14 DAY TRIAL // Whitney Thore is a very unlikely viral star and television personality: she rose to fame thanks to a viral video called simply “Fat Girl Dancing” (video below), which helped her land the TLC show My Big Fat Fabulous Life, and she tips the scales at 380 lbs (172kg).
The 31-year-old new-role model says her weight gain is due to an undiagnosed PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome), but she admits that her eating habits have also been pretty bad since she moved out of her parents’ home to go to college. She has absolutely no intention to be thin.
Thore is happy just the way she is
Thore’s TLC reality show is coming to the UK, and to promote it, she spoke with the Daily Mail about a variety of things, including her health issues, her frustration at being bullied for being overweight, and her plans to start a family with her current boyfriend.
Because she is severely overweight, doctors have advised her to lose some weight if she wants to be able to conceive and carry the pregnancy to term, but she only has to drop about 40 lbs (18 kg).
If it weren’t for this, she wouldn’t even consider doing it, even though she’s on the brink of diabetes and has other health issues made worse by her weight. The way she sees it, there’s no reason to associate being skinny with good health, and oppositely, being overweight with health problems.
“I have no desire to be thin again,” she tells the tab. “I would like to lose some weight so I can fit in a plane seat, so I can have children. But as soon as I get to a size I’m happy with, which will be no smaller than 250 lbs [113 kg], I’ll be done with weight loss. I think I look good and my boyfriend thinks I look good.”
When the Mail points out to her that, at her ideal weight, she would still have a BMI of 44.1, which would put her in the morbidly obese category, she responds by saying that the BMI is BS.
She hates it when people equate a skinny figure with good health and when they immediately assume that someone heavier must be unhealthy. As long as the blood tests are good, she sees no reason to get thin.
Embrace curves
Because she was taunted throughout college for her figure and because, to this day, she still gets people yelling mean stuff at her when they pass her down the street, Thore has taken it upon herself to be the one to tell men and women of larger sizes that it’s ok to be the way they are.
She believes she’s not using her PCOS as an excuse for being fat, but rather accepting a reality she can’t change. There must be millions of other people in her situation, whose weight gain is beyond their control - and to them she reaches out to let them know that they should embrace their “curves.”
As for those who fat-shame strangers, either in the street or online, Thore urges them to think before saying something nasty, because you can’t tell that someone’s weight gain is a medical issue by looking at them. So you shouldn’t jump to conclusions.
