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.

This is kind of off topic but I think the Marilyn Monroe myth comes from a few years ago when they auctioned off a Some Like It Hot dress and the auctioneers were shocked that the waist size was 28 inches.

She was pregnant during much of the filming of Some Like It Hot (she miscarried later)

28 inch waist would have been a 1950s size 16 - it's 12 today.

BMI, Waist and Body Fat

Keeping waist < half the height
is a good predictor of longevity and health, because the waist indicates the level of visceral fat (the most dangerous kind in / around organs).
Several studies, e.g. JCirc , Harvard Survey showed increased mortality for women with waist > 88 cm (35"), even within recommended BMI range.

otoh, BMI is only a crude indicator of body composition:
People may exceed the recommended BMI due to muscle and / or excess fat. We don't know the relative proportions at a given weight
Studies show that low % body fat and high % muscle are each related to longevity, but are difficult to measure unless we scan everyone.

TOFIs (Thin Outside, Fat Inside), have "healthy BMI" but high visceral fat increasing their risk of many serious ailments
e.g. this MRI study found that:

• for “healthy” BMI, 45 % of women and nearly 60% of men had excessive levels of visceral fat
• People who maintain their weight through diet rather than exercise are likely to have major deposits of internal fat, even if BMI is ok

This study Can J Card also showed visceral fat can be burned off via a combination of exercise, improving diet quality (reducing sweet junk & alcohol) and reducing calories overall.

Exercise and food in the correct amount & quality are the way to have a healthy weight waist

It would be interesting to see that research recut with a lag, so what weight were you 24 mths before you died, as that would correct for the people who lost weight due to illness prior to death. Ben Goldacre recut the data using narrower brackets ( so 16-18, 18-20, 20-23, 23-25 etc) and showed that the 23-25 group had lowest mortality. That said, there was an interesting article in Time about longevity and all the experts ( cardiologists, oncologists etc) basically said be towards the slim end of normal and do exercise.

A really detailled analysis of this reaearch on the European Cancer Research site EU CR
With most of these studies claiming overweight is healthier, there have been queries regarding handling of serious illness, smoking etc.

Also, diifferent ethnic groups tend to store fat differently:
Those of Asian origin tend to store fat more around the middle and organs, hence are advised to aim for BMI 18.5 - 22. This is partly what prompted the WHO change from the previously recommended BMI 20-25.
otoh, Caucasians may be less healthy with BMI 18.5-20 than in the original 20-25 range.

All of this is population-based anyway.
For the individual, check your waist and your ability to do exercise.

Big Choc My evening meal is currently vegetables and peas If you go to the slimming world board you will see i have already adjusted my food intake many times.

I cant drop anything else On the SW board its the "really annoyed weight loss"
thread

If we want to keep going back in time to the 70s and 80s when clothes size were smaller then how about we also go even further back when different shapes and sizes of women were more accepted and referred to as stout.

I dont find it a coincidence that the obsession with womens looks increased as soon as women started to gain more rights in the workplace and in society.

Anyway im happy with what ive achieived and think ive done my best to better my HEALTH In fact i KNOW ive done my best so im hiding this thread now.

Because mental health is just as important as physical health.

Helenadove
I dont find it a coincidence that the obsession with womens looks increased as soon as women started to gain more rights in the workplace and in society.
That is utter piffle.
Obsessions with looks date back to time immemorial.
Read Jane Austen's books for constant mentions of people's figures and skin and posture and weight.

Gone with the Wind is another. Scarlett is forever trying to get her waist down to 18 inches.