I haven't had too many taunts to my face. What I really hate is the sickly sweet smile and the comment "you have such a nice face." That just makes me want to scream because the unstated part is just under the surface. The condescension is much worse than the actual comment.

What amazes me is that the people who should be pointing out that you are overweight, do not. I mean doctors and nurses. If they really believe that obesity is bad for your health, why don't they recommend you lose weight? Honestly, over the years and many doctors I have been to, not one has said I should lose weight. I guess they just assume you know, and so they don't bother to say anything. But they could educate you, scare you, or at least make it clear it is a medical issue. The only comment I got was from my gynecologist who said it would be easier for him to examine me if there was "less in the way." I think they are just cowards.

I can't believe that your health care providers haven't been on you about your weight. I don't even want to go to the doctor any more. The last time I was there, the doc hands me a pamphlet with a low cal diet in it and said, "Do I need to say more?" I flicked the brochure at him and walked away and never went back. If low cal is all they can do to help me then I am better off without them.

My family practitioner/ob-gyn is great. He was very serious with me when he put me on blood pressure medicine. He said if you keep going, you will end up with heart disease, kidney problems, diabetes. You need to find a way to lose weight. I weighed 271 at the time.

Second half of the story -- I came in a year later after having lost more than 60 pounds. He was incredulous. He didn't ask how. But he did ask why -- and I reminded him of what he told me a year earlier. He told me that almost all patients don't listen. So it's a two-way street. You have to have a medical person you can talk to, and one that you trust.

Just the other day a friend (male) came over for dinner and told me if you would just do a little Cardio, you would be so damned hot. Then my sweet BF had my back right away and replied back to him, "you only wish you had someone so hot" I felt so bad and then good at the same time....

But in elementary school there was this stupid girl that used to come up behind me and go Na Na Na Na Fat Girl... I could have squashed her, but it hurt so bad that I froze and could do nothing in response. Kids can be so mean...

I heard the greatest comment by a mom (I could have kissed her) when her son commented that someone was fat: "Isn't is great. People come in all sizes and shapes and colors." The little kid nodded and agreed that was great, and the conversation moved to something else. He was innocently commenting on a size, and she had the perfect response. On the other hand, the meanness from kids must come from the parents as well -- what they hear at home. It is too bad that people are so insecure they need to put others down to feel good about themselves.

That's how I deal with it -- when someone says something mean or inappropriate, I feel sorry for them and their own insecurity.

I have always been a big girl... always. I am 6ft 400 lbs, a size 28 with HUGE boobs... I have been called names and have overheard people talking about me my whole life. One boy who I thought was my friend even made up a rhyme about me in fifth grade.. "Kater Potater is fat and I hate her" Nice huh? Luckily it was short lived.

Anyway, the most hurtful things are not from child hood. My mother has told, not to long ago, me that just sight of me depresses her... just because I am fat.I am actually one of the nicest, happiest people you will ever meet and I am told that constantly... so her telling me that really hurt... She can't see past the weight and see the real me, and its sad how many people are like that. If you are obese you are not human, all some people see is the fat...

The other is my husband adoping the pet name "Slim" for me... he has never told me to lose weight and seems to be fine with my appearance... but it hurts me...

"Fatty fatty four by four, can't fit through the kitchen door."

There was a five-by-five but I can't remember what I couldn't fit through. Sad thing is, I wasn't all that big as a child, overweight, yes but certainly not obese.

As an adult, I was chatting with a guy online, he asked what I looked like and he said "Sounds like you look like a cow." Needless to say, we did not meet up.

Some of your stories just break my heart.

The sad thing is, I don't hear those comments anymore, except from myself!! (Working on that!)

now, I get comments on "Don't lose more" "You look anorexic" and ... yeah. So even on the "other side" .... people are cruel.

My parents called me fat but made me "clean my plate" that they would fill up. My friends (yeah right) called me big and didn't want me on their sports teams. Every boy in school stayed far away from me because their friends would make fun of them for just talking to me. I gravitated to the other "fat kids" and found friends. I made sure when I had kids of my own that I would NOT tolerate them talking about someone being too fat or making fun of the way they looked. I still had someone at work make a comment about the size of my butt awhile ago, but I also have heard a lot of compliments about it so I just try to ignore the crap.

It's not an actual insult, but the fact that my mother has never paid a compliment to me unless I was thin.

Can you imagine how much it hurt to try on my wedding dress for the first time and have all the saleswomen tell me how beautiful I look and all my mother could say was "If you start lifting weights, your arms will tone up".

It blew any insult way out of the water.

I was a triple threat as a pre-teen and teen: wore glasses, overweight, and smart. Someone was always trying to beat me up for one of those reasons. I started carrying rocks around in my leather purse and grew out my fingernails. After awhile the taunts and threats stopped. I never told my parents or siblings -- I'm not sure why not. And I was only about 20 pounds overweight back then -- I thought I was HUGE -- I wish I was only 20 pounds overweight now.

It's too bad that society thinks this is OK -- it must or everyone would stop the comments: friends, teachers, parents, co-workers... If a person was out-of-line in saying something, the rest of the group would tell them to stop. But they don't. They join right in. If we had teased the boy in a wheelchair as a kid, we would have ended up in the principal's office (he was my neighbor, and I would never have thought that teasing him was appropriate). But tease the fat girl? Sure.

I remembered something from PE class. When aerobics started becoming popular, my PE teacher got a record that had work out songs. I remember the chorus to one of them was something about "Go, you chicken fat, go." Guess what the chubby members of class had that sung to them all year? And I remember the President's Physical Fitness Challenge testing. It was like all of it was created to be a spectator sport for the rest of the class. How long can you hold a chin up? How fast can you run the 600-yard dash? Look who's on the bottom? Today, if I did a 600-yard sprint, I would take my asthma medication and have an inhaler nearby. I had no idea back then that it was anything except my weight that caused my breathing issues. I still hate to run, but 600 yards wouldn't be an issue with asthma medication.

I love that replies are still being posted to this post. Not because I like hearing other people's painful stories, but it makes the rest of us realize we weren't just singled out.

Now... this may be threadjacking, but what's wrong with society now, when not only over 1/2 of America (according to stats) are obese, but the huge rise in childhood obesity is outrageous! ....

None of it deems meanness or hatefullness though. It deems a nation taking control of their health, no matter how hard it is.

Why is that going to continue? Because people have been listening to the government about what to eat -- U.S. food pyramid says 6-11 servings of breads and cereals. Whole wheat bread, etc. Sure, that's supposed to be good for you. Let's have a jelly sandwich, chips, an apple and a Twinkie for lunch. I remember having lunches like that. Not to mention hot lunches like tuna casserole (mostly noodles), fruit in heavy syrup, a roll and milk. So the kids keep getting fatter.

We will now return you to your regularly scheduled programming. There's a thread here somewhere about the childhood obesity problem, but don't get me started.

the most hurtful thing anyone has ever said to me was, "what happened to you? you used to be so hot." boy did that shoot my self esteem right into the ground.