Weight โLoss Industry’s Grip on Health: โคA Patient’s Two-Decade โคJourney Revealsโค Internalized Stigma
New York, โคNY – A personal essay detailingโค a decades-long struggle with weight, surgery, โand โขsocietal pressure โis sparking conversation about the complex relationship between health, weight, and theโค booming weight loss โฃindustry. The author, who wishes to remain anonymous, chronicles a journey marked by not just physical interventions,โฃ but a relentless barrage ofโฃ judgment andโค the insidious internalization of fatphobia.
The author’s โคexperience began with gastric stapling in the late 1990s, a procedure undertaken to alleviate pain caused byโค food becoming lodged โin the staples, necessitatingโ a pureed diet. However, the surgery didn’tโข deliver lasting health improvements, only weight โloss, โand restrictedโ their โdiet to โคfoods that wouldn’t cause discomfort – โlargely excluding fruitsโ and many vegetables due to acidity and fiber content. “Stomach stapling didn’t โขmake me โ’healthier;’ it only madeโ me thinner,” they write. The surgery alsoโ failed to provide a “cure.”
More than two decades later, in 2017, facing โa weightโ of nearly 390 pounds, โtheโฃ authorโ underwent a sleeve gastrectomy, acknowledging a surrender to whatโฃ they describe as the “diet industrial complex,” a “multibillion-dollar ecosystem” โขpredicated on the belief that fat bodies are inherently flawed. This pressureโค extended beyond medical settings,โค withโ the author recounting instances of public shaming โ-โฃ being mocked โfor eating a donut, told they were “killing themselves”โข in a foodโข court, and subjected to humiliatingโ requests on flights. They โขeven overheard negative โฃcomments in a language they understood, โขhighlighting the pervasive nature of the judgment.
The author points to the broader societal โcontext,โ notingโ that fat peopel are “consistently portrayed โin the media as lazy, undisciplined โor morallyโฃ flawed,” citing research demonstrating how these stereotypesโ impact healthcare and employment opportunities.This cultural narrative, they argue, infiltrates medicine, potentially โขleading to unconscious bias even among well-intentioned clinicians.
Currently, at age 44, the author is โtaking Wegovy, a GLP-1 โmedication initially approvedโ for Type 2 diabetes, now widely promoted for โweight loss. Having initiallyโข expressed a โgoal weight of 250โค pounds to their doctor, they have already reached 235 pounds after eightโข months, losing 50 โคpounds. Despite this progress, they express uncertainty about continuing the medication, feeling it โrepresents another intervention driven by societal stigma rather than genuine health concerns.
“Why do I take it? โคbecause sometimes it โคfeels easier to live with the physical andโข emotional side effects of medicalization than โฃwith โฃthe relentless judgmentโ ofโ others – and, most troubling of all for me, with my own internalized fatphobia,” the author โconfesses.
The essay concludes with a โpowerfulโฃ assertion: “Fat patientsโ aren’t blankโฃ slates โwaiting for salvation. We know โขtheโ statistics, the risks, the medicalโ language. What we also knowโข – often more thanโข our doctors – is โthe crushingโ weight of fatphobia โขdisguised as medical concern.”
Evergreen Context: Theโข weight loss market in the United States is aโข multi-billion dollar industry, estimated at over $94 billion inโฃ 2023 โฃ(Yahoo Finance). GLP-1 medications like Wegovy are increasingly popular, but their long-term effects and the ethical โฃimplicationsโฃ of theirโ widespread use are subjects of ongoing debate. The author’s story underscores the importance of addressing weight stigma and prioritizing patient โautonomy in healthcare.
