Hey Delilah - love that hiar!

He "discovers" that she was sexually abused as a child and stays fat to stay unsexy (sorry, I think that's an overused example of why someone might prefer to be fat).

I don't know about it being an over-used excuse but it sure is a valid one. On another board there was a thread about someone who had been raped three times and stayed fat to keep these creeps away. Yes, it really does happen. Woman after woman joined that thread, saying the same thing. Again and again the pattern was repeated. The 'protective' quality of being fat was the motivation behind NOT losing weight. They wanted to be unattarctive, they wanted to stay anonymous. Part of the struggle is learning to cope with being/feeling vulnerable again.

Staying fat is defiitely a protective measure for some. The sexual abuse theme may well have been overused in the media (Roseanne example - I'm a total b*tch to everyone because I was abused. What rot.) but it is still a valid one, if not as prevalent as therapists make out.