Overweight?

Every country has some percent of unhealthy overweight people. But people in some countries watch television (and real magazines) too much and think of themselves as fat.

Recently Russian internet was turned on by citation from Ksenia Sobchak "I don't like fat people, they should work out".

Instagram was full of pictures with hashtag "thatsyouwhoisfat" in Russian (1300 pictures so far), you can see the extract here in Russian article.

But the thing I've been wanting to discuss is here: what does it mean to be overweight in Russia nowadays? What is fat or skinny, according to people? Do people want to lose weight?

Yes they do. There are gyms, low-fat food, green salads and smoothies. There also is "sekta" ("cult" in Russian, the name holds some irony) school for those who want to be fit. It's quite popular (see 66k pictures with #sekta tag on Instagram or presentation in English).

Thanks to mass media, everyone want to be skinny. Myself I prefer to buy M t-shirt instead of L one just to feel better (even if they look like the same). The best thing to say to you female friend is "I think you've lost some weight lately" (try it!).

I think every woman I know wants to weight less. Except maybe for two or three who already are of XXS size (but they are scared of getting fat anyway).

This is sad. There are some initiatives like "Body positive" group in Russian social network VK providing fresh thoughts on women body issues but the majority still feels overweight, trying to hold their bellies while taking pictures, for example. Hoping they will wake up one morning looking like photoshopped model from Vogue cover.

The only nice thing I can think of according to this is here: many women start to do push-ups, yoga, attend dance classes to be thinner - and get fit instead. Or stop eating typical Russian food (meat with potatoes etc). This is at least healthy.

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