I am fat. I am obese. I am a “bigger girl.” I hate that term.

I know this.

I’m not blind.  Even if I were, I would still be able to tell you that I am large and that this is not how my body was meant to be.

I can give you excuses. I can give you reasons. I can tell you how I got to be this way, what’s kept me this way, how I have medical conditions that perpetuate a cycle constantly causing me to backslide.

People are never as cruel to a fat person as they are when that person tries to change, specifically when they attempt to work out.

Trying to lose weight is one of the worst times in a heavy person’s life, not just because it’s hard, but because going to the gym is humiliating. Exercise opens a door to ridicule they don’t normally suffer.

But one of the main reasons that I, and many others, are overweight is because the time we get treated the worst – when we are most picked on, taunted, cursed at, ridiculed, and literally spit on –  is at the gym. You don’t see many overweight people there, not because we don’t want be, but because we are often bullied, and sometimes brutalized for being there. I’m not claiming that’s the only reason, but it’s a huge one.

It’s not just at the gym. If we try to walk, or ride a bike instead, people literally pull over to taunt or throw things at us. Already uncomfortable, sweaty and often in pain, we are in a vulnerable position. The right word in that moment has the power to push us forward, or push us down.

We should encourage heavy people. We should be happy that they found the courage and the motivation to tackle an issue that forces them to the fringes of society. Doesn’t society want us to be healthy?

Then why try to keep us fat?

Why try to make working out more painful than it already is? Maybe it’s because we’re weak – easy prey. Maybe it’s because we invade your aesthetically selective environment with our jiggling and our excessively heavy breathing.

If you have such a problem with heavy people, then encourage them instead of belittling them when they try to change – unless, perhaps, you just need us to be fat to feel better about yourself.