A study in the Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology found fat bias can be present in children as young as 3 and researchers at Duke University found "implicit weight bias" in children aged 9 to 11 was as common as "implicit racial bias" among adults.
Before you ask, yes, race is relevant. Here's why.
Sabrina Strings wrote a whole book about how fatphobia is firmly rooted in anti-blackness, in that, during times of colonisation and slavery, "overfeeding and fatness were evidence of 'savagery' and racial inferiority".
As Strings writes: "They thought Black people were more animalistic ... lacked self-control, discipline, or rationality. Ergo ... they are fond of sex, alcohol, and food."
Thus began decades of "scientific" efforts to prove black people's - and particularly black women's - inferiority through their size, in order to justify ongoing slavery.
Similarly, colonisers described Māori as lazy, extravagant, greedy and lacking in self-discipline, as a means to explain why they should be given control of Māori land.
Those narratives have stuck to fatphobia ever since, with the overwhelming response to fatness being, "Why don't you just eat less and stop being lazy?" As if plenty of us aren't literally starving ourselves and working to genuine exhaustion at the gym.
Even now, obesity is still linked to systemic injustices faced largely by people of colour.
What conditions do people live in, do they have access to fresh food and sound nutritional information? Can they afford it when a whole pizza costs the same as a single avocado and water costs more than fizzy drinks? Do they have access to proper healthcare? Can they afford a gym subscription? If not, is it safe for them to run in their streets? Do their neighbourhoods have parks? Are those safe?
At the extreme end, weight loss surgery is most certainly for the privileged (myself included). To go private you're looking at up to $25,000.
Even if you can go public, it doesn't always work out. Māori and Pasifika have drop-out rates of up to 73 per cent.
The University of Auckland's Dr Tamasin Taylor puts this down to accessibility issues like needing to attend pre-surgery appointments and meetings, make lifestyle changes and, often, to lose weight on their own first. These things and cultural barriers impede emotional safety and trust.
It's hard to be fat, it's even harder to stop, harder still when you're black or brown, because every aspect of our being is deemed less-than and unworthy.
So here's a thought: Before you ask us, "Why don't you just lose weight?" start questioning fatphobic attitudes, systems and institutions.
Question how the denigration of fat bodies and those that carry them, furthers the perceived superiority of others.
Question how the health, fitness and wellness industries benefit from demonising us to exploit not only us but you too.
Question what part you play. One of the biggest steps in dismantling fatphobia is to stop putting the onus on fat people to either defend themselves or change.
We do not owe you anything, especially not thinness. We shouldn't have to change to fit into a world built to exclude us. But, for our own sanity and safety, many have and will. And that's a problem.
