General

One of the things I love doing is finding examples of those on the bigger side who are not your typical "overweight people."

Sumo wrestling, for example. They're big people, but they're athletic, put in work to get their bodies to function a certain way, and just so happen to be overweight by standard definitions.

What are some ways you practice fat empowerment?

What you are talking about is body composition. These people *are* fat, but they are also muscular.

I'm clinically overweight, but that's due to being muscular. As such, I look like I should be lighter than I really am.

I am curious about the term "fat empowerment". What do you mean by that?

As munchies said these people are indeed fat, besides muscular. To add something, if you look at old pictures of sumo wrestlers (before the 21th and 20th century) they still looked fatter than the average but that's mostly when you compare their appearance to modern athletes. In reality these were the normal, well fed, people of the era. In modern times, things have generally changed. The today's athlete is able to focus solely on getting better at his sport. And in sumo, the rules make it favorable for the athlete to have as much kinetic energy as they can and since getting fatter provides that, most sumo athletes, the ones who play competitively at least, will gain quite a lot of fat too! But there is a lot going on behind their appearance. Wich is very interesting because since they're athletes you'd expect to see muscle
But since competitive athletes don't care about appearance more than they care about performance, and in sumo they have an advantage if they're heavier, in any way, they do gain weight, as to increase their effectiveness. But as munchies said that's body composition and there's a lot of muscle behind that fat.
I have a couple more things in my mind but i think it whould be a good idea to wait for you to explain what you mean by that "fat empowerment" term, before i write them!

When I say fat empowerment, I mean more so finding real life examples of things that make you proud to be overweight.

I'm not sumo-level, hardly lol, I haven't the muscle mass behind all my fat that they do.

But what using that example does do for me, is shows me and hopefully others how people can still be fat but do something meaningful to others. Helping to lessen the stereotype of "all fat people are lazy" etc.

Gaining hundreds of pounds of weight really helped my wife's self esteem.

She hates being short, and she will never grow taller. But she can definitely grow wider and heavier. Now she's got a confident and powerful attitude. No longer "the little one" but almost always the most massive person in the room.

In fact, it's reached the point where she's so much shorter than all her friends standing up, but taller than all of them sitting down.

This 270lb skateboarder kicks ass


There's also a skateboarder on instagram called heavyweighthogey that's pretty cool. He's not quite as good as the dude from the video I linked but still inspiring.

You might also enjoy this dude
www.instagram.com/andyfilmsandhikes/

He's a plus size hiker. Nothing insanely impressive but it's representation of fat people being active and outdoorsy

Of course you can be fat and still do something meaningful to others. You can volunteer in a organisation that helps people or animals, I know very obese people (m and f) who are paramedics or in civil protection organisation. There are fat scientists. Authors. Artists. Or do you think that "being fat" de-humanizes a person? "Fat" in this case is an adjective, not a noun. Fat people are still people. They can do everything (except things that they are to heavy or to big for, for safety reasons).

Or are you looking for an overweight role model?

I think fat empowerment means something different to you than it does to me. For me, fat empowerment is things like:

- Not apologising for being fat
- Not hiding my body to make others feel more comfortable
- Wearing the clothes I like that make me feel beautiful/sexy/attractive
- Taking up space and not apologising for it
- Not moderating my behaviour to fit society's idea of a "good" fat person, like eating what I want instead of only allowing myself to be seen eating salads or healthy green smoothies
- Calling out people that make fatphobic comments

I think for me empowerment is accepting that the lighter weight I used to be was just something I achieved through unhealthy methods and temporary. To accept that if I eat normally, I will end up at least chubby if not fat or obese, and that I should like my body still for it. Along with my whole gender stuff, I feel like I could actually be attractive to someone, at least one day I could be.

Empowerment for me is acceptance I am fat and growing, and that's okay.