So I have to say, this school is really not fat positive in the least.

And it’s really pissing me off.

It’s probably not just my school, it just seems that in Anatomy in general, fat is BAD.. OOGIE BOOGIE! I am so over my teacher insinuating that ‘we all know we hate it’ type of mentality. 

And, oh how happy this makes me, in Anatomy Lab we are going to be using skin fold calipers to figure out how much ‘non essential’ fat we have. And then we get to use some random equation to calculate what percent body fat we have! YAY! I’m so fucking happy that I might die of happiness! Or maybe die of obesity, since it kills all those zillions of people every day.

Do you want to know the random equation we are given to determine our % norms?

Females: % body fat = (0.55 x triceps skin fold in mm) + (0.31 x subscapular skin fold in mm) + 6.13

How did they make this equation? Hell if i know. It doesn’t say anywhere near that table.

And the best part? You know what the categories are for percent body fat? You’re either an “Olympic Sprinter” “Acceptable” or “Obese”… oh gee, I’m glad that normal people are “acceptable”. It just sounds like “Well, I guess you’re okay, you’re acceptable”, like as thought it isn’t good enough, just acceptable.

Shall I quote what the lab book says about Obese individuals?

Body Fat is an important indicator of health. Obese individuals are at increased risk for heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer, and osteoarthritis. Therefore, it is important to have reliable methods of determining the percent body fat. Procedures for determining body composition include: hydrostatic (underwater) weighing, measurement of subcutaneous fat folds, bioelectric impedance analysis, ultrasound, computerized tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, and dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA).  

and it just gets better:

PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED WITH TOO MUCH ADIPOSE TISSUE. It is estimated that a third of all Americans are overweight. Obesity can occur as a result of an increase in fat cell size, number, or both. Fat cells increase in number during childhood. In the adult, the number of cells becomes fixed, and they increase only in size (except in extreme obesity). Severely obese individuals have been shown to have three times as many fat cells than lean people. Weight loss results in a decrease in the size of fat cells; not in the number, so it is important to prevent the initial development of fat cells during childhood and youth. Fat accumulation in the abdominal area (an “apple” physique) poses greater health risks than fat deposits in the hips and thighs (“pear” physique).

Seriously. I. hate. this. 

Do you know how often I keep wishing I was just thin and like everyone else and not feeling personally attacked whenever I hear this shit? Pretty much daily. I wish I was just ignorant of everything of the fatosphere so I wouldn’t feel like I’m learning a bunch of bullshit. And what really annoys me is that I won’t confront my teacher. I know I’m won’t. Even if I did it wouldn’t matter, she would be the one with science backing her. I’d just sound like a vengeful fattie who doesn’t want to hear the truth. 

And am I the only one who thinks measuring you fat in lab is a waste of my goddamn time? I know I’m obese, thank you, as if anyone in the class didn’t know what they were classified as, seeing as every time you go to the doctor or for school you are weighed and measured and told if you are a “normal” (or in this case, “acceptable”) or in great shape! I would also think have people pinch your arm and back fat might be triggering for some people. If I weren’t blogging here today and reading other fat blogs it would be hella triggering for me, not to mention embarrassing.

All I hear about around here is how people think they are so fucking fat. Or hearing the guys say that all the girls here are “just whales anyway”. Or the one girl that is pretty much one of my friends engage in shame for eating, or that she needs to burn away what she just ate, or that since she exercised she is ‘allowed’ to eat. Every time she says something like that, I ask her “Are you hungry?” I tell her if she isn’t hungry, don’t eat it, but if she is, then eat. I was talking to another girl, and her view seemed to be a little more positive, but more along the lines of “everyone would want to change something about themselves”. I pretty much said that no, I don’t want to change anything about myself, and I think that kind of attitude is unhealthy. The girl in the dorm next to me, well, all i hear her screaming about if “I FEEL SO FUCKING FAT RIGHT NOW” and she’s fucking thin. I HATE this environment. hatehatehatehatehatehate it. 

I know this is probably true of every college (though I did notice at Cedar Crest that one girl had done a presentation about how fat women are shown on TV, which made me happy that there was at least a hint of FA there)

Anyway, bottom line is I just hate feeling like I can’t do anything about the science stuff. Not to mention the fact that I am probably the only one who knows about FA and how a lot of that stuff is BS. I guess just the fact that my professor believes in it makes me feel like I am wrong. I mean, come on, the professor knows what she’s talking about, how could she be wrong about this? The other half me just thinks, How could she believe this? And I just think how much I fucking hate how fatphopic the world is. UGH.

Thinking about it just makes me pissed off. And the fact that I have no idea what to do about it other than to just bear it, remembering my beliefs and the real facts about it (though then I just think that if they were real facts than why the fuck doesn’t anyone else know them?)…. ugh.. Again, I wish I were just ignorant and thin the way I should be. But I’m not, so that doesn’t really do me any fucking good.

I guess the best I can muster out of all this is that when I become a nurse I’ll know better, and won’t judge people on their weight (or be an ignorant ass about the issue), and know that I’m right. But that’s the best I can do.

This deserves another “ugh..”

Okay, so in Anatomy class we watch these videos ( “I am Joe’s -insert organ here-” ) and today we watched “I am Joe’s Kidney”. I actually enjoy watching these videos, they are so lame they are funny. And they seem like they are from 30 years ago.

During this one I had a ‘WTF?’ moment. They were talking about the Kidneys (dur) and how Joe got FLOATING KIDNEY!!! *lame corney scare music*. Then Joe’s ‘kidney’ (the organ narrates the entire time lol) tells what Floating Kidney is. It says that it is caused when the protective fat around the kidney is lessened and the kidney kinda floats around without the fat surrounding it. Okay, I get that. But then the kidney was all “Joe doesn’t know it yet, but he better watch his weight!” (in a “he’s gonna get fat” kinda way)… WTF? I was pretty much just told that losing weight was the cause for floating kidney, and this dumb fucking kidney is telling me that joe better lose some of them pounds…. It doesn’t make any sense! Stupid kidney pretty much just told me that I better not be obese, but if I lose the weight that makes me obese, then I might get floating kidney. Gee wiz oh golly.

Maybe I was tired because it was the first period of the day and misunderstood. It’s not above the media to, you know, send mixed messages though, so it doesn’t surprise me (people are living longer, but look at all the bad fatties! Love your body at any weight, here’s how to lose 10 pounds in 10 days! etc. etc.).

Yep…

45 days of school left! wooo!!

Okay, So I am finally going to write a post that is actually, you know, about fat. I havn’t written anything in forever. So I am going to now.

I’ve been waiting to write about this for a few weeks, but I just havn’t had the chance. We watched a movie in Anatomy and Physiology a few weeks ago, and it just so happened to be about fat. So, being the studious student that I am, took notes on it (mostly so I could rant about it in my blog and such).

Here I shall quote (not quite accurately, my notes aren’t THAT good) some of what was basically said in the video:

-In, out- Simple (referring the process the body goes through, you know- Calories in, calories out)

-Fat is good, but too much is BAD!!

-You get fat SIMPLY by either eating too much or not exercising enough.

-Liposuction is drastic, you might not want to be that drastic to lose weight

-Do we all store same amount of fat?

-”Overcoat” of fat: men have beer guts, women want to lose hips

-How we feel about our bodies is very dependent on fat because it shapes us.

-Fat people used to be attractive, but not anymore…. They are FULGY!

-Now people with less fat aren’t as healthy (WTF? They just said the opposite the ENTIRE VIDEO!!!)

-Heart Disease all caused by too much fat in diet

-Fat can be your friend or your foe- it’s up to YOU to choose!

Again, not quoted directly lol.

The whole video just kinda pissed me off (well, not so much now since it’s been forever since I’ve seen it… okay, like 2 weeks).. It just reeked the whole “calories in=calories out” crap (Actually, I think they did actually say that). The one guy said it is a simple process. I’m sorry, nobody’s body is “simple”. WE ARE COMPLEX ORGANANISMSSS!!!!!! (note- spelled incorrectly for dramatic effect)

It also impled that I am fat because I am lazy and stupid. Because you can only get fat by gorging on lard all day on your couch, so it’s your fault. Obviously all us fatties eat big blobs of donuts and chips and ice cream and cake and all that delicious stuff! No apples or greens for us, we’re fat people! We don’t eat those things because we are fat! And we don’t exercise or do anything at all for that matter! WE ARE TEH FAT!!

Okay, going off on a tangent and what not.. I just hate when people assume you are fat because you eat “unholy” “unhealthy” foods all day and just sit around being fat. Um, NO! Look, I have cake at birthday parties, I eat some chips everyonce and a while, and yes- I do like to eat ice cream on occasion. But I don’t gorge myself with it. I’ll be honest, I hate exercising. But I do it. If I have to play in gym with a bunch of girl assholes who hate my guts, I better be able to kick some ass. I have to walk around at school at the time, not to mention get up so fucking early just to get my bus. I’m sure there are some people (fat and thin) who eat whatever they want all the time and there are some people who never exercise and there are some who eat whatever and don’t exercise. People are different.

Seriously, I am sick of the whole “a little fat is good in the diet, but too much is BAD!!! OOGIE BOOGIE!” stuff. That and the whole “Liposuction is drastic- but it will still get rid of that nasty fat!- but it still might be too drastic BLAHBLAHBLAH YOU ARE FAT AND UGLY!” nonsense. It’s like reading magazines. “Learn to love yourself!” and then turn the page and the next page and the next and all the woemn look the same- skinny, gorgeous, loved, no fat girl for miles. It’s all mixed messages.

“Do we all store the same amount of fat?”…. wtf? Um, I would have to say NO, seeing as we DON’T ALL HAVE THE SAME AMOUNT OF IT ON OUR BODIES AND THAT IS THE REASON I HAD TO WATCH THIS STUPID TAPE….

excuse me… I was getting wound up there..

So they took 80 individual scans of four different people to see where fat was on their bodies… This whole thing just seems like a waste of time and money. What was the point? To find out that men have beer guts and women want to be hipless?

“How we feel about our bodies is very dependent on fat because it shapes us.” Wow, bunch of scientists we have here. “Fat people used to be attrative” but they aren’t anymore.. haha, ugly fatties! Feel shame is you are watching!! but then we get “Now people viewed with less fat aren’t as healthy”.. So if you’re fat you’re screwed, and if you are too thin you’re screwed too.

Stupid video….

Now remember blog readers- Fat can be your friend or your foe- it’s up to YOU to choose!

I think I choose for it to be my friend.

Aren’t we cute? (That blob like thing that says FAT on it? That’s a blob of fat.)