I highly recommend that if you are a fan of Camryn's, you pick up a copy of the September issue of MODE magazine, which has some incredibly lovely and sexy photos of her. She's very active in the fat-activist movement and is desirous of making a movie about the size-acceptance movement and fat-activists.
(NOTE: Camryn, if you see this, please write to me! I have been in the movement since 1992, am a supersize BBW, writer, and model, who has made two erotic videos and written BBW and FA fiction and size-acceptance articles. I'm currently working on a book to promote size-acceptance. I'd love to get involved with you film project and help in any way that I can. Bless you for what you've achieved for all of us! You are very loved!)
95% of the American population is not fat becasue they overeat, but because of genetics and too many years of yo-yo dieting. Oprah, through psychotherapy, a personal fitness trainer, and live-in low calorie chef, managed to finally lose the weight and keep it off. This is because she falls into that 5% of the populace who can sometimes be successful losing weight, as their weight was initially caused by massive overeating, and stemmed from what Oprah calls "emotional baggage." The now svelte Ms. Winfrey believes that since her "weight problem" was due to abuse she suffered as a child, that emotional problems are the true cause of EVERYONE's being fat. She has stated as much on her show. This misperception, fed to her millions of viewers as "truth," continues to make most fat Americans feel like they are failures and somehow lacking in willpower, or psychologically screwed up, because they can't understand: "If Oprah could do it, why can't I?"
Well, the answer is probably that you're an emotionally healthy person, genetically predisposed to be larger than model-thin, who has yo-yo dieted your weight far beyond what it might have been naturally, in a vain attempt to reach an arbitrarily standardized ideal of beauty. The trick is, not to lose weight, to remember that it is possible to be fit AND fat, to learn to love and accept yourself exactly as you are, and to be able to discern the truth, which is that fat can be beautiful! Just look at the women on this page! Look in the mirror! Love yourself, no matter what your size.
P.S. Though Oprah's catharsis has been harmful to fat people as a whole, I cannot help but praise her more recent efforts in "Remembering Spirit" which help us all and are beautifully done.
It is dieting that is truly unhealthy--causing gallstones in cases of extreme weight loss, and heart problems, which are not caused by being fat, but primarily from the loss of lean muscle tissue (i.e., heart muscle), which is the first thing to go when one goes on a diet. The fat dissolves last.
Further, statistics actually show (SEE Ernsberger again) that fat people actually live LONGER than their model-size counterparts. (The thinnest people die the soonest.) It has been proven healthiest to weigh approximately 25 to 35% more than the insurance charts say one should. Granted, I personally am larger than that,(400+ lbs.), but, again according to statistics, even being as heavy as I am will only shorten my lifespan by perhaps 6-9 MONTHS at the most (unless I'm foolish enough to go back to yo-yo dieting to destroy some more heart muscle!), and I'm still more likely to live longer than waif-like models.
It truly is healthier to remain at a high, stable weight than to fluctuate. It is possible to be fit AND fat. I was swimming 40-50 laps three times a day in South Africa!
By the way, there are NO diseases that only fat people get. We are far less likely, in fact, to get almost every form of cancer, with only one exception, and that is endometrial (and breast cancer, but only after the age of 50, below that, thin women are more likely to get it). There are dozens of other forms of cancer than we are LESS likely to get than slender people. We are also less likely than thin people to actually die from a heart attack, though we may have a slightly higher incidence of them.
Additionally, women whose weights are up where mine are, generally have lower cholesterol levels than anyone! Mine is 190, and has been for years. There is just so much MIS-information out there about how bad it is to be fat and most of it was disseminated by the weight loss industry in order to increase their sales (though it all began with insurance companies trying to find a way to charge their customers more back in the 1920's).
