FFS, people. Pregnant women in their third trimester have, on average, a human being that will go, in three months, from about 3 pounds to about 8 pounds living in side of them, taking up space that their bladder, lungs, and stomach used to get to enjoy. That human being who is living inside of them is relying on their supply of blood and oxygen, using their excretory system, and otherwise making huge demands on their body.

The only explanation I can have for the level of stupidity I'm seeing over there is that people think that fat people have a literal thin person living inside of them, making the same demands on their body that a fetus makes on the body of a pregnant woman. Otherwise there is just no possible way I can understand how people cannot recognize that maybe the reason being pregnant feels crappy is because you are actually growing another human being using nothing but the resources of your own body, and not because of the 15-35 pounds most women gain.

After I had both of my kids, my first reaction was, “Holy crap, you were inside of me.” I have big babies–9 lbs. and 8 lbs.–and it's so crazy to realize that this baby was, just moments before, inside your body. I cannot understand how anybody could think that the human being sucking life out of you as it grows is not the reason pregnancy is so uncomfortable. But it does go to show how batshit insane we've gotten about weight.

(hint: look up the difference between “allude” and “elude”)

Let me tell you, how I felt in my third trimester was not in any way caused by the ten pounds I gained during the pregnancy. I was in constant pain. I had awful sciatica. I had terrible acid reflux. I couldn't sleep. I got out of breath at the drop of a hat. I was miserable.

When I weighed twenty pounds more than that, but wasn't pregnant, I felt nothing like that. I had no acid reflux. I had no sciatica. My ankles weren't swollen. I could sleep. I was doing 45-minute cardio workouts without any problem. I felt great.

Fat people (unless they happen to be pregnant) are not growing human beings inside of them. It's utterly absurd to assume that pregnancy discomforts are due to weight gain rather than being pregnant, but unfortunately it does seem to be increasingly common to assume just that.