Preface: I am that Fat Activist on GLP-1s, but I am not the only one. It seems that Fat Activists abound who are also on them. The difference is I was a Fat Activist in the late 80’s and early 90’s when there was no social media. Today, women (are there Fat Activist men? I haven’t ever seen them) tell their stories of strength and power about being fat on TikTok and other social media platforms.
What happens when someone who has, many times, been a vocal advocate of the Fat Acceptance Movement and then chooses to take GLP-1s. Apparently, their reasons are many and they seem to shy away from using weight as a reason. See, I find that accurate. I did not go on Trulicity to lose weight and I didn’t continue on Mounjaro to continue losing weight. I went on a GLP-1 to save my life from all the medical issues my fat was causing. Losing weight was ancillary to my motive, so I understand their thinking about health first.
I have watched one or two of these kinds of videos that I share at the bottom of this post, but that was all I needed to see to get the gist of what is going on in the Fat Acceptance community, in particular when it comes to their taking GLP-1s.
The video at the bottom is from Nadya Nymph’s YouTube channel. I did not find what she said snarky at all, but simply highlighting what she sees as a contradiction and even cognitive dissonance those that are shifting from one viewpoint to another are displaying to the public.
I believe social media begs for judgement and harshness with tiny bits of validation. This is why I have closed all my social media apps (Facebook in 2016 and the others recently after not looking at them for years) except for YouTube; the cruelty and anger I saw among the posts hurt my heart. I have enough issues going on without adding misery to it.
All that said, I really liked what I said in a reply to Nadya’s video and wanted to share it with you all.
You see, I believe one can be a Fat Activist and take GLP-1s at the same time. Below, I demonstrate why I consider myself one of those people.
Here is my reply to the her video post, minimally edited for clarification:
Hi, Nadya! The algorithm thought I needed to see this, so here I am.
I was a Fat Activist in the late 1980s-early 90s and have been on GLP-1s for 3 years now. (Trulicity first for a year, now and still on Mounjaro x 2 years). I actually wrote a blog post called “Fat Activist on GLP-1s: An Oxymoron?” back in Feb. 2024. In the 80s, I was 30 years old and a healthy fat woman. At 35, I got diabetes and the list of fat-related illnesses just kept coming, all the way to 3 years ago having heart failure, severe kidney disease, a fatty liver, severe sleep apnea, and an inability to walk even 5 ft. without a walker, and many, many more fat-related issues. I weighed 405 lbs. at 5’1.” Wheelchairs and scooters were my only mobility back then.
Today, every illness I had is either gone or in remission and I regularly walk 10 miles a day… 6-7 miles each morning. I also go to the gym every other day. And the freaky part is I LOVE IT! In my wildest dreams I never thought I would love movement (I hate the term “exercise”).
Today, I weigh 124 lbs., a loss of 280+ lbs. and a massive gain of a life I never knew existed. I haven’t been this weight since elementary school; I am now 64 years old. Late last year, I jumped on a trampoline with 3 of my 5 grandbabies that I am now able to visit and interact with. Before, I needed 3 seats on a plane and they did not know me because I couldn’t get to them. Now, all 5 are my penpals and we laugh and play. I’m catching up on all those missing years when I lived in a bed.
Yes, fat people, myself included, are healthy!!!
Until we’re not.
All that said, I am still a Fat Activist in many ways. I fight hard for the rights of those with obesity and super obesity like I had. I have spoken with doctor’s organizations and a gob of office managers about making their medical offices fat-friendly. From large chairs without arms, tables that are on hydrolics, super-size gowns, wide exam tables, “hats” offered to women assumed to be over 200 lbs. so they don’t have to do a clean catch urine while standing up, and have even explained why fat folks need to have the right size speculum for a vaginal exam. (I am a retired midwife.) I tell every doctor/nurse/nurse’s aid/anyone who comes at me with a Blood Pressure cuff to NOT take it on my, or anyone who might be even slightly larger’s, upper arm, but on the lower arm. If they refuse, I refuse the BP. I do not have the fat I used to have, but I have huge drapes of skin that also get pinched in BP cuffs. Those things are torture!
Refusing any procedure is entirely our right to do, including getting weighed. I encourage people who don’t want to know their weight, but want their provider to, to get weighed backwards, commanding the nursie person to keep her mouth shut and put the number on the paper only. My own Endocrinologist had a scale that only went up to 300 lbs. I nearly had a coronary and insisted they get one up to 500 lbs. They got it.
I don’t care how big a person is or how much society thinks we need to be shamed into “close your mouths and move your asses.” Obesity is a documented disease and these GLP-1s help to balance the conglomeration of cells that can, and do, give us fat-related illnesses that come along when one gets older. Fat folks deserve dignity and kindness. I am sick of people’s attitudes towards us and will do everything in my power to speak up, especially when others do not feel they can.
This same attiude goes for GLP-1s, too. I scream about it from the rooftops that I am on Mounjaro. “How did you lose weight?” people ask and I say, “A whole lot of hard-ass work and Mounjaro.” Those that don’t want to tell others about their taking GLP-1s is not a problem in the least. No one walks around sharing that they are on antidepressants or Viagra. Why should we have to disclose our private medical information? Even if people are taking them “just” for losing weight. As far as I’m concerned, they are heading off the future of illnesses and hurrah for them! To protect those who are quiet, I will stand in front and work to change the attitudes and snotty looks. Maybe someday those who come after me will not feel the same societal shame. In 50 years, folks are going to be astonished and horrified at how we fat people were treated in the 2020s. I won’t live to see that day, but I will sure as f*ck work hard for it.
I guess I really did need to find your channel!
Thank you for the platform. I know it’s a long rant, but one I stand behind.
Beautifully said, Barb! I always appreciate your writing so much.
I am very mildly obese, being 50 pounds over what they say my ideal weight is, though I would want to be 10 pounds heavier. I got shamed at the Dr last year for refusing a weight. Not only did I not want to know, I didn’t want anyone else to know eithér! Not only did the nurse harass me
in person, she also did on the note, which I noticed later when I read it at home. The
audacity! At a retired nurse, I know I don’t need a weight unless I’m getting a prescription that
requires it be dosed according to weight and it was my right to decline.
I have struggled with my eating and weight so much during my life, but especially since being fully in menopause. I went on compounded Semaglutide (thru Mochi, what a fiasco!) for two months and experienced horrible heartburn once my dose increased the second month. And, I only lost THREE pounds, have you ever heard of that? I wonder if Tirzepatide (compounded Mounjaro or Zepbound) would be the same? It’s so expensive but I’m thinking of trying it.
Hi, Pam! Thanks so much for your kind words about my writing. I do seem to have words flowing fast and wild sometimes (like this reply to the YouTube video!).
It sucks SO bad to be fat-shamed by medical people. I have had that first-hand on several occasions. The worst was a GI doctor (not mine) who stood with her hand on the door, looked back at me and said, “You will *never* find a doctor that will take your gallbladder out at *that* weight.” Then she walked out. Mind you, I am a REALLY loud self-advocate, but I stood there stunned and cried for a few minutes before I walked out and into the Office Manager’s office and told her what happened. No clue if anything ever happened with it, but damn, that still stings 10 years later. As an aside, I *did* find a doctor to do it. I met him on rounds when I was in the hospital, yet again, for gallbladder pain. He asked, “Why haven’t you gotten this out yet?” I told him what the other (skinny) female doctor said 3 years earlier and he snorted. He said he does bariatric surgery and would be glad to take my gallbladder out. I wept with relief and told him I had wondered if I was the fattest person on earth that ever needed her gallbladder out. He was so, so kind and said in a gentle tone, “Hardly.”
Pam, regarding compounded anything, it is pretty much dried up. Tirzepatide can barely be found anywhere and the states are zooming to stop any and all GLP-1 pharmacies.
But yes, semaglutide has a lot more side effects than tirzepatide does. Tirzepatide does work a lot better. But there is always the reminder that 15% of those who try the GLP-1s of today are non-responders. They will have to wait for the new generations of meds to come out. Not much help, I know. I wish I had an answer for you. Many hugs.
Hey Barb, I just found your blog and love it already. Ten thumbs up. Gonna poke around and read more.
Well. thank you, Ms. Elizabeth! 10 thumbs up made me think of the 6-finger’d man in The Princess Bride… and I laughed! I encourage you to wander to my YouTube channel, too. You might enjoy my weirdness there, too.
I am so glad you are here!!