You Are Not Your Fat

You are not your fat. The same way you are not your hair colour, your height, or your digestive function. These are all physiological facts about you. Fact: fat is a physiological fact. We used to see it as a storage sight for excess energy, however recent research has added its role to include it as part of the endocrine system. That’s right - fat is considered a part of the hormonal network in our body that exerts influence over a range of functions in the body including hormone production, inflammation and immunity, blood pressure, appetite and satiety, glucose and fat metabolism, insulin resistant and more. So, while fat is way too busy over there exerting its effects on the body that affects our physical health, we are hanging out in the consumer-driven, media- and image-obsessed western culture corner, trying to find the perfect light for out Instagram photos to make sure our bums are not too big - or too big (I can’t keep up) or drinking way too much coffee to curb our appetite to lose weight for a bikini-ready body (last I heard…bikini + body = bikini body. The End.) Oh, I could go on.

The point is that fat has many roles to play, all of which come from eons ago, when food availability relied upon the seasons, hunting and gathering skills and nature in general. These mechanisms are in place to ensure survival when food is scarce, hence the efficiency of the body to store energy and override different functions so that we survive when there isn’t much food around. The body is especially efficient at storing fat if we have held excess weight in the past. We gain fat cells naturally during growth periods, including puberty, as well as when we need to store extra energy. They will grow in size and number if necessary, particularly for extra storage. Once we have them, they are with us for good, which helps to explain why it can sometimes feel like you can walk past a doughnut and put on weight. The body becomes efficient at storage, to stave off a potential energy crisis, also known as hunger.

That was then. Long before the Woolies across the road was open for 24 hours a day. Long before the kebab truck around the corner was calling my name until 3am in case I need an Halal Snack Pack at midnight. Long before food availability in our culture was taken for granted (of course there are people in western culture experiencing food insecurity but that is a different conversation we need to have). While we have evolved as a society to be able to access food pretty much whenever we want it, our bodies still respond to excess as though it had to prepare for famine all those millennia ago.

So, the body is an amazingly efficient machine, with the capacity to adapt to so many events. The point here is that fat has a job to do. Many, in fact. Its job, however, is not to determine your character. It is far too busy for that. We, as a culture, have decided that more fat or less fat or more here or less here or thigh gap (what the hell was that fad?) or cellulite or bingo wings or muffin tops……

….sorry, had to take a breath. Not only have we given names to these depositions of fat, we have decided that they make us a better or lesser person. Apparently fat people are lazy, stupid, ugly…..not my words. Collectively, our words, right? (We do it other ways, too. Dumb blonde, right? Dolly Parton wrote a song about the very topic - she is one sassy, classy lady I would a) love to meet and b) never want to cross.) It is time to stop with the labels, people! It’s bad enough that we are given these labels; what is worse is that we believe them.

It is time to work out ways to move beyond the labels, they stereotyping. There are too many fun, smart, kind, beautiful, amazing, inspiring, life-changing, unbelievably-amazing-and-I-want-to-be-your-friend people out there who aren’t showing their beautiful hearts and minds to the world because the world tells them there are not good enough. Because they are fat. And sadly, they (we, I am part of this tribe) believe it.

Or I used to believe it.

There is so much more that determines who you are than a bunch of cells. Take the emotion away from the word fat, or use other descriptors: lipids, adipose, adipocytes…and you have an endocrine organ performing a range of physiological functions and acting as an energy storage unit.

I put it to you. You have fat.

You are not your fat.