bacon, but it could.

And let’s be real: It will .

Some of that cholesterol you eat goes into your skin for storage.

Weird! But here’s the cool part.

The sun converts the cholesterol stored in your skin into a form of vitamin D. This helps your body absorb calcium .

Yep, your body is like a hypercolor T-shirt. Put it in the sunshine* and it becomes even better!

* In moderation, dude .

We expend so much money on things to make us feel better around $ 60 BILLION on weight loss. 60 billion !

And the humble folks at Harvard are reporting that vitamin D inadequacies are shockingly common in the United States.

But … hello!

Outside!

Let’s spend some time out there.

The sun is free!


And* that’s* something to be happy about .


Take the next three minutes learning more about the outdoors here … or just go outside!

Bye! I’m going outside now.

Read more: www.upworthy.com

Melissa Harris-Perry has a great point about Oprah’s new weight loss ad.


Last week, Melissa Harris-Perry was “a bit distressed” by a new commercial boast Oprah Winfrey.

The MSNBC host responded to a recent TV ad Winfrey did for Weight Watchers after Winfrey bought a 10% stake in the weight-loss company last year.

While Harris-Perry was quick to note she surely wishes Winfrey a successful 2016 even if that entails achieving the goal of shedding a few cases pounds Harris-Perry took issue with one particular message within the ad, specifically, the component where Winfrey says that “inside every overweight girl is a woman she knows she can be.”

Im believing to myself but O, you are already precisely the woman so many are striving to be, ” Harris-Perry said during the open segment of her reveal.

GIFs via Melissa Harris-Perry on MSNBC.

Harris-Perry said she surely understands why many woman, especially those in the spotlight, struggle with body issues because she’s been there, too.

“I know that your struggle with weight has been long and often personally painful, ” Harris-Perry said in her open letter to Winfrey. “And having spent my 30 s gaining and losing a few cases dress sizes more than few hours, I get it.”

But still …

GIFs via Melissa Harris-Perry on MSNBC.

As Harris-Perry pointed out, none of Winfrey’s many achievements have anything to do with her weight.

The whole segment is definitely worth watching below, but here’s an especially powerful snippet( emphasis added ):

“From surviving childhood poverty and sexual abuse, you have become one of the most influential humen on countries around the world. You have Emmys and awards and honors almost too numerous to count. You not only are the first and only black American woman to make the Forbes’ billionaire list, you consistently rank among the most generous philanthropists in the world. Sister, you induced the wealth, and you share it like no other black girl ever has. With a nod, you can generate a best-seller, launch a career, even help elect a president…

Who you are, what you have accomplished, how you have influenced and altered the world is all so much more important than your dress sizing. There is not one thing that you have done that would have been more extraordinary if youd done it with a 25 -inch waist.”

Harris-Perry is on to something. Because not only should someone’s sizing be irrelevant to their self-worth, it’s not even inevitably relevant to their physical health.

Don’t take my word for it, though listen to Linda Bacon, Ph.D. She’s a researcher and author of the new book, “Body Respect, ” and well-versed in weight-regulation science.

Bacon told Upworthy that, despite a lot of commonly held notions, you can’t tell much about an individual’s health simply by looking at their waistline.

“Even the heavily entrenched notion that heavier people feed more than thinner people isnt been endorsed by data, ” Bacon explained.

The host’s daughter shares the same birthday as Winfrey, and that entails the new Weight Watchers ad hit especially close to home.

“I regularly remind[ my daughter] that sharing a birthday with you entails shes especially obligated to strive toward greatness, ” she said. “And I fret as a mommy, and as a woman, about the messages our daughters receive if they guess a woman as phenomenal as you is still not enough unless she is thin.

GIFs via Melissa Harris-Perry on MSNBC.

Bottom line? Your success and worth have nothing to do with a number on a scale. And that includes you, Oprah.

Check out the whole segment below.

Read more: www.upworthy.com

The Side Of Extreme Weight Loss Rarely Seen

Matt had lap-band surgery in 2009 at age 16.

Here’s Matt at 16 years old and 497 pounds, versus today after his surgery at 22 years old and 220 pounds.

Through the course of his weight-loss journey, Matt became passionate about promoting body positivity for people of all shapes and sizes.

To stay motivated, he started sharing his journey on social media, posting before-and-after photos, answering questions and giving support to followers, and even sharing his snacks and favorite workouts. Six years later, Matt is down over 270 pounds and is a very active voice in the online body-positivity movement.

But in all his years of sharing his narrative, the one thing he’s never done is shown what his body looks like after 200+ pounds of weight loss. So he decided to upload a video to his Tumblr and demonstrate his adherents his true ego.

Shortly after he posted the video online, it quickly went viral on Tumblr, garnering thousands of shares and remarks from people around the web. I was one of the thousands touched by the video, so I reached out to Matt to find out more about what motivated him and what he hopes others can take away from his narrative. Here’s what he had to say 😛 TAGEND

Why was it so important for you to post this video?

“I’m a really big advocate for self-love and body positivity. I think it’s important that we learn to love the bodies we’re in, even if we don’t inevitably like every little thing about them. However, in the time I’d been writing and talking about it, I’d never actually demonstrated my excess scalp to anyone. It felt dishonest somehow, to others and to myself. I couldn’t tell others that I wanted them to love themselves and preserve myself hidden away and ashamed of my skin .”

“I know what it feels like to dislike your body, and to be depressed about it, and I never want anyone to feel that style again. So, if stimulating myself vulnerable can help person or persons, why not? ”
Matt Diaz

What’s the response been like? Anything especially unexpected?

“I think that putting any opinion on the Internet will garner a certain amount of negativity and cynicism, but I haven’t watched anything like that at all. I’ve read every remark and message since the video has gone up, literally thousands, and they’re all so thoughtful.

A actually surprising side-effect were the number of transgender people who’ve thanked me saying that they understood my fight, even though their body-related insecurity grew from different roots. I’d never even begun to[ suppose] of what that must be like, and the fact that my message could help even though my problems began somewhere else is really incredible .”

What advice or terms of encouragement do you have for someone who’s struggling to love their body?

“I know it’s difficult, especially when you’re starting out. I want you to remember that you are not their own problems, certain aspects of society are the problem. You’ll constantly be told that you’re too heavy or too tall to be attractive, or you’re not masculine or feminine enough, or that your skin isn’t the right tone or your hair isn’t the right colouring, and these people are always always always incorrect.

Luckily, we’re slowly starting to see these notions get phased out by modernity. Plus-sized, unretouched models are getting more attention in major brands, more attention is being put one across the alternative scene for high fashion, it’s becoming clear that these negative notions are not going to last, though it’s going to take a while .”

“Understand that to love yourself is to contest the negative things that were put into your head. Every smile, tattoo, bathing suit, and harvest top is a small revolution. Tell yourself you’re beautiful every day, and I promise you will be .”
Matt Diaz

Matt’s story is a personal one, but it’s one we can all learn from.

I suppose the most important thing to take away here is that self-love takes time and is different for everyone no matter what they definitely sounds like. It’s also worth noting that for Matt, losing weight was an important part of his journey, but that might not be the case for everyone. Even so, our society has such unbelievably high and unrealistic body criteria that even many of those who do work to lose weight end up feeling uncomfortable or being dishonor for not having “perfect bodies ” once they’ve lost weight.

There’s no such thing as a “perfect body ” because everyone is different , which is what stimulates us beautiful and great! I’m glad there are people like Matt in the world who are not only willing to share their stories but also to inspire others by showing that body confidence comes in all shapes and sizes, and that all individuals deserves to feel good about who they are. Here’s hoping Matt’s inspiring terms can help others begin to love and accept themselves , no matter where they’re at in their journey.

EDITED TO ADD: Matt has set up a GoFundMe to crowdfund his excess scalp removal surgery. If you’d like to donate, you can do so here !~ ATAGEND

For Further Reading:

Bariatric Surgery The Solution to Obesity The New Yorker

1-800-GET-THIN

Read more: www.upworthy.com