FAT AND PROUD OF IT; NATIONAL GROUP WORKS TO CHANGE ATTITUDES ABOUT OBESITY BEING UNHEALTHFUL, UNLOVELY.

Byline: Anne Burke Daily News Staff Writer

Go ahead, say it to her face. Nancy Marshello doesn't mind. At 5-foot-2 and 250 pounds, Marshello is not plump or plus-sized, but fat.

F-A-T.

``It's just an adjective, like short, tall, thin,'' shrugs Marshello, 40, a UCLA administrative assistant who lives in Hansen Hills in the northeast San Fernando Valley.

Marshello recently reactivated the Los Angeles chapter of the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance (NAAFA), a Sacramento-based group dedicated to wiping out ``fatism,'' which it condemns as America's last, safe prejudice.

Never mind that Marshello lives in a city that celebrates boyish hips and protruding ribs as the feminine ideal. It doesn't matter that her message comes at a time when people all over the country are sipping champagne and resolving again to get thin in the new year, or that many of her ideas are heretical to the medical establishment.

She believes that fat can be fun, fit and sexy.

``The other day, a man walked into my office and said, `Mmmmmm. I like a woman with curves,'' said Marshello, over a lunch of Chinese chicken salad and diet soda at a Westwood restaurant.

After two decades of yo-yo dieting - which she blames for her obesity - Marshello made peace with her body.

Now, her goal is to get other fat people to do the same and to get everybody else off their backs.

That means no more fat jokes, no more tittering, no more treating fat people like they're stupid, lazy and enslaved by creature comforts.

NAAFA even discourages fat people from going on diets, most of which the group condemns as costly, doomed to fail and dangerous.

``We deserve the space that our bodies take. We shouldn't apologize for it,'' said Elaine Murgado, who sells bathing suits for fat gals through her Redlands-based Big Day at the Beach mail-order business.

Pamela Lynn of Long Beach, who unsuccessfully sued an airline several years after a ticket agent allegedly asked her to buy a second seat, runs Los Angeles-based Big Difference, which stages dances and parties for fat people.

``Why are we treated like second-class citizens? I believe beauty comes in all different shapes and sizes, not just 5-foot-2, eyes o' blue and 118 pounds,'' said Lynn, who weighs more than 400 pounds.

Most fat people, the group claims, eat the same amounts and types of food as thin or average-sized people; it's heredity and metabolism that cause them to tip the scales at more than the average.

``Most fat people have no more choice in their size than a person does in the color of their skin,'' said Sally E. Smith, NAAFA executive director.

Disbelieving bunch

But why should fat people surrender to cellulite when the conventional medical wisdom says that excess fat is bad and thin is healthy?

Marshello and many other NAAFA members believe that much of the fat gospel is bunk, promulgated in large part by the $33 billion diet industry.

Even many of the diseases typically linked to obesity - diabetes, hypertension, coronary artery disease and breast cancer - are unrelated to weight or the result of yo-yo dieting, according to NAAFA activist Michael Loewy, a psychologist at San Diego State University.

Loewy, who is 5-foot-11 and 310 pounds, believes that most fat people are just fine the way they are. ``What needs to change is their minds, not their bodies,'' he said.

Even if they wanted to lose weight, it would be virtually impossible, NAAFA members say. Ninety-five percent to 98 percent of all diets fail within three to five years, fat activists claim.

Worse yet, low-calorie diets actually cause weight gain, they insist.

That happens because the body responds to calorie deprivation by slowing down its metabolism; once the dieter starts eating normally again, the body converts extra calories to fat in anticipation of the next famine, according to NAAFA literature.

Marshello said that's exactly what happened to her. The more she dieted, the more weight she gained. Since she quit ``obsessing about food'' in her mid-30s, Marshello said her weight has stabilized.

NAAFA - which led the charge to stop the marketing of the weight-loss drugs Redux and fenfluramine - also emphasizes that diets injure and kill. Witness the toll of anorexia, bulimia, diet drugs and weight-loss surgery, fat activists say.

Medical opinions

NAAFA has a long way to go to convince the medical establishment that most of its arguments are valid.

Dr. Morton H. Maxwell, director of the UCLA Obesity Center, says that fat activists are simply trying to pass on the blame to Mother Nature.

``It's ridiculous,'' he said. ``They're responsible for their own obesity.''

Maxwell said that obesity is the second leading cause of preventable death in the United States, behind smoking. He also points to studies with rodents and monkeys showing that a cutback in calories results in a doubled life expectancy.

NAAFA's diets-don't-work claim is plain wrong, Maxwell said. Fully 60 percent of his patients keep off their lost weight through a program that includes dieting, appetite suppressant drugs, exercise and behavior modification, Maxwell said.

Dr. Calvin Ezrin, an endocrinologist at Encino-Tarzana Regional Medical Center, agrees with NAAFA that many fat people are genetically targeted for corpulence. But that doesn't mean it's their destiny, he said.

``I believe people can ultimately lose weight and learn to keep it off,'' Ezrin said. ``It requires a degree of vigilance that many people, perhaps, are not willing to exert.''

Ezrin said that morbid obesity - defined as double the ideal body weight - reduces a person's lifespan by an average 10 percent to 20 percent.

``There are very few morbidly obese octogenarians - just look around,'' he said.

Sure, some fat people seem to escape apparent health problems into their middle years. ``But we don't know what the future holds for them - wear and tear on joints, susceptibility to diabetes, other consequences they may not be aware of,'' said Ezrin, author of ``The Type 2 Diabetes Diet Book.''

More power to 'em

Not all medical experts in the field of overweight agree with the anti-fat enthusiasts, lending some credence to NAAFA's ideas.

Dr. Reubin Andres, clinical director of the National Institute on Aging, has conducted studies showing that people who put on a few pounds as they age have a lower mortality rate than those who don't.

``The idea that you are simply shortening your life span with every pound that you gain after you turn 18 just isn't true,'' Andres said.

Andres based his findings on research showing that people lived longer when their BMI (body mass index) rose a bit into middle and old age.

Glenn A. Gaesser, author of the weight-loss industry expose ``Big, Fat Lies: The Truth About Your Weight and Your Health,'' says that overweight people can be healthy, as long as they exercise regularly and eat nutritious food.

In fact, being overweight isn't the problem, but rather a symptom of what Gaesser calls an ``imprudent lifestyle'' - lack of exercise and a diet heavy in high-fat, sugar-loaded foods.

Gaesser said his conclusion is easily provable.

Take a fat person with health problems, make him exercise regularly and eat a healthy, low-fat diet, and, voila, ``more often than not, you find the health problems clear up in a matter of days or weeks,'' Gaesser said.

``If you're interested in your health, don't worry about the pounds on the scale. Change your lifestyle, and let the pounds fall where they may,'' he said.

If you're bothered by big, lumpy bottoms and multiple chins, NAAFA says, that's your problem.

Marshello, for one, said she lives life as fully as any waif in a size 4 pair of Calvin Klein jeans.

Marshello is an avid hiker - her peregrinations let her indulge her passion for wildflowers - and says she enjoys excellent health. She's got a resting pulse of 60, cholesterol of 185, and blood pressure of 120 over 78 - all within acceptable ranges.

She has a job she enjoys, lots of friends, interesting hobbies, and she does just fine with men.

Moreover, when she looks in the mirror, she likes what she sees - every curve and dimple. Said Marshello, a smile breaking on her face, her eyes lighting up:

``I'm gorgeous.''

Weigh what you say ...

Fat people say that ``sizism'' is the last, safe prejudice. How to avoid it? The National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance says we should not:

Participate in a fat joke by laughing or smiling.

Make negative comments about our own or someone else's fatness.

Admire weight-loss dieting.

Say that someone looks good because he or she has lost weight.

Disapprove of someone for gaining weight.

Say something that presumes that fat people eat too much of ``the wrong food.''

Discuss food as being ``good'' or ``bad.''

Say something that presumes being thin is better or more attractive than being fat.

Comment that we like or don't like certain clothing because it makes us look thin or fat.

Buy diet products or services.

Under-eat or exercise obsessively to maintain an unnaturally low weight.

But NAAFA encourages us to:

Openly admire a fat person's appearance.

Encourage someone to feel good about his or her body as is.

Challenge or voice disapproval of a fat joke.

Compliment ideas, behavior and character more than appearance.

CAPTION(S):

3 Photos, Box

Photo: (1--Cover--Color) THE BIG PICTURE

Some heavy people like living large

(2) Nancy Marshello, president of the L.A. chapter of the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance, says she's happy and healthy just the way she is.

(3) Cindy Hayes, left, Monica Hahn and Marshello get some exercise on the trails at the Placerita Nature Center.

Tom Mendoza/Daily News

Box: Weigh what you say ... (See Text)