Whitney Thore is pregnant or not. The Full Life of "Dancing Fatty" Whitney Thore

Whitney Way Thor

34-year-old Whitney Way Thore, star of TLC's "My Full Life," became popular after posting an incendiary video on the microblog, which she called "Dancing Fatty." However, Russian netizens became familiar with the name of this native of Greensboro (North Carolina), who is fighting discrimination based on excess weight, only after the release of the scandalous “Tanuki” advertisement.

According to the authors' idea, the photo depicted two girls with different figures. One of them ate at Tanuki, and a photograph of the second, larger model (talking about Thor), was accompanied by the inscription “After going to Go-Go Pizza.” Users did not appreciate the “creative” and accused the company of fat shaming. Adding fuel to the fire was the fact that Whitney was diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome, one of the possible manifestations of which is severe obesity.

the site tells the girl’s story, and the obstetrician-gynecologist and reproductive specialist explains what is special about this disease and how it affects weight gain.

On February 14, a still from the “Your Girlfriend Tonight” advertising campaign appeared on the Tanuki network’s Facebook. It depicts two representatives of the fair sex: one of plus-size size - “after going to go-pizza”, the other with a model appearance - “after going to Tanuki”. Less than an hour later, hundreds of comments with accusations accumulated under the post in sexism, body shaming and disrespect for women. Three hours later, the ill-fated post was deleted. Instead, an apology appeared, but the aftertaste, as they say, remained...

Our dear users, subscribers and guests, we apologize for the inappropriate creativity. We admit that we went too far. We wanted to be provocative, but the sense of proportion left us. We especially want to emphasize that we did not know about Whitney Thore’s illness and in no way wanted to offend people with health problems. Forgive us please. We won't do this again!

One of the heroines of the advertising campaign, without knowing it, was Whitney Way Thore. She dances, makes mega-popular videos all over the world, participates in the filming of her own program on the TLC channel “My Full Life,” and also runs the NoBodyShame social movement, which supports and protects overweight people.

One of the fans wrote to Whitney what she thought about the careless advertising.
I think this is complete nonsense. After all, I eat sushi too! she replied on Twitter.

Whitney, by the way, began filming videos of her dancing back in 2014.

And soon after, she received an email from TLC offering her her own show.
I was thin until I was 18 years old. And it’s funny to say this now, because at that time I felt fat, I always thought that I was not thin enough. I had eating disorders from the age of twelve until I went to college. I struggled with bulimia and anorexia. I practically stopped doing everything I loved.

I began to feel ashamed of myself because of my weight and even vomited after eating. When I turned 18, I began to gain weight very quickly. I gained about 23 kilograms. It was like a social experiment where you put on a fat man's suit and go for a walk around the city to see how others would react. Guys who had recently considered me an attractive young woman began to pass by. Literally overnight, my whole life changed dramatically.

Disease

Thor was diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), which caused such severe obesity.

Lyubov Vinogradova, obstetrician-gynecologist, reproductive specialist, candidate of medical sciences at the Central Institute of Clinical Culture:

Other signs of this disease include: hyperandrogenism (increased levels of male hormones), hirsutism (increased hair growth), absence of a normal menstrual cycle or absence of independent menstruation, multifollicular ovaries according to ultrasound, enlarged ovaries, acne may develop.

The expert explained that insulin resistance is a condition in which the concentration of insulin in the blood plasma increases compared to physiological values ​​for the existing glucose concentration. As a result, this provokes obesity and a high risk of hypertension. The doctor is confident that if you adjust your diet, understanding your predisposition and the characteristics of your body, such severe metabolic syndrome can be avoided.

According to the clinical recommendations of the US Department of Health and the Endocrine Society (Endocrine Society), such people should reduce their food intake and increase physical activity. This prerequisites ongoing treatment. Pharmacotherapy (treatment medicines) are subject to patients with a body mass index > 30 kg/m2 or a body mass index > 27 kg/m2 in the presence of at least one of the following complications: hypertension, dyslipidemia, diabetes the second type, OSA (general adaptation syndrome). If the body mass index is more than 40 kg/m2 or 35 kg/m2 in the presence of complications associated with obesity, bariatric surgery is recommended. Moving to Korea

After graduating from college, Thor moved to Korea, where she began teaching English. There the girl faced real discrimination. She lived in Daegu for four years, and every day people on the street would point and laugh at her. When she got into a taxi, the driver could calmly ask her about her weight, or about her favorite food, or simply grunt in greeting.

This encouraged Thor to lose weight when she returned home to America, but in fact her condition only worsened. When, after a grueling workout, someone drove by and called her fat, the girl realized that she was trying to make other people happy, not herself. Since then, Thor has focused on being comfortable in her own skin.

Sport

Whitney destroys the stereotypes that plus-size models are not frequent guests in the fitness room. She works out with Ryan Andreas, who created her No BS Active daily workout program (it lasts only 24 minutes).
I said I don't want to focus on losing weight, I don't want to weigh myself after every workout, I just want to exercise. And for the first time in my entire life, I actually lost weight without much effort. Now I exercise because it makes me feel good. It literally changed my whole life. And that's the message I want to convey to people. Exercising isn't just about weight loss, it also has many other benefits.

Attitude towards yourself

There are those who take the word "fat" as an insult, but Whitney Way Thore is definitely not one of them.

My attempt to become more healthy person is an attempt to get rid of the idea that fat women are inherently bad, and that the word “fat” is an adjective with negative connotations, like lazy and ugly. I finally realized that I don't believe in it anymore. I want to continue using this word so that it becomes more common. The fact is that we do not believe that fat women can be happy, but these are two completely unrelated things.

About fame

Being recognized is definitely difficult. I feel pressured to always say and do the right thing - which of course I don't do. It's easy to say the right things in an interview, but not when cameras are following you all day! The hardest thing is dealing with judgmental people who have seen ten hours of your life and think they know everything about you.

Instagram photo

Infinitely charming, captivatingly funny, impressively graceful, weighs 180 kg! Those who have already seen Whitney Thore will easily recognize her in this description, but the rest should get to know the girl who gave hope and inspiration to those who suffer from excess weight, and who succeeded in show business in spite of all obstacles..

If ten years ago Whitney Thore had been told that she would become a revelation in show business and would successfully lead a social movement against discrimination fat people, most likely, the girl would consider this another ridicule. And she got a lot of them: in high school, the promising dancer began to gain weight and turned from the pride of the school into an outcast. “I felt like I was part of a social experiment - one of those where they put a fat suit on a skinny person and send him walking around the city in it,” Thor recalls.

It turned out that the American woman suffers from a hormonal disease, one of the complications of which is obesity, which does not respond to either diet or physical activity. In an attempt to escape from people who remember her as thin and cannot forgive her for being different, Whitney spent several years on the road; worked in Korea and Ireland.

All this time she did not give up trying to lose weight, but every time hormonal disbalance I regained the lost kilograms with such difficulty, and even with an “addition”.

In another attempt to deal with her changed life and get used to her new body, Whitney started blogging with thoughts about why overweight people should not dwell on their shortcomings and use it as an excuse for failures and inaction.

To back up her motivating posts with action, the girl resumed her dancing classes. Together with her longtime partner Todd Beasley, she recorded several videos for the channel, which she gave a direct, unflattering name - “Fat Girl Dancing.” And one morning I woke up famous - one of the videos went viral literally overnight. Internet users were shocked by how gracefully a girl of impressive dimensions moves to the sounds of Jason Derulo's hit!

Many become “stars for an hour,” but Whitney Thore managed to take advantage of the chance literally to the fullest - probably because she didn’t just want popularity, but was eager to remind the world that fat people are not a different kind of people, and efforts and success are more important than appearance kind.

website: Whitney, what role has working on the program “My Complete Life” played in your life, and what kind of reaction to the show do you expect from the audience?

Whitney Thore: The program is a look at my life from the inside. I'm known as the dancing fatty of the Internet, but I don't just dance, I have a lot of different things going on. I think that obese women especially suffer from problems in the romantic sphere, and so, I am no exception. I have a friend who I really like, and we meet and then break up, and it goes on and on...

And also, for example, I'm 31 years old, and I recently had to move back to live with my parents, and it was difficult in many ways.

“I have a wonderful mom and dad, but they often pressured me to lose weight because they thought it would be the solution to all my problems and would make me happy. If I answered that I didn’t consider weight loss the most important thing in my life, they really didn’t like it.”

I complained to my dad about being treated poorly, and his reaction was the usual: “You know you can’t change society, but you can change yourself.” But now that I've done a lot and achieved something, my dad came to me and said, Whitney, I think you can really change the world. It was one of the most significant moments in my life.

This is the first time I’m telling a huge audience about such personal things, and in general I had to do a lot for the first time for the program. For the first time in 10 years I returned to teaching dance, for the first time in 20 years I went to the beach. On the one hand, I was very happy to step outside my comfort zone, but at the same time, now I weigh more than I ever weighed before. And I have new problems and new experiences. I hope all this will evoke reciprocal emotions in the audience.

website: You were once a slender girl with the fit figure of a dancer, and then illness made you rapidly gain weight. How did you experience it?

W.T.: It was the most difficult thing I have ever experienced. But when I was thin, they still laughed at me because I had an eating disorder (when Whitney did not yet know about the diagnosis, she tried to fight excess weight on her own, which led her to bulimia. - Note website). And it shows how cruel people are in our society, and how harsh we are on women when it comes to their bodies.

“I was gaining weight so quickly that I simply didn’t have time to understand what was wrong with me. I remember how I constantly touched door frames, furniture, I had terrible bruises and abrasions on my body, because it increased in volume so quickly that I was not aware of my place in space.”

Now I think this is a wonderful metaphor, reflecting the fact that I did not understand my place in society. I felt like every pound I gained made me less valuable and I lost all self-love. So the hardest part was figuring out how to overcome that and realize that I have more to offer the world than just my looks.

website: At some point you decided that since you can’t lose weight, you should stop worrying about it and accept yourself for who you are. How is your relationship with your own body now and how does the disease continue to affect it?

W.T.:I have a very positive and loving attitude towards my body. I can even admit that I love my body now more than ever. The sight of my nakedness does not scare me, I consider myself beautiful, I have learned to take better care of myself. At one time, I went through all the circles of losing weight - I worked out in the gym for hours, and went on diets, but there was no point, so now I just eat what I want - including fried, fatty and sweet foods. Unable to overcome my weight, I became friends with him.

Polycystic ovary syndrome forced me to constantly take a bunch of medications, mostly hormonal. This is a medicine prescribed for pre-diabetic conditions and helps regulate insulin levels, and a medicine that regulates hair growth, and I also take contraceptives to prevent cancer, but my menstrual cycle has never normalized, which is very sad.

“There are aspects associated with the syndrome that I am not even able to analyze and understand, because they are associated not with the rational, but with the hormonal reaction of my body. I recently read a book that talked about the connection between polycystic ovarian syndrome and depression, and also a state similar to semi-lethargy where you constantly feel tired and fall asleep, and that’s what I’m experiencing.”

Although I am very happy with what is happening in my life, my mood can change greatly, I get very tired, and I don’t feel truly rested for a single minute of the day. But I like that I'm back to a large number classes and dancing, it gives me joy and protection.

website: You once said that people can’t stand it when they see a fat, happy woman.

W.T.: People are accustomed to thinking that fat people are unhappy mumblers who can evoke either pity or contempt, so the image of a happy, fat person evokes negativity. People can’t wrap their heads around how he, so fat, has the audacity to laugh - he needs to cry! Yes, this irritates many people.

website: ... and among these people is your channel colleague Katie Hopkins. Have you seen Katie's show? Have you met her?

W.T.: Of course, I’m familiar with Katie’s story (Hopkins deliberately gained weight and then lost it to prove that the only causes of obesity are gluttony and laziness - note.. Of course, with more weight it’s harder to move, travel, communicate with friends, etc. further, therefore, most often fat people choose a sedentary lifestyle, delighting themselves exclusively with unhealthy fatty foods.But, knowing myself, I can say that fat people can be active and eat not only fast food.

“Features of appearance and lifestyle are a matter of human choice, and putting a stigma on everyone who does not fit into generally accepted standards is overkill.”

It is possible that if Katie and I met, I would be able to convince her, but I don’t see the point in doing this in absentia. Everything that happened to me is not a secret, and anyone who is interested in my point of view can find out my story and draw their own conclusions.

website: Or meet those supported by your No Body Shame movement (“Don’t be ashamed of your body”).

W.T.: Yes, I came up with the “Don’t be ashamed of your body” campaign myself, or rather, it originated from my blog. I started keeping an online diary to share my feelings about being fat. In addition, I hosted a program on a radio station in my hometown, and it was on air that she spoke out loud for the first time about her obesity. This helped me analyze my feelings about this, and as a result, I understood myself very well and understood how I really feel about many important things.

First, the blog became popular, then the channel’s video “Fat Girl Dancing” turned into an Internet hit, and everyone started asking me to talk about myself, about my views on my body, my fatness as if it were already part of some movement. And I had a choice: start a full-fledged campaign or not start; and I decided that I would try. Now “Don't be ashamed of your body” is a public action designed to help various men and women live without feeling shame. Because I know from personal experience that shame is destructive, it paralyzed me and I lost ten years of my life because of shame, and I don’t want anyone else to undervalue themselves the way I did for years.

website: Let's return to the legendary video - a year ago it collected 7 million views and turned you into a star in the virtual space, changing your life. When you watch this recording today, what do you think about it?

W.T.: I love this video, it's amazing! Although I was a little sad when it became so popular. We installed it very quickly, without any perfectionism. I was a little surprised when the video started getting a huge number of views, and at first I thought “oh my God, if I knew, I would have done better,” but on the other hand, it’s even more fun.

“Things happen when we least expect them, and I know that things got better for me when I stopped feeling like a victim, when I decided to take control of my life.”

And this dance video is the best reflection of this approach, so I’m glad that so many people watched it. When I was younger, I dreamed of being a famous dancer or something like that, and I don't think that would have happened if I was skinny. And I find it very funny the way that life has chosen to make my dream come true.

website: What would you say are the main obstacles on the way to this dream?

W.T.: I had so many physical, psychological and emotional obstacles! But the biggest difficulty was trying to find my place among people. I felt worthless for so long and felt very sorry for all the people in my life, including my parents, my boyfriends, my friends, for what they got me. So I had to really rewire my brain to understand that I am a worthy person, that I deserve a lot, that I have the same right to be healthy and happy as every other person on this planet.

It took me a long time to truly believe it. But, on the other hand, purely practical problems not going anywhere.

“I have already said that I have never weighed as much as I do now, and if you watch the program “My Full Life”, you will see how I encounter some difficulties in everyday life that you never thought about - for example , if I need to fasten my seat belt or fit in a chair, or shave all sides of my legs before a date.”

These are moments that cause a lot of awkwardness, but what I talk about them inspires me. Being open and honest is what I think the show accomplishes.

website: You embody an inspiring example of a positive attitude towards yourself, so bright that you are even sometimes accused of promoting obesity. Whitney, tell me - do you want to lose weight or have you closed this question for yourself forever?

W.T.: Do you think I would choose to live and dance at my current weight if I had a choice? Of course, I would like to lose weight, but in my current situation I cannot do it. A slender body is more flexible, beautiful, resilient, and with my kilograms I get tired much faster than if I were thin. Well, and ridicule, of course - without them I would live much better, because sometimes they look at me so much that I feel like a hippopotamus who went out for a walk.

website: Can you say that your excess weight and the events associated with it taught you something?

W.T.: Yes, this whole story changed me a lot. If I hadn't gained weight, I probably wouldn't have become a feminist, but I'm a crazy feminist now. If I hadn't gained weight, I wouldn't have learned as much as I do now about myself and other people.

“If I hadn't gained weight, I would have relied on my appearance to give me value. But when my appearance lost its value to the outside world, I had to look deeper into myself.”

It also allowed me to empathize with others in a way I couldn’t before. Because I was a fairly wealthy and relatively attractive white girl, I was not part of any minority. But when you become part of a socially excluded group, you learn to put yourself in other people's shoes. This is useful.

The star of the reality show “My Full Life” Whitney Way Thore published a video, after which some fans began to praise her for losing weight. Women wrote that the American woman's weight loss inspired them. But Thor was not at all happy about such comments and scolded such fans. And opinions about whether she is right or wrong are divided.

35-year-old US resident Whitney Way Thore is best known for her appearance on the reality show My Big Fat Fabulous Life. The plot revolves around Thor herself, who showed that, having an impressive excess weight (the woman gained up to 170 kilograms due to polycystic ovary syndrome), you can not have complexes and enjoy life. The program also talked about losing weight, although this was not the main theme of the show. As Thor told Woman’s Day, when launching the program, her main goal was “to bring to television screens around the world an overweight woman who does not participate in a weight-loss competition and is not the butt of jokes.”

For many viewers, the optimistic, open and bright Whitney has become an example of a body-positive woman. While participating in filming, she also launched something like training for overweight people - No Body Shame at Sea (in fact, this is a cruise trip with dance classes, yoga, and so on). And of course, the star actively publishes videos on instagram, where more than 600 thousand people have subscribed to it.

Whitney often posts photos and videos of her playing sports, and another one appeared on the social network on July 24. A girl is dancing on it.

View this post on Instagram

The video received a lot of positive comments - fans (but mostly female fans) were happy that Whitney looked great in the footage. And some fans also thought that Thor had lost weight, and began to praise her for it and claim that Whitney inspires them.

Is it just me or have you lost weight? I like it ❤️❤️❤️❤️ Expand
You've lost a lot of weight! Good job, girl! You look beautiful as always ❤️ Expand
Hey Whitney, I think your hard work is paying off, I see a change in you appearance like you've lost weight. Keep going girl, it just takes time. You are a huge source of inspiration for me, sending rays of love from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Expand

Apparently, the fans thought that their words about losing weight would please Whitney. But it was a mistake. The very next day, Thor published a video in which she expressed dissatisfaction with such replays.

People also have ambivalent attitudes towards slim people trying to become body positive. Thus, Twitter users criticized a sports Instagram model who called for sharing their photos and praising the bodies of others. And they have why the girl’s act is hypocritical.

In times of rampant orthorexia among celebrities, it’s nice to know that not everyone is obsessed with the desire to lose weight - many celebrities have long stopped worrying about excess weight and live happily, forgetting that there are size 40 things in the world. Day after day, they prove that their body, whatever it may be, needs to be loved and cared for, and they do not worry about what others will say about them.

Ashley Graham

Ashley Graham is one of the few plus-size models who managed to achieve recognition not only from social activists, but also from haute-couture. Over the past few years, this girl weighing 91 kilograms has steadily reached the ranks of supermodels, appearing on the covers of major glossy publications and in the lookbooks of several American brands. Even photographer Patrick Demarchelier was at one time amazed by Ashley’s shape and beauty, in front of whose lens the model unashamedly exposed herself.

The girl sincerely loves her body and, I must say, makes good money from it, but even she was not always able to protect herself from the strict standards of the beauty industry. Photos of the model, whose main advantage seems to be the extra pounds, are often subjected to merciless retouching, which, of course, causes storms of indignation among her fans. Meanwhile, the very fact that such a girl has access to a closed skinny club already speaks volumes. Ashley continues to act a lot, and last year she even released her own swimsuit line.

Tess Holliday

All over the world, girls dreaming of a modeling career are losing weight to the point of a washboard, and it would seem that Tess, who wears size 60, had no chance of success in the modeling business. Since her youth, she dreamed of posing in front of the camera in stunning outfits, but she began to do this only when she acquired a “stunning” figure - the exact weight of this model is unknown, but it clearly exceeds 150 kg. Having excellent taste in clothes, Holliday began posting her fashionable photographs on social networks, and as a result, the combination of large dimensions and beauty of the model, who also confidently stands in front of the camera, aroused interest from television. In 2011, she was invited to a popular reality show in America, and in 2015, the girl entered into a lucrative deal with a large modeling agency. Moreover, the voluminous beauty even made it onto the pages of Vogue, which remains a pipe dream for many “standard” models.

Today Tess has 1.5 million followers on Instagram. The girl continues to lead an active social life and film for American publications and social projects.

Adele

The British performer has more than once been included in the lists of the richest and most influential artists in the UK and the world; her compositions top music charts around the world. to the globe, and this year the girl won in five (out of five) Grammy Award nominations - and all this solely thanks to her velvety contralto and soulful songs. None plastic surgery, diets and other abuses of her body, - Adele always remains herself and continues to prove that real success proportional only to talent, not to lost kilograms.

“It seems to me that I remind people of themselves,” the girl admitted in an interview, “Not because everyone is the same size. But because I'm not perfect. And the media, it seems to me, are trying to present famous people ideal, unattainable and inviolable." Adele herself is naturally predisposed to being overweight, however, despite this, only a blind person would argue that the singer is ugly. Regular facial features, healthy golden hair, tall stature and curvaceous shape - all this brings the girl’s appearance closer to the standards of old Hollywood, so that on the red carpet she looks no worse than skinny beauties.

Melissa McCarthy

Today this Hollywood actress is at the top of producers' lists for leading comedy roles, and it is no coincidence: the girl who started in New York stand-up clubs is today considered one of the most influential celebrities in the world (according to American Forbes). Her acting talent, coupled with the appearance of an American provincial, created for her a unique role in which, it seems, no one will overshadow Melissa. Russian audiences know this actress from such acclaimed comedies as “Cops in Skirts” and “Bachelorette Party in Vegas,” but, it must be said, Melissa’s activities are not limited solely to acting. The girl has already proven herself as a screenwriter and producer, as well as a designer of clothes for women of all sizes. The actress herself is not at all embarrassed about her figure, but still works on herself and controls her diet to maintain health.

Katya Zharkova

Katya Zharkova came to a modeling agency at the age of 14, and immediately fell into the plus-size category - only because, as a teenager, she had large breasts. Now, however, the big body has become hers business card. With her work, the girl promotes natural beauty and the “my body is my temple” approach: she does not go on strict diets and certainly does not resort to the help of plastic surgeons, but she still monitors her diet and exercises regularly. Katya’s physical fitness is truly impressive: in 2015, the girl participated in the “Dancing with the Stars” project, where, along with skinny dancers, she performed complex steps and “took” the fastest rhythms.

Mary Lambert

American singer Mary Lambert became famous not only for her magical voice, but also for her socially oriented creativity. The girl belongs to a gay woman and at the same time continues to remain a convinced Christian, although her mother was previously excommunicated from the church for homosexuality.