I have lipedema, I’ve had it since puberty.

To meerly slow the progression, I live on a low-carb diet and exercise extensively. But I’m still very fat with huge amounts of fat on my body. There’s not much else I can do. I also have hypothyroidism which doesn’t help either.
People look at my body and assume I don’t exercise and eat junk food. I do not eat junk food. For so many of my friends, losing weight means just cutting out some sugar or exercising a few hours a week. In fact my friends get frustrated that there’s so few places I can go out to eat. They act like it’s so easy, it is for them.

I know it’s not the same, but I experience my own dysphoria with my body, body dysphoria, fat dysphoria. The large areas of fat are not me, they don’t represent me, and I feel awful looking at them. I try to not look at my body in the mirror, and have a different picture of myself in my mind. I hate the feeling when I see myself in the mirror.
Insurance won’t cover surgery for my lipedema, it’s considered cosmetic, even though it’s effecting my ability to walk. Their reasoning is when I lose my mobility due to being heavy, I can still swim and that’s no excuse to not exercise!
Really, they honestly think just taking a couple dozen laps around the pool is enough to stop this, don’t they think I wouldn’t let it get this bad if it was just that simple?

Thank you for this piece. I never chose to be this fat, or did anything that lead to this. My lipedema is genetic. And it’s only by going to get worse, because menopause can’t be avoided, and that will add a hormonal shift triggering the weight gain again.