'Fit Mom' Gets Temporarily Banned From Facebook
Nov. 29, 2013 — -- Maria Kang, known as the "Fit Mom," was temporarily banned from Facebook this week after she wrote a post complaining about the positive media coverage of an online group that encourages plus-sizewomen to post photos of themselves in lingerie to show what "real women" look like.
Kang, who caused controversy earlier this year by posting a photo of herself with her sons under the tag line "What's Your excuse?" wrote on her Facebook page that she was "starting to get annoyed" at the attention the online group was getting.
Kang then went on to write about high obesity rates in the U.S., including childhood obesity.
"We keep blaming the culprit (school lunches, fast food) when the real change starts at home," wrote Kang.
Kang told ABCNews.com that she was especially frustrated by the positive media attention the lingerie group received after she'd received such intense criticism for posting the photo of herself in a bikini surrounded by her sons.
"People made me feel bad about posting a picture of me and my children," said Kang, who said she feared the media coverage of the lingerie group was "normalizing" obesity. "When you see someone who is healthy it's almost so shocking. ... We've gone to a point where we're normalizing [a health] crisis."
In her deleted post on Facebook, Kang wrote that "We need to change this strange mentality we are breeding in the U.S."
Kang wants to highlight people who, she said, make fitness and health a priority. "Start celebrating people who are a result of hard work, dedication and discipline."
After Kang put the post on Facebook it was flagged by a reader, and the social media site removed it, calling it "hate speech," according to ABC's affiliate KGO in San Francisco.
But after it banned Kang, Facebook then said the post had been taken down by mistake and reinstated Kang's access to the social media site. According to KGO, Kang's original post was not reposted.
Kang wrote another message on her Facebook page about the controversy, saying she didn't want to shame overweight people but that she believes people are celebrating unhealthy habits.
"I think you should love yourself," Kang told ABCNews.com. "But there's a fine line we're walking between I love myself and accept myself, and I love and accept and want to progress myself."
