Justin Baldoni fat-shames Blake Lively?

If you are on social media, you must have heard of the Blake Lively-Justin Baldoni lawsuit. As a chiropractor, the part that caught my attention was the fat shaming claims. Because, it sounds lowkey applicable to me.

Background of the legal dispute between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni

I don’t really follow pop culture. And there has been way too much going between the two for me to keep up. So, for those of you who need some context, here’s the summary of the lawsuits courtesy of ChatGPT:

Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni are involved in a legal dispute following the production of It Ends with Us. Lively has accused Baldoni of creating a hostile work environment, including making inappropriate sexual comments and violating her boundaries. She also claims that Baldoni’s team orchestrated a smear campaign against her. Baldoni denies these allegations and has filed a $400 million defamation lawsuit, accusing Lively and her team of extortion and damaging his reputation. The legal battle, which involves publicized communications and raw footage, is set to go to trial in March 2026.

Blake Lively fat shame claims

One of the things that came up in their dispute was that Blake Lively accused Justin Baldoni of fat shaming her. Lively claimed that Baldoni referred her to his wellness coach, who happened to be a weight loss specialist. Later reports revealed that the wellness coach was meant to help Lively with her gut health. Not weight loss. Apparently Lively had been on multiple courses of antibiotics.

The part that was more problematic was between Baldoni and the personal trainer Don Saladino. Saladino was both celebrities’ trainer. Apparently, Lively was the one who sent Baldoni to Saladino to prepare for his role. So, it sounds almost like Lively had an issue with Baldoni’s physique? I am not sure.

Baldoni also asked their personal trainer for Lively’s weight in private.

Justin Baldoni’s history of low back pain

To provide a bit of context, Baldoni does have a history of low back pain. Baldoni was seeking treatment from sports physician Adeel Khan. Baldoni suffered was in a lot of pain during the movie’s production, and has/had multiple injuries including a herniated disc, damaged meniscus and cartilage in both knees, and arthritis in his shoulder.

With that in mind, it makes sense that Baldoni wanted to know how much Lively weighs. In knowing, he can physically and mentally prepare himself for the load he has to carry. I also find it strange that it was Baldoni who had to ask.

As a chiropractor, I would 100% asked my client on the first consult what is Lively’s weight if Baldoni is my client. If you want to train a person to prepare for a role or a scene that involves lifting, you can’t really do a good job with the preparation if you don’t know how much load the person is required to lift.

It was later revealed that Baldoni asked about Lively’s weight because he was supposed to lift her in one of the scenes. Lively later claimed that lifting her was not part of the script and all the rest of it. But honestly, it was too complicated to follow the whole he-said, she-said.

Looking fit and physically well-being is not the same thing

You can easily find pictures of Baldoni showing his washboard abs online. He does look muscled and fit. And here’s the ugly truth: looking fit doesn’t translate to being strong and functional.

People workout and train for a whole bunch of reasons. Aesthetics can be one of the reasons! For cases like Baldoni, it is arguably for his career and what society demands of him.

Either way, the more important point is that we cannot assume that people are fit and strong just because they look fit and strong.

You can be strong and still in a lot of pain

A lot of chronic pain patients assume that being stronger equals less pain. When working with new clients, a lot of them would put being stronger as one of their goals. The assumption is that if we are stronger, we would have less pain. Um, unfortunately, that is not true. You can be weak and have no pain. You can be very fit and have a lot of pain.

The correlation between strength and pain is poor.

It is true that the first line treatment for most chronic pain or musculoskeletal conditions is exercise. This much is true. When research studies pit exercise to exercise, researchers struggle to find an exercise that is superior to the rest.

In other words, physical activity and exercise does help with chronic pain. However, there is no broad stroke recommendation that which type of exercises are superior.

Is it acceptable to ask about people’s weight?

Unless a client specifically brought up weight loss or healthy eating as one of the girls, I will almost never initiate a conversation about weight loss. I feel like we live in a society where questions about body weight can easily be misconstrued. Clearly this was the case in Baldoni’s situation.

Of course there are other issues at play. For example, to go through the personal trainer instead of Lively is questionable. In Singapore, PDPA (Personal Data Protection Act) will not allow Saladino to share information about Lively without her permission.

I think most people in Singapore should be familiar enough with PDPA to know you can’t ask a trainer about the weight of another client.

Privacy is a big deal in Singapore

In 2022, neurosurgeon Dr Eddie Tan Tung Wee was sacked by SingHealth for accessing a rival neurosurgeon’s patient records without authorisation. The surgeon then subsequently unsuccessfully brought a lawsuit against SingHealth for wrongly dismissal.

Dr Tan accessed the records of 72 patients on 103 occasions without authorisation. His actions breached patient confidentiality as well as the rules on data security.

I know this is like an extreme case. But it does highlight that privacy and confidentiality is a big deal in Singapore.

So with that in mind, hopefully it will make you feel more assured to discuss your medical and/or health issues, including body weight related challenges, with your doctor. I know it can seem like we don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes. But from cases like this, we can be assured that there are internal processes at play that do protect patients.

Obesity in Singapore

Obesity is an issue in Singapore. Even for children! Singaporeans under 18 who were overweight rose from 13% in 2017 to 16% in 2021.

The latest National Population Health Survey (2021/2022), obesity rate for adult Singaporeans has risen to 11.6% from 10.5%. It may not seem like much but obesity rate was only 8.6% in 2013 and 2017!

It’s hard to live in Singapore and not know that overweightness is not a good thing. I mean, if you are in your 30s, you should remember the mandatory Trim and Fit (TAF) programme (i.e., TAF Club) for overweight students.

I don’t remember the details of how it works but I sure do remember overweight kids being forced to exercise during recess. Not the best school experience, I am sure.

Being obese is also tough when it comes to national service. If you are an obese male in Singapore (BMI >27), you would have to serve 19 weeks of basic military training (BMT). That is more than double those who are within a healthy weight range and scored above 61 points for their IPPT (nine weeks).

Why is body weight a health issue?

Obesity has been linked to over 200 medical conditions. The three highs, hypertension, high cholesterol, high blood sugar, which we should all be familiar with, are associated with being overweight. So is dementia and even erectile dysfunction.

Healthcare costs is also higher for people who are obese. In the United States, obese Americans spend $2,505 more in healthcare expenditure per year than people who are not obese.

Research also demonstrated that higher BMI is associated with more chronic pain. The increased in body weight can account for 20% of a person’s pain experience!