LogFAQs > #979915871

No way do I expect to be the one to make any sense of this for everyone after over 100 posts now, but moreso to clarify for myself what is being said here... This is going in circles and everyone's arguing semantics.

• We aren't advocating an unhealthy lifestyle. This has been made very clear.
• We shouldn't call someone "fat" if they have excess fat, just as we shouldn't call someone who drinks alcohol excessively and irresponsibly an "alcoholic".
• Some see that restriction as walking on eggshells, and tiptoeing around the harmful words - or not acknowledging it at all - is enabling more of the same behavior because it ignores a problem (although one that is usually not for us to prescribe a solution to).
• Others insist that using those words is like kicking people when they're down which may also cause more of the same behavior due to psychological stress (100% true).

I feel like the back and forth here is just a result of both sides being right because there isn't one size that fits all. Generally we can all agree when someone is grossly overweight, but who are any of us to be labeling others or telling people how to live their lives? Some people need the tough love, others believe that's harmful or just not even our place. I, like TC (and I also greatly contributed to the first weight loss social topic), have also been overweight. I made the excuses and I felt the anxiety it caused me, but I found my way out of that hole with the right guidance and enough trial and error.

Weight loss advice is a perfect example of how not every approach works for everyone, and yet if you simplify it enough, it can seem to be that way. "Don't be lazy, just eat right and work out every day!" But that's a monumental task for some people who don't know how to muster the willpower to do so. I think one of the reasons it worked for me was that I spent years inching in the right direction until I finally found a guy on YouTube who made it all make sense to me. There's a saying, "when the student is ready the teacher will appear." Sometimes people need to try things their way and figure out what doesn't work on their own before they're ready to accept help, even subconsciously. But I digress.

TC's heart is in the right place of course, but I believe he's trying to make a very nuanced point to a pedantic group of cynics.