Obese fitness instructor proving size isn't a barrier to being active

‘Just because I am a big girl doesn’t mean I can’t be active’

Obese men and women have spoken out about the harsh realities of fat-shaming, revealing the extent of discrimination they face because of their size in a new BBC3 documentary: The Naked Truth: Obesity.

Kat, 34, works as a part-time fitness instructor and explains how her weight gain was triggered by a breakup in her teens.

She fell pregnant at 16 and after her boyfriend at the time abandoned her and his unborn child, she developed an unhealthy relationship with food, going from a size 12 to a size 28 in just six weeks.

(BBC3 (BBC3)

“I used to go and buy the 24-pack of Cadbury’s Crème Eggs and I would eat them all in one day," she reveals in the programme.

"It was dangerous and I was comfort eating because I was very very low.

“My body changed so drastically, I didn’t even recognise the person I saw in the mirror.”

She subsequently developed a very unhealthy relationship with food and battled with body confidence for years, revealing how in the past she’d starved herself, taken diet pills and been on the brink of bulimia.

Now, she regularly faces prejudice in public for her size, particularly on public transport.

Kat adds that a lot of the judgement she faces is within her own fitness classes:

“You see these people walk in and look around to figure out who the instructor is and they look at you and they’re like ‘oh’.”

She goes on to question why her weight warrants such harsh judgement, adding: “Just because I am a big girl doesn’t mean I can’t be active and it doesn’t mean you have the right to judge me based on what I look like”.

(BBC3 (BBC3)

The programme, which is available now on BBC iPlayer, features four other Brits talking about their relationships with their bodies, their weights ranging from 17 - 22 stone (108kg - 139kg).

Medically speaking, obesity can be defined by having a BMI between 30 and 39.9, whereas a “healthy weight” is defined by having a BMI between 18.5 and 24.9.

According to the NHS, approximately one in four British adults are obese.