To think that skinny celebrities do have a negative impact on women and girls?

[thatisnotcoffee]

How could they not? When you constantly have this ideal body type pushed in your face as the only right one and and when size 14 is considered to be overweight then how can that not effect you?

Dakota Fanning is considered to be a good role model for teenagers and young women but she's a stick! How can that be healthy? She's 21 and still has the body of a child.

I watched an interview with Amanda Holden recently and she's wasting away. I also looked up Gillian Anderson recently when I found out the X Files was coming back and I was shocked to see that she's also very thin. I was even more shocked when I looked at even older pictures of her from 10-20 years ago and I realised she was very skinny even back then. I just don't understand how being that thin can be healthy tbh.

This sort of shit just makes me feel like crap and that I must be a hippo at a size 16 even though that's the average size.

So like I said, how do you suggest we go about changing that Talkin - given that the evidence is pretty conclusive that diets and 'fat shaming' clearly aren't working? waits for response that everyone should permanently be on 5:2 and calorie restrict for life

Yes I had a scan done and lung thing done too some time back along with thyroid check etc etc. My fat levels are in the correct range but I do have more muscle on my thighs and calves and yes I am fit I think it's silly to think someone who cycles 100 miles a week is not fit.

lilmiss
I assumed you were fit - and having the scan proves that everything is along scales, there are no absolutes.

sleepwhenidie
Yes, sadly I think that everybody needs to teach themselves to say no to food.

BUT

• the 2000 figure on the side of the cereal box needs to be ditched
• clear traffic light labelling needs to be made mandatory and consistent
• VAT should be added to all foods with more than ten ingredients on the pack
• portion sizes need to be mandated to restrict misleading labelling

I'm sick of this. (I know the thread has moved on, but I'm going to have my say!)

I'm sick of it being ok to call thin people names. I'm sick of it being ok to criticise thin people's body shape and weight.

I am 5'4 and 7stone8. I am healthy, I don't have the body of a child. I don't want to be fat, I don't want to be fatter even. My periods hace never stopped, I had no difficulty conceiving. If you want to shove pies, cake, chocolate and biscuits down your throat and are happy being overweight, fine, but I don't so leave me the fuck alone!

I love being 5'2"

lack of day to day movement and exercise, particularly a culture where it doesn't seem to be 'cool' for girls to exercise

I've never felt like this, or experienced this.

How has it ever been conceived that a girl exercising is uncool?

Worra, where did I say I blamed the food industry for obesity?

I said it had a significant part to play because of the differences in cost, marketing and accessibility of what is sold. To deny that because the only overweight people you know are those who simply eat too much is, IMO, a bit blinkered and I'm-Alright-Jack.

Forever if not 'coolness' then what do you think is the reason for the enormous drop off in girls doing sport (often forevermore) when they hit their teens, the phenomenon that makes the 'This Girl Can' campaign necessary? I'm happy to be corrected if it's something else...

sleepwhenidie
I'd not heard of the "this girl can" campaign - and I have a 16 year old daughter.
Being fit ( hench or dench or buff ) is definitely cool in the circles my kids move in
PE is compulsory in school till 16 and darned near it in college till 18

BUT I get well peed off with mums who do SFA while their kids are at exercise classes at the gym : FFS you are sat by the pool, why not get in - it gives SUCH a bad message

It may be getting cooler to be fit and that's fantastic if so-but as you point out Talkin, so many mums are of a generation where it definitely wasn't - the statistics for women regularly exercising are shocking and it's fairly evident from how quiet the exercise board is on MN. If they are setting an example then it can't be good.

Don't be too quick to judge the mums by the poolside though, I've regularly done that after doing 1-2 hours workout earlier in the day, showered, blow dried and applied make up-I'm not about to do it all again for the sake of half an hour dodging people pootling in the only lane of the pool available for laps

Forever if not 'coolness' then what do you think is the reason for the enormous drop off in girls doing sport (often forevermore) when they hit their teens

What do you mean by coolness though?

Will a teenage girl be mocked for exercising? It will be seen as not the done thing?

I've been a gym member since I was 15, a lot of the time a group of us (all female) would go to the gym on our lunch break at school.

I lived in a house of 5 girls at uni and we would regularly go for a run together.

I wanted to join the basketball team at uni and couldn't because it was full up.

I'm now in a netball team in my mid 20s and go to competitions where I'm competing against women. A lot of my friends go running, gym or have joined a sports team.

On Instagram I follow fitness gurus that have millions of followers and are aimed at 16-25 year olds. Kayla Itsine, Emily Skye, Lita Lewis

And Jen Selter who has an even bigger following on Instagram than Madonna does.

In my world even as a teenager it was always seen as good to be fit.

I never experienced eating junk food and never exercising as the height of "coolness"

Counting calories is dull. Never have done it, and never plan on doing it. I don't starve myself and simply believe in moderation and listening to my body. Works for me, and I have never, except for pregnancy and immediately after, been larger than a 6.

I agree with sleep - don't judge the women poolside. I can't think of anything more boring than getting into a pool for the half and hour class of my son, and would rather catch up with friends during that time. My exercise occurred earlier that day with a 7 mile brisk run and a quick core exercise workout (4-5 times a week). Much more stimulating, and frankly better exercise for me than a mediocre 25 minute pool session.

I do not count calories. I do not record what I eat, but I do internalise that I have to eat less than I used to to stay at happy weight

That's brilliant forever but it's your experience, as far as I'm aware it's not the general picture (and my dc's are little, in not in direct contact with many teens), so you didn't answer my question about why you think so few girls/women exercise regularly - leading to articles such as this which says that less than 4% meet the recommended target level of exercising 12 times a month. Perhaps you fall into the top socio economic group the article references and so simply have a different experience because of that? I'm genuinely curious (not having a dig about social class) and I'd be thrilled if it is more widespread than than just you though

sleep, interesting article. I have to say that the girls I see and know (aged 5-teenage years) are all doing something sporty. Probably because I know their mums through sports, so they are sporty themselves or I know them through one of my DSs who does fairly high level swimming (actually, I have to say that these parents take competitive parenting to another level altogether!). Other girls I know, and this is probably a socio-economic thing, do sports as it is expected of them due to school and peer pressure (the cool girls really are into sports as a form of achievement).

Talkin, please with the 'I don't count calories'...why do you post about them so much then? If you don't count as in checking and keeping a log it's because you don't need to - you must know the calorie value of pretty much anything from a two second glance - don't kid a kidder, I've been there and done it

See I fell into a horrible pattern, eating rubbish and no exercise.

I got up to 14 stone and was a size 14.

Best thing I ever did was change my diet. I started to lose weight and then I began to exercise.

Exercising when you are overweight is so painful. My knees would be so painful, I got no pleasure from a workout.

From having lost 4 stone, I now love exercise and it's just a way of life.

Perhaps thats why women don't exercise.

millie did you exercise when you were young? If so, what stopped it?

sleep
I utterly promise, and swear on my real name
I do not calorie count
I have an awareness of what I can consume and stay within it.
As do most slim people.

I have looked into the issue and am a numbers geek, but I am arrogant enough to not need to log.

I'm 5'4 and a size 4-6. I'm about to eat all
The leftover Easter cake. I don't diet or only eat salad. I eat McDonald's now and then. I go to the gym though and I'm v active with the dc. I would like a more curvy figure but found pregnancy weight gain unbearable.

It seems to be permanently open season though if you are thin. I'm utterly sick of people commenting on my weight as if I have no feelings or dignity. My work colleagues are the worst even after I requested they stop saying things about my figure

TalkingPeace you said after my first post the following LilMiss
Have you had a body fat scan done - as that would give you the data to prove how fit you actually are.

If you assume I am fit why would you suggest I have a body fat scan done as it will prove how fit I really am.

Hence why I responded to say it doesn't take a genius to tell you I will be far fitter than the average person as I cycle 100 miles every week its bleedin obvious I will be very fit.

My point was that if I told someone my stats and according to height and my weight than you would conclude I am overweight yet I am more fitter than most because of the amount of exercise I get. So sometimes the stats do not really portray how healthy or fit a person is. I plugged my 5 foot 2 and 12.5 stone stats into the NHS bmi calculator and I selected the highest activity level and the result is I am obese. How can a person cycling 100 miles a week be classed as obese.

Marilyn Monroe was never a size 16 its a myth

she was small build and curvy

I think we are getting used to seeing very very slim women in the media and there is a huge amount of pressure for these women to stay slim, Liz Hurley is very honest about how she stays so slim. But some will naturally be very slim

I do not think a size 16 on the whole is healthy. Weight varies so much because when I was a size 8-10 I still weighed around 91/2 and at 5'2 that put me over weight but I certainly did not look it, I have a smallish build and curvy --boobs must weight quite a bit. I could eat and eat and do not excersize I was one of those lucky ones until I had a thyroid problem :( Now I weigh nearer 12 I look fat being bigger is not always beautiful I look far better a few stone lighter and I feel far better some people can carry weight better than others

Freudian you're right about Marilyn.

I went to a costume exhibition and Marilyn's famous white dress was there. I'm a size 10 and think the dress would have been too small for me.

Just had a google and found this about Mariyn and myths about her weight ....
"When British Journalist Sara Buys actually tried on Marilyn Monroe’s clothes, here’s what she experienced:
Contrary to received wisdom, she was not a voluptuous size 16 – quite the opposite. While she was undeniably voluptuous – in possession of an ample bosom and a bottom that would look at home gyrating in a J-Lo video – for most of the early part of her career, she was a size 8 and even in her plumper stages, was no more than a 10. I can tell you this from experience because a few weeks ago, I tried to try on her clothes.
So why worry about all this? Because the truth behind myths matter, and in a society that’s full of body conscious young women it’s better to know that if you’re a size 16 you’re not going to look like Marilyn Monroe, because she was a size 4. It’s also important to know that Marilyn Monroe was not overweight in any way, and if your body does resemble hers, neither are you."