Louise Green, a plus-size fitness trainer, went on the UK talk show This Morning Wednesday to answer a question R29 addressed back in 2014: is it really possible to be fat and fit?
The answer — then and now — was yes.
Green weighs 15.9 stone (about 220 pounds) and is a UK size 16 (a US 14), according to the talk show's website. She's also a "new poster girl for female fitness," with almost 20,000 Instagram followers and a fitness column in SELF.
Yet, despite people like Green and plus-size fitness and fashion blogger CeCe Olisa — who wrote about her experience being both fat and fit for us — many people still don't believe that plus-size people can be healthy.
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In a clip of the interview posted to Metro, Green talks about the fears she initially had when she was starting to exercise.
"I felt like I was too big, that I was going to be too slow, people were going to leave me behind — all of those things ran through my mind" she said. None of those things actually happened, though. Green was lucky to have started fitness classes taught by a plus-size woman, who could not only encourage her to keep going with her fitness journey but could also help her navigate working out as a plus-size person.
So, she kept going and eventually shed her fears and learned to love fitness. Her reputation as a fitness blogger still isn't enough to convince some people that she actually is healthy, though.
"A lot of people have said today, 'fat and fit is a possibility, but you can't be fat and healthy,'" This Morning host, Phillip Schofield, said.
One person claimed that while it's possible to be both fat and fit, having extra weight on your organs "can't be good." Green perfectly shut down talk like this, simply by mentioning her trips to the doctor.
"When I go to my doctor and I do my annual checkup, everything is below average," she said. "Blood sugar, cholesterol, blood pressure. I think it's because of the rigorous exercise that I do."
Even by mentioning that she is in fact healthy, fit, and fat, Green wasn't able to convince all of Twitter. Many people tweeted during and after the show to talk about the "pseudoscience" of health at every size.
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Appreciate her bravery but surely this is more pseudoscience! Being fat and fit has nothing to do with healthy. #thismorning
— Dedicated 2 U (@dedicated2uPT) May 3, 2017
#thismorning maybe you can be a bit overweight and fit and healthy. But she was obese. No way she's healthy.
— David Felton (@Daveyji) May 3, 2017
She is essentially saying if you're fat it's fine so long as you're healthy... that literally makes no sense!!!!! #Thismorning
— Lush Juan (@ClassicWillard) May 3, 2017
People like these show how deeply ingrained the idea that fat = unhealthy is in our society. Even though we've been talking about being healthy as plus-size people for years, and despite Green presented proof of her health and fitness as a plus-size woman, some people cannot get past weight as an indicator of health.
In the This Morning interview, Green had a suggestion for people like these — one that we full-heartedly agree with.
"So can we just take the focus off the weight and try to be the healthiest version of yourself?"