why fat people face an obstacle course to practice physical activity

“At the gym, at the swimming pool, I barely pass through the turnstile at the entrance. It’s humiliating…” Pelphine, 33, loves going swimming or doing a session at the gym, but obstacles stand in her way before she even reaches the pool or the machines. “There is this preconceived idea that fat people don’t want to do sport, but it’s sport that doesn’t want us”she denounces. Determined, this 33-year-old French woman living in Brussels co-founded Fat Friendly, an association fighting fatphobia. Fat Friendly maps in particular the places accessible or not for fat bodies. The goal: to share their experiences, identify unsuitable places and avoid wasting time and humiliation.

“People don’t believe me when I say I run”

Because once the gantry and the cabins have passed, Alina Constantin mentions other barriers. “I put malfunctioning mats at the gym.”, says the president of the patient council of the National League against Obesity. And there again, this same feeling: “It’s very humiliating.” To avoid these situations, stay sport at home, but you still have to have the means. The cheapest treadmills cost around 400 euros and often do not support more than 100 kg. A machine suitable for a body weight of 140 to 150 kg can cost two to three times more.

And beyond the question of unsuitable equipment, performance criteria often close the door to fat people. Steffie, 34, who has been competing in 4-20km races since 2015, is not fast enough to compete in almost all marathons and half-marathons, which set a time limit for finishing the race. “I found a sport that makes me happy, but I can’t participate”regrets the one who likes to feel the emulation of a collective race.

“It goes against the fact that we are constantly told that we have to do sports.”

Steffie, jogger

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For her 33rd birthday, July 2, 2022, the young woman offered herself her own half-marathon. “I called it the Half Marathon of Exceptions”, she says. The 30-year-old opened an Instagram account, where she documents her passion for running, and doesn’t plan to stop there. “This year, as it is an Olympic year, I plan to organize four half marathons”, she adds. Despite this commitment, “It often happens to me that people don’t believe me when I meet someone and I say that I go running”says Steffie.

“There are very strong prejudices about obesity”

Mockery and even insults that Gaëlle Prudencio, “body positive entrepreneur” with more than 90,000 subscribers on Instagram, knows it well. “I made a video about exercising when you’re fat. I was expecting it but the comments were terrible”she laments.

“Doing sport in public means confronting the gaze of others. As fat people, we often carry around a lot of trauma that makes it difficult.”

Gaëlle Prudencio, influencer

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“There is a very strong prejudice in society that obesity is linked to a lack of willpower, whereas obesity is governed by a multitude of factors”observes Alice Bellicha, teacher-researcher at Sorbonne Paris Nord University, specialist indiet and physical activity. According to this dietitian, it is this idea that fat people are fat through lack of willpower which serves as an excuse for their discrimination in society. “There are always people who think that it is by stigmatizing them that we will push them to lose weight.”

“We observe that people who have experienced stigmatization gain more weight and do less physical activity. This is counterproductive.”

Alice Bellicha, researcher

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For her, “all physical activity has benefits, even if you don’t lose weight”.

“We are developing strategies to avoid mockery”

“We make fun of fat people when they don’t play sports, but when we play sports, we still get teased”, sighs David Venkatapen, 48 years old, plus-size model and activist against fatphobia. To escape notice, Lisa, 46, host of the show “MonGrosPodcast”, hid for a long time, self-censored. “I went to the swimming pool at 7:30 in the morning so that no one would see me, no one would make fun”recalls this swimmer, who appreciates water because “we no longer feel our weight, we don’t see the sweat”.

“We have heard so much mockery that we are developing strategies to avoid it”confirms Boréale, 27 years old, activist within the antifatophobia Fat Politics, who is also sorry that the sporting practice of fat people is systematically reduced to weight loss. “It’s difficult to find a gym where when you’re fat and say you don’t have a weight loss goal, people don’t look at you with incomprehension”confirms David Venkatapen.

“We must stop welcoming people who are as big as pieces of meat that need to be defatted.”

Alina Constantin, member of the National League Against Obesity

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“We don’t put enough emphasis on the joy of movement in our relationship to sport”, estimates Julie Artacho, 40, a photographer in Montreal, who works on the representation of fat bodies. Especially since “Not everyone aspires to reach an Olympic level!” recalls the Quebecoise.

“Finding spaces to do sports that are not fatphobic is very complicated. It goes faster if we create them ourselves!”

Julie Artacho, photographer

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So the artist organizes dance classes between fat people. “It’s important to have places where you can exist without being afraid of the judgment of others. It’s nice to be surrounded by people who look like us. We don’t think about the slack in our fat that moves, about our sweat, to our stomach !”

Claire Castagne, 38 years old, has been practicing yoga for fifteen years. She took classes for a long time from teachers who did not know how to adapt their instructions to obese people. So Claire became a yoga teacher herself four years ago. She runs the YogaRonde YouTube channel, through which she shows that yoga is accessible to all body types as long as you need to adapt the positions.

“We don’t just do anything, but we allow ourselves to position our legs and position our stomach in such a way that we can perform the positions comfortably.”

Claire Castagne, yoga teacher

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Claire also participates more and more regularly in training courses for yoga teachers. She teaches future teachers to “adapt positions to fat people”but also to “address students without hurting them”she explains.

“Don’t be ashamed of your body”

In other sports, however, the idea of ​​adapting practice to students still seems quite distant. Céline, 38, tried in vain five different boxing clubs, where “the teachers didn’t take my limitations into account at all”recalls this 38-year-old social worker. Until she found the Keymono association, which offers “cardio-inclusive” boxing class.

“It’s not up to the person to adapt to the sport, it’s up to the sport to adapt to each person!”

Céline, boxer

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“My lessons, I want them for everyone!” claims Lynda Medoumir. Physiotherapist for twelve years, this mother of four children created Keymono, in Noisy-le-Grand (Seine-Saint-Denis), to make muay-thai boxing accessible to all bodies. “I want my students to all feel good. We laugh, we do fun exercises, we have fun. The figure, weight loss, this is not at all the first objective”explains Linda. “Many fat people have a violent, malicious view of themselves, be kind in self-affirmation, don’t be ashamed!urges Alina Constantinwhich wants to encourage fat people not to self-censor and dare to do all kinds of physical activities.