[Redway]

One thing I’ve learnt about medication is to not judge people’s weight without knowing the circumstances behind it. Topiramate and Orlisat (Xenical) are there to keep people leaner if the tablets they take cause weight gain but both of them have weird side-effects of their own that make people not even want to take them after reading the list, and topiramate wouldn’t normally be recommended just for the sake of losing weight anyway (as impressive a side-effect as it is but you have to need it for another reason, like migraines or bipolar disorder, to justify the horrible side-effects of it). You don’t know if the person who’s recently added 10 pounds is on a tablet that’s directly caused them to gain those extra pounds. It might not be anything to do with their diet/the way they eat or lack of exercise at all. I remember eating at a restaurant in central London about 9 years ago and wondering how one woman who pulled through got like that (she really was quite big) and I slyly (if discreetly) pointed it out to the people I was eating with but what I didn’t factor in is that she could’ve been on tablets that caused tremendous weight-gain and once I realised that (years later) I felt ashamed for judging her for being that big. When the alternative is death or being seriously ill, adding a few pounds is probably the least of someone’s concerns. They’re going to be more aware of their weight than anyone-else anyway but it’s a case of priority. Having a hefty six-pack/summer body is nice and one can worry about that closer to the time but it’s ultimately their bag and probably one that’s quite low on their list of priorities. It’s not for anyone else now to keep rehashing the same misplaced concerns about how someone’s getting fat. You’ve got to ask yourself who the person’s doing it for and it won’t be you. Your rightful own is just to shut up and mind your business.

I’m ambivalent on the whole ‘de-normalise this and that’ kind of ting but one thing people definitely need to stop doing is pointing out that someone’s gained weight like it’s some sort of conversation starter. It’s incredibly rude in the first place but especially when it’s genuinely a side-effect of a medication they take and nothing to actually do with them and unless you have an extensive file of all their confidential medical information you ain’t going to know. It’s none of your business.