PHOTOS Whitney Thore before she was “a fat girl dancing”
Earlier this year 30-year-old Whitney Thore got the world’s attention with a video of herself cutting a rug. Lots of people post dancing videos, but hers stood out because she’s 380 lbs and still dancing like nobody’s business.
Since her initial boost of fame, she’s launched the No Body Shame Campaign, and landed a TLC reality show called My Big Fat Fabulous Life that’s set to air January 13.
In a preview clip for the show Whitney explains that she used to be a slim 112 pounds, but quickly gained over 200 in college after developing polycystic ovarian syndrome.
She says after her initial gain of 100 pounds freshman year she gave up dancing, and found herself in a deep depression. Now, she’s hoping to spread body positivity. “There’s P.C. terms for everything these days, but fat people are fair game,” Whitney says. “Someone has to fight for us!”
“Looking back to when I was thin, I can’t believe how much I took it for granted,” she says. “I hate people thinking that I’m lazy.” She’s happy now to embrace dancing despite her weight, and even teaches a dance class for bigger women.
She does, however, want to lose weight because she recognizes that 380 pounds is just not a healthy weight to be. “I love all of the positive things that came out of the videos, but it doesn’t change that right now, I’m the heaviest that I’ve ever been in my whole life,” she says. “So I need to lose some weight so that I can do everything in life I want to do, and hopefully I can do that through dance.”
UPDATE – Can PCOS really cause dramatic weight gain similar to what Whitney Thore experienced? And can someone with PCOS be 380 pounds and still be healthy? We did AL LOT of research and here are our findings.
My Big Fat Fabulous Life airs January 13 at 10 p.m
