My coworker thought I was pregnant because of my weight gain then gossiped about it.

For context, I am in the medical field and I’ve basically joined this hospital when I was 19. I am 21 now, but when I joined I was very petite and you could call me “skinny”. I wasn’t healthy though. I did not drink much water, if anything not at all. I ate like utter shit and yet it didn’t reflect on my body at all because I had such a fast metabolism. That didn’t mean I was anywhere near healthy.

I recently have went through a couple of months of eating fast food and binge drinking and realized I needed to start shaping up my eating habits before shedding weight starts becoming more difficult because as you know it gets harder to as an adult. I’ve started to cook more meals for me and my fiancé at home with lots of vegetables and decent meals. Since I work at a hospital we do have a cafeteria workers and hospital patients eat at and it’s quite expensive and I want to save my appetite so I don’t eat much there anymore during my lunch hour. However..

I must add I do NOT eat at my work lounge. The reason is because everyone I sit around always feels the need to comment what kind of food you’re eating, random chatter, and commentary which I have always hated while eating because lunch is the only time I can be to myself during my full 8 hour shift that I want no distractions with. I now eat at the cafeteria even if I don’t get a full meal, and the reason why is because I have this specific coworker who is in her 40s-50s who criticizes my eating habits anytime I went to go eat down in there. Unnecessary comments like, “wow, how could you eat in the cafeteria? so expensive. I couldn’t even afford it” CONSTANTLY. for eating decently sized meals. This has been going on for months and my supervisor has had private conversations about it because of how unneeded her comments were. I was already on the verge of developing bulimia during this stage and my supervisor was aware of it because I would make myself purge everyday because I genuinely thought I was fat, mind you I’m 5’1 in the 110-125 range.

I’ve had multiple conservations because it has affected me waking up for work and potentially losing my job because I would spend my time trying to vomit after looking at myself first thing in the morning. I was very hyper vigilant about whatever I ate, sometimes make myself eat nothing at all. any food that was offered to me, I didn’t feel like I deserved it. I felt that me being “fat” which I obviously wasn’t meant I didn’t deserve to eat good.

I didn’t need anyone else obsessing over my weight. Now that I’ve finally phased out of that and I’ve been more accepting of my body and happier, I’ve gotten more comments about my body than ever before. sure, I gained a bit of weight. but it’s not as drastic as people are making it seem. I’m not 19 anymore and I’m a growing young adult, of course my body is going to change. things started to cross a line however when I had coworkers come up to me to address how I gained weight but “not in a bad way, it looks healthy” which to me felt backhanded. what do I even say to that? I let it slide and continued on with my day, but I knew if anyone said that to me during the time where I was completely vulnerable and wanted to purge, I would’ve relapsed immediately.

during one of the weekends, I was informed by a person who I thought was a friend that people have been talking about my weight behind my back. I say this because the way she told me seemed like she agreed with them and even entertained their inquiries about my weight gain. she messaged me yesterday asking me, “are you pregnant?” and I was severely confused and told her no and asked why she would even come to that conclusion. she said in a voice memo, “everyone’s noticed you’ve gained weight, not in a bad way like a meatball, it looks healthy. but one of your coworkers asked if you were pregnant because you eat so much”. I was shocked. and guess who the coworker was? the one that had made jabbing comments about the meals I ate at lunch during work. I was furious and honestly seriously uncomfortable. not only an inappropriate comment to make, but extremely unprofessional because I pretty much equate them to a stranger. I ended up confronting my “friend” and asked them seriously do you know how harmful it is to implicate that I’m pregnant? and I didn’t even gain that much weight??

then she backpedaled and tried to say “I’m so sorry, the other coworker meant you have a bathing suit body and one people pay for.” that was besides the point? I told her stop commenting on my body and there was a boundary crossed at that point. my “friend” knew I went to therapy to help my unhealthy thoughts about eating and my self image and I finally stood up for myself after all the comments made at me and contacted my supervisor because yes, that was absolutely fucking rude. I asked her what about anything she told me was a positive reinforcement? then trying to say it was a good thing when you told me all the bad things said about me first?

keep those kinds of comments to yourself. you have no idea what a person thinks about their bodies.