Trigger warning: Discussion of weight loss.
Body-positive shows starring fat people are far and few between, but amongst all the “New Year! New you!” crap there is one that might just be a welcome alternative to The Biggest Loser. Unfortunately, it’s airing on TLC, the channel of multiple births, over-the-top weddings and drama queens.
My Big Fat Fabulous Life follows YouTube sensation Whitney Thore. For those few people who haven’t seen her amazing videos, Whitney is a young woman who had dreams of becoming a famous dancer, but she rapidly gained a lot of weight in a year due to Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS).
PCOS is a metabolic disorder with many symptoms, the main ones being insulin resistance, excessive hair growth due to an increase of male hormones, rapid weight gain, infertility and irregular periods. It can be a very embarrassing and devastating disease for a lot of women because of the physical changes it does to your body, especially with weight gain. I have PCOS and contribute my weight gain over the years to it, which went undiagnosed until April of 2011.
Whitney went from thin to her current weight of 380 pounds. And with the weight gain came the cruel comments and years of depression. But instead of losing her self-esteem, Whitney decided to embrace her new size (for the moment, which I will explain below) and embark on a campaign of what she calls “No BS,” or no body shame.
She posted videos of herself dancing on YouTube and talking about the hate fat people get just for existing. It didn’t take long for Whitney’s videos to reach mainstream media, and TLC came calling to turn her life into a reality series, which premiered on January 13th. You can watch the first episode here.
My Big Fat Fabulous Life does feature Whitney’s attempt to lose weight so she can increase her fitness levels and go back to dancing, which she stopped due to her weight. (Sidenote: I also love to dance but I don’t have the best rhythm, and it can be difficult moving around over 300 pounds, but it is a lot of fun.)
But it also shows her meeting a guy she met online, talking about how hard it is to date while fat, and how she has supportive friends, loving parents (who are hilarious) and a doctor who has so far not fat-shamed her.
Time will tell where her weight loss quest will lead her, but at least she doesn’t have Jillian Michaels screaming at her. Well, not yet anyway.
Filed under: DT, DW, EX, FH, FN, MBL, Wishful Wednesday, WL
- Repost by dzzfashion.blogspot.com - From::http://fiercefatties.com/2015/01/21/a-big-fat-fabulous-new-show-on-tlc/
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