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It's the side of extreme weight loss rarely seen, but that's why it's needed

Courage and body positivity. This is me.

Image from YouTube video.

An emotional and strong Matt Diaz.


Matt Diaz worked extremely hard to lose 270 pounds over six years.

But his proudest moment came in March 2015 when he decided to film himself with his shirt off to prove an important point about body positivity and self-love.

Matt had lap-band surgery in 2009 at age 16.

Through the course of his weight-loss journey, Matt became passionate about promoting body positivity for people of all shapes and sizes.
before and after weight loss photos of young man

Here's Matt at 16 years old and 497 pounds versus recently after his surgery — at 22 years old and 220 pounds.

Images via Matt Diaz, used with permission.

To stay motivated, he started sharing his journey on social media, posting before-and-after photos, answering questions and giving support to followers, and even sharing his meals and favorite workouts. Six years later, Matt is down over 270 pounds and is a very active voice in the online body-positivity movement.

But in all his years of sharing his story, the one thing he's never done is showed what his body looks like after 200+ pounds of weight loss. So he uploaded the video above to show his followers his true self.

man shows excess skin post weight loss

Sharing what happens with extreme weight loss.

Images via Matt Diaz, used with permission.

man crying beside comment

Working through fear...

Images via Matt Diaz, used with permission.

man crying beside comment

Loving myself.

Images via Matt Diaz, used with permission.

man crying beside comment

Scary and important.

Images via Matt Diaz, used with permission.

Shortly after he posted the video online, originally to Tumblr, it quickly went viral and garnered thousands of shares and comments from people around the web. I was one of the thousands touched by the video, so I reached out to Matt to find out more about what motivated him and what he hopes others can take away from his story. Here's what he had to say:

Upworthy (UP): Why was it so important for you to post this video?

Matt Diaz (MD): "I'm a really big advocate for self-love and body positivity. I think it's important that we learn to love the bodies we're in, even if we don't necessarily like every little thing about them. However, in the time I'd been writing and talking about it, I'd never actually shown my excess skin to anyone. It felt dishonest somehow, to others and to myself. I couldn't tell others that I wanted them to love themselves and keep myself hidden away and ashamed of my skin."

"I know what it feels like to hate your body, and to be depressed about it, and I never want anyone to feel that way again. So, if making myself vulnerable can help one person, why not?"

UP: What's the response been like? Anything particularly unexpected?

MD:"I think that putting any opinion on the Internet will garner a certain amount of negativity and cynicism, but I haven't seen anything like that at all. I've read every comment and message since the video has gone up, literally thousands, and they're all so thoughtful.

A really surprising side-effect were the number of transgender people who've thanked me saying that they understood my struggle, even though their body-related insecurity grew from different roots. I'd never even begun to [think] of what that must be like, and the fact that my message could help even though my problems began somewhere else is really incredible.”

UP: What advice or words of encouragement do you have for someone who's struggling to love their body?

MD:"I know it's difficult, especially when you're starting out. I want you to remember that you are not the problem, certain aspects of society are the problem. You'll constantly be told that you're too heavy or too tall to be attractive, or you're not masculine or feminine enough, or that your skin isn't the right tone or your hair isn't the right color, and these people are always always always wrong.

Luckily, we're slowly starting to see these ideas get phased out by modernity. Plus-sized, un-retouched models are getting more attention in major brands, more attention is being put on the alternative scene for high fashion, it's becoming clear that these negative ideas are not going to last, though it's going to take a while."

"Understand that to love yourself is to contest the negative things that were put into your head. Every smile, tattoo, bathing suit, and crop top is a small revolution. Tell yourself you're beautiful every day, and I promise you will be."

Watch video below:

Matt's story is a personal one, but it's one we can all learn from.

I think the most important thing to take away here is that self-love takes time and is different for everyone no matter what they look like. It's also worth noting that for Matt, losing weight was an important part of his journey, but that might not be the case for everyone. Even so, our society has such incredibly high and unrealistic body standards that even many of those who do work to lose weight end up feeling uncomfortable or being shamed for not having "perfect bodies" once they've lost weight.

There's no such thing as a "perfect body" because everyone is different, which is what makes us beautiful and great! I'm glad there are people like Matt in the world who are not only willing to share their stories but also to inspire others by showing that body confidence comes in all shapes and sizes, and that everyone deserves to feel good about who they are. Here's hoping Matt's inspiring words can help others begin to love and accept themselves, no matter where they're at in their journey.


- YouTube


UPDATE: In May 2016, Diaz, who now goes by they/them pronouns, underwent skin removal surgery with top New York City Plastic Surgeon, Dr. Matthew Schulman. They had 43 pounds of excess skin removed and appeared on Schulman's show, The Doctors, for their big reveal. Keep up with Diaz and their life on Instagram where they've recently shared their wedding. Congratulations!


This story originally appeared ten years ago.

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Shocking photo shows the amount of sugar in ketchup. Can this be true?

This makes ketchup look like candy.

via Cotton bro studio/Pexels and Humuask/Pixabay

There's a lot of sugar in ketchup.

To say that Americans have a sweet tooth is an understatement. According to a study of 54 countries published by World Population Review, American sugar consumption is the highest in the world at 126 grams per day. That’s the equivalent of drinking three cans of Coca-Cola every day.

In comparison, the average person in China consumes just 7 grams of sugar daily.

Not surprisingly, this heavy sugar consumption has led to an obesity crisis. As of 2020, 42% of Americans were obese. The country’s obesity rate has increased by 26% since 2008.

The tricky thing about the American diet is that a lot of foods that don’t necessarily taste sweet to us are saturated with sugar.

A recent tweet by Josiah Hughes received over 5 million views because it showed the shocking amount of sugar in the average bottle of Heinz ketchup. The image shows an empty bottle of Heinz ketchup that is about a third full of sugar. The image seemed like an exaggeration because ketchup isn’t overly sweet. It has a tangy, savory, acidic and smooth flavor with a hint of spice.

But this photo makes a bottle of ketchup look more like a candy bar.

“The powerful visual shows how much sugar is in 400ml of Heinz Ketchup. No wonder I feel sick when I consume a whole bottle,” Hughes joked in the tweet.

The tweet’s popularity inspired Snopes, one of the internet’s most popular fact-checking sites, to investigate the claim. Is a bottle of Heinz ketchup roughly a third sugar?

To fact-check the claim, Snopes purchased two 14-ounce bottles of Heinz ketchup and referenced the nutrition information on the product label. The math was pretty simple. The average bottle of Heinz ketchup contains 391 grams of ketchup, of which 92 grams of it are sugar. That means that the ketchup is roughly 24% sugar. Snopes ranked the claim true: “A viral tweet offers a roughly accurate visual representation of the amount of sugar in a bottle of Heinz ketchup.”

“The vast majority of the product's sugar content comes from both high fructose corn syrup and corn syrup, both of which are liquids,” the fact-check reads. A big reason why American foods are so saturated with high fructose corn syrup is that it is cheap because the government subsidizes it.

Many health complications can come with overconsuming high fructose corn syrup. A major problem is diabetes.

"Chronic overconsumption of high fructose corn syrup causes an increase in fat production and worsens insulin sensitivity," Jennifer Feda, Clinical Nutrition Manager at the Hospital of Central Connecticut in New Britain, tells Hartford Hospital. "Even a small change like not drinking regular soda is beneficial. Limiting processed foods, in general, will not only help you limit intake of high fructose corn syrup, but also your intake of unhealthy fats, which is a bonus."

Although the image of the sugar-filled ketchup bottle is shocking, it’s a wake-up call to many Americans about the dangers posed by the products we consume every day. The more transparent that companies and watchdogs can be about what’s really in our food, the better chance we all have to make healthier choices.

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Identity

Let's all take a pause before commenting on someone's weight, fictional character or not

Disney's short about a ballerina's triumph revealed an undercurrent of cruelty about obesity that needs to end.

Mark Production/Canva

People with obesity should be able to express joy and confidence without shame and criticism.

Folks, we need to talk.

Last week, I wrote an article about Disney’s new short, “Reflect,” which had been creating some buzz. The 2 1/2 minute film about a larger-than-average ballerina who triumphs over the mirror by dancing with joy and confidence is an ode to the body image struggle so many people face. It’s sweet, positive and inspiring.

But many people’s reactions to the film—or even just the idea of the film—were not.

Commentary has been mixed, as is often the case, but I’ve been stunned by the casual cruelty people throw around when it comes to weight. I’ve been writing on the internet for a long time and am fairly immune to trollish comments, but these comments feel different. These aren't trolls being outrageous to get a reaction; these are people voicing their genuine prejudices.

I’m a thin person and found it disheartening, but when I put myself into the shoes of an overweight/obese/larger-than-average person, the comments came off as utterly crushing.

First, there were a lot of sarcastic “Oh great, let’s glorify/celebrate obesity,” comments. Nothing in this film celebrated obesity. The only things being celebrated were the joy of expression through dance and a young woman finding she had power over her own insecurities. Celebrating those things through a large-bodied character is not glorifying obesity; it’s merely showing that people who don't fit the standard mold can express themselves joyfully and don’t have to be held back by insecurity. Those are objectively good messages.

Second, there were a surprising number of “fat people are just lazy” comments. Um, this film is literally depicting a fat person exercising. Like, she's dancing the whole time. The opposite of lazy. What more do people want?

Third, “We should focus on teaching kids to eat right and exercise instead of trying to make people feel good about being fat." Hmm. Helping people feel confident in their bodies, whatever shape or size they are, is not the same as making people "feel good about being fat." The logical corollary here is "people should feel bad about themselves if they are above a certain [totally arbitrary] size or weight or shape," which is ridiculous. Shame is counterproductive. More on that in a moment.

But in terms of education about eating well, how about we walk and chew gum at the same time? How about we encourage healthy living and make sure people know their worth isn't wrapped up in their weight? How about we recognize that there are plenty of thin people who eat crappy food and don’t exercise much and that weight is not always an indicator that someone doesn't eat well?

There are actually a lot of ands that we all need to internalize when it comes to bodies and fat. Obesity in general is associated with health problems and not all weight issues are due to not eating right or exercising enough and thin people can be just as unhealthy as obese people and fat people deserve support and compassion (or at least just be allowed to "be") and someone else's body size really is nobody else's business to comment on.

"But it's a character! It's not even a real person!" It doesn't matter.

Commenting critically or cruelly on a fictional character's body primarily does two things:

1) It reinforces common biases and stigmas surrounding people who are overweight, which is dangerous. Harvard University has shared research showing that bias against obesity can cause doctors to assume a patient's symptoms are due to weight and prevent them from investigating further, which can lead to missed diagnoses. Additionally, many doctors are not well-trained in what causes obesity or how to treat it, so patients who are overweight can be impacted by both bias and a lack of knowledge and understanding about their bodies.

(Side note: Obesity is not as simple as "calories in/calories out"—that's an antiquated myth according to Harvard obesity expert Dr. Fatima Cody Stanford. What you eat matters, of course, but it's just one piece of a large, multifaceted puzzle.)

2) It actually discourages people from losing weight. Cruelty is discouraging and judgments are demotivating. That's not just a guess—research backs that up. And real people who see themselves in the character you are mocking or criticizing will see themselves in your comment. If you genuinely care about other people's health and want to do something about obesity as a health issue, making gross assumptions and mean comments about fat people is 100% NOT the way to address it. It's counterproductive.

"But obesity is unhealthy!"So is negativity—literally. But negativity comes with the side effect of bringing down everyone else around you, which can impact their health as well, so which is worse?

Every obese person has surely heard it all before, so critical comments aren't telling them anything they don't already know. It's not kind, it's not helpful and it does far more harm than good.

Joy and confidence, on the other hand, are motivating. When people feel good about themselves, they are more likely to be successful in whatever endeavors they undertake, whether their goal is to create healthful habits or perfect a tricky dance move.

That's what makes the message of "Reflect" so powerful. And that's why complaints about a character with obesity being portrayed in a positive light completely miss the point. We all deserve the freedom to express ourselves with joy and confidence, no matter what shape or size body we are in.

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Popular

Viral stories show how 'fatphobia' has life-and-death consequences— even for babies and kids

Dadmin/Facebook, Evette Dionne/Twitter

Many people who carry extra weight on their bodies have stories to tell about problematic medical care. Maybe a medical issue was overlooked because of their weight. Perhaps a doctor prescribed losing weight as a solution to an issue that had nothing to do with being fat.

In our society, fat is looked upon as a health hazard at best and a character flaw at worst. While evidence does point to obesity being a health risk factor, judgments about other people's extra pounds go far beyond concerns over health. Companies make billions of dollars off of perpetuating society's obsession with thinness, from diet pills to weight loss programs to plastic surgery, and fat jokes seem to be the final frontier of socially acceptable cruelty and marginalization.

This obsession with the size of people's bodies has consequences. People have no problem sounding off about health problems associated with obesity, but rarely do we hear people preach about about health consequences of the fear of obesity. Anorexia and bulimia come to mind, but there are also more nuanced tales of people facing medical neglect and abuse from others due to a pervasive fear of fatness. We're talking about illness and death in babies and children, all because of fatphobia.

RELATED: These 3 stories show how we're subconsciously teaching children to be fatphobic.

In a post on Facebook shared by Dadmin, a series of screenshots of Reddit stories illustrating how fatphobia can lead to dire health problems. Sometimes those problems are even exacerbated by healthcare workers themselves.

One person told the story of a substitute at a daycare where she worked questioning why a large baby needed to take a bottle. A coworker replied, "That's where all her nutrients are. She needs the nutrients and the water." The substitute replied, "But she's so fat. She doesn't need it." All babies need to eat regularly, and all babies's bodies are different. (For example, my own babies were super roly-poly, and all they had was breastmilk their first 10 months or so. My best friend's baby, also exclusively breastfeed, ate far more frequently than mine and was super skinny.)

As the poster pointed out, "Thin privilege is a small, pretty baby getting better childcare because the caretaker doesn't think she's too fat to be allowed to eat."

Dadmin/Facebook

Another person wrote about their cousin who had her kids taken away because she was starving her baby. Worried about her infant becoming "too fat," she only fed her one bottle of skim milk a day. "I don't want her growing up fat," she said. Even after having her kids removed for medical neglect, she still maintained that the doctors were wrong and she was right. According to the post, she said, "They just want fat kids so they can keep employed treating them for all those diseases that being fat causes."

Dadmin/Facebook

Other people chimed in with similar stories of babies being starved or evaluated as overweight.

"A parent brought in their six month old baby who was having breathing issues and kept getting sick," one person wrote. "The parent was asked if the baby was eating regularly and the parents straight up told the doctor that they only feed the baby once a day...They even had the nerve to say because they didn't want the baby to get fat. People like this are real. They would rather have a dead baby than a fat one."

Another shared the story of their exclusively breastfed 10-month-old being in the 99th percentile and the nurse saying, "He is at risk for obesity. You may want to keep an eye on that." She said later on, this same child measured off the charts but the doctor said at least he was in proportion. Because they can't control their "weight talk," which research shows is potentially harmful to children, this mother said she no longer allows doctors to weigh her kids unless it's medically necessary. (And it sometimes is. Medication dosages are often determined by height and weight, for example.)

Dadmin/Facebook

Another person wrote about how her mother had her dieting with her from the time she was 11, worried she was going to "get huge." She fed her less than 600 calories per day and grounded her when she found out her friends were bringing her lunches. She ended up in the ER and has struggled since with anorexia. "Please don't starve your fucking children," she wrote.

RELATED: A viral and heartbreaking hashtag proves body-shaming starts early for women.

As another user wrote, "Fatphobia is real and it kills."

Dadmin/Facebook

Sometimes healthcare providers think every health issue is weight-related, which can result in misdiagnosis.

One person shared a story of a college friend who had been having trouble breathing. The doctor told her to lose weight. Time and again over several years, she returned to the doctor with the same breathing problem, telling them she was dieting but couldn't exercise because of the breathing issue. It turned out she had a tumor on her lungs that wasn't caught. She died at age 25, three months after it was finally diagnosed.

Dadmin/Facebook

Yet another user shared a story of her little sister feeling fatigued and dizzy, getting nauseated at the sight of food, and suffering from abdominal pain at nine years old. The ER doctor dismissed it saying she was fat and probably just ate too many burgers. Her mom questioned the diagnosis and took her to another doctor who also told her that the girl was "just fat."

The pain got worse, the girl's skin began to yellow. A third ER visit revealed she had life-threatening hepatitis, which took a year to recover from. "If it weren't for my mother, fatphobia would have killed her," the person wrote.

Dadmin/Facebook

Clearly, some of these stories are extreme, and one must take Reddit stories with a grain of skepticism. But stories like this abound across social media.

And there is more than just anecdotal evidence that prejudice against fat people can cause real medical harm.

A 2015 Lancet study found that doctors take less time with obese patients and are more reluctant to screen them for other health issues. It also found that healthcare workers tend to stereotype obese people as less likely to follow medical advice and stick to medications.

A 2017 review of research from the American Psychological Association also found that medical discrimination based on people's size is a real issue, and obese patients are more likely to have undiagnosed medical issues:

"In one study of over 300 autopsy reports, obese patients were 1.65 times more likely than others to have significant undiagnosed medical conditions (e.g., endocarditis, ischemic bowel disease or lung carcinoma), indicating misdiagnosis or inadequate access to health care."

When societal judgments on weight start affecting people's medical care, we have a problem. And it can't only be fat people battling the issue—it's up to all of us to fight size bias and tackle the myriad messages we see every day that fat people are less than.

Dadmin/Facebook

As one Reddit user said, "I'd really like my thin followers to reblog this if you can. Fat people are already here for each other. We need you guys to help us out too. This is something I never see anyone actually talking about in-depth, and it's disappointing."

Let's talk about it now, and do what we can to eliminate fatphobia before it does more harm than it already has.

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