Twiggy… omg

[Newsenmum]

I knew she was skinny but I never knew how bad it was! Looking at those photos of her in the 60s is painful.Why do we do this to ourselves? Have we done this since time began?

I was just reading how in the Victorian times there was another skinny phase where women liked to look skinny and weak like they’d had TB. Awful!

Does anyone know if it’s ever been fashionable to be healthy?

Being unnaturally underweight can give you health issues. Being naturally underweight you can be completely healthy (as I was).

Being slightly overweight is not more healthy than being slightly underweight, quite the opposite. Posters claim that in here because they’re overweight.

Are you a doctor?

I think there is some truth in this. In other parts of the world, Asia for example, people tend to be more slightly built and the bottom end of the healthy weight range is lower.

You don’t need to be a doctor just read the data.

You have to be significantly/unnaturally underweight for the serious consequences to apply and the symptoms are based on the assumption you’re under-eating - eg malnourishment, loss of menses, anaemia.

One study found that: that previous studies have underestimated the impact of being overweight on mortality and our findings support current advice to maintain a BMI of between 18.5 and 25.

Also big difference in high BMI due to build & muscle bulk vs fat.

I was naturally underweight but I ate well so wasn’t malnourished and had normal regular periods.

Yes but now we welcome obese models which isn't healthy either.

Many of those people will be people who are in the gym a lot and their BMI says they're overweight because of their muscle but they don't have an unhealthy amount of fat so it's skewed because some of the healthiest people will be in that category, and they're healthy because they have a low or normal amount of body fat, not in spite of having excess fat or because of!

If you look on YT at archive films of every day folk from years ago most people were very slim. Our current obesity crisis is warping what we now see as ‘normal’ body shapes and what isn’t.
I agree with this.
I am currently overweight. If it was the 90s and before it would have been so obvious that I am a fatty. I am a size 16 at the moment but I blend in with most other people around me.

So anyone described as curvy was also in this category. it’s been very damaging as we really have lost sight as to what being a healthy weight is

Also lost sight of what a reasonable, sensible, healthy amount of food consumption is.

Where did this idea that unless you can eat constantly you are being deprived come from?

@Newsenmum there are numerous studies that show a slightly low BMI is healthier than a slightly high one. Even a slightly high BMI increases the risks of heart issues

I completely agree, anorexia has the highest mortality of any mental illness. The sort of rhetoric seen on this thread is part of the reason why girls (it is mostly girls) strive to be thin.

My dd was one of the girls who valued thinness and developed an ED. She is naturally curvy and periods stopped, hair started falling out etc when she lost a relatively small amount of weight.

When I was a teen I lost some weight due to illness and developed severe anxiety. Once I regained the weight it stopped almost over night.

What is a healthy weight for one woman can be very unhealthy for another. Being even slightly under weight can be dangerous in a way that being slightly over weight isn't.

This is completely false.

First you confuse being underweight with anorexia/EDs which is very odd, second the claim that being slightly underweight is dangerous in a way that being slightly overweight isn’t - is incorrect as per my above post. You don’t have to be very overweight to trigger diabetes which can take 10 years off your life.

The girl who developed an ED but didn’t lose a huge amount of weight - you have no idea what her eating patterns were - if they were very disordered and she was starving, bingeing & purging she could be very malnourished while not looking overly thin.

The kind of unhealthy myths that circulate around being slim really feed into the overweight/obesity epidemic.

I also think those who confuse ‘being underweight’ and other eating disorders with Anorexia, tend to have little no actual experience of Anorexia. My niece died after battling it for years. It wasn’t just her appearance that was shocking, it was the lengths she would go to to cover up - layers of clothing, eating and then making herself sick in private, using laxatives until she was virtually incontinent. And as she neared the end, the awful realisation that she was intent on starving herself to death and there really wasn’t anything anyone could do about it.

@Girliefriendlikespuppies
Has a wealth of experience dealing with a mentally unwell child. I have less but more than enough to last me a lifetime. I am struggling to see what she said, which has caused such offence. I don’t think she conflated eating disorders with being underweight. It was an observation. We mums of children with anorexia know only too well that it is a brutal mental illness and that the mortality rate is the highest of all mental illnesses.

She didn’t cause offence, she merely replied to an inaccurate post about being underweight with approval connecting it to anorexia.

Im sorry that her DD is ill, one of my besf friends had anorexia when she was younger and it was really tough to watch. But it’s a complex serious mental illness and it’s not just about looking slim. Anorexics are not representative of the majority of slim women, being only a tiny % of the population; at the same time obesity and overeating is a far far more widepread problem.

I’m so sorry to hear it. Driving such a destructive mental illness are really deep issues - it’s not just about wanting to be thin.

That's just tragic, I'm so sorry 😔

There was much less junk food then.

I agree

The issue is that eating disorders like anorexia are increasing and increasing slim models being glamorised make this worse.
Overeating is also an issue but not to the extent anorexia is. It’s a horrific illness.

I agree anorexia is not the same as being slim. Losing weight in an unhealthy way and / or being underweight can potentially impact mental health and lead to stress, anxiety and disordered eating. I think this is perhaps the point she was making.

The issue is that eating disorders like anorexia are increasing and increasing slim models being glamorised make this worse.
I was under the impression that more plus size models are being used these days. In the 80s and 90s all the models were tiny. Now the pendulum seems to have started to swing for fatter models,which h isn't necessarily a good thing either. I thi k there needs to be a realistic middle ground of healthy looking models.

EDs are increasing but in women and girls in 11-34 age group - 0.3% have anorexia and 1% have bulimia; whereas 25% are overweight or obese.

In the over 35 age group - the rate of anorexia is 0.075% and bulimia 1%; compared to 60% overweight or obese.

Overeating is much bigger problem than undereating.

I agree. I think the problem is confusing Anorexia with other ED’s. Anorexia is manifestation of serious underlying mental health issues - as you said upthread it’s not just about being or looking slim. The the sufferer doesn’t see themselves as they actually are. My niece was like a walking skeleton in the last months of her life and still saw herself as overweight. By that time she was unable to eat and all of the interventions, including therapy, professional input from specialist dieticians, and eve sectioning, had failed.