Success and recognition came to Whitney when... she gained excess weight. Now the 170-kilogram dancer and TV presenter is successfully losing weight and successfully teaching others to do the same. What is Whitney's secret?
Reasons for rapid weight gain
Once upon a time, Whitney Thore was a thin and petite girl. But one day she began to rapidly gain weight, and after an examination, doctors diagnosed her with a hormonal imbalance. Since then, Whitney has tried a hundred diets, spent 10 years in therapy and exercised intensively, but the scales inexorably showed “plus”. The constant sidelong glances of passers-by and the heavy sighs of loved ones became simply unbearable, so Whitney worked abroad for a long time.
But one day Whitney said to herself “stop”, why torture yourself, because life is so good. Since then, the girl has not stopped enjoying life and, contrary to doctors’ predictions, is gradually losing weight.
Rejoice despite everything
This is exactly the motto that Whitney promotes among her fans. Loving yourself, enjoying every moment of life and doing everything with pleasure - these are the main postulates of the Torah.
Once a girl published a video of her dance online, and the next morning she woke up famous. Soon one of the US TV channels became interested in the fiery girl and in 2016 signed a contract with her to create the reality show “My Full Life”. In it, Whitney will struggle with her problem and teach the same to the same desperate “lumps.”
Eat, dance... lose weight
It's easier to part with extra pounds when you love yourself and your full body - that's what Whitney says. She enjoys traveling, hanging out with friends, loves to chat with her friend over a slice of pizza and a cup of cappuccino, meets cute guys and dances fiery dances for fun. Since the girl began to live with pleasure, the weight began to slowly melt away.
Whitney does not deny herself her favorite food, eats everything she wants, but at the same time leads an active lifestyle, and burns off extra pounds in the dance hall. “Burn more calories than you take in,” advises Whitney. The girl herself adheres to her own principles of comfortable weight loss: she enjoys dancing, attending parties and taking long walks. The girl advises her subscribers not to have complexes about their imperfect body, but to do whatever they want, then the excess weight will go away much faster.
Now Whitney dances a lot, shoots videos, creates her own mega-popular program, travels around the world, meets a new guy and provides support to overweight people. So why not follow her example.
Fame came to 170-pound Whitney Thore after publishing a series of dance videos on YouTube. Now the girl leads a social movement against discrimination against fat people and participates in the reality show “My Full Life.” In an interview with Hello magazine, Whitney said that she began to recover at the age of 18 due to illness. No matter how hard she tried, she could not lose weight. 
“When I was 18 years old and started going to college, I suddenly gained a lot of weight, very quickly. I didn’t know why this happened, I was very embarrassed about myself and didn’t go to the doctor. My life changed dramatically, and in one year I gained about 45 kilograms. When you're fat, you start to feel like an outcast, and it was at that moment that I stopped working out and taking care of myself, I was severely depressed. 
A few years later, in 2005, I was diagnosed with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome. I realized that this was the reason why I gained weight in the first place. By the time I realized this, I had already gained 90 kilograms,” she said. 
As she gained weight, people began to treat her more harshly, Whitney said. They believed that the girl had become lazy and stopped taking care of herself. My personal life also didn’t go well for a long time, but now Whitney is happy in her relationship. 
“I have a boyfriend, his name is Lenny. Our relationship is the first time where my weight doesn't matter. This is the first time I feel like I'm truly loved for who I am, for my whole personality, not just for my body, but for my mind as well,” she said.
Whitney noted that men have always liked it, but they were... shy about it! 
“Everyone seems to think that men are not attracted to fat girls. But no matter what size I was, men were always interested in me. The biggest problem is that many men who like plus-size women tend to be embarrassed about it because it's kind of taboo. I come across men who think I'm attractive, who really like me, but who probably won't date me because they're afraid of what other people will think of them. And sometimes this is very annoying,” said the dancer. 
Our meeting place is Skype. On the other side of the screen is a sweet girl with beautiful eyes and a friendly smile. This is the same one living “full life” from the channel TLC presenter and dancer Whitney Thore (33).
"How are you? Whitney greets me first. “I’m ready to talk heart to heart.” Yes, we planned to talk about painful issues (for Whitney) - about excess weight and the ability to live in a large body when the whole world around is losing weight.
“I admit, it is very difficult to cope with the amount of criticism that constantly comes at me on a daily basis, especially on the Internet. The worst thing I read was that I should kill myself. It's just kind of creepy. This is inhumane! You can not do it this way! No matter how complete I am,” Whitney argues a little sadly and immediately switches: “Although negativity cannot exist without positivity.” They also say a lot of wonderful words to me. The most touching message was from a teenager from Lebanon. He wrote to me that he is gay and that being gay is Lebanon extremely difficult, it must constantly hide this fact and be encrypted. But when he saw my dancing videos, he had hope. It really touched me because it wasn't complete. He simply found something that gave him the strength to live his life. So you can always gather your strength and resist these stupid attitudes in society.”
By the way, Whitney was not always plump. The disease due to which she began to gain weight is polycystic ovarian syndrome, plus hormonal imbalance. At the age of 18, her weight began to increase rapidly: literally in a year she gained 45 kg and began to weigh 103 kg instead of 58. Now her scales consistently show 170 kg.
“First of all, we expect a girl to be beautiful, but in the case of men there are no such expectations. Even when it comes to celebrities such as, many called her fat after performing at Super Bowl, although she only has a small belly. We need to be kinder."
A few years ago, Whitney lost 45 kg in just eight months, and she seemed to have lost weight, but it didn’t make her any happier.
“You know how difficult it really is to maintain self-confidence and live the way you like, especially when the whole world around you is losing weight. Articles about diets and calls to eat less appear constantly in the media. Even some things around us are served to us with a “badness” sauce. For example, my shampoo is marked Fat Hair(literally "oily hair"). I understand that we are talking about the quality of the hair, but somehow it’s not very pleasant.”
In 2015, Whitney decided to host her own program on TLC "My Full Life". The main goal of her reality show is to show that it is important to be independent from the opinions of others. Now, in addition to the program on the channel TLC "My Full Life" Whitney leads a social movement No Body Shame, supporting and protecting people with excess weight.
“Of course, now plus size models are becoming more and more popular. It seems that the fashion world has finally begun to take into account the interests of overweight people. This is a big step forward. However, we are still far from a real breakthrough in this area. We can look at the cover Sports Illustrated, and it's amazing, but she's still pretty skinny. She barely falls into the category of plus size models. Rather, we need women like me, weighing over 100 kg.
I want to see a fat woman on television without us talking about her being fat. So that her weight is not an object of jokes or part of the plot, so that there is no talk of losing weight. There is just such a person, and it just so happens that he is fat. I hope that my program helps move in this direction.”
Whitney, like all girls, goes to beauty salons. Every week she does a massage and always updates her pedicure.
“The figure is not the main thing. I am a living example of this. There is a widespread stereotype that all overweight people feel within themselves another, thin person who wants to break free from the captivity of excess weight. I am at peace with my body, my body is me, we are one. Now I am completely satisfied with myself. The only thing I would like to change is my hair. It would be cool if they became thicker! And I'm not kidding. Due to polycystic ovary syndrome, my hair began to fall out a lot.”
Whitney's whole life is an example of the fact that only your efforts and positive attitude will help you survive in the modern, ever-thinner world.
“I admit, I still have problems with nutrition. It's not as serious as before (I suffered from an eating disorder), but still. I still eat quite erratically sometimes, but I honestly try. I try to make sure that I have a clear diet: eating three times a day, eating when I’m really hungry and realizing when I’m full - always trying to find that balance, listening to my body.”
Like any girl, Whitney dreams of love and family.
“If I had a chance to catch a goldfish, I would ask her for a man. Still, it’s hard for me to find a person who would like a long-term relationship, whom I could marry. Whatever one may say, my weight affects my life. Of course, there are many men who love fat women. We don't believe they exist, but I know they do! They just hide, they don’t talk about it openly because they’re embarrassed, but they definitely exist, so I don’t lose hope.”
5 tips from Whitney for those who sit at home depressed and don't like their body
1. Have compassion for yourself and understand that you don't have to be perfect. You don't have to be what society wants you to be.
2. Develop relationships with people, be it your family or friends. Find people who will support you because being compassionate to yourself is hard.
3. Try to understand what you value in your body and in yourself. You need to look at your body as a tool, not as an ornament. Essentially, it's what your body can do, not what it looks like. So, if you find something that allows you to feel good in your body, whether it's dancing, sports or yoga, it will help develop a positive attitude towards yourself.
4. Abstract from the culture of diets and weight loss, yes it is difficult, but possible.
5. This may sound funny, but I would advise walking naked when you are alone at home, because you need to see your own body and see it as it is. Previously, I didn’t want to see myself naked, but now I see myself naked all the time, and this helps me accept my body and learn to love it.
Find out more about Whitney Thore's life on My Complete Life, Thursdays at 11:00 pm on TLC!
The star of the reality show “My Full Life” Whitney Way Thore published a video, after which some fans began to praise her for losing weight. Women wrote that the American woman’s weight loss inspired them. But Thor was not at all happy about such comments and scolded such fans. And opinions about whether she is right or wrong are divided.
35-year-old US resident Whitney Way Thore is best known for her appearance on the reality show My Big Fat Fabulous Life. The plot revolves around Thor herself, who showed that, having an impressive excess weight (the woman gained up to 170 kilograms due to polycystic ovary syndrome), you can not have complexes and enjoy life. The program also talked about losing weight, although this was not the main theme of the show. As Thor told Woman’s Day, when launching the program, her main goal was “to bring to television screens around the world an overweight woman who does not participate in a weight-loss competition and is not the butt of jokes.”
For many viewers, the optimistic, open and bright Whitney has become an example of a body-positive woman. While participating in filming, she also launched something like training for overweight people - No Body Shame at Sea (in fact, this is a cruise trip with dance classes, yoga, and so on). And of course, the star actively publishes videos on instagram, where more than 600 thousand people have subscribed to it.
Whitney often posts photos and videos of her playing sports, and another one appeared on the social network on July 24. A girl is dancing on it.
The video received a lot of positive comments - fans (but mostly female fans) were happy that Whitney looked great in the footage. And some fans also thought that Thor had lost weight, and began to praise her for it and claim that Whitney inspires them.
Is it just me or have you lost weight? I like it ❤️❤️❤️❤️ Expand
You've lost a lot of weight! Good job, girl! You look beautiful as always ❤️ Expand
Hey Whitney, I think your hard work is paying off, I can see a change in your appearance, like you've lost weight. Keep going girl, it just takes time. You are a huge source of inspiration to me, sending rays of love from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
ExpandApparently, the fans thought that their words about losing weight would please Whitney. But it was a mistake. The very next day, Thor published a video in which she expressed dissatisfaction with such replays.
View this post on Instagram
According to Whitney, she is not at all trying to be someone who inspires others to lose weight, and thanking fans for comments congratulating her on losing weight would be awkward for her.
I've been reading the comments and most of them are people congratulating me on losing the weight you thought I had lost. But I assure you that I'm still fucking fat, and that hasn't changed since day one [of the show]. I'm just not here to inspire anyone to lose weight. If you're inclined to get inspiration from me, I appreciate it and I notice you. But I'm just a multifaceted person who focuses on a lot of other things in life besides losing weight. So this [congratulations on your weight loss] is not something I felt comfortable thanking you for.
Thor clarified: she is glad that she inspires her subscribers. However, the woman hopes that this inspiration is based on the fact that Whitney is a woman who has learned to love herself no matter her size.
Many subscribers agreed with Whitney’s words - in their opinion, it is much more important to be happy than to be slim.
If only I had learned this truth when I was 12 years old. Expand
I love it so much!! I was curious what you thought of those comments. You inspire me with your focus on body positivity!! I have fully accepted my body and I have you to thank for that ❤️
ExpandSuch precise words! A happy and healthy body is as much about the inside as it is the outside. I try and live like a big and beautiful woman with a smile on my face and sunshine in my soul. Keep being yourself. You are incredibly, damn cool! Expand
But there were also those fans who objected to Thor and thought that who else, if not her, should inspire women to lose weight.
This is congratulations on adding years of healthy life. As someone who has lost 187 pounds, I can congratulate you on being able to sleep better, fit into cubicles easier, find nicer clothes, hear fewer insults, get more attention from men. , in general, more kindness from people. This is a congratulations on the fact that you now have more energy and ease in physical activity. Expand
You should inspire others! You have so many people who look up to you and you are a strong woman, so you are the best candidate [for inspiration] on your weight loss journey!!
There were even arguments why the girl’s act was hypocritical.
Infinitely charming, captivatingly funny, impressively graceful, weighs 180 kg! Those who have already seen Whitney Thore will easily recognize her in this description, but the rest should get to know the girl who gave hope and inspiration to those who suffer from excess weight, and who succeeded in show business in spite of all obstacles..
April 22, 2015 · Text: recorded by Olga Kulakova· Photo: TLC, Twitter
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Whitney Thore suffered for ten long years from the fact that, with her excess weight, she could not become invisible. But I understood myself and realized that kilograms should not stand between a person and his dream. Now Whitney is a celebrity
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If ten years ago Whitney Thore had been told that she would become a discovery in show business and would successfully lead a social movement against discrimination against fat people, most likely, the girl would have considered this another ridicule. And she got a lot of them: in high school, the promising dancer began to gain weight and turned from the pride of the school into an outcast. “I felt like a participant in a social experiment - one of those where you send me walking around the city,” recalls Thor.
It turned out that the American woman suffers from a hormonal disease, one of the complications of which is obesity, which does not respond to either diet or physical activity. In an attempt to escape from people who remember her as thin and cannot forgive her for being different, Whitney spent several years on the road; worked in Korea and Ireland.
All this time she did not give up trying to lose weight, but every time a hormonal imbalance brought back the kilograms she had lost with such difficulty, and even with an “addition”.
In another attempt to deal with her changed life and get used to her new body, Whitney started blogging with thoughts about why overweight people should not dwell on their shortcomings and use it as an excuse for failures and inaction.
To back up her motivating posts with action, the girl resumed her dancing classes. Together with her longtime partner Todd Beasley, she recorded several videos for the channel, which she gave a direct, unflattering name - “Fat Girl Dancing.” And one morning I woke up famous - one of the videos went viral literally overnight. Internet users were shocked by how gracefully a girl of impressive dimensions moves to the sounds of Jason Derulo's hit!
Many become “stars for an hour,” but Whitney Thore managed to take advantage of the chance literally to the fullest - probably because she didn’t just want popularity, but was eager to remind the world that fat people are not a different kind of people, and efforts and success are more important than appearance kind.
website: Whitney, what role has working on the program “My Complete Life” played in your life, and what kind of reaction to the show do you expect from the audience?
Whitney Thore: The program is a look at my life from the inside. I'm known as the dancing fatty of the Internet, but I don't just dance, I have a lot of different things going on. I think that obese women especially suffer from problems in the romantic sphere, and so, I am no exception. I have a friend who I really like, and we meet and then break up, and it goes on and on...
And also, for example, I'm 31 years old, and I recently had to move back to live with my parents, and it was difficult in many ways.
“I have a wonderful mom and dad, but they often pressured me to lose weight because they thought it would be the solution to all my problems and would make me happy. If I answered that I didn’t consider weight loss the most important thing in my life, they really didn’t like it.”
I complained to my dad about being treated poorly, and his reaction was the usual: “You know you can’t change society, but you can change yourself.” But now that I've done a lot and achieved something, my dad came to me and said, Whitney, I think you can really change the world. It was one of the most significant moments in my life.
This is the first time I’m telling a huge audience about such personal things, and in general I had to do a lot for the first time for the program. For the first time in 10 years I returned to teaching dance, for the first time in 20 years I went to the beach. On the one hand, I was very happy to step outside my comfort zone, but at the same time, now I weigh more than I ever weighed before. And I have new problems and new experiences. I hope all this will evoke reciprocal emotions in the audience.
website: You were once a slender girl with the fit figure of a dancer, and then illness made you rapidly gain weight. How did you experience it?
W.T.: It was the most difficult thing I have ever experienced. But when I was thin, they still laughed at me because I had an eating disorder (when Whitney did not yet know about the diagnosis, she tried to fight excess weight on her own, which led her to bulimia. - Note website). And it shows how cruel people are in our society, and how harsh we are on women when it comes to their bodies.
“I was gaining weight so quickly that I simply didn’t have time to understand what was wrong with me. I remember how I constantly touched door frames, furniture, I had terrible bruises and abrasions on my body, because it increased in volume so quickly that I was not aware of my place in space.”
Now I think this is a wonderful metaphor, reflecting the fact that I did not understand my place in society. I felt like every pound I gained made me less valuable and I lost all self-love. So the hardest part was figuring out how to overcome that and realize that I have more to offer the world than just my looks.
website: At some point you decided that since you can’t lose weight, you should stop worrying about it and accept yourself for who you are. How is your relationship with your own body now and how does the disease continue to affect it?
W.T.:I have a very positive and loving attitude towards my body. I can even admit that I love my body now more than ever. The sight of my nakedness does not scare me, I consider myself beautiful, I have learned to take better care of myself. At one time, I went through all the circles of losing weight - I worked out in the gym for hours, and went on diets, but there was no point, so now I just eat what I want - including fried, fatty and sweet foods. Unable to overcome my weight, I became friends with him.
Polycystic ovary syndrome forced me to constantly take a bunch of medications, mostly hormonal. This is a medicine prescribed for pre-diabetic conditions and helps regulate insulin levels, and a medicine that regulates hair growth, and I also take contraceptives so that, however, my menstrual cycle has not normalized, which is very sad.
“There are aspects associated with the syndrome that I am not even able to analyze and understand, because they are associated not with the rational, but with the hormonal reaction of my body. I recently read a book that talked about the connection between polycystic ovarian syndrome and depression, and also a state similar to semi-lethargy where you constantly feel tired and fall asleep, and that’s what I’m experiencing.”
Although I am very happy with what is happening in my life, my mood can change greatly, I get very tired, and I don’t feel truly rested for a single minute of the day. But I love that I'm back to doing a lot of activities and dancing, it gives me joy and protection.
website: You once said that people can’t stand it when they see a fat, happy woman.
W.T.: People are accustomed to thinking that fat people are unhappy mumblers who can evoke either pity or contempt, so the image of a happy, fat person evokes negativity. People can’t wrap their heads around how he, so fat, has the audacity to laugh - he needs to cry! Yes, this irritates many people.
website: ... and among these people is your channel colleague Katie Hopkins. Have you seen Katie's show? Have you met her?
W.T.: Of course, I’m familiar with (Hopkins deliberately gained weight and then lost it to prove that the only causes of obesity are gluttony and laziness. - note.. Of course, with more weight it is harder to move, travel, communicate with friends, and so on, therefore, most often fat people choose a sedentary lifestyle, delighting themselves exclusively with unhealthy fatty foods.But, knowing myself, I can say that fat people can be active and eat not only fast food.
“Features of appearance and lifestyle are a matter of human choice, and putting a stigma on everyone who does not fit into generally accepted standards is overkill.”
It is possible that if Katie and I met, I would be able to convince her, but I don’t see the point in doing this in absentia. Everything that happened to me is not a secret, and anyone who is interested in my point of view can find out my story and draw their own conclusions.
website: Or meet those supported by your No Body Shame movement (“Don’t be ashamed of your body”).
W.T.: Yes, I came up with the “Don’t be ashamed of your body” campaign myself, or rather, it originated from my blog. I started keeping an online diary to share my feelings about being fat. In addition, I hosted a program on a radio station in my hometown, and it was on the air that I spoke out loud for the first time about my obesity. This helped me analyze my feelings about this, and as a result, I understood myself very well and understood how I really feel about many important things.
First, the blog became popular, then the channel’s video “Fat Girl Dancing” turned into an Internet hit, and everyone started asking me to talk about myself, about my views on my body, my fatness as if it were already part of some movement. And I had a choice: start a full-fledged campaign or not start; and I decided that I would try. Now “Don't be ashamed of your body” is a public action designed to help various men and women live without feeling shame. Because I know from personal experience that shame is destructive, it paralyzed me and I lost ten years of my life because of shame, and I don’t want anyone else to undervalue themselves the way I did for years.
website: Let's return to the legendary video - a year ago it collected 7 million views and turned you into a star in the virtual space, changing your life. When you watch this recording today, what do you think about it?
W.T.: I love this video, it's amazing! Although I was a little sad when it became so popular. We installed it very quickly, without any perfectionism. I was a little surprised when the video started getting a huge number of views, and at first I thought “oh my God, if I knew, I would have done better,” but on the other hand, it’s even more fun.
“Things happen when we least expect them, and I know that things got better for me when I stopped feeling like a victim, when I decided to take control of my life.”
And this dance video is the best reflection of this approach, so I’m glad that so many people watched it. When I was younger, I dreamed of being a famous dancer or something like that, and I don't think that would have happened if I was skinny. And I find it very funny the way that life has chosen to make my dream come true.
website: What would you say are the main obstacles on the way to this dream?
W.T.: I had so many physical, psychological and emotional obstacles! But the biggest difficulty was trying to find my place among people. I felt worthless for so long and felt very sorry for all the people in my life, including my parents, my boyfriends, my friends, for what they got me. So I had to really rewire my brain to understand that I am a worthy person, that I deserve a lot, that I have the same right to be healthy and happy as every other person on this planet.
It took me a long time to truly believe it. But, on the other hand, purely practical problems have not gone away.
“I have already said that I have never weighed as much as I do now, and if you watch the program “My Full Life”, you will see how I encounter some difficulties in everyday life that you never thought about - for example , if I need to fasten my seat belt or fit in a chair, or shave all sides of my legs before a date.”
These are moments that cause a lot of awkwardness, but what I talk about them inspires me. Being open and honest is what I think the show accomplishes.
website: You embody an inspiring example of a positive attitude towards yourself, so bright that you are even sometimes accused of promoting obesity. Whitney, tell me - do you want to lose weight or have you closed this question for yourself forever?
W.T.: Do you think I would choose to live and dance at my current weight if I had a choice? Of course, I would like to lose weight, but in my current situation I cannot do it. A slender body is more flexible, beautiful, resilient, and with my kilograms I get tired much faster than if I were thin. Well, and ridicule, of course - without them I would live much better, because sometimes they look at me so much that I feel like a hippopotamus who went out for a walk.
website: Can you say that your excess weight and the events associated with it taught you something?
W.T.: Yes, this whole story changed me a lot. If I hadn't gained weight, I probably wouldn't have become a feminist, but I'm a crazy feminist now. If I hadn't gained weight, I wouldn't have learned as much as I do now about myself and other people.
“If I hadn't gained weight, I would have relied on my appearance to give me value. But when my appearance lost its value to the outside world, I had to look deeper into myself.”
It also allowed me to empathize with others in a way I couldn’t before. Because I was a fairly wealthy and relatively attractive white girl, I was not part of any minority. But when you become part of a socially excluded group, you learn to put yourself in other people's shoes. This is useful.
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