Woman 'Fat-Shamed' at the Gym and Told to Leave for Wearing a Sports Bra

A woman claims she was "fat shamed" at the gym for wearing a sports bra to work out, and told to leave.

The woman, who goes by the name Shelby on TikTok, shared a tearful video from her car, after she claims she was booted out of the gym just 15 minutes into her workout.

Shelby, from Canada, said in the clip, which can be viewed here: "I just went to the gym and the lady at the front desk said that they have a policy, you're not allowed to wear sports bras to the gym, that you can't be showing your belly. She said it's fine for this time. But just so you know, for next time."

Showing off her outfit she said: "For reference, this is my shirt. It was probably like this anyway. So I was like OK, that's fine. I went to do my workout at 15 minutes and on the treadmill, and the program coordinator for the gym came up to me and asked me to leave. I'm so embarrassed."

The video, uploaded at the end of last month, amassed nearly 2 million views, as she captioned it "idk why I'm even posting this," along with the hashtags "fatshaming," "weightloss" and "body image."

In comments, the 26-year-old said: "To be clear, I'm not accusing the gym of fat-shaming for asking me to leave. I tagged it because of the comment from the lady at the front desk. 'You can't just have your belly hanging out were her exact words.'"

But she later clarified her position in a follow-up video, saying: "And lastly the only reason I tagged fat-shaming is because I genuinely believe if that was a smaller woman standing there at the counter, that they wouldn't have said that to her; 'well we can't have our bellies hanging out.' I genuinely believe that that wouldn't have been said."

After her original clip blew up, Shelby, who didn't identify the gym, shared her two problems with the situation. She made it clear she understood there was a dress-code policy in place, but she was unhappy with the way the event was handled.

She explained; "So there's two things that were problematic in how this interaction went down, and neither of them have to do with their policy regarding the dress code. The dress code is what it is, I can't change that, whatever.

"Problem one is how the lady at the front desk spoke to me, first of all I said 'oh we're not allowed to wear a sports bra?' And she said 'well we can't just have our bellies hanging out,' in a belittling tone. So that already, is not okay.

"Problem two is that she told me it was okay to go into the gym, that it was ok for this time, but for next time just to wear something else. So I went into the gym with my wristband on that she gave me, saying that it was okay for me to go in this time. And then to have somebody come up to me after I've already been there 15 minutes walking on the treadmill, I got sweat pouring down my face.

"For the people commenting that I was being overdramatic, you just have to remember for some people it takes so much courage and confidence to actually get up the gall to go to the gym. That was only my third visit there, and to have that interaction go down. When you have barely even been there a week is very demeaning. And all over, not an experience I think anyone would want to go through."

Her experience has received mixed reviews, with some people claiming dress codes are uniform, while others thought she had been unfairly treated.

Defending her, Marilyn McW commented: "To anyone who thinks she's overreacting. You have no idea how hard it is to start going to the gym out of fear this would happen."

"Time for a new gym hunny I'm so sorry that happened to you," Ashley Ashface Hamil added.

Garrett asked: "Why are you playing the victim? There's nothing fatphobic about this at all. All they did was implement the policy over you."

No Thanks wrote: "I get why you're upset but most gyms have a dress code. Now if other girls are wearing sports bra and they don't kick them out that's a huge problem."

Newsweek reached out Shelby for comment.