New York’s Fat Beach Day gives plus-size people a space to be themselves

Is normalizing obesity really a good thing?

No, but neither is body shaming, and fat people get a lot of that at a beach.
- Yup. They just want a single day to enjoy the beach and feel safe and not be judged.
  The internet loses its damned mind
- I don't really want to get into it, but, we have campaigns that actively target people who smoke and/or drink. Two other things that people can indulge in that can and will eventually lead to negative health effects and kill you, much like overeating will.
- I'm not porposing or defending any approach here, where do you draw the line between the decision to address the underlying issues and catering to creating isolated environments to shelter the marginalized groups, tho?
  I get that taking a breather in a safe environment to help with self-esteem and love is critical so as not to sink below that threshold of constantly feeling overwhelmed that is different for everyone, and I'm in no way seeing a one-day thing as anything else, but as public coordination events, how do you draw the line between the two I mentioned above? First example of going beyond giving breathing room to making a segregation comes to mind as the "pink buses" in which only women are allowed to be feel safe from men that some right-wing politicians bring up from time to time as a similar topic on addressing the cause vs treating the symptom or even causing different problems under such intention.
For the afflicted? No.
For us as a species? No.
For capitalism? God yes.
Thin people consume the least. Once we stop growing we stop needing new clothes. Obesity changes this. Clothes wear out faster, you need new sizes. Obesity leads to depressive states where people buy more to feel better. Speaking of more: eat more! Have some sweets to feel better!
Be bold. Be beautiful. Be you (for us!)
Clothing stores and food chains done with you? Guess you are broken now...
Welcome to the medical system you will now need to rely on to function and stay alive! Till death do we part.
Obesity is an epidemic and it's too profitable to actually do anything about. They don't care about you, your feelings, or your health. You are literally livestock to these corporations that you think are caudling you and your way of life. This is a wake up call.
Obesity is difficult to conquer. It requires change and persistence. It requires support. Not everyone can achieve a 'healthy ideal' but everyone can do better.
NO
I have a family member with Hashimoto’s disease. Hormone treatment, regular exercise, and a healthy diet keep her as healthy as she can be, but still very obese.
Some people have no control over their weight. Is it fair that they are criticized for having a medical issue? Are you going to ask someone why they’re overweight before judging them?
- Does Hashimoto's disease actually cause obesity? Feels like a lot of people blame thyroid diseases for issues that are actually mostly under their control.
  In the grand scheme of things, weight is a physics problem. I seriously doubt that outside of extreme cases that someone would be obese solely from hyperthyroidism.
- You're right there are so many things that are not in control and it's not easy. It might not just be a thyroid issue that is causing it, but it doesn't help matters any. Many people have hashimoto's and are thin.
If only fat people KNEW they were fat!! We have to fuck with them. If they could just realize they're fat and hideous, then they would all be skinny!
Man, if feeling like shit that you're fat was a solution to being fat, there would be no fat people.
I have a friend whose a professional trainer. Mostly for people trying to lose a fair amount of weight. She says the biggest problem is getting clients to care about themselves and love their body enough to work on feeling better and making progress. She is entirely against fat shaming. It's only bad for everyone.
Yes it is, because quite a few people are obese, and they deserve to feel normal too.
- They are nearly normal already but that's just a measure of how many people are obese.

People in this comment section being shining examples of why some fat people would feel uncomfortable at the beach.

Too many of them think protecting these folks from bullying and harassment on one beach for one day is some kind of threat to civilization. Typical moral panic.
- Too many of them think that you can bully a fat person into losing weight.
- Fat-shaming is definitely an issue across the political spectrum, unfortunately.
This users left Reddit but Reddit never left the users.
The Venn diagram between people commenting here and people going to beaches is probably just two circles not touching at all.

Pride is for people who were routinely ostracized, beaten, disowned, and murdered because they were different in a way they couldn't change.

Being overweight is something you can change.

Being fat has always been accepted. It's just not celebrated, because it's not healthy, indicates that you don't take care of your body, and/or you don't have control over your eating habits. There are rare circumstances when weight is influenced by a medical condition, but generally it's people eating too much and not moving enough. Being fat is looked down on the same way as being un-showered, wearing dirty torn clothes, or smelling bad. It's not the person, but the way this person presents themselves, and it can be changed. It's like if a guy wears offensive slogan t-shirts every day, and gets upset when people aren't especially nice to him. It's your own doing, my guy.

Were you kicked out of your family because you're fat? Were you fired from your job because you were fat? Were you denied healthcare because you were fat? When was the last time someone targeted fat people for a mass shooting?

Fat acceptance is just an attempt at finding victim hood within habitual self-flagellation.

But also, I've never fat shamed anyone, I've never picked on someone because of their weight, or "judged" them. People who do that are assholes. I'm just upset that pride is being routinely co-opted by other movements like furries, fat acceptance, and all this other nonsense that, again, nobody was ever actually hurt over. I'm sorry you feel judged at the beach, but gay people are routinely murdered because they're gay and pride is a protest.

There are rare circumstances when weight is influenced by a medical condition, but generally it's people eating too much and not moving enough.
Do you have any idea how many medical conditions keep people from not moving enough (thereby causing people to eat more calories than they need)? It's NOT rare. Hell, lower back pain is one of the most common reasons people go to the doctor, and guess what's a lot harder to do when your back is screwed up? Exercise.
I am a bicyclist. I love riding. I ride any chance I get. I also currently have chronic problems in my upper, middle and lower back, including a herniated disc in my low back, and it's aggravated by bicycling more than anything else. I've been seeing doctors for 20 years for my back problems, since I was a teenager. I had back problems when I was a size 2, and I have back problems as a size 12.
People will probably want to respond to my comment by saying that diet is a bigger factor in losing weight than exercise, or that people should adapt and find other ways to be active if they can. What I am saying is that weight, medical conditions, and eating more calories than a person can burn -- they're all connected and it's a very common problem.
- Not being extremely mobile or having chronic pain does not require you to eat more calories than you burn. I have a torn disc and take nerve meds so I obviously don't lift weights or run like I used to, but Im allowed to moderate my calorie intake.
  Age and a slowing metabolism are more pernicious, but even those things don't "force you to eat more calories than you need". Nothing is forcing anybody to do that.
- Just because something is harder to do, doesn't mean not doing it is okay. Overeating when overweight is abuse, full stop.
  There are people that have a harder time quitting smoking, there are people that struggle not to cut themselves.
  Nobody should look at an 8 year old with a cigarette and say "it's probably just genetic." Nobody should look at a junkie passed out in an alley and say "yasss, they're just living their truth!" Nobody should be incensed when they go a hospital complaining about abdominal pain and the doctor recommends they remove a piece of rebar they fell on.
- But I never brought up the idea that people are being forced to eat more calories; you did.
  I explained how medical conditions, health, and mobility are intertwined with calorie intake and expenditure and that it's a common problem.
- Have you tried recumbent bicycles? they are a lot easier on my lower back, and there are some real fun designs out there like trikes that could make bicycling a reality again. Or swimming, when I hurt my knees and couldn't run/bicycle without pain, I started swimming laps, and holy cow is that a lot of exercise if you're not used to it.
  Additionally, refined sugar is addictive. I know my previous comment might lead you to believe I have no sympathy for wider folks, but I truly do. I've lost 100lbs over a year once. I gain back when I go through periods of depression, and then I force myself to lose weight again. Over last holiday season I was separated from my family and spent it entirely alone. I gained about 25-30 lbs. Since then, I've restricted my calorie intake to around 1200-1500 calories a day, with around an hour of exercise also each day. I've lost ~25 lbs since starting that in March. I know how hard losing weight can be. I'm also a (former) addict, so I know how hard quitting something that's ubiquitous throughout society can be (alcohol). But it can be done. Sugar is addictive just like alcohol is, which is why Jenny Craig modeled her fitness groups after AA.
  The problem is that losing weight is uncomfortable at first. You're hungry because your stomach is all stretched out, despite taking in enough calories for the day. It takes time for your stomach to shrink to the proper size, so for the first couple weeks, you'll be eating all your body needs, but it will feel like you're not. and it's uncomfortable. Weigh this discomfort against all the discomfort that being overweight has constantly provided, and decide which one you'd rather live through. The temporary discomfort of feeling hungry and not knowing what to do with your hands after you're done eating for the day (and only for the first couple weeks of dieting), or the constant discomfort all over your body and in your own mind, every day that you're overweight.
- You don't have to exercise to lose weight, you don't even have to drastically change your diet.
  Eat. Less.
  You can lose weight on a diet of pizza, donuts and laying on the couch if you simply eat less calories than you burn.
  You quite frankly sound like one of the many enablers that wants to make every excuse possible about why it's impossible to lose weight rather than taking responsibility for the countless poor eating decisions that lead to obesity. No one is born fat and no one wakes up fat, take responsibility.
It should be separate from pride, but on the "it's a choice" aspect: How is weight gain different from many mental afflictions? It's a mental issue that causes detrimental effects to your lifestyle.
- I agree with you, being someone who has fought with his weight my entire life. The excess calories are there to fill a need, with mechanisms similar to substance abuse or gambling addiction. "Just stop eating too much" can feel like an unachievable goal.
  Any weight loss of an obese person should be combined with psychiatric care, because if you don't identify WHY you are eating so much, you might just trade one addiction for another one.
You're gatekeeping the word pride, lol. Try just not being a dick.
- Whats wrong with being a dick? None of us would be here without dicks. Say no to dick shaming. Dick pride.

Weight is gained or lost in the kitchen.
Exercise has everything to do with health, and very little to do with weight.
They need cooking classes, and education around how to properly estimate calories.
- While true, exercise is very important. For example if you are sedentary then that visceral fat screwing up your pancreas is extra risky because you also build up insulin resistance.
  Even if they don't lose that much weight, it at least mitigates some of the risks increased by being overweight.
- They need cooking classes, and education around how to properly estimate calories.
  Nope. I count every calorie. I'm shooting for 2300 but struggle to hit that. I usually end up at 2600 or more. I cook 80% of my own food. I bake my own bread. I make my own snacks. I know exactly why I'm fat. I can't stop being hungry. I feel full around 800-900 calories, no matter what I'm eating. (pizza is an exception, because I feel full around 1200 calories, so I avoid it.)
  Imagine walking, chest deep, against a slow moving river, every second of the day. You can push against it and it works, but it's hard. One slip up and you're floating backwards. You know how to make progress, but it's takes a shit load of effort and one mistake and you just. Fucking. Can't. Today.
  Add that into everything else wrong with my life. I only have energy for so many things. I have to triage. Kids, wife, bills, personal happiness, other responsibilities. Can't do them all.
  Trust me, I hate myself with every bite, but it's the only way to shut up that hungry voice.
- Calories are burned through exercise though. Come on. You know how they're connected.
I'm not overweight but did you know that, as a country, we can do more than one thing at a time?
People who are overweight can't just suddenly start exercising it often causes severe injury.
- You can't outrun a bad diet.

I may be ignorant of this, but weren't plus-sized people already allowed on beaches? I've been to beaches along the Gulf of Mexico all of my life and have seen plenty of fat people there, and gone with my friends who are fat and never seemed to have any trouble.

It's not about being allowed or not. It's about creating an inclusive space for plus size people to comfortably sunbathe without being oggled and judged for their size, a privilege that others have more frequently.
- Great in theory, but fat people will always be oggled at and judged for their size. All this will do is make a big spectacle and draw attention to those who really just want to be left the fuck alone to live their lives.
- Again, correct me if I'm wrong, but that's the price that ANYONE pays going to the beach? Generally, you are wearing more revealing clothing, or more accentuates your body parts (wet swimsuits do not hide much). So everyone can be ogled, in fact in my experience from my youth having lots of teenage boy friends, the more slim or conventionally attractive people tend to be ogled much more than those who are not.

On second thought, I shan't got to the comments section. T'is a silly place.

Really putting that tolerant left on display lol
- oh look it's one of the three conservative jokes.
  Should probly identify as an attack helicopter that hates his wife, make this comment the trifecta of dumbfuck.
- This isn't even a "tolerance as a social contract" moment, because avoiding reading the comments section on a controversial topic is in no way intolerance anyways.

This actually makes me sick. People on average are fatter than they used to be AND THAT'S NOT A GOOD THING! Do people really want to let the corpos win by shoveling slop in our mouths without care to the effects on our health?

I get that it's hard to lose weight, and not feasible for everyone atm, but it's not something to celebrate.

Why does it necessarily have to be a celebration? Are quiet hours at shopping centers celebrating sensory disorders?
It's not about celebrating, even if some people will use it as such. It's about allowing different people the comfort to experience a thing that most of our society takes for granted.
I've never met a fat person who doesn't want to change their lifestyle. Sure, there are a few who claim that, but in my experience, that's a defense mechanism from all of the people who look down on them daily. Something like this is only a good thing, offering encouragement at no significant cost.
- I'm a larger person. I definitely want to lose weight and get in shape, but it's that hurdle of getting over your own self that's the hardest part for me.
  I know that once I get into a rhythm and habit, it'll be fine and I'll even like it at some point, but I can't really get myself to start, even though I know I need to.
  Also, I actually like that Walmart has the "sensitive" shopping hours.
- One of my close friends from college went deep down the fat acceptance rabbit hole shortly after college. I had to unfollow her on social media. She went from being a slightly overweight girl to a morbidly obese woman. She had a podcast she'd promote saying things like it's ok to eat cake for breakfast if you want it; weight is just a number and all kinds of asinine things.
  My weight has fluctuated over the years, but any time I'm putting on weight, I know it's unhealthy and I need to start going to the gym and eating better. Seeing her posts would drive me up the wall. She had one where she said something about how the gym is toxic, and you're just fine the way you are, and you can be healthy without exercising. She also was selling some plus size clothing pyramid scheme and claimed to be a model for the company. I don't think it was a defense mechanism, just another ridiculously bad side effect of echo chambers on social media.

John Stuart called it in 2004.

He styles his name as Jon Stewart, unless that's a picture of a book by the 17th century English philosopher John Stuart Mill.

The phase "My body my choice" springs to mind.

Is being fat unhealthy? yes. does it give you the right to decide what another person does with their body? no. "But the corporations are-" yes, I know. but it is entirely possible to campaign for better nutrition standards without treating fat people as subhuman.

I'm not telling anyone they have to force themselves to find fat people attractive or anything, but for gods sake they are still people. and what they do with their body is their business, not yours. That should not take away their right to be human.

I just wish we (as in I'm a trashy Americans) had the 100g (3.5oz) nutritional fact. Keeps the fucking bullshit "tic-tacs are sugar free" bullshit.
It's become an epidemic though, and IMO it's like saying do what you want with your body, do drugs if you want to. Then let corporation market drugs as they wish.
- The last part of your comment is a mystery to me. Where exactly did I imply the industry should be allowed to do whatever it wants?

We need to teach people, like in school, the basics of nutrition.

That will go a long way.

Sigh, way too much to unpack here

Why not have smoking days where smokers can smoke inside of restraunts? Why are we not inclusive of smokers?

Because second hand fat isn't a thing.
- It kinda is for the children of fat folk

C'mon 😹. Sorry about this.... 4 people rescued several people who apparently beached themselves. Fortunately they all survived and happily swam into the open ocean.

We should try socialism. Then we wouldn't have any fat people since there wouldn't be any fucking food for anyone. Am I doing this right?

Ah yes all the European countries are starving
- Compared to America, Europe might look socialist. I assure you it's not.

.

"I was going to vote for Democrats this year, but then I heard that one of the eight public beaches in New York City had one day a year for fat people and now I'm MAGA all the way!"
- Lol yeah idk what the hell they're on about.
Oh come on, stop it with this perpetual culture war.
You voting for beach days?
- Don't tell idaho, their bars will have a "Super awesome straight skinny guy beach days" every Saturday...