The Most Embarrassing Moments When You’re Big

When your weight attracts notice, it can be embarrassing. A sense of humor will get you through; even if you’re not so jolly at the time, you can laugh later. 

Most Americans are overweight or obese. 

But when your weight attracts notice, it’s nonetheless embarrassing. A sense of humor will get you through. Even if you’re not so jolly at the time, you can laugh later. Everybody likes a good story. Self-deprecating humor can be charming. 

Things like these happens to someone every day. The most common incidents involve some kind of public seating. 

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Flimsy summer chairs

“My ass got caught in one of those outdoor plastic chairs when I went to get up. It was at a party, so of course everyone saw me pry it off my backside,” a woman writes on an online forum. Plastic chairs can also collapse under you. 

Bus seats

“My son wanted me to sit next to him on the bus and it was a sliver of a seat and he said too loud ‘Don't be scared! You won't squish anyone!’” another person chimes in. “People get up to give you their seats, or they get up when you sit beside them.” 

Airplane seats

There’s the fear before you board that your neighbor will be too big for both of you to fit or angry when you push against him. Will the flight attendant come quickly when you ask for a seat-belt extender?

Restaurant booths

“I was with my husband, being seated in a booth, the tables are screwed into the floor, and my boobs were SITTING ON TOP OF THE TABLE! I couldn’t wait to get out of there!”

School desk-chair combinations

You’re a Mom at a school event and you have no choice but to squeeze in sideways, again with your breasts on the table.

Amusement park rides

“They could not… lock the bar down in my lap. I had to climb out of the coaster in front of everyone, leave my son seated in it, and do the walk of shame,” one man writes. “I was at a fair with my boyfriend (husband now) and we both tried to sit in the same seat for a ride. The guy told us one of us would have to get out. That wasn't fun.”

It’s even less fun when you get in the seat and the bar clamps down around your fat. 

Wheelchairs

“They had a hard time finding a wheelchair wide enough... OMG! So here I was in a hospital gown with my butt poking out being stuffed in one chair and then another... ugghhh!! To top it off, the guy who had to find a bigger wheelchair was a guy I went to high school with (when I was thin!). I was so embarrassed I didn't know whether to cry or just fall over and die!”

Some obese patients can't fit into hospital gowns and the blood pressure cuffs aren't wide enough to fit their arms.

Public occasions

As a bridesmaid, you’re noticeable in a line-up of slender friends on whom the dress looks gorgeous. At other weddings, you’re facing relatives you haven’t seen since your latest weight gain. Reunions are tough for the same reason. At certain ages, you’ll hear the question, “Are you expecting?” Sometimes people will just look shocked. 

When eating in groups, do you dare to go for the dessert, like everyone else?  

Online dating is even more fun when you’ve posted an online photo that shows only your face. You get to anticipate and see your blind date’s double-take when you show up. 

Job interviews involve an extra factor — fat bias. Even in a good suit, your appearance may shout “undisciplined” and “lazy” to some employers, and you watch their face to see if you have a chance.  

Attempts to do sports — and you need to exercise — produce good stand-up material. “I was skiing down the mountain and some guys ‘Moo'ed’ me like I was a cow. I was with my husband and two friends at the time, and others were around. I was so embarrassed — I've never been skiing since.”

“Last year I rode on a jet ski with my husband and fell off. I couldn't pull myself back up.”

One woman’s family insisted on taking her to a stable. The stable refused to give her a horse. She was grateful. “I wouldn’t do that to a horse,” she writes. She waited while her family went riding. 

Let moments like these be an opportunity to launch your weight loss program (heart attacks are motivational, too). For Matt Hoover, the final humiliation came on a night he had to leave a group of friends entertaining an out-of-town guest at an Italian restaurant. No chair in the place fit. He lost 300 pounds.  

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