I Am A Fat Vegan

  I feel like fat vegan voices are definitely marginalised within the vegan community. So much of the rhetoric revolves around clean eating or the health benefits of veganism. Fat vegans are so often seen as Bad Vegans, and unapologetic fat people are so often seen as Bad Fat People! Body shaming and health policing are still very common in the vegan community. I’ve been vegan for around 8 years. I’ve been fat since I was a teenager. I struggled for nearly 3 decades with negative self-image, and was sucked wholly into diet culture for at least 15 years. Veganism eventually introduced me to some totally amazing concepts: eco-feminism, intersectional politics, body positivity and fat positivity. I read about the Health At Every Size movement, and immersed myself in fat-positive images and messages on social media.
For the first time in my life, in my early 30s, I began to let go of the exhausting burden of hating my body and constantly trying to change it. I am still on this difficult journey, but I like to think I have experienced my moment of realisation! My experience of being an unapologetic fat vegan has been a relatively lonely one. I’m currently working on a zine project to seek out and amplify positive fat vegan voices (bigfatveganzine.tumblr.com). While I’ve embraced the Health At Every Size community, I find that as a vegan, I am usually rejected, because veganism is seen as a diet, or as restrictive eating. I’m working on a BIG piece of writing about this issue for the zine. There are some amazingly inspirational fat role models out there today, but hardly any fat VEGAN role models. I am determined to sniff them out and make their voices heard both to inspire other fat vegan folks and to spread the message that we are not Bad Vegans!
  Contributor Bio
Jenny Marie is the founder of Big Fat Vegan Zine, a Tumblr that is a space to explore fat veganism, body positivity, thin privilege and other intersecting issues. It is a zine made by fat vegans for fat vegans; created to be a safe space, a place of comraderie and a source of support and education. Jenny dreams of also producing a zine to explore these ideas and is currently accepting submissions from fat vegans who want to tell their stories. If you are interested in contributing, please contact her via any method below or see the graphic below for more information, or go to the Submit! page on her Tumblr. She also has a food and lifestyle blog called Spice Box of Earth; and currently lives in the UK with a her rescue pup and handsome bearded vegan chap. Follow Jenny on: Tumblr | Instagram | Twitter
 
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7 comments

    • Keep up the good work! Being a fat male vegan, I don’t deal as much with shaming or body positivity, honestly. That being said, I’ve been both extremes, as was underweight and malnourished at one point due to some of the diet and health fads. I can definitely say I feel much better and healthier with the extra weight on now… I’ve also seen how it has affected people around me that are vegan. This is a great message and so glad to see someone putting it out there.
    • Good for you Jenny! What you’re doing is amazing. I’ve been helping so many people shift the dieting mindset and learn that body positivity and acceptance need to come first. It’s only when you feel absolute love for yourself wherever you’re at, that eating choices get better, things like emotional eating gets better, and LIFE gets better! Even if you never lose another pound. I see so many skinny vegans with very clean obsessive diets, who are absolutely unhealthy. They are unhealthy not because of what they’re filling their plates and bodies with, but because there’s so much emotional turmoil and punishment that comes with restriction. Not being able to head out and live your life without worrying about taking your perfectly packed tupperware containers with perfectly clean foods. So much of healthy eating starts inside, in our outlook on life and in living a joyous life without punishment. I’m so glad there are voices like yours out there.
    • yay!!! well said!! I’m Fish-Vegan which often called Pesco-vegetarian.. I used to be meat eater until change my health into vegetarian and drop about 230 to 165 and now i’m 210 with 12/14 clothes size.. outside i look fat but inside i felt so skinny. I often get full whenever eat a whole large bowl salad and a vegan protein smoothies. I am request eat my protein which fish (my parent found me passed out often , so i decided eat fishes once a while and keep eat all vegan and organic food.) I don’t eat red meat or eggs at all. now those day, they gross me out. i’m fat fish vegan now cause i havent do any fitness for a while. i do alike once a while every seasons, just walking or jogging but when too cold or too hot, i stay out of it and stay home.
    • Thank you for this great article! I can definitely relate, I’ve been told numerous times that I’m a bad representative of veganism because I’m fat, I get asked “but how can you be vegan and fat?” many times.
    • Hi I’m mark. Praise to you for opening this vegan support group I’m 57 I have gained and lost about 609 pounds or more throughout my life yo yo dieting going from one extreme of anorexia nervous a starving to over eating into morbid obesity over Eating to fill voids in my life 5 years ago I was down to normal weight of 150 pounds than after losing my mother whom I was her caregiver for all my life and very close I gained 130 pounds ballooning up to 265 pounds. 4 years ago became vegan after learning Watching sad sad. Videos if poor cows chickens pigs n goats ducks fish went vegan went in protests marches with PETA and direct action everywhere with some wondering what’s a obese guy protesting for animals rights

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