I've written about weight and body issues before, and it's somewhat of an ongoing issue for me. A recent comment on a mommy message board I frequent regarding the silliness of people complaining about gaining weight while pregnant really bothered me and I wanted to make some thoughts clear on the subject.
It is NEVER ok to say that someone has no right to complain about feeling fat, no matter how skinny they are or how stupid you think they are for complaining about it. While it's true that when I got pregnant I probably weighed less than a large percentage of the population, that doesn't mean that adding on those extra 25-30 pounds didn't have a psychological effect on me. It's an emotional enough time with the hormonal changes, and the physical changes are just the icing on the cake. I think that anyone, regardless of starting weight, is prone to a little bit of mental distress when the numbers start flipping past you. If someone had told me to my face that I had no room to complain about feeling fat and blobby because I just wasn't "that big" I would have shoved my foot up their ass.
Even when it comes to non-pregnant women, it's not your business to tell someone that they aren't allowed to feel fat because they don't meet your definition of the word. We all have our struggles, and you don't know where that person has been - maybe they've struggled with maintaining a healthy weight, maybe they've lost a ton of weight and are afraid of gaining it back, maybe they've managed eating disorders or body image issues and are struggling to find a good place. Or maybe they're just feeling bloated and crappy for some other random reason, like the arrival of their monthly visitor. Either way, no one has the right to invalidate someone's feelings like that. The way we feel about ourselves isn't always rational, and it isn't fair to act as if it is.
