Are Hippos, Seals and Whales Fat?

When we say something is fat, it’s synonymous with our perception that it’s unhealthy. Anything can have too much fat (overweight) or too little (underweight), both of which impacting their health.

So yes, hippos, seals and whales all have a lot of blubber (fat). But this fat is for insulation and buoyancy to aid their life in the water. For some species, extra blubber lets them withstand the increased pressure of deep water. (Like a blob fish, but they don’t tend to be labelled as ‘fat’.)

The less fat/blubber these species carry, the harder their life is in the water. Thus difficulty prevents them from flourishing and means they are less likely to successfully reproduce. Ultimately, unhealthy animals are more likely to be dead. Anything that causes these poor results can be labelled as ‘unhealthy’.

If calling something ‘fat’ is calling them unhealthy,

and if hippos, seals and whales need all their blubber/fat to be healthy,

then calling healthy hippos, seals and whales ‘fat’ is inaccurate.

Thus these animals are concurrently fat (because they’re blubbery) and aren’t fat (because they’re healthy). This inconsistency teaches us an important lesson: equating ‘fat’ with ‘unhealthy’ is clearly inaccurate.