The article is saying that punishing kids for their bodies is a form of abuse, it’s saying that capitalism is not here to provide real “solutions” for “weight loss” (Diet Culture and Weight Loss Programs are a scam) and it’s saying that Fitness =/= Weight Loss. It’s also saying that we have developed a culture that equates healthiness with skinniness, which is just wrong. This culture is so pervasive that doctors will do nothing to identify whether your weight is tied to your lifestyle, genetics, some form of neurodivergent tendency, or whether it’s even causing health issues for you. BMI is the physician’s little trick they use to get out of doing the actual work of seeing if your weight is bad for you.

Measuring your “wellness” by the number on a scale is bad and not an accurate reflection of your health. My SO’s specific situation necessitates weight loss because it compounds her already preexisting health issues. Her efforts of being active and trying to eat better have not yielded the same results Ozempic has. The author points out that their fatness was not a result of a lack of activity either:

Football, baseball, basketball, soccer, golf. If you name it, I have likely played it—even if it was not coached by him. And as anyone in the US public school system knows, in elementary school, they kept us very active; from field days, to PE tests, to a daily required recess. But because of my various illnesses, and the harm I was experiencing by my doctors, my mom worried.

My SO was also very active growing up, she also played every sport under the sun, and throughout high school was a member of their volley ball team. She always struggled with her weight and body image. Meanwhile, as a contrast, I grew up hating activity. I wanted nothing more than to sit at my computer or in front of a game console. I, for my entire life, until I hit 30, weighed at most 150lbs. Ironically enough, I also struggled with my weight and body image issues.

I agree with what is being said in the article. We have a culture of shame that extends all the way down to kids when it comes to “health”. We have, as a culture, closely tied one’s physical size to their “healthiness”. This is all an extension of the capitalist ideology we all live under. Your socioeconomic situation is yours to improve, capitalist society provides you with endless opportunities to improve your socioeconomic condition, and thus, if you are not taking advantage of these opportunities, then you must like being poor or are to lazy to actually improve your life and yourself. The same can be said for your “Health” as well. You’re fat because you choose to be fat, and you are provided endless opportunities to improve your “Health” (read, get skinny/yoked). If you fail to improve your health or your wealth, you are a moral failure not just for yourself, but for your family as well.

These ideas are reinforced through all forms of media. Reality shows like “The Biggest Loser”, endless Men’s and Women’s magazines touting magical weight loss programs on the covers, TV and Movies placing the fat one at the center of all comic relief. Capitalist society doesn’t want to cleanly identify between the two forms of fatness, either. BMI is the PERFECT tool for maintaining this fuzzy definition. It only takes your height and weight into account, and nothing else. We know that depending on where fat is stored on your body, your risk factors for things like premature cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and death change. We know that your weight is mostly made up of muscle mass, and your BMI can be really fucked if you’ve been putting on a lot of muscle or are naturally more muscular. Furthermore, we also know that it’s much more important to avoid low activity than being fat. Your Ethnicity can play a factor in a high BMI as well.

But none of this is shouted from the mountain tops, or drilled into society, like weight loss is. Associating “High Weight” with “Unhealthy” and positioning “diet and exercise” as the only path forward keeps the dollars flowing. The real contradiction at play here is that your income is a larger predictor of your risk factors for premature cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and death than anything else. Your ability to afford both the time and the money to maintain regular healthy activity is limited by your income. It is more likely a person falls into the obese category as a result of their socioeconomic conditions. You’ll also have less access to medical care or seek medical care less often as a result of your poor economic conditions. Because of the mythos of capitalist society, you will not be provided with the information or tools to actually determine whether your size is a real issue or not, most doctors you see will dismiss any other issues you have so long as you are “over weight” or god forbid “obese”, and if your weight is causing health issues, you won’t be able to afford the treatment anyway.

When I was younger, and couldn’t seem to put on weight, I was told constantly that I was too skinny, that I should bulk up somehow. It fucked me up. It made me feel like there was something wrong with me. So, I don’t fault anyone who wants to have their body without shame. We should be ready to combat anyone deriving someone’s worth from their size.