#Why is BMI important?

[calcium-supplement]

Very very good video thoroughly exploring the history of "IQ" and the horrifying destructive nonsense of it all

I can't keep having the same conversations about love languages, mbti, iq, bmi, "brain fully formed at 25" and shit over and over again...

[thatbitchery]

You can tell how much a lady will not level up by how much she doesn’t love herself—and you can tell how much someone doesn’t love themselves by how much they don’t understand themselves. I’ve been telling you ladies since the dawn of this blog: a level-up is personal. Custom-made. Made for you and only you. You cannot achieve another person’s goal.

Listen, the highest form of love is knowledge. To be loved is to be known. To love is to look—with the purpose of seeing—and then understanding what you see. To love yourself, you have to know yourself. And that takes nothing but self-observation. No judgment. Open acceptance.

What prompted this? I was talking to one of my girls in my personal coaching program yesterday. We started this month, so we’re still learning each other. My first topic is always fashion, because the outside world is a mirror of the inner—and you can easily understand someone from their presentation.

So this girl and I go through her closet, and I’m honestly both impressed and jealous. We are talking runway-worthy gowns. Designer bags. Louboutin heels. The kind of closet you get in your starter-pack Kardashian era. She looks at me like, “What do we think?” And apart from being impressed by the sheer amount that closet adds to her net worth… I am also deeply disappointed.

Why?

Because she is a textbook introvert. An AO3 nerd who spends all day in pajamas and works online (if you can even call it that) and is introverted even outside—i.e. would rather do indoor activities than outdoor. She’s also hyperactive and sporty. That is not the closet of an 18-year-old valedictorian homebody chess-playing video game addict online business owner. That is a Paris Hilton closet. You will NOT be wearing that micro skirt, ever. Let’s not lie to ourselves.

So she poured all that money (yes, she’s wealthy, but that’s not the point??) into another person’s closet—but inside her own house. What she does actually wear is three sets of loungewear that have seen the washing machine so many times they are fighting for their lives to hold on to color. And she won’t buy a new set because it’s “not elegant.”

So I know I will need Jesus and all of heaven when we get to the “self-love” section. Pray for me, people.

It is very important that you stop looking for trends and God knows what, and start observing yourself. Set your goals according to that, so you don’t waste time and money and actually—for once—achieve your yearly goals. Because they belong to who you are, not who you wish you were.

One of the goals I see a lot is “lose weight.” And you know what? Hell yeah. There’s no empowerment in obesity, let’s get healthy. I get it—I want to be a healthy BMI so I can clear brain fog, look better, feel better, function better, yes. But as a person who spends most of their day indoors, is barely attracted to men, and works in corporate… why are you killing yourself trying for a Bella Hadid body when you’ve got Salma Hayek genetics and you don’t need it? I get starvation if you’re a K-pop idol or a model. I get it. But you’re a regular civilian—just stop at “healthy BMI.” Because not only is it not fun, it’s also extremely unhealthy to have zero body fat. What are you even doing this for? It’s torture. If you don’t need to… what’s the point?

Or the classic “wake up at 5 a.m.”—makes sense, I see it. But if you’re a night owl, what are you doing? Your productive hours are 10 p.m. to 3 a.m.—why would you be awake at 5? That’s when you’re supposed to be going to bed after wrapping up your work.

Or “gym 3 days a week.” I love it, I do. But look at yourself in the mirror and say that again. Be honest—is it going to happen? Have you considered that maybe you’re not a gym person? That there are other ways to move your body that don’t require you to battle depression and poor time management in spandex?

You can easily tell who will not be achieving their yearly goals by comparing the goals to the person. No—those are not your goals. They are someone else’s. So another year goes by, and you achieve nothing. Again.

And if you just—if you just—observed your behavior, with no judgment, without slapping on classifications like “lazy” or “wrong” or whatever else… if you just said, “Okay, how do I make me work, in a way that works for me?” You wouldn’t need affirmations to tell you you’re good enough.

You’d just be.

BMAC

[cipheramnesia]

Not everyone thinks it's important for men to be less insecure about dick size, but it would improve my life measurably if I never had a guy tell me three times in one conversation how he lost weight from stomach stapling and it made his dick bigger and he loves sex and he needs a lower BMI which isn't pseudoscience because he did research and his dick will look even bigger. Sure it's fun the first time because he's happy and that's great but by the third bit it's kinda like oh, no he's not happy he's like deeply insecure and hurting himself, because he thinks that'll make me wanna fuck him, and he doesn't wanna hear about it, just sit there and keep delivering a monolog that he thinks sounds like "look at how awesome and fuckable I am," but for me I'm trapped listening to "I don't understand why anyone likes me and I plan to endanger my life for a half inch bigger dick," which isn't a level of intimacy I want from a stranger who seems to be treating this one sided conversation as a metaphorical dick measuring contest about literal dick measuring.

Like his whole life would be better and my life would be fractionally less annoying is all.

[theaskscenter]

How to start life when basically you had no life at all just 20 years of pure blank how can I start living now?

Coming back to the room works best. A lot of things happen in your head and they shield you from seeing life. I'd say getting out of your head and back into the room.

Not being a victim is a close second. It's so easy to think everyone is attacking you and sometimes when people are in fact attacking you, it's never that serious. Like okay they don't like you yeah that sucks but what will they do about it. Important to know just because something feels like a threat doesn't mean it is. You're not as much of a victim as you feel you are, and a huge part of gaining your power back is this. Okay it's scary but is it real?

Taking control of your life is actually in the small tiny things. I have a post ab this on my telegram. It's not as much sid figure business as it is making your bed and not using your phone after you wake up.

Getting out of freeze. Most of us aren't fight or flight baddies we're freeze baddies. You've been stuck in the freeze part and to step out I feel like Google gotcha. I could tell you but if I tell you everything how will you become independent?

Extending from above learn to do things and to rely on yourself. Just basic tiny everyday skills. Independence is living. You should be able to do it. Simple step is don't ask too much try to find out for yourself.

Let bitches bitch. A lot of us spend so much time entangled in other people especially abstract people like people on the internet don't exist. It's not important to you who is beefing with who in entertainment those are celebs their emotions shouldn't affect you if someone is being shitty you can always just block them or ignore them. Even in real life. Probably not living your life because you're living everyone else's life. My man says dogs bark. If you're not one why are you?

Do things with your body that require you to use muscle and move. Go for walks work out swim take up skating you're a mammal and mammals are hedonistic by nature. Wind in your hair sun on your skin muscle movement. A lot of depression lies here.

Have boundaries. It's pathetic to hold others to boundaries if you can't hold yourself to them. Have boundaries with yourself then with others. Yourself first. Then others will respect them.

Be pretty be healthy (mid BMI) be respectable be make money mind your own business.

dont engage with people in arguments don't argue as long as you're concerned they are right you are wrong. You're sorry you had a brain of your own they absolutely owned you there. Arguing is such weird behavior it's never about facts it's about power play. Submit and go home. ESPECIALLY with people that don't matter. Your child and partner are the only people that matter. Like I said arguing is sibling and HUSBAND (not bf) or WIFE (not gf) privilege. Everyone else is right. You're wrong . Apologies for being stupid thank you for schooling me .

Go to therapy or get a life coach. I'm pro therapy on the condition you can see TANGIBLE results in two months. Feelings are not results no one cares about those. In two months if you take a look at your life and see no tangible results drop out. With a life coach that's one month. In one month no tangible change take your money where it's useful to you.

Pick one and follow. *WHaT iS riGtFoR mE* nothing. Pick one and go. Indecision is where all your time and energy goes just make a decision band go

Fear men. When you have free time use it to fear men.

Master your masculine before your feminine. Masculinity is the art of survival.

[loki-zen]

There are lots of examples of when the creators of a thing are like, we want to do middle-of-the-road eye candy, but also, we like to front that we're better than that? so here's a flimsy excuse for why Actiongirl McBadass has to look like / would totally choose to dress like that, that is frankly more insulting than if we'd just said yes we know it's unrealistic but sex sells ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

But, Buffy the Vampire Slayer actually isn't that. Sure, it's an American TV show so you definitely have the whole nondiagetic makeup, all women with a BMI over 19 were banished in the Purge thing going on, but on this one occasion, they actually did write a character who would go out to fight vampires in kitten heels and lipgloss.

Not "because being so sexy is distracting to her enemies" or some bs, but because she's desperately trying to cling to a sense of self that her destiny is at odds with, and that's an important source of conflict and point of interest for her as a character, especially early on in the show.

And while we can absolutely critique the hell out of the image she's attached to*, it makes perfect sense that she's attached to it. She kinda won the lottery looks-wise especially given her time and place, and she will have gotten attached to the idea of everything her society told her that could mean for her - being the Ideal American Girl, the cheerleader! - and the fate she's been handed is so dismal, and she's so young. And it's not like (as with a lot of the examples I would criticise) she chose this life either, which makes a big difference imo. In real life, a woman who is in an Actiongirl role due to say her career choice comes preselected for willingness to put her hair in a fucking ponytail so she can fucking see who she is fighting.

Anyway Buffy is good. I mean it's not in all the ways it's not, but also, it is.

*just off the top of my head - there are the racist undertones of the idealisation of the Blonde as the "All-American" ideal of feminine beauty, the normcore elevation of blandness, the misogyny of how everyone agrees she's got to not intimidate men physically or intellectually, the very fact that it's incompatible with dressing sensibly for physical activity or defending oneself, the class stuff around the clothing side of it, the way this image of femininity is at least partially built on tearing other women down as falling short in one direction or another - too weird, too ethnic, too slutty, too prudish, too smart, too tacky,etc etc....

[librarycards]

Are calories real? Like ik they measure the energy released from burned food but does that in turn have a meaningful relationship w nutrition? I’ve tried looking this up and only get articles about why I should count calories.

disclaimer: i'm not a dietician or chemist, just some guy who is maybe perhaps possibly a liiiiiiittle too fixated on calories, food, and embodiment.

calories are real inasmuch as any other unit of measurement is real. the kind we use to measure food, actually called the kilocalorie (kcal) = how much heat is required to raise the temperature of water by 1ºC. (the kcal stands for kilogram calorie and is 1000x the smaller unit, the calorie, which is mostly used my chemists etc.).

when used in relationship to food, calories (kcals) refer to the amount of energy a given food supplies our bodies with. following this, people who use a lot more energy per day (athletes/people who are active) need significantly more calories than people who are more sedentary. larger bodies (fat and muscle) need more energy to maintain their size than smaller ones. there are also factors that aren't immediately visible that factor into how much energy we need: genetics, health conditions/past experiences of (mal)nutrition, immediate environmental factors, amount of sleep. age and hormones play a role too.

in very general terms, taking in more energy than your body can use over a long period of time will lead your body to gain weight, and vice-versa. likewise, suddenly increasing activity without increasing how much energy you take in will result in weight loss. these generalities lead a lot of people to assume that weight is a simple equation - you may have heard the phrase CICO, or calories in/calories out, particularly when it comes to people claiming that long-term weight loss is simple and easy.

our bodies aren't perfect calorie-burning machines, though. while it is safe to assume the above - that most bodies presented with an excess of calories will gain weight, and an absence of sufficient calories will lose weight, factors like age, health, genetics, environment, and more will inevitably confound this system. research-wise, it's also difficult to find subjects to do this work on who are not somehow compromised metabolically, given that we live in a world in which calorie restriction is ubiquitous - there is no "pure" test subject unmarked by the metabolic impacts of contemporary dietary practices.

there are also a lot of things we don't know about the human metabolism, especially when it comes to recommending a single daily amount of calories for all people with a certain BMI (arbitrary, junk science) and activity level. it's important to remember that the reason a 2000 calorie diet is listed on the back of your cereal box is because it's a simple, round number, not because it's the default or average amount everyone's eating.

tl;dr, calories are a real and useful unit of measurement, and do matter when it comes to weight loss/gain/maintenance. but whatever myfitnesspal is saying about them is probably nonsense.

[frickfatphobes]

I was recently hit with the crippling realization that I used to have an eating disorder.

It was branded as intermittent fasting, something that would help change the number on the scale. I was skipping two meals a day and starving almost constantly.

My pants got a bit looser, and the number went down by twenty pounds over the course of three months. One person noticed my weight changed -- and she was fat herself, so of course she would be more likely to notice it -- and not a single other person seemed to care that my clothes looked a little baggier on my body now.

I hit a plateau that my body refused to let me move on from. No matter how few calories I ate, how hard I exercised, or how many cups of water I drank a day, my body refused to shrink anymore. I didn't stop, thinking surely I was close to another breakthrough.

That was the most weight loss I ever experienced in my life. A measly 20 pounds. The BMI said I needed to lose 70 more to even be out of the obese category. I didn't even stop starving myself when the weight came hurling back at me a year later.

I gained back all twenty pounds. I was still starving myself. I gained twenty more pounds. I was barely eating each day. I gained even a little more, despite barely taking in any food.

My mother said I must've been cheating, eating extra food at school during lunch. I was eating 500 calories a day. I was miserable.

I told myself I was worthless, that I needed to be better. I was so close to becoming thin. Why couldn't I just lose the weight?

I kept gaining, about a pound a month. I finally told myself I needed a break, and I started trying to eat again. I had two meals a day. I didn't get thinner, but I did feel a little better.

One day, while scrolling on social media, I saw a post about something called "fat liberation." Intrigued and confused, I dug deeper. I still remember the way my jaw dropped when I learned intentional weight loss isn't feasible for most people, that many tend to gain back extra weight after.

I saw myself in those numbers. I saw that I wasn't so worthless, that it wasn't because I didn't have the willpower. My body never wanted to be skinny, and maybe it was possible that I didn't either.

A year or two of researching fat liberation, and I denied I ever had an eating disorder. I was hit with the realization about four weeks ago, when listening to a song a thin person with an eating disorder had written.

I believed I couldn't have had an eating disorder purely because I didn't get thin while I was in the middle of it. I could have died of malnutrition, still fat, and it's possible no one would have suspected it was because of my "diet."

And that is exactly why fat liberation is so important. That's why bigotry as a whole needs to be abandoned. Because no matter a person's weight or size or whatever, everyone deserves a place in this world with equal opportunities. No one deserves to feel worthless, or feel like they'd rather be in someone else's skin because of how they look, or how they're treated.

Fat people with eating disorders are just as needful of healing as thin people with eating disorders, period, end of story.

[pinehutch]

When I say that I want to be evil

what I mean is I want to be powerful. What I mean is I want to be free.

Some weeks ago I spent more money than I should have on my first ever (ever!) two-piece swimsuit. You have to understand that as a child I was told I was fat, and as a teen I was told I was fat, and as an adult I've always been fat*, and you can't read your way out of the shame caused not strictly by the word but by its connotations.

(I know, because I've tried. I have been trying for almost twenty years. Looking for plus-sized fashion brought me to the digital 'fatosphere.' It made me a better person as I learned about another dimension of intersectionality and about power and oppression. It made me feel like I could wear clothing that I liked. It made me more informed about the diet and wellness industry. It's been over 20 years since I first read a critique of the BMI; it's been almost as long since I started wondering why gros/se in my close-second language didn't have the same (haha) weight to it as fat does, in my first.)

At the tail end of June, days long and scorching, I stepped into a two-piece swimsuit with a deep-v neckline and my whole midsection exposed and I spent the day in full view of dozens (hundreds?) of strangers. Cold, cold water on the joints; warm, soft pools for the evening. My hair got bigger and bigger. My neck and chest sunburned. My midriff stayed comically, blindingly pale, and everything else? It was lovely; it was fine. I rarely thought about my body, unless it was 'this feels nice' or 'my swimsuit is so pretty.' I took a selfie, even, though I deleted it. I was worried that posting it would count as thirst-trapping; shame has cored out and replaced so much of me. It was a good pic, though, and I wish I'd kept it.

What was true of me that day: I was a quite tall, very fat femme person whose feet swell with arthritis and whose hair takes up the entire frame and who's had cellulite since grade eight. What else was true: many people complimented my swimsuit. I looked out across the valleys and the mountains from the top of my almost-six-feet. I let my shoulders roll back and smiled at the sight of my bare skin gone blue-wavering-dappled beneath the surface. I stood tall. I made eye contact. I enjoyed delightful company, and let that enjoyment extend to the simple pleasure of having a body that felt fairly good, in garments I had chosen for the joy of it.

You can't read your way out of shame; it's only part of the equation. I didn't go swimming the next day with my family members, because I didn't want to feel them looking at my body and being disappointed that What A Beautiful Girl turned out like I did (though: if What A Beautiful Girl then why You Need To Watch What You Eat?). But for an entire day I felt like anyone else, gentle enough, good enough, in my skin.

It would have been good for me to swim with my family that weekend, because I'm finding that - as in all things - the practice is important. You can't read your way out of shame, not entirely, but in working with and through it there's maybe a chance to rewrite our stories.

There's a fallacy that I think a lot of us fall into, when we're trying to counter and challenge fatphobia, both culturally and in ourselves. It's the fallacy of the Good Fat. It's why I want to tell you about how two-pieces are maybe a better swimwear choice for me because of the drastic difference between my tits and hips vs my waist. It's why I wanted to post that selfie, so people could shoutycaps and fire emoji me on twitter. It's why I want to craft this post into a narrative where spending a single day mostly-unburdened by body shame has led to a hot girl summer, and I'm walking for miles every day and going to the pool four times a week. (I'm not. I still have a day job, and writing to do, and a physical disability, and the ol' depression. I'm more active than I was three months ago, and working to improve that, but still. It's not a lot.)

It is, simply, the same lie as we tell ourselves along so many different axes of marginalization: that as long as we are exceptional in a way equal and opposite to our marginalization, we'll be fine. It's the model that says you earn the right to exist fat and unashamed by being healthy, by being active, by being hot. Sorry my hip is squished against yours on the airplane; at least I've got a nice face and good hair and am well-dressed, wanna admire my hip-to-waist ratio about it?

There's no such thing as a Good Fat because we live in an inherently fatphobic world. I mean: airplane seats are too small for anyone average sized. I mean: 20 years ago I was a size 16/18 and couldn't fit into the newer lecture hall seats at my university without a lot of stress and embarrassment. I mean: I can't buy a compression sleeve for my arthritic joints at the drug store. If I ever needed to take Plan B, it might not work because I weigh (as do most adults of my acquaintance) more than 165lbs. You cannot be hot enough or active enough or well-dressed enough to escape from this; the only option is to be Not Fat.

But why on earth would we want to accept this? We know the system is fucked up and evil, and so: we want to be evil. Just a little bit, just enough. We want to be hot villains. We want to serve cunt and to be cunts. We want to nailcare emoji, fire emoji, crown emoji, and we want to take no prisoners unless it's between our thick thick thighs. Sit on their face; if they die, they die. It's fun and sexy, in a world where "everything is sex, except sex, which is power" to dig in and grab handfuls of what looks like empowerment, fuck the rest of it, get what makes you feel best.

It's a mirage; freedom doesn't live there.

Because of course fat people are hot. Fat bodies are desirable. Fat bodies are strong, sometimes, and athletic, sometimes, and powerful in whatever way you'd like to read that. That's true no matter what.

And yet (this will hurt) fat bodies are still (I'm sorry, I'm so sorry) not good enough. If the system is the problem, your individual empowerment is not the (whole) solution.

When I say that I want to be evil, what I mean is I want to be free. I want the strange rare days I've known I was desirable because I was desired, specifically and individually. I want the days where I grant myself dignity. I want the day where I lived peacefully in my mostly-naked body around hundreds of strangers, and went to bed happy.

Reading is input, it's taking in. I can't read my way all the way out of fatphobia, out of body shame because that's like trying to put out a forest fire 2000km away by throwing baking soda on your stove element. (Not harmful, but insufficient and misdirected.) It has been so helpful to know that other people wrestle with all of this, in ways that are more intelligent and expert than mine; it doesn't change material reality, though.

It's not the shame that's the problem, but where it comes from. It's not my internalized fatphobia or low self-worth or lack of body confidence that keeps people from life-saving medical care because their doctors were obsessed with their weight instead of their symptoms. My soft abdomen has never shamed a stranger on the internet, my calves (never in tall boots) haven't forced someone to buy a second seat.

Maybe it's time that I redefine what I mean when I say I want to be evil. I want to be a hot villain that was justified in their takedown of the status quo. I want to put a crown on every head. I want these thick thighs under me as I pull you into my lap and love you, and to use those fire emojis to make room for new growth.

I want us all at the pool together, celebrating as the sun sets.

*I'm using "fat" to here mean something like "size 16 US women's or larger," but there's no good definition

[cosmictide]

So, on BlueSky, I wrote about Kadee's issues with her appearance and self esteem.

Kadira is big. She's 220lbs in the prologue and by the time she gets to Drezen, she's 180lbs and a good portion of that is muscle she gained on the march, though she never dips under that weight. She's never what the BMI calculator calls 'normal'.

Kadira spent her teenhood and young adulthood with succubi. Succubi couldn't touch her, but they decided to the next best thing, mock her and tear her down. She was fat. She was ugly. She was boring. A goodie-two shoes. A weak fiendling.

It's hard to shake that belief when you don't have the support. And this feeling she's ugly and unloveable chases her. The thing is? Succubi can lie. Being fat was the only thing they didn't lie about, but they turned that neutral descriptor into a knife.

That's why it's important for Kadira to have a genuine succubus be baffled at Kadee's self esteem issues. Arueshalae finds Kadira gorgeous both in personality and in body. Kadee has clear beautiful skin, big blue eyes, thick hair, and an hourglass shape, with symmetrical features. Arue knows that Kadira's fiendish heritage is diabolic, but she suspects that many humans think Kadira might have succubi heritage. Of course, Kadira wouldn't believe Arue right away, years and years of being told otherwise can't be solved so quickly.

But she starts to believe.

[girldriveroscar]

Re: driver training. it sucks so bad that there's so many weight restrictions for f1 bc some drivers have talked about before that they have to be careful not to gain too much muscle in the gym bc they have to be within a certain weight 😭💔 let them be more muscular. FlA did enact a new rule that adds a couple kgs to the minimum and gives drivers a tiny bit more freedom — but again it's hardly anything

Blanket Statement ill tag any further posts about this with #weight talk so if it’s triggering you can mute me. discussion of weight/bmi/bmr/calories etc.

what I would give to see all of the drivers inbody stats... the system they have now is arguably much better than before, but it does make me curious how important training really is beyond a certain point.

if we're measuring like. core, back, neck strength and diet relative to the most physically demanding elements of racing: g-force, dehydration, stamina etc. then presumably the most ideal form would be as low body fat as possible while still eating in a nutrient dense deficit. that's to say like. if a driver was eating incredibly clean and their split was like 60/40 cardio and strength training to maximize muscle mass and stamina. well. presumably they'd have an advantage in the car gained from higher endurance/strength. presumably. concerns like heat exhaustion, physical exhaustion, strain from gs etc. are all lessened if you're physically the strongest and healthiest outside the car.

then again. I think the physical aspect of racing is. a smaller factor in comparison to everything going on if I am Being So Honest. I think its really difficult without me spending like a full day honest to god researching this to give you specific examples because at the end of the day there are so many factors related to what makes a driver a good driver but like. generally speaking. I would argue max verstappen does not have that idealized body type listed above, and yet, his results speak for themselves? maybe???

ive seen an oldddd document that says the Mclaren drivers had a 2800kcal daily intake which is pretty much just maintenance for. lando norris. so like. noticing how none of these trainers push their drivers to any Real extreme (on the baseline that they're professional athletes no I don't consider training 24/7 and eating in maintenance to be extreme. for a normal person Yea. But this is their entire lives that they're paid to do) I'd honestly guess that reaching a "peak" or "ideal" form would just give you the slightest margin. waves hands stat about weight in relation to milliseconds 1.5kg is worth ~0.05s/lap, or around 2 seconds over the whole race, a lot of drivers like to mention this Woe is them truly but it seems like... what that weight is, fat mass vs lean mass Seems To Me like it should be more vital to know and maximize and iiiii would like to know more about why no trainers push their drivers to this extent but o whale. there's also an argument on the table here about that being unhealthy which again. to any normal person absolutely. to a professional athlete? loooowkey discipline delivers results?? Maybeee?? hey sure maybe. In some Wayssss I do see George Russell kind of being the physical ideal, but he's also got the height disadvantage like... the amount of muscle mass to be advantageously gained for him is not going to be comparable to that of like.. lewis or yuki.

which speaking of. lewis is kind of a peak form. Speaking Of... like yeah. he's incredibly healthy, high muscle mass, low body fat. Hey Guys weeee might have solved it... #nebermind #noticethegoat

Then Again. Then Again. lewis was peaking at a time where regulations were so different and ik he struggled with like fasting before races to drop weight so. there's the disadvantage of just. exhaustion from malnutrition that was working against him. and still he rose lowk tho. Then Again. hundred other factors that go into this but.Buttttttttttttuh yeah. ok. points back to verstappen. What is the truth. need to see lewis with good strategists and a good car is the real conclusion.

anyways. re: bulkscar. I am nodding and agreeing with you. gaining lean mass means losing fat in this sport. this is so sick and twisted. nodding. I want him bulky and soft like a GIRL.

[accirax]

Attempting to Debunk the Arei Dress Up Theory

(CW: death, a mention of blackface, and discussion of the BMI system. Spoilers through Chapter 2 of Trigger Happy Havoc and through Chapter 2 Part 1 of Danganronpa: Despair Time.)

As most of you are likely aware, it’s a popular theory that, for one reason or another, the killer of Danganronpa Despair Time Chapter 2 dressed up as the victim, Arei, and that you can see them doing so in this conversation.

Because Veronika brings up Teruko’s prosopagnosia (face blindness) later in the episode, because Arei unusually says nothing throughout this conversation, and because the Dress-Up Room was oh-so-conveniently introduced this chapter, at first glance, it seems very plausible that this could be the twist the Class Trial is heading towards. I, too, liked this theory at first, but then I got to thinking. And the more I thought about all the risk factors, the more I became convinced it was nearly impossible that anybody would have chosen to dress up as Arei.

So, that’s what I’m trying to prove today: no possible killer amongst this cast could have been dressing up as Arei at this exact moment. And, my method is the most fair thing I could think of: bringing up a bunch of points of contention that could trip up anybody, and giving each character either an X or a pass based on their own traits and skills.

Given that there are 14 points that I came up with, I think it’s fair to say that if the character in question receives seven Xs or more (AKA 50%), it would be basically impossible for their disguise to have fooled anyone for this long. I will be giving out double Xs (XX) on some occasions where I think that someone would have a particularly bad problem.

That is based on my discretion, but, uh… so is this entire theory. The good news is that, with this one, it’s particularly easy to play along at home! If you disagree with any of my points, you could run this experiment and change the boundaries or participants to your liking. I’d love to see it if you do!

For this theory, I will be tackling any important character that I think could be dressing up as Arei at this moment. However, that isn’t everybody. Here’s who I eliminated and why:

Because we’re looking at this particular conversation, no one who is present in the Cafeteria could be pretending to be Arei at this point. I mean, I guess if Arei was in on it, then the eventual killer could be dressing up as Arei, and Arei could be dressing up as them. But, if Arei is willing to cooperate… why wouldn’t Arei and the killer just act as themselves? So, Teruko, Hu, Ace, Nico, Veronika, and Levi cannot be dressing up as Arei.

Xander and Min are dead, so I’m excluding them from this conversation.

If Arei is dressing up as Arei, she’s just being Arei. That’s nothing unusual, so we’re not talking about it.

If you genuinely think MonoTV dressed up as Arei and is the Chapter 2 killer, I have many concerns for you.

…Please don’t make me speculate even further about Mai, my heart can’t take it. More seriously, I think that the odds of this huge Mai twist resulting in her being the Chapter 2 killer (and thusly getting executed) are low enough that I can excuse her. I guess it could be that Arei was already dead at this time due to someone else’s hand, and then Mai stepped in from who knows where to impersonate Arei for reasons unknown, but… that’s so speculative that, again, I’m not going to bother. It'd really freak out the killer, too; can you imagine?

Cool! So that leaves us with Arturo, Charles, David, Eden, J, Rose, and Whit as people who could theoretically be dressing up as Arei, likely as her killer.

Before we really get started, I just want to clearly state that, for the most part, I’m not relating this to the actual theories of the timing or method of Arei’s murder. I think it makes the most sense if the person dressing up as Arei then became the blackened, but I’m not actually going to tie anyone’s culprit feasibility into how well they could dress up. There’s no category based on “do they have an alibi for Arei’s time of death” or “could they overpower Arei in a fight.” It’s just an objective look at how good everyone would be at impersonating Arei. I'm going to address the hypothetical person dressing up as Arei as the killer for the remainder of the analysis, though, so keep that in mind.

Let’s get started with issue #1!

Issue #1: Arei’s Hair Color

One factor that even Teruko could notice is if the killer didn’t have the same hair color as Arei. The girl is super blue (Arei even claims so herself in the Chapter 2 Part 1 Q&A), so the killer missing her distinctive hue would be a definite misstep. Out of the characters we have left, I think that David or Arturo would be the best at matching her hair color naturally.

Thankfully, though, they don’t have to.

A point frequently brought up is that we’ve seen these wigs in the Dress-Up Room already. If the killer simply put this on as part of their Arei disguise, it doesn’t matter what their original hair color is. Now, this wig is a lighter color than Arei’s hair, and it’s a little curly, and you’d have to style it, and the white wig being so similar to Sora from SDRA2’s hair makes me think that this wig is meant to parody an existing fangan character… but I’m willing to ignore all that for the sake of theorizing. Plus on that last point, just because the wig may be referencing somebody else doesn’t mean it couldn’t have been used by the killer.

So, no Xs given out this time! A round of applause for all our contestants.

Issue #2: Arei’s Eyes

Similarly, if you showed up dressed as Arei without her beautiful cerulean orbs, a lot of people would probably notice that something was up. J, Whit, and debatably Arturo pass this one for having blue eyes themselves.

The frequent counterpoint to this is similar to the wigs– the Dress-Up Room could easily contain colored contacts which could allow anybody to make their eyes blue. So, let’s talk about the Dress-Up Room.

This is what it looks like in full. As you can see, it’s mostly clothes. Teruko calls it “a boutique,” and Whit and Hu only mention getting “new clothes,” implying that there’s mostly only clothes in this room. However, it’s not only clothes, because Teruko has this to say:

Teruko mentions things besides clothes in this room, but has nothing to say about contacts or makeup. If they do exist, I think it would have to be in this dresser area, either in the drawers or in the pink box.

Now, I don’t think it’s impossible that there could be contacts in either of these places, which is why I’m giving people who don’t have blue eyes a pass here. I’m also ignoring the specific iris/pupil designs that people have here (such as David’s stars or Whit’s heart-shaped pupils) for the sake of the benefit of the doubt. Nobody has patterns on their irises or heart shaped pupils in real life (even after eye surgery), so that could just be a fun design quirk the creator ignored.

However, I will be giving our first X of the game to Eden, because of her glasses. If Eden was dressing up as Arei, she couldn’t wear her usual glasses, which she presumably needs to see. She could remedy her vision impairment with contacts, except that she would have to be wearing colored contacts to have blue eyes.

I did look it up, and it is possible to make colored contacts with a prescription. However, they would have to be customly made for Eden, which would mean that either A) she had to already have them on her at the start of the game (highly unlikely) or B) whoever created this killing game’s set specifically made colored contacts with Eden’s prescription on the off chance that Eden both decided to kill someone AND decided to dress up as someone to do it. They’d have to do it in several colors, too, because they would have no idea who Eden was planning to kill/dress up as. That seems implausible enough to me to discredit her on this one count.

You could also argue that Eden decided to chance just not wearing her glasses here. However, that would raise the obvious problem that she wouldn’t be able to see either what’s in front of her or who’s far away from her, which are both bad for someone trying to go undercover. It would be really hard for her to get through the day without accidentally scrunching her eyes trying to see something, which would start giving her away. Additionally, if Eden’s vision requires a double prescription (such as needing bifocals), you cannot make contacts for that kind of vision impairment.

So, yeah. TL;DR, it’s still an X for Eden only here.

Issue #3: Arei’s Skin Color

Arei has light skin, which you can see on her face and other various body parts in her typical clothing. Thus, anybody with dark skin would struggle impersonating Arei, because they would need to put paint/makeup on their face, neck, arms, hands, and thighs to avoid suspicion.

My point about the Dress-Up Room also comes back here. We haven’t seen any evidence that there is makeup in the Dress-Up Room, and other than potentially in Storage, I don’t think there’s a great alternate place to get it. I would believe that both Whit and Hu might wear makeup, so it would have been easy for one of them to comment about the cosmetics present in this room if they existed, and particularly if they would later be murder relevant.

However again, for the sake of theorizing, I’ll say that there is light skin paint/makeup in one of the drawers that a darker skinned person could use to cover themselves up. It would still be a time consuming plan with a high chance of failure, though, so I’m giving Charles, Eden, and Rose an X for impracticality here.

Issue #4: Arei’s Ethnicity

(This section has been edited since its original posting. Thank you to @another-danganronpa-fan and @xmicrophonyx for drawing my attention to the August 6th Q&A and more importantly the March 6th Q&A!)

Although Google says that the last name “Nageishi” is most common in Brazil (???), given that it’s Japanese in origin (as are Arei, Fuyuko, and Natusko’s names), I’m pretty sure that Arei is Japanese. And many of the other students… are not.

Look, I don’t want to bring real world politics into silly anime murder theory, but I really, really doubt that the creator would want to have a person of one race dress up as someone of another race, especially for characters who would have to change their skin tone. It’s not as obviously bad as a character straight up doing blackface, but it’s close enough that I think the creator would know to avoid putting that beat into their story. I’m tempted to give characters that fail here a double X, but since it’s technically only my opinion, I’ll leave it at one.

Now, I am assuming characters’ ethnicities here based on last names, which isn’t a foolproof plan. It doesn’t account for characters who are adopted, or who have a mixed race lineage. Still, I think that, combined with their designs, it’s the best we have to go off of.

Therefore, I’m giving an X to Arturo (likely caucasian), Charles (confirmed Hispanic), J (confirmed Hispanic), and Rose (French last name, but given that she is obviously black I would say likely Afro-French/potentially Creole?). Because David (likely Vietnamese) is still East Asian, I’m letting him slide; same with Whit (confirmed caucasian/asian). Although Eden's skin tone still troubles me, I try not to penalize or benefit characters multiple times for the same trait. Thus, because Eden is canonically half black and half Japanese, she will also not get an X.

I truly hope that I did not offend anybody with this section. If I said something incorrect, please let me know so that I can apologize and either correct it or remove this section as quickly as possible.

Issue #5: Arei’s Height

Arei is 5’7” (170 cm), so for the killer to impersonate her, they’d have to be somewhere around her height. I know that the Arei we saw was probably sitting down, but like… the killer would still have to walk to and away from the table to get there, which means people could have seen them standing. Not to mention, your height still shows when you’re sitting down if it’s off enough.

I think that being one inch (2.5 cm) off in either direction would be enough to bypass most people (we’ll get to that), so anyone in the 5’6”-5’8” (167-173 cm) range could pull it off. Therefore, J passes at a perfect 5’7” (170 cm), and so does Whit (5’6”/167 cm). Arturo (6’3”/190 cm) gets our first XX here for being literally over half a foot (15 cm) off. Eden just barely avoids being half a foot off at 5’2” (157 cm), so she gets an X. So do Charles (5’9”/175 cm), David (5’9”/175 cm), and Rose (5’4”/162 cm).

Issue #6: Arei’s Weight

I bring in this point mostly to communicate how likely it is that the killer could properly fit into Arei’s clothes. If the killer weighed too much more than Arei, then the clothes would be too tight, and if they weighed too much less than Arei, the clothes would be super baggy.

The best way I figured I could analyze this is to use a Body Mass Index (BMI) chart, which, if you didn’t know, is a ratio doctors use to compare people’s heights to their weights to determine whether or not they may be over- or underweight. Now, there have been several critiques of the BMI system, particularly regarding athletes– muscle is more dense than fat, so some of the fittest people in the world classify as morbidly obese under the system. It also wasn’t designed for anime characters with unrealistic weight expectations (seriously how tf was Mukuro 5’7”/169 cm and 97 lbs/44 kg she should've been DEAD long before the Spears of Gungir).

Because of how unreliable this method is, I won’t be giving any characters XX on this one no matter how far off they are. However, I will be giving one X to anybody who is more than two points off of Arei’s BMI. Because Arei clocks in at 19.5, that means anyone in the range of 17.5-21.5 would be safe.

Weirdly enough, with that range, the only two people who get an X in the weight category are the same people who passed the height category, J (22) and Whit (22). Arturo (21.5), Charles (21), David (21), Eden (20), and Rose (20) all have fairly similar proportions to Arei.

Issue #7: Arei’s Build

Speaking of muscles, Arei’s the Ultimate Bowler, dammit! She’s a professional athlete, and Rose even points out her strength during the arm wrestling contest.

Although I don’t think that the killer would need to expect to demonstrate Arei’s strength (or especially her bowling skills) when in disguise, you can still gauge how muscular someone is just from looking at them. For example, were Levi an option, he would be way too muscular to pass off as Arei.

This point becomes a lot easier to score with the official strength chart that the creator released in the Chapter 2 Part 1 Q&A!

I know that the creator warned us to not take this diagram too seriously, but for the sake of fun speculation, I think that this semi-canon material is the best we have to go off of. Not to mention, each section is only one point out of fourteen overall. If we're a little off here, it'll be okay.

Besides, I suspect that they put in that warning more so for people who do intense math about crime theories (like people who calculate that anyone who lifted Arei’s body using a single pulley system would have to be able to lift approximately 64 lbs/29 kg what who said that). It's understandable if they didn’t complete a physics thesis paper on exactly how a drop of blood would fall on a cashmere sweater when it’s a humid July day and the victim ate sauerkraut ice cream earlier.

Jokes aside, I’ll say that anyone in the fit to average range would be able to pass as Arei at a glance. That means that David and J are a-okay. Arturo, Charles, Rose, and Whit all get one X for being out of shape. Eden gets XX for being even more out of shape than the out of shape people.

Issue #8: Arei’s Voice

Out of all the voices in the cast, I think that Arei has one of the highest pitches. Thus, if the killer was suddenly called upon to speak as Arei, they would need to possess the ability to speak in a high pitched voice to even have a chance of mimicking Arei.

You could argue that the killer would go in with the intention of not ever speaking as Arei, but you have to remember that this killer was intentionally going out and being around people so that their disguise could be seen. A simple “how are you this morning?” or “did you get enough to eat?” could ruin your plans. You could choose to not respond, but part of the reason why people suspect that the Arei in this conversation isn’t Arei is because she doesn’t speak. AKA, Arei being quiet is out of character for her, and not speaking would immediately raise suspicion!

I’m giving David a XX because his voice is deep enough that I think he would seriously struggle to reach Arei’s pitch. Arturo, Charles, and Whit have deep enough voices that I think that they could easily be caught, but it wouldn't be so unreasonable that they couldn't give it a try. So, they get a regular X. Eden and Rose pass this test with flying colors. J has a lower voice among the girls, but I think she could speak in a higher pitch if she wasn’t so concerned with sounding girly, and her experience with actors might give her an edge.

Issue #9: Arei’s Wit

If “Arei” is forced to talk, then “she” also needs to sound like Arei when she does. Therefore, the killer needs to be someone who could mimic Arei’s personality to a certain degree– AKA, they need to bring the savage energy that Arei brings to her bullying roasts. After all, responding rudely is probably the best way to make sure that your interrogator shuts up and leaves you alone.

I’m just gonna run through this one in alphabetical order. Arturo insults people on the reg, so other than the fact that “Arei’s” insults might be a little more appearance-based than normal, he’d be fine. Charles has been seen trading verbal blows with Teruko, so I believe he could pull it off. David radiates so much theater kid energy that I’m sure he could pull Arei off as if it were the role of his life. Eden… is the first character here that I think might get an X. Her general personality is super nice, and even when she does oppose someone, it’s either out of sad desperation (like when she defends Arei in the second Class Trial) or in a silly way (like when she blackmails Teruko). Even if she decided to be mean for the sake of her murder scheme, I just don’t know if she has the killer instinct to come up with ruthless burns as quickly Arei does. While not as much as Arei, J is pretty blunt and rude, plus she’s had plenty of target practice with Arturo. Although Rose is very good at replicating paintings, I don’t think she’d have the energy or present-mindedness to replicate Arei’s personality, so she gets an X too. Whit has made jokes that come off as rude to others in the past (like Xander in the prologue, or Charles in the laundry scene), and he’s hung out with Arei a couple of times, so I think he could do it.

Issue #10: Arei’s Relationships

We’ve discussed somebody talking to Arei in the abstract, but now I want to get more specific. Right before the Class Trial occurred, Arei made some very notable relationships with people that were not made public knowledge– namely, her emotional reliance on David, her unwavering loyalty to Eden, and her defensive feud with Arturo.

The Arturo one isn’t really a problem, as just being normally mean to Arturo would probably suffice. But what if David came up to her at lunch, put a hand on her shoulder, and asked her how she was doing? If “Arei” started insulting him or manipulating him, he would immediately suspect something was up.

Considering that, as the evidence stands, I’m pretty sure no one character (other than Arei) definitely knew about all three of these relationships prior to the Class Trial, I could give everyone an X. However, there is a way you can bypass this– if the killer was confident that they knew about the way Arei felt about everyone, even if they were actually wrong.

I was already going to give Eden, David, and Arturo a pass for knowing about at least some of the relationships, but under this lens, it’s even more believable. Eden is in the best position, given that she knows about herself and Arturo, and at least saw David there when she ran away. Given that Arei thought of her as a friend, it’s also possible that Arei would have mentioned to Eden that David was the one who motivated her to defend Eden. David knew about Arei’s relationship with himself, and knew that she planned to patch things up with Eden. He didn’t have any reason to suspect anything weird with Arturo, but again, the relationship didn’t change all that much. Arturo would have struggled with David, but he at least knew about himself and Eden. I believe he could have been overly confident in assuming that Arei hated everyone other than Eden, so I’ll let him slide.

However, I think Charles, Whit, Rose, and J would all get an X. Charles is a smart guy who I can’t remember ever talking to Arei one on one, so I find it hard to believe that he believed he knew everything there was to know about Arei’s relationships. Whit spent more time with Arei, but he’s also more emotionally aware– he knows how complex people are, and therefore probably wouldn’t bank on nailing how Arei feels when he’s spent so much time off with Charles. Rose is often asleep and therefore misses out on a lot of the daily life. She sometimes can’t even remember who people are period, so I doubt she’d have the confidence to believe she understood Arei’s relationships. J is definitely the closest on this point, given that she’s interacted with Arei a decent amount and is pretty confident in herself. However, she’s pretty practical (just like her effects), so it’s still enough of a stretch that I’d give her the X.

Issue #11: The Killer’s Skill

This category asks, “how much does this plan rely on the talents included in the killer’s own Ultimate ability?” Don’t get me wrong– not every case, canon or fanon, needs to utilize part of the killer’s Ultimate talent. For instance, Mondo didn’t use any skills involved in being the Ultimate Biker Gang Leader when he killed Chihiro, unless you count his overall strength and attitude.

I’m actually asking this because I think that the disguise plan makes a lot of sense with J’s talent, the Ultimate Effects Artist. As I’ve explained before, J specializes in practical theater effects, which would make her far and away the best at pulling off the visual magic needed to make herself look like Arei. So, what of everyone else?

Think about it this way: imagine if you were playing the first case of Trigger Happy Havoc, and you learn that the blackened threw Hiro’s crystal ball at the buttons to make the Trash Room open. Then, you deduce, aha! Taka must be the culprit! In this universe, you’re right, and Taka is executed. But, wouldn’t it be weird if Taka committed the crime doing something that lined up exactly with Leon’s skill, and there was no focus given to it at all?

If someone was killing Arei and using J’s talent to do it, I would expect that they would be doing it with the intention of framing J. And I don’t think that anything else in this case purposefully makes it look like J did it, even if J actually did do it. Thus, I feel justified in giving Arturo, Charles, David, Eden, Rose, and Whit Xs for this category.

Issue #12: The Killer’s Absence

In my mind, the theoretical point of dressing up as Arei is so that, if you killed or otherwise incapacitated Arei earlier in the murder process, nobody would find it suspicious that she was gone. That, of course, raises another question– what if people find it suspicious that you are gone? Because of that, I think that the killer is someone who would have to be able to slip away from the group relatively unnoticed.

Charles and Whit are giving each other Xs here. Since the beginning of Chapter 2, it seems like these two hang out with each other pretty much 24/7. If one of them was gone, the other would certainly notice. (I’m excluding the possibility of one of them being an accomplice for the other because I find it incredibly implausible for actual murder- and character-related reasons.) Not to mention the incredibly gay funny sequence of events in the second Class Trial where David questions if anybody could really have a solid alibi for the entire day, then Charles says that he was with Whit for the entire day, and David doesn’t even bat an eye. In theory, this also means that Charles and Whit were actually together for the entire day, which means that it probably should be impossible for either of them to have been Arei during the scene at lunch. ...Oops?. Speaking of spending the day together, though…

J and Arturo are also exchanging Xs. If J was busy dressing up as Arei all day, Arturo would have been roaming the halls calling her name. And even if J would enjoy Arturo being gone for a day, she would certainly remember it. She even says as much in the Class Trial:

Given that the “that time period” J is talking about is around 7:30 PM, it’s not fully impossible that either of them could have been Arei at lunch. However, they would still both generally notice the absence of the other, so they get an X.

I think Eden, David, and Rose all get passes, though. Eden is a generally sociable person who likes to talk to others, but she doesn’t have one particular person she’s attached to as much as Charles and Whit/J and Arturo are. The person who would probably be most likely to notice would either be Arei, but she would be dead/incapacitated, or Hu, who was dealing with Nico and Ace at the time. Plus, if she was absent from one conversation, people would probably just assume she was talking to someone else somewhere else. David also generally seemed to get along with people, but also seemed to spend a lot of time alone. Rose… really doesn’t have a lot of close friends, and also isn’t much of a talker. If she was gone, people would probably just assume she was off sleeping somewhere.

Issue #13: The Arturo Pass

Arturo is a plastic surgeon, a profession which looks at the smallest details of a person’s face and tweaks them, even in slight ways, to make them look their conventional best. Or, essentially, if something is even the slightest bit off about Arei’s face, Arturo could probably pick it up from a mile away.

Now, I know that Arturo did not appear in the specific conversation in which Teruko saw “Arei” being quiet. However, there’s no reason that the killer would have to believe that they couldn’t run into Arturo unless they were Arturo, right? Anybody could come into the Cafeteria, so unless the killer did something to stop him, Arturo could have come, too. Since we can’t prove that Arturo and the killer meeting did or didn’t happen, I think we have to assume it was a possibility.

Therefore, I think that all candidates except Arturo fail here because it’s unlikely that they could stand up to Arturo’s scrutiny. Additionally, I would say that J doubly fails because Arturo has spent so much time staring at her face specifically. It’s possible that he could have forgotten what the rest of the casts’ ugly mugs look like, throwing them all into the pile of disgusting rejection. But there’s no way that he wouldn’t be able to recognize Julia’s glowing beauty under the makeup and clothing that makes her look horrifying.

To summarize, Arturo passes his own check because he would have no reason to call himself out, J gets a XX because of how tuned in Arturo is to how she looks, and everybody else (Charles, David, Eden, Rose, Whit) gets a regular X for being ugly in their own unique ways.

Issue #14: The Rose Pass

Same as before, except even worse. Remember when I said we were coming back to the “one inch in either direction could fool most people” thing? We know that Rose can canonically notice 1/16th in (0.16 cm) growths in people, so having literally anything off here could spell death.

I am aware that Rose is sleepy, forgets what people look like sometimes, and is somewhat absent minded. So, let me address those concerns as best I can.

For the first, recall that this is the day where Teruko wakes up four hours late. Therefore, when she enters the Cafeteria, it’s actually closer to noon than it is to morning. Even if the killer was only dressed up as Arei around the time of that meal, we already know that she was awake at that time– Teruko leaves the Cafeteria and runs into Rose around the Gym directly afterward.

For the second and third, we only know that she only forgot about who J was before the first Class Trial. I would expect that after a murder actually occurred, she would be much more aware of her surroundings, and more likely to remember what people look like. She has nightmares about the trial and execution, which every student (except Xander) attended. With her photographic memory, I would expect that she would remember exactly what they looked like at that time. Not to mention that, under my system, everybody has at least one unrelated X. Those are all things that would stick out, which Rose is much more likely to notice than something that’s normal.

That’s my longwinded way to explain that pretty much everyone (Arturo, Charles, David, Eden, J, Whit) is getting an X here. Rose doesn’t because she, again, would not have to worry about running into herself.

The Grand Summary!

So, in the end, we see that (drumroll please…)

DAVID COULD FUCKING PASS AS AREI ARE YOU KIDDING ME–

Ahem. Well, with my analysis today, we have proven that nobody in the cast could have been dressing up as Arei at the time of that lunch conversation… other than David fucking Chiem, apparently. Now, keep in mind that he is just barely hitting under fifty percent here, and that he double failed on the voice.

But, uh, there you go, swap theorists. If anybody was going to swap with Arei, it would have been David. I look forward to seeing everybody’s theories about how David is the true killer of Chapter 2 via crossdressing.

Tip: I am so fucking mad. See ya, everybody– thanks for reading!

[be-nice-to-your-meatsuit]

This might be taboo to say on a body positivity blog, but I'm losing weight intentionally.

While I'm not on it *now* (im in the states and on vacation so it'd be unreasonable to try), it was working pretty well.

I'm going for a straightforward calorie deficit. Try to have my activity higher than intake, give or take a bit, don't go lower than a certain amount.

And honestly? Accepting my body as it is, was the ONLY way this was going to work. My motives couldn't be "i fucking hate myself and need to change to be acceptable". My motives were "my snoring is unstoppable and I've tested and tried everything except for losing weight. It causes me pain when I walk too far because of thigh chafing, and back pain sucks" I don't want to be skinny after, hell, I like my soft and curvy self. Going to the actual "healthy" weight according to Bullshit BMI would mean my tiny ass would fly out the window if you hit a bump on the highway.

Being kinder, and loving my body means that I can take it slow, take it at my own pace, and not beat myself up on a day where my goals aren't achieved (i have three. 10k steps a day, 3L of water a day, and stay under some type of deficit. As long as 1/3 is achieved, I'm happy. If 0/3 is achieved, hey i can try again tomorrow. Were it not for fat liberation philosophies, I'd be having breakdown after breakdown).

I can be at this for a month, noticed I've lost 7 lbs and instead of going "WHY AM I A FAILURE I NEED TO GO HARDER ABOUT THIS" i can say "neat! That's about the rate I wanna be going!"

Staying on these body positive and fat liberation spaces made me say "hey, the difference between "good food" and "bad food" is awful. I'm gonna succeed, but I'm not going to cut out any food that makes me happy." I can say "alright, I'm cutting it close to my limit, but fuck it, I'm still hungry so I'll make myself a snack, because listening to my body is more important than numbers".

Losing weight will not make me more worthy. I am worthy at whatever weight I am. For those who it matters to, I'm pretty damn hot, no matter my weight. It will not make me immune from health issues, and this doesn't have anything to do with morality. My health status, if it changes, will be because I'm active and hydrating more, not because of the number on the scale.

I just want less thigh chafing without remembering to put deodorant or some shit on my thighs. I want to not snore while I'm in bed with my fiancé (and yeah sleep apnea apparently isn't it, got it tested). I want less back pain when I'm standing at a till for 4.5 hours, even if I've got the world's best shoes on. It's not health reasons, it's inconvenience reasons.

But I could never be successful about it until i disentangled fatphobia from weight loss. Until i stopped saying "these foods are bad, these foods are good", I was always going to fail. Until i stopped believing I was worthless because of my fat, until i stopped saying "I need to lose weight and do it now because I need to be hot", it was never going to work.

There's still things I need to work on, I'm not totally cured, and maybe some days the ED's gonna influence. Hell, idk if this weight loss attempt will stick, and be successful once I get to my goal weight. But even as someone who's trying to lose weight, fat liberation is so important.

Because without the idea that being fat is totally okay, I'd be unable to enjoy myself in the times where it's absolutely unreasonable to count calories. I'd have my goal as "stick thin" and not "how I look now, just less chafe". By the end of this, I'll still be medically overweight.

And btw I still believe in Health at Every Size. Your weight has no fucking impact on your worth, your health, your beauty, ANYTHING.

[businessideasworld]

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[fatphobiabusters]

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Below are all of the guidelines for sending asks to our blog. Please review these guidelines carefully before sending an ask.

We want to make sure everyone’s experience on our blog is as pleasurable as possible, and having people send asks that are upsetting, are repeats of previous questions, or are full of unnecessary/offensive language make people’s experiences on our blog less delightful.

We want to be as useful of a resource to people as possible, but we cannot do that under negative conditions. Both the way you say something and what you specifically say are important, and can make a huge difference in how we perceive your ask or how we answer it, so please be aware of that and follow these guidelines closely.

In short, we have guidelines for your benefit. So please do your best to follow them.

This page will be divided into two parts: a “general rules” part that focuses on the content of your messages, and a more specific formatting part that explains how your asks should be written. Please read both parts very carefully, as both are very important.

If any of the guidelines are unclear to you (for example, if you don’t understand what a specific rule is asking or aren’t sure what would qualify as breaking that rule), or if you need further elaboration on any of the guidelines, please let us know. We are more than happy to help you with this.

If you are interested in sending a submission instead of an ask, please look at our Submissions Policy page. Remember that a lot of what you see on this page applies there too, even if the other guidelines do not specifically say it! For that reason, it would be a good idea to read both guidelines before sending submissions.

Thank you for making an effort to learn our guidelines, for following them, and for being so thoughtful and understanding.

General Rules:

Rule One: If the ask you are planning on sending us is in response to a post, submission, or ask already on our blog, please just reblog the original post/ask or put a reply on that thread instead of sending us a new ask.

In other words, if you are adding something to a conversation already taking place on our blog somewhere, don’t send us an ask; instead, please reblog whatever post it is to which you are contributing, leave a comment on that post, or otherwise engage with that post.

Don’t send us an ask to say, “About that one post,” or “In reply to that last ask.” Just reblog the post/ask to which you are responding.

There’s a few reasons for this rule in particular, and why this rule is so important.

Imagine, for example, that you send us an ask about BMI after we replied to another ask about it, and then someone else sends us another ask about BMI, and then another person does, and another, and another, until we have a good 50 asks in the inbox about BMI. Can you see why we might not want to post that many? Can you see why that might be stressful for us as the people who have to answer that many asks? Or how it might be annoying for our followers to see 50+ posts on the same topic all at once?

Additionally, people not following the entire conversation might miss important key parts of the conversation, and might start leaving unnecessary comments (such comments repeating things already said) or asking questions that were already answered.

This might lead to drama and fights ensuing because people didn’t see the entire conversation, and therefore don’t entirely understand what is being said.

We don’t want a bunch of fights starting that could be avoided by people having all the information available to them before they comment on a post. It’s easier for us to keep the whole conversation, especially the best parts of the conversation, in one or two posts, rather than making 50 on the same topic that are all interrelated and responding to one another.

It also clutters our inbox to get a lot of asks all at once, which might make it harder for us to get to more time sensitive or urgent asks. The more asks we have in the inbox, the more overwhelming it becomes to answer asks, and the more likely it is we will miss something important (like someone asking how to deal with an emergency) or give a poorly thought out answer because we were too tired or were rushing. This would obviously be bad for everyone involved, so we want to avoid this situation if at all possible.

Moreover, if for some reason we are only able to reply to the first 30 asks in a single sitting, the last 20 might not make as much sense when we do finally have time to respond to them because we might not remember the conversation that occured before about BMI and we might already have new conversations started.

If those 20 asks say, “In regards to that last ask,” but the last ask we posted was not related to the BMI conversation, it might be confusing for us, and confusing for our followers. These 20 asks might seem really random and unprompted, despite having actually been relevant at one time.

We as mods can’t always be sure to what post you are referring when you say “In regards to that one post,” so we can’t necessarily reply to you accurately. We might not know from where your comment is coming or what sparked it. That makes it really hard for us to keep the conversation going.

Overall, it’s just a hassle and we don’t appreciate it. So please, don’t keep sending asks when it’s not necessary to do so.

Note: this rule also applies to submissions.

Rule Two: If you are sending us an ask to warn us that someone we reblogged from is a TWERF/TERF, SWERF, aphobe, racist, or otherwise problematic, please be specific about what their offense is.

Don’t just say “Ew, you reblogged (insert username here)” or say “Yikes, I didn’t know (insert username here) was still relevant.” We can’t do anything with that.

You need to be clear about the specific way someone is bigoted or problematic and say it in direct terms. State clearly to us that “(Insert username here) is a TERF/racist/aphobe/[insert other type of bigot here].” We can’t know that someone is, for example, racist, if all you send us is a message that simply says, “Yikes.”

Keep in mind we verify that what you are saying is true. If you send us a false accusation or a lie, we will find out about it. If your intel on this blogger is based on a misunderstanding, we will find out about it.

We are not going to delete posts based on false accusations, half baked rumors, or shaky evidence. We will not block people based on those things, and we will not stop interacting with people based on those things. We are always going to make sure you are telling us the truth before we do anything, because it’s not fair to that blogger to help you or other people spread lies about them.

We aren’t verifying your comment because we don’t trust you or believe you; we are doing it because we do not want to be responsible for wrecking innocent people’s reputations.

We have had false accusations in our inbox before, and we don’t want to have that happen again. As such, we will not be posting accusations against someone without first checking to see if they are true, regardless of how serious the accusation may be.

We will gladly delete posts by anyone who is a bigot regardless if we agree with what they said. That is not a problem for us. We do not support bigotry of any kind, and will not endorse or support people who are problematic or dangerous.

We just need to be sure that you’re not lying or confusing the person you are talking about with someone else, which has happened more than once. We hope you can understand.

Note: this rule also applies to submissions.

Rule Three: If your ask is really long and requires sending three or more asks, send it as a submission instead!

Do not send us more than two asks on the same topic at a time, because that crowds our inbox and makes answering your question too difficult! (See this post for more details.)

We have had people send as many as six or seven asks in a row about the same thing, and it’s extremely frustrating and makes it harder to respond, so please don’t do that!

We can forgive people who meant to send a two-part ask, but realized as they were typing part two that their ask actually requires three parts. That’s understandable.

However, if it’s obvious to you immediately that your ask is going to be really long, please make sure you send a submission instead. It is a lot easier to respond to that way and is easier for our followers to read.

Rule Four: Tell us if you want your ask to remain anonymous, and we shall post it as such. If you forgot to press the “anonymous” button or didn’t log out before sending us something and want us to know that you don’t want it posted with your name attached, just let us know as soon as you possibly can.

Also, please make sure you let us know if you want your ask answered privately. We don’t have to post anything that you don’t want posted!

Rule Five: If your ask is an emergency, time sensitive, or otherwise needs to be answered right away, please tell us that in your ask!

State it very clearly for us so that we don’t miss it; we have had time sensitive asks before that we didn’t get to until it was too late because at first glance, they didn’t seem nearly as serious or time sensitive as they were.

Remember we have busy lives and are often unable to answer asks right away, and sometimes let things go unanswered for months; if your ask absolutely needs to be answered, you have to let us know that right away!

Note: this rule also applies to submissions.

Rule Six: Do not get mad at us if we don’t answer you right away. It just means we have other things going on in our lives and can’t devote time to sitting at a computer and answering every question people have.

Remember, too, that several of the mods regularly utilize the queue. If it seems like our blog is really active on a given day, and yet no one seems to be answering you, that could mean that we aren’t actually on Tumblr and all of the posts you’re seeing were queued a while ago.

Usually, queued posts will be tagged as such, but XKit doesn’t always do this, and tagging on mobile is more difficult than tagging on the computer, so mobile posts often aren’t tagged. That means you won’t always know just by looking at it if the post was posted just now or if it was queued ages ago.

(Side note: we completely apologize for any untagged posts, or posts that are not tagged well. Please let us know if this is a problem or if we forgot to tag a trigger on a post that you really need us to tag.)

Note: this rule also applies to submissions.

Rule Seven: We get many, many asks, and sometimes, we can’t keep up with them. There are a lot of reasons why this might be, and we don’t have time to go through every reason. However, we can say that we do have a solution to this problem, one about which you need to be aware.

If the inbox reaches a certain number of asks (usually 100 or more) and we’re having trouble keeping up, we’ll turn the inbox off completely. That means you will not be able to send us asks for a period of time.

Please be patient with us; we will open the inbox for you again soon. We want to get to your asks as timely as possible. but we want to make sure we answer them well. We can’t do that if we are rushing, or are overwhelmed with stress from the number of asks we have received.

(Side note: We might turn off anonymous asks, but not all asks, if we are getting to much hate mail at a particular time. If we get too many asks of a hostile nature, especially if they are anonymous, we will turn anonymous asks off until it seems safe to turn them on again. Do not make us do that; people need anonymous asks in order to talk to us and feel safe and secure while doing so. Don’t take that safety and peace of mind away from others. You shouldn’t want to be responsible for that. )

As much as we appreciate that you like what we do, we’re human. We have our feelings and our own lives. And we want to make sure we give everyone equal time and respected answers while at the same time keeping our well being in check. We want to take care of ourselves too.

Note: this rule also applies to submissions.

Rule Eight: Please don’t ask us anything about topics about which we aren’t experts or have no right or authority answering (topic examples: animals, physics, medical diagnoses).

We can really only answer questions about fatphobia and other forms of oppression as they apply to humans, how fatphobia is present in everyday life, etc., as well as our opinions on political or social events. Most other topics are not ones where we can give an informed opinion.

We are not doctors or veterinarians. We cannot give accurate diagnoses of you or your pets, nor can we give you information on other unrelated topics about which we don’t know.

So if you are going to ask us a question, please make sure it is something that we could actually answer. If any part of you is unsure whether we will be able to answer your question, it might be better to ask someone else.

If we can’t answer your question, we will try to direct you to someone who can, but it might be better just to not ask us something if you’re unsure we will be capable of answering accurately.

Please remember: We’re not therapists, we’re not lawyers, and we’re certainly not doctors. We’re just a group of people that like to help. We can’t know everything, and we don’t claim to know everything. So please try not to assume that we do, or expect that we can answer every single thing you might think to ask. And please remember that, since we don’t know you personally, know your medical history, etc., there is a lot that you know about yourself that we never could.

We are not here to give medical advice, professional mental help, or anything like that. Please do not come to us as if we are able to do that.

Note: this rule also applies to submissions.

Rule Nine: On that note, please don’t come to us demanding we “stop giving medical advice.”

The only “medical advice” we give is that people advocate for themselves, take care of their mental health, make choices that are right for them, educate themselves on the risks of commonly suggested procedures for fat people, recognize that doctors often suggest weight loss to fat patients when weight loss is not necessary, and be aware that medical fatphobia exists.

That’s it.

If you do not think people should be allowed to stand up to doctors who make them feel like they do not have their best interest in heart, if you think that doctors are flawless and never let their bigotry influence their work, if you think that fat people not trying to starve themselves or engage in risky or dangerous behaviors to lose weight is a bad thing, etc., you are on the wrong blog. Period.

We are not the problem; you are.

Note: this rule also applies to submissions.

Rule Ten: Please also remember not to ask us anything unrelated to fatphobia, sizeism, healthism, and the like! We don’t mind occasionally straying from that topic, but overall we are a fatphobia blog, and we want fatphobia to be our focus!

If you want to ask us an unrelated question, either ask us for our personal blogs so we can talk somewhere else, or try to find a different blog to answer your question. Social justice and feminist blogs, for example, are all over Tumblr; you don’t need to go to us for general questions about feminism, political parties, or the like.

This blog is for combatting fatphobia, for disproving fatphobic narratives, for calling attention to institutional fatphobia, for calling out diet culture and beauty culture, and for demolishing systems of oppression related to body size. That is our focus. And that is what we are going to be discussing here.

Note: this rule also applies to submissions.

Rule Eleven: Please remember that if we perceive your ask to be a personal attack, hate mail, or in any way cruel, violent, fatphobic, hateful, or rude, we may respond with anger or simply block you. Please be polite when you ask questions and please forgive us if we misinterpret your tone.

Is it possible we might mistake something you say as hate when it isn’t intended that way? Sure it is. We are only human, and we can only go by our own perceptions because we can’t hear your tone online and we don’t know your intentions if you don’t tell us. We will always be as kind and generous as we can be with people who are kind to us, but we are not perfect and sometimes we make mistakes. We apologize in advance.

Note: this rule also applies to submissions.

Rule Twelve: Regardless if we reply in a manner you find perfectly polite or not, we ask that you be understanding of our perspective and our emotions. Do not police our tone and the way we communicate with others. We have every right to be rude to people who were rude to us first.

We are kind, patient, calm, rational people, but being those things doesn’t mean we don’t get upset when others hurt or dehumanize us. And we are allowed to get upset. We are allowed to be mad. We are allowed to be uncomfortable when people treat us poorly. Even if that wasn’t their intention, even if they were “polite” about it, even if they were not overly hateful and cruel.

Being angry doesn’t make us immature, doesn’t make us pathetic, doesn’t make us childish, and doesn’t make us wrong. So please do not come to us to try to tell us we are wrong to be angry or that our anger reflects poorly on us.

If our anger towards fatphobia and health-based bigotry offends you more than fatphobia and health-based bigotry, we are not the problem. You are.

We will not tolerate being labeled unfairly or being tone policed simply for being mad that someone attacked us in our own inbox. Asks accusing us of being mean to people who sent hate mail will result in a block.

We do not owe people emotional labor, especially when they mistreat us. Be kind to us and we will be kind to you. We do not owe bullies that kindness.

Note: this rule also applies to submissions.

Rule Thirteen: We do not tolerate sealioning, trolling, bigotry, bullying, or other bullshit. Do not expect us to “debate” you or to entertain you. It is not our job to waste our time and emotional labor on people who hate fat people, harass fat people, etc.

We don’t have endless amounts of time to spend on this Earth, and we aren’t going to spend that time on people who come to us in bad faith or who greet us with aggression, hostility, anger, or fake concern.

Note: this rule also applies to submissions.

Finally: Please don’t feel the need to start your asks with an apology! So many of you tell us you feel bad for wasting our time or for bothering us before you send a message. We don’t need you to feel sorry for sending us a message, for taking up our time, etc.

We are more than happy to help you and to answer your questions, and it is a pleasure to do so! We love you all, and you mean so much to us! So don’t feel bad about contacting us, don’t feel guilty, and don’t worry about it!

We are happy to have you on our blog and we want to communicate with and be there for you. So there is no need to be sorry. 💖

Note: this rule also applies to submissions.

All of these rules are based on our real experiences with real people. These rules aren’t random or made for no reason. So please respect each and every one. It’s very important to us as it makes our blog much more wonderful for everyone.

Also, please remember: you are allowed to address your asks to a specific moderator if you so choose. Feel free to take advantage of that.

How To Write And Format Asks:

Now that you know the general rules of our ask box, it’s time to discuss how to actually format your ask. To make the lives of everyone involved easier, please try the following procedure before you send an ask.

First: Check to see if there is an answer to your question already posted to our blog. To do this, use the search bar at the top of our blog and type in any phrase, word, or tag relevant to your question.

You can see all of our previously posted asks by searching the “ask” tag (for all asks, even ones we reblogged from others) and “asked and answered” tag (for all asks we specifically answered), go to our “resource” or “reference” tags for scientific or otherwise important information, see all of our links by searching the “link” tag, or you can search a specific keyword related to your question.

For example, if you wanted to know our opinion about the show This is Us, you could type in “This is Us” in the search bar. The results should bring up every post tagged with “This is Us,” as well as posts that mention that phrase. From there, you should be able to figure out how we feel about the show without much hassle.

The search bar method works both on mobile and on the computer, so it shouldn’t be particularly difficult. You should be able to look through our tags at any time, without much trouble.

(Note: we are discussing adding a “Frequent Tags” page that would include any common tags or important tags so that you can more easily find what you are looking for, but this has not been finalized. At any rate, pages are only available on the computer version of Tumblr, so the search bar method is probably easier.)

Second: Check to see if the information you want could be found on one of the pages on our blog. We have both a Frequently Asked Questions page and a Resource page that contains a list of useful links and references.

You can find pages on our blog on the computer, but you will not be able to access these from mobile. So please keep that in mind.

(Note: If these pages are for some reason unavailable, it means we are currently updating them and they will be available again when we are done! So if you cannot find these pages, do not be discouraged; they will become available again eventually. Please check the pages for regular updates, too, because we make changes to our pages whenever necessary.)

Third: Do not use any racist, transphobic, antisemitic, misogynistic, ableist*, or otherwise offensive/oppressive language in your ask. We are very serious about this, and we will remind you every time you violate this rule.

*If you don’t know what words are ableist or not or need alternatives to ableist language, please go here. This is especially important because many of the mods and followers are mentally ill and/or disabled in some way, so we appreciate people who don’t use language that hurts us.

Note: this rule also applies to submissions.

Fourth: Make sure your question is as specific and accurate as possible. We can’t answer questions we do not understand.

If your question is not specific, clearly written, and well worded, it makes doing our job a lot harder. Please proofread your ask before you send it and try to keep it clear and concise. Thank you!

Note: this rule also applies to submissions.

For now, that’s all you need to know about sending asks! Let us know if you have any questions, or if anything was confusing for you. We are always happy to help you.

Please make sure you check out our Submissions Policy, Blog Rules, Do Not Interact List, and other important pages before attempting to interact with our blog.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and we hope you have a lovely day!

Sincerely,

The Fatphobia Busters Team

---

Last Updated in February, 2019.

Dear Current and Future Followers,

Thank you for taking the time to grace our blog with your presence. We appreciate you being here.

Below are all of the guidelines for sending submissions to our blog. Please review these guidelines carefully before sending us a submission.

We want to make sure everyone’s experience on our blog is as pleasurable as possible, and having people send submissions that are upsetting, are repeats of previous questions, or are full of unnecessary/offensive language make people’s experiences on our blog less delightful.

We want to be as useful of a resource to people as possible, but we cannot do that under negative conditions. Both the way you say something and what you specifically say are important, and can make a huge difference in how we perceive your ask or how we answer it, so please be aware of that and follow these guidelines closely.

In short, we have guidelines for your benefit. So please do your best to follow them.

Most of our guidelines for submissions are exactly the same as the guidelines for our asks, so please review our Ask Policy before you send us a submission as well! This page will only focus on the guidelines that are unique to submissions, but the guidelines in both pages apply at all times. Please keep that in mind when you write your submission.

If any of the guidelines are unclear to you (for example, if you don’t understand what a specific rule is asking or aren’t sure what would qualify as breaking that rule), or if you need further elaboration on any of the guidelines, please let us know. We are more than happy to help you with this.

Thank you for making an effort to learn our guidelines, for following them, and for being so thoughtful and understanding.

Submission Guidelines:

One: If the submission you are sending is in response to a post or ask already on our blog, please do not send us a submission. Reblog the post/ask or comment on the thread instead.

You can see our Ask Policy for more details about this rule, and for an explanation of why this rule is in place.

Two: For text submissions, please keep your submission as organized and as well written as possible so we can understand it. Make sure you use paragraphs, proofread, and explain things in detail, especially if your submission is long.

We cannot respond to you if we do not understand you, so making sure we can easily read what you wrote needs to be your priority. We need to know why you are sending this submission and what your submission is trying to say. Otherwise, we won’t know how to react to it.

Three: Please do not send anything even vaguely close to NSFW if you are under 18, even if you will be 18 soon.

We are so serious about this; this is not okay with us. No exceptions.

Note: This also applies to asks.

Four: Please remember before you submit something that this is not a porn blog and that minors follow us. If you are an adult, do not submit fully nude or sexual photos of any kind, or images with sexual captions.

This blog is not meant for your sexual gratification, and it is not meant for making sexual content or finding sexual partners. Please do not attempt to use the blog that way.

This is especially important given the new Tumblr guidelines. We do not want our blog to get in trouble because of you, and we do not want to put any of our followers in danger. Please consider this before you submit something.

Five: Include your age and gender pronouns in your selfie submissions so that we can compliment you properly. This only applies to pictures of yourself; we don’t need this for other things unless you feel it is relevant or important for us to know it.

Six: Please be respectful of other people’s selfie submissions. No bullying or body shaming, no sexual harassment, no misgendering, etc.

We will block you for this. Do not do it.

Note: This applies to replies, reblogs, and asks. Please don’t send asks mocking other people’s selfie submissions, or reblog them to add mean comments in any way! Make sure you don’t tag your reblogs with anything offensive or inappropriate, either!

Seven: If you are submitting screenshots of something you want us to address, such as a post you want us to debunk, please make sure you don’t leave out any context, and try to provide us with names and sources.

Do not submit someone else’s words or images as if they were your own, do not submit art or written work without credit, etc. We will not tolerate plagiarism of any kind.

On that note, do not take screenshots of posts if you know the person who wrote it would not be okay with that. Please do not violate anyone’s boundaries here.

Also, please try to include image descriptions if you can (we understand if, for longer screenshots or a collection of many screenshots, you find that difficult), and please explain to us why you are submitting this screenshot so that we know how to respond to it. This also goes for any links you submit to us as well. Be specific, please!

Eight: If you are submitting something to let us know someone has been mocking or speaking badly about the blog or its moderators, don’t. We don’t want to hear it. We get enough drama without you bringing more to us; if people do not like us, that is their problem. Please do not make it ours.

Nine: If we are not comfortable with a submission you have sent us, do not want to deal with that submission, do not understand your submission, or do not know how to respond to your submission, it is possible we will either ignore it for a while or delete it. Please remember this as you are writing your submission.

What we are comfortable answering may change on a given day. Some days, we are more willing to argue and to debate than others. Some days, we find it easier to understand the things in our inbox and find it easier to respond to them than others. There are times when we aren’t going to be sure how to deal with things, or where we just don’t feel up to it, and we need you to understand that.

We have gotten submissions before where we honestly had no idea what was being said. We didn’t know if it was pro fat or anti fat. We didn’t know if it was asking a question or making a statement. Etc. And sometimes, those kinds of submissions are easier to deal with than others.

Basically, what I’m asking is that you be considerate when you send submissions. Consider whether or not your submission is necessary. Consider whether or not it might cause us distress or discomfort. Consider whether or not we can understand it.

And be considerate when waiting for us to post it. If we don’t post it, be understanding about that and accept it.

Note: This also applies to asks. Please remember this when sending us asks instead of submissions.

For now, that’s all you need to know about sending submissions. Let us know if you have any questions, or if anything was confusing for you. We are always happy to help you.

Please make sure you check out our Ask Policy, Blog Rules, Do Not Interact List, and other important pages before attempting to interact with our blog.

Remember: the rest of the rules for our submissions are the same as what is in our Ask Policy. You have to read that page too before sending us a submission. Just because we didn’t repeat ourselves a bunch by copying the rules from there that apply here too does not mean that you get a pass on breaking the rules.

It should be pretty obvious which rules apply to both asks and submissions, but feel free to ask us if you are not sure.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and we hope you have a lovely day!

Sincerely,

The Fatphobia Busters Team

[witheringswann]

entry #5

୨ৎ meal plan for tomorrow 🦢🛁 limit kcals : 600kcals eating window : 11am - 11pm side goal : 15k steps cw : 49kg / bmi 18

𐙚 breakfast

herbal tea ( 2kcals )

black coffee ( 5kcals )

1L of water ( 0kcals )

2 rice cakes ( 54kcals )

4 slices of pear ( 50kcals )

cinnamon ( 0kcals )

greek yogurt ( 21kcals )

total : 132kcals

why : i know its alot of beverages , but its so worthit — herbal tea decreases bloating & helps your metabolism , and also i just like it. it helps me start ( and end ) the day calm , and it tastes so good. black coffee will suppress my appetite aswell as keeping me awake ,, as for water , hydration is SO important. if you're not hydrated your weightloss will be so slow , its overall just good for you. clears your skin , helps your bowels & keeps you full. as for the food i want to consume , rice cakes are so low kcal , but so filling. they mimic a sandwich , lol. the pear is honestly just because my mum bought some , and i really fucking love pears. whilst only 3g of fiber.. it is just really good LOL. greek yogurt and cinnamon will help prevent blandness in the rice cake.

𐙚 lunch

1L of water ( 0kcals )

diet coke ( 1kcal )

egg white omelette ( 68kcals )

lettuce ( 3kcals )

paprika , tumeric & black pepper ( 20kcals )

light soy sauce ( 9kcals )

5 mini sausages ( 89kcals )

ketchup ( 14kcals )

banana : 100kcals

frylight : 10kcals

total : 314kcals

why : we've been through water , and my reasoning for diet coke is basically the same reasoning as black coffee. i am making an egg white omelette for two reasons ; the egg whites will offer some protein , and it'll be higher in volume so my relatives will not suspect undereating. the sausage offers protein & calories , which is very helpful as i will have my lunch after walking 15k steps. i love undereating, but energy is nice too. lettuce is mainly there because .. eat your greens?? and again , volume. eaiser to get full , easier to trick everyone into thinking you're eating. tumeric & black pepper will help with getting rid of any inflammation & paprika will colour the omelette. i choose banana because they offer fiber & are kind of deserty , lol. i know many people fear bananas but they are a HUGE safe-food of mine.

𐙚 dinner

1L of water ( 0kcals )

herbal tea ( 2kcals )

pasta ( 170kcals )

2 sausages ( 34.4kcals )

light soy sauce ( 9kcals )

sweet potato chips ( 50kcals )

diet brownie ( 37kcal )

total : 293.4kcals

overall total : 639.4kcals 🫧 🤍

why : okay , so i know im over the deficit.. but by 39.4kcals. i don't really care , im going to be burning around 550kcals tomorrow either way , so in my mind.. thats sticking to my deficit , lol. anyway , im having herbal tea because it relaxes me at night , and again , helps with bloating. pasta is because of the carbs , it will keep me full & energised , which prevents binging. also my relatives will not suspect me , how could you when im eating pasta!! 2 sausages purely for volume , taste , and to avoid suspicion. soy sauce also for taste , lol. sweet potato chips because i fucking love sweet potato & the extra food will also make it look like im eating wayy higher kcal ,,lol. the diet brownie is the same , the recipe is " anas brownies " , ive been wanting to try it for so long but just couldn't be fucked lol. tomorrow is the day!! the desert also helps get rid of any suspicion, aha.

other workouts i intend to do :

nikolas pilates 5min ab workout

nikolas pilates 7min ab workout

gloria songs slim legs in bed 6min workout

100 sqauts , 100 jumping jacks & 100 russian twists

i will be absolutely DEAD by the end of tomorrow , but its so worthit. i need to lose weight before the 30th , so this has to do. i haven't restricted like this & exercised so intensely since 2023.. but i know i am capable of doing it. i will reblog with everything i completed by the end of tomorrow 🤍 🪽

[sabercatproductions]

This ask grants you permission for one (1) uninterrupted yap session.

Wise usage not recommended.

Thank you very much, Noni, for the opportunity to have an uninterrupted yap! I look forward to seeing what you in turn yap about when you redeem the coupon that I have given you.

In the meantime, I am going to take this as a chance to talk about some of the alterations that I have made to the cast of Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony to transfer them into the world of Danganronpa V3: Reimagined (DRV3:R), which is a Fanganronpa I am due to be starting dedicated work on. Thus far, the only public information that exists on my project is on my Carrd. Time to add to that!

Evaluating Character Body Types: Analysing Original Values

Below is a table of the height, chest measurement, weight, and calculated body mass index of the sixteen students. The height is measured in feet/inches and centimetres, the chest measurements are measured in inches and centimetres, and the weight is measured in pounds and kilograms. The English and Japanese values are different, hence why some values don’t appear to match.

You may be wondering, “Saber, where did you get the BMI measurements from?” and “Why are they important?” Well, BMI (body mass index) is… eh, a loose way to evaluate someone’s health. It is based on their biological sex, height and mass alone. This means that it doesn’t take into consideration how someone’s mass is divided (into muscle, fat, water, and so on), so it can only be considered a guideline. However, I needed something to compare the characters between one another in a quantifiable manner. This is why it was calculated and used.

Evaluating Character Body Types: Categorizing Body Types

Throughout the main trilogy of Danganronpa, there are a total of forty-eight Ultimate Students, but very little variation between their body types. Each of the forty-eight students can be placed into one of six body types, which are the following:

“The Bodybuilder Type.” These characters are the tallest, heaviest, and most muscular characters within the series, with proportions akin to bodybuilders. Examples include Sakura Ogami, Nekomaru Nidai, and Gonta Gokuhara.

“The Macho Type.” These characters are tall, somewhat heavy, very muscular, and always male. Examples include Kiyotaka Ishimaru, Mondo Owada, and Kaito Momota.

“The Model Type.” These characters are very well endowed and have incredibly curvy bodies, typical of a stereotypical model, and are always female. Examples include Aoi Asahina, Akane Owari, and Miu Iruma.

“The Standard Male Type.” These characters have a more average height and weight, lack any noticeable muscle, and tend to be thinner than other male students. Examples include Makoto Naegi, Hajime Hinata, and Shuichi Saihara.

“The Standard Female Type.” These characters have a more average height and weight, lack any noticeable muscle, and tend to be less curvy than other female students. Examples include Kyoko Kirigiri, Chiaki Nanami, and Kaede Akamatsu.

“The Unrealistic Type.” These characters have incredibly unrealistic proportions, usually regarding their height (being incredibly short) or their weight (being incredibly large), which in some cases appear to be caricatures of certain medical conditions (obesity or dwarfism). Examples include Hifumi Yamada, Byakuya Togami (Imposter), and Ryoma Hoshi.

In many cases, characters are entered into one of these categories with little to no regard for what their body type should typically reflect based on variables such as whether or not they have an athletic-based talent if they have a more active or sedentary lifestyle, their sporting preferences, and so on. This is most obviously seen within female students with athletic-based talents, such as Aoi Asahina, Peko Pekoyama, and Tenko Chabashira; despite being athletes, they have no muscle definition on their bodies. The only female character to have a muscle definition is Sakura Ogami.

Many people envision characters in their own way, deviating from their canon appearances, for a variety of reasons. This includes wishing to implement body diversity/representation within the cast of characters, wanting to project their body type onto a character they like to make them more relatable, or indulging in somewhat… uh… “specific” fetishes, let’s just leave it at that. To each their own, I suppose.

I wished to evaluate the casts’ body type for different reasons, however. I aimed to suggest more realistic body types for Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony characters who fall into, “The Standard Male Type,” “The Standard Female Type,” or, “The Unrealistic Type,” based on their lifestyles. The Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony students have been designated the following body types:

Angie Yonaga – The Standard Female Type.

Gonta Gokuhara – The Bodybuilder Type.

Himiko Yumeno – The Standard Female Type.

Kaede Akamatsu – The Standard Female Type.

Kaito Momota – The Macho Type.

Keebo – Not Human. Cannot be Classified.

Kirumi Tojo – The Standard Female Type.

Kokichi Oma – The Standard Male Type.

Korekiyo Shinguji – The Standard Male Type.

Maki Harukawa – The Standard Female Type.

Miu Iruma – The Model Type.

Rantaro Amami – The Standard Male Type.

Ryoma Hoshi – The Unrealistic Type.

Shuichi Saihara – The Standard Male Type.

Tenko Chabashira – The Standard Female Type.

Tsumugi Shirogane – The Standard Female Type.

This meant that Gonta Gokuhara, Kaito Momota, Keebo, and Miu Iruma would not have their proportions altered in any way, leaving the remaining twelve students to have their proportions revaluated.

Evaluating Character Body Types: The Revaluation Process

Each character was judged based on four categories. This, in turn, was based on what they said and did within the main game as well as in its additional, random dating mode (Dangan Salmon: Love Across the Universe or something along those lines).

Note: Everything a character says has to be taken at face value. Except for Kokichi because he says so many things and many of them contradict one another, haha.

Category 1

Does the character’s Ultimate Talent require them to be mainly active or inactive? Possible answers are:

Very Active – The character has an athletic-based talent.

Quite Active – The character does not have an athletic-based talent, but their talent requires them to be quite active beyond simply walking about.

Average – The character does not have an athletic talent, but their talent will require them to be on their feet for a significant amount of time.

Quite Inactive – The character does not have an athletic-based talent, and their talent involves little to no activity. However, it cannot be completed while (constantly) sitting.

Very Inactive – The character does not have an athletic-based talent, and their talent can be (or must be) completed while sitting down.

Category 2

Does the character have a preference for exercise and/or sports? Possible answers are:

Very Sporty – The character has an athletic-based talent which requires them to exercise regularly.

Quite Sporty – The character does not have an athletic-based talent, but they place importance on exercise or find joy in sports.

Average – The character does not have an athletic-based talent, but they see exercise as a necessity. They may take part in team sports from time to time.

Not Very Sporty – The character does not have an athletic-based talent and will only exercise or participate in sports if they have to.

Not Sporty at All – The character does not have an athletic-based talent and will almost always refuse to exercise or participate in sports.

This is evaluated by in-game dialogue, the character’s free time events in Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony, and their date events in Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony – Love Across the Universe.

Category 3/4

Does the character ever note anything about their health which could impact their weight or muscle (including diet)? If the answer to this question is yes, then the significance of this detail will be ranked in the following way, for both muscle and fat:

Very Positive Impact – The character is very good at building muscle and/or very good at keeping their weight healthy.

Positive Impact – The character is good at building muscle and/or good at keeping their weight healthy.

No Impact – The character is average at building muscle and/or average at keeping their weight healthy. (The character does not note anything about their health which could impact their weight or muscle).

Negative Impact – The character is bad at building muscle and/or very bad at keeping their weight healthy.

Very Negative Impact – The character is very bad at building muscle and/or very bad at keeping their weight healthy.

Impact of Ranking

According to the National Library of Medicine, “In Japan, the mean BMI for men and women in 2016 was 23.7 kg/m^2 and 21.8 kg/m^2, respectively, whereas the respective global values were 24.5 kg/m^2 and 24.8 kg/m^2.” These are the averages for fully grown adults, from twenty-one upwards.

All characters in the story are sixteen or seventeen. To start with, they were given a BMI value of 20 kg/m^2. This value would become higher or lower depending on what rank was assigned to each category, as shown below. Note that the randomised alteration was chosen via a random number generator.

Please excuse the blurry images. These are mainly screenshots taken from my Word document XD

Evaluating Character Body Types: The Revaluation Process in Action

To show you how the process would work practically, let me show you how Rantaro Amami's body type was revaluated. The table below shows which rank he was given in each of the categories.

The justification for each ranking is explained below:

Category 1

“Adventuring,” may be something as simple as exploring a city or walking through a forest. However, it may also be something as complicated as ascending mountains, rock climbing, tree climbing, traversing through areas with extreme climates, and more.

Category 2

“Listen, I know you're all about burning calories and whatnot... But exercising after a meal gives me a tummy ache... Sorry, Shuichi. Gonna have to pass on that one,” (Dining Room Date 3, “Exercising after a meal.”)

“But I should warn you...I'm not much for exercise... Well, it's not like I'm bad at it. I don't hate it or anything. I'm just average,” (Gym Date 1, “Let’s get our bodies moving.”)

“I like basketball! I'm not very good at it, but... I like to play, but I like watching the pros play too, y'know? I get really excited watching sports,” (Gym Date 2, “Let’s play basketball.”)

“And I wouldn't want to hurt you, Shuichi. I don't want to throw a ball at you. Could we pick another sport instead?” (Gym Date 3, “Let’s play dodgeball.”)

“Running...? Oh, I dunno... I think I would get pretty sore; I haven't moved my body in a while... But then again, I shouldn't let my body go soft on me! Just don't be too tough on me!” (Courtyard Date 1, “Let’s go for a run.”)

Category 3/4

Nothing to note.

With all of this considered, I could then calculate his new BMI, and therefore his weight (in kilograms).

BMI = 20 + Category 1 + Category 2 + Category 3 + Category 4 + Random Alteration + Muscle Mass Addition

BMI = 20 + (-1) + (2) + (0) + (0) + (0.1) + (1)

BMI = 22.1

Weight = BMI × (Height)^2

Weight = 22.1 × (1.7780)^2

Weight = 69.8634764 = 69.86

Evaluating Character Body Types: The Results!

The table below shows the canonical and revaluated weights and BMI values for the characters that had a standard or unrealistic body type. BMI values equate to the following:

Underweight (Grey): 0 to 18.5

Healthy Weight (Green): 18.5 to 24.9.

Overweight (Yellow): 25 to 29.9.

Obese (Red): 30 to 39.9.

In metric measurements:

In imperial measurements (the BMI should be the same regardless of whether it was calculated as lbs/in^2 or kg/m^2, so the columns have not been changed):

Regarding the little star by Kaede's vaules, I'm afraid I can't tell you exactly why it is there, but I can give you an explanation with redacted information:

So, there you have it! A biological and mathematical driven method to revaluate the body types of the twelve of the students in the cast! Proof that Kaede should be chubby and Maki should be buff, at last! [Heavy Sarcasm XD]

Although it was not shown in this blog, some other alterations to the characters' physical appearances were made too.

The eye colour, hair colour, and skin colour of each character were copied directly from their source material. Specifically, the eye-dropper tool was used on the first full-body sprite of each character. However, with some characters, I have added things such as freckles and sun spots to those who are likely to have spent a lot of their time in the Sun (examples include Angie, Gonta and Rantaro); and scars to those who are likely to have been injured in the past (examples include Maki, Ryoma and Tenko).

As I mentioned near to the start of my discussion, I have also changed all of the characters' attire and accessories. However, this post is long enough already and I am slowly running out of images that I can share due to the ten image limit on Tumblr. Thus, I will leave you with one more, which was a very early concept of what the pixel sprites of the cast would look like. I would like to emphasise that these are EARLY CONCEPTS and they will be subject to change at a later date. Especially Kiibo. Sorry for giving you weird ass running blade legs at first, my man. I thought it looked cool at the time. I really need to fix some of you hair styles, too... damn... oh well, concepts and concepts for a reason!

Thank you once again, @nonsensisystem, for the free yap session. I suppose I am now a certified yapper XD

If you or anyone else has any questions about the designs for the characters (I can give way better descriptions and images) or about any other part of DRV3:R, I would be more than happy to answer them (as long as they don't spoil the story, of course!).

- Saber