I agree with you. I don't think you need to feel ashamed about how you feel. I think that society has purposely put the obese people and the 'normal sized' and mildly overweight on different sides of the spectrum, and some people who are or have been obese are hesitant to put much stock in what the smaller crowd has to say, and that is entirely understandable. Some of us have been kicked when we're down, and are not willing to listen to what the other side has to say.

I don't think it's 'reverse sizism' as you put it, though. I'm sure that for one who has NEVER been as overweight as some of us in TDC, it is hard to believe they 'understand'. They can sympathise, but their struggles are NOT the same.

I think for a lot of us, we had a scenario like this play out on our young adulthood: I went through high school with a so-called 'best friend' who was 115 pounds soaking wet, who was always on a diet, saying how fat she was (and no, she did NOT have an eating disorder, unless you call attention-getting an eating disorder. She was like that in all aspects of her personality..). She would tell me how nice of a person I was 'inside', and that I was fine the way I was (yeah right, not overshadowing HER glory as the thinnest person on the planet) insinuating that I was too ugly on the outside to even compare with her.

For someone who is not really heavy to tell us they know exactly what we're going through, it is somewhat like a white person standing beside a black person, and giving them advice on how to 'thwart' racism, and trying to say they understand what it's like to be black. My best friend will tell you that is patently impossible, since they ARE NOT BLACK. He's had that happen to him too, having people calling him 'Brother', or 'Homey', who are white or native. My best friend does not talk like that, and has said to some of these idiots that we live in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, NOT the Bronx. Sounds as if they are making fun, and being racist themselves, at least to me.

I also know that there may be people out there who may think they are better than others, and in an attempt to feel superior, they may jump in and give advice on threads that they know nothing of, just to get their 'better stats' posted, or to gloat.

I have not seen that personally on this board, but I have on others dealing with addictions. Crazy, huh? It seemed some of our numbers want us all to fail. It's very weird... I sincerely hope it doesn't happen here, because this is a long journey, and without proper support, it is a hard road. As with the thinner posters, most really do have very insightful things to say that I have noticed so far, but if they start posting that they know what it's like to be 300+ lbs, I think we have a right to ignore everything they say.
It just isn't credible after that.
Just my 2 cents.

Diana