Jensen: “Fat people are lazy”

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“Fat people are lazy.” To prove her point, Katie Hopkins gained about 40 kilos just to lose it again. I’ve been eating myself up inside.

‘Britain’s biggest bitch’

Columnist Katie Hopkins has long claimed the title of “Biggest bitch in Britain.” You can see her as an anti-moral crusader. If there’s a politically correct sacred cow somewhere, Katie is ready with her bulldozer. “People shouldn’t go overboard with sensitivities,” is her motto. Apparently, I’m also a bit oversensitive and a bit over the top. I couldn’t describe in less than 900 words how much I disagree with Katie on one specific point.

“Fat people are lazy”

Katie has a talent for rubbing people the wrong way. “Everyone is angry with me.” People with overweight are just one example. Katie is making fat shaming a thing again. “‘Plus size’ is just a euphemism for fat and who wants to be fat anyway?” Jensen shows a revealing scene. A woman with overweight feels offended by Katie and threatens to call the police to file a complaint. Katie then asks, “Should I hand you the phone? It’s probably too much effort to walk over there.” Katie is in top form and then asks, “Shall I dial the number? You probably can’t do it with your fat fingers.” Katie was probably super popular on the playground in her school days. I can see her walking around with her two friends, looking for a new victim. But back to Jensen: “Fat people are lazy. Thin people are just lucky…” Katie gets momentarily distracted by a ‘fatty boom boom’ (haha, funny) in the audience. The point she was trying to make is that people with overweight have only themselves to blame.

Own fault, fat belly

Laziness seems to be an epidemic given the annual increase in the number of people with overweight in both Britain and the Netherlands. I’ve been writing about nutrition and training, overweight, and weight loss for almost ten years now. After writing hundreds of articles and describing even more studies, I am increasingly convinced of the opposite: Genetic traits are largely responsible for your weight, with an obesogenic environment becoming an increasingly significant risk factor. Your metabolism, your appetite, and preference for certain foods are largely dependent on innate factors. Even things like self-control and discipline, which some are so proud of, turn out to be partly innate. It doesn’t change anything about the solution for overweight: You have to eat less than you want and move more. However, ‘less’ and ‘more’ are very relative in this context. Ironically, terms like ‘context’ and ‘complexity’ are often taboo among those who shout the loudest about being restricted in their freedom of speech. Often, it’s the people who like to see everything in black and white and paint simplicity where there is none.

Thin lucky duck

Dear Katie, as a ‘thin person’ I can say: I’m lucky! It would be easy for me, as a 42-year-old, to boast about my effort and dedication, to sprinkle fitness quotes when I post another selfie of my six-pack. “If I can do it, then you can too! Buy my training and diet plan now and grow a six-pack in 20 weeks. Discount code: ifkennycanyoucan”. Even more nauseating than praising my fantastic discipline would be tearing down others who are supposedly unmotivated, weak, and lazy. The truth is that I started this article with a big bag of marshmallows that is now empty, and I’m now eyeing a family-sized bag of M&M’s. If I eat what I want to eat, then I have a six-pack. That has nothing, absolutely nothing, to do with my personal effort. Gaining weight for me means that I have to eat more than I want to eat consistently. When I stop doing that, I automatically fall back to my own weight.

The reverse yo-yo

That goes for Katie too. She made an effort to gain weight by eating more than she’s used to. However, she did it to be able to say to people with overweight at her top weight, “Just watch how easy losing weight is.” Then all she had to do was resume her normal eating pattern and voila! Her proof that people with overweight are just lazy. “It’s not that difficult.” The famous yo-yo effect also works in reverse. In fact, you don’t even need a string to effortlessly return to your starting point. It certainly proves nothing that you lose weight easily after making an effort to add 50 percent on top of your normal weight. Maybe Katie conducted her ‘research’ as a justification for her behavior. After all, it’s easier to hurt your own conscience with ‘facts’ than with falsehoods. Let it be a British poet who said:

A truth that’s told with bad intent beats all the lies you can invent William Blake

Freedom or Offense

Katie finds it annoying that people in Britain first wonder if they can say something before opening their mouths. ‘We apply self-censorship.’ But doesn’t everyone do that? What parent doesn’t teach their child that it’s wise to filter thoughts before speaking them? That’s just one of the most basic social skills. Initially, not even to consider others, but purely out of self-preservation; to think about the possible personal consequences of your statements before you make them. Whether you agree with those possible consequences, that’s something entirely different. You can have eternal discussions about where freedom of speech ends and offense begins. But no matter where you personally think that line is, such a filter remains necessary. Ricky Gervais is a comedian known for statements that some find coarse, harsh, or offensive. He himself says that he doesn’t just blurt out what comes to mind. He carefully considers beforehand what reaction he can expect and whether that’s the effect he wants to achieve.

Fat shaming

Katie finds it important that you can call people with overweight ‘fat’ and ‘lazy.’ I wonder what effect she hopes to achieve, who should benefit from it. Fat shaming turns out to be far from an effective method to motivate people to lose weight. So, if Katie calls someone ‘fat’ and ‘lazy,’ I wonder what she’s trying to accomplish. Does she think that person will now make more effort to lose weight? From the setup of her ‘research’ and the associated logic, it’s clear that she has no idea about the many factors involved in overweight and weight loss. I don’t think she’s ever heard of homeostasis. So, maybe she really thinks she’s helping someone. Maybe it really comes from the good heart of Britain’s biggest bitch. I don’t find that very likely. She admits she finds the shock factor important. I’m more inclined to believe that she enjoys the attention it generates. And of course, the adoration of people who would also like to call people with overweight ‘fat’ and ‘lazy’ to their faces.