Chewing The Fat - The Real Risks Of Lesbian Obesity

[Jody Ekert]

Great, well balanced article Amy! It's an area that could do with more research that's for sure!

[Jan Bridget]

I hope I can join in the discussion from England (I put Ireland in my membership because I couldn't find England, GB or UK!)
There are three other possible reasons why lesbians are obese (and I am one of the older ones who is - I am also butch), these are:
1. use/misuse of alcohol - we are significantly more likely to use/misuse alcohol than heterosexual women.
2. Internalised homophobia

[Tim D]

Hey Jan - I'm interested in hearing more behind your theory? How does internalised homophobia come into it?

[Traffic]

All women are constantly under attack for their appearance - either too thin or too fat. I'm at an age where i'm not that influenced by the media (thankfully) and now pound the pavement primarily for my heart's sake. Great article.

[Christian Taylor]

are we talking internalised homophobia, therefore less respect for yourself, therefore worse treatment towards your body?

[SusanCancerSurvivor]

At the http://www.outwithcancer.com , we are talking about cancer...being diagnosed and being treated. And obesity in our community is significant....bi or Lesbian...wieght needs to be reduced so we can safe our lives.

[chad_74]

With some lesbians I know they just like fat lesbians,bit like the bear type thing with gay males.

[alikat]

health and self love go hand in hand, don't they? if we all loved ourselves a little more, we might be more inclined to look after ourselves a bit better - reagardless of our gender or sexual orientation. my 2cents...

[sandy1986]

i am a lesbian but i take pride in my body. i enjoy being fit but that is just me. i think that while i can understand some of the things said in the article the real questions should be 'do you like your body, is there anything you would change?' and if there is then work to change it. the healthier i am the longer i can spend with the woman i love that's how i see it :P

[piggles]

Ditto sandy....:)
I am very fit and i like fit women as well, once again thats just me.
Piggles

[etoile]

I don't feel at all that women are less judgemental about weight amongst themselves, but thats only my experience.

[Scoobs]

I'm overweight, and I HATE my body. Disgusted, self-loathing, upset. I can use my back injury as an excuse for so long, but as others have mentioned, beer - low carb or not - is the main part of my diet.....My ex partner suggested to me, that due to an unhappy history with men, I unconsciously put on weight to make myself unattractive to them. That opinion can stand for a lot of reasons; however, the conundrum is that I WANT to be attractive to women. With my new partner, who is very thin and attractive, I feel revolting and constantly scared, despite her reassurances, that she'll leave me for a better shaped/together woman. Yep I can lose weight, yep i know the risks and have low self respect - YEP I admire how the majority of my gay men peers look outstanding - what is it then?...... There's so many variables in the world of weight and obesity - I TRULY don't believe though, that ANY woman, likes themselves being overweight. We have bears - NO equivalent for women other than fat dyke. Derogatory. My fault. My fix up. Just harder than it seems.

[nerdalesca]

i'm about 55kg overweight. And I put most of this weight on, when I felt "trapped" in a heterosexual relationship, and feeling unable to be who and what I really am.

I definately feel a lot more comfortable in my skin now that i've accepted that I'm a lesbian, (and the bouts of severe depression have become less frequent and much easier to deal with since i came out as well; i wonder if this is the experience of other people as well?), but that doesn't mean i'm happy being severely overweight. I feel like now though, I'm starting to move past some of the issues that caused me to gain weight in the first place, and I'm now in a much better position to start really cracking down and dropping the weight.

[justgowithit]

I'm overweight, and I HATE my body. Disgusted, self-loathing, upset. I can use my back injury as an excuse for so long, but as others have mentioned, beer - low carb or not - is the main part of my diet.....My ex partner suggested to me, that due to an unhappy history with men, I unconsciously put on weight to make myself unattractive to them. That opinion can stand for a lot of reasons; however, the conundrum is that I WANT to be attractive to women. With my new partner, who is very thin and attractive, I feel revolting and constantly scared, despite her reassurances, that she'll leave me for a better shaped/together woman. Yep I can lose weight, yep i know the risks and have low self respect - YEP I admire how the majority of my gay men peers look outstanding - what is it then?...... There's so many variables in the world of weight and obesity - I TRULY don't believe though, that ANY woman, likes themselves being overweight. We have bears - NO equivalent for women other than fat dyke. Derogatory. My fault. My fix up. Just harder than it seems.

That took a lot of courage. Good on you for being honest Scoobs ;)

[Scoobs]

Thanks so much for your comment justgowithit - made me feel good! :) .......

Since April, I've lost around 12 kilos - still a lot more to go, but WOW, dropping from size 20 to 16 jeans has been an amazing (and as dramatic as it sounds) life-changing thing! I want to be happy. I'm being encouraged. I want to be strong, build muscle... I won't ever be thin and sexy - but if i can make my nuggetty body look strong and feel good about myself - that's better than anything!

Thanks again for taking the time to be a positive influence to me, it has meant a lot. x