to be surprised and disappointed at some of the attitudes to food and weight I have seen here?

[SigourneyBeaver]

I have a high opinion of Mners.
On the whole, I think Mn is populated by intelligent and often extremely witty people.

However, I have read many posts from women who want to achieve or maintain an unrealistic weight.

I am SO disappointed by this I can't tell you. I was kind of in denial of how obsessed women are by their appearance. This has really got to me. If intelligent women feel this way, is there any hope for our daughters?

I am clearly overweight and have been losing steadily for a while now. Over 5stone. Still have some to lose but I am not going to aim for either a 'target' weight or a particular BMI. i am going to see how I feel and look and when I think the balance is right, that's when I will stop losing and start 'maintaining' IYSWIM. I have seen threads on here advocating that peopl should aim for a bmi of 18.5, which is the absolute lowest weight range that is considered healthy for anyone. But if I get a BMI of 27 and feel that is right for me, that is where I will stay. It will always be better than the BMI of over 40 that I once was!

It is not always a case of calories in..... calories out. I had genuine health reasons (medication)both for massive weight gain and then being unable to lose it. Even the doctors/nutritionists told me I had to wait for my body to be ready to lose.

I do not appreciate being made to feel worse than I already did about the way I looked. It was not a choice I made. Even though I am still big ( some would say fat), there is nothing better than when someone who hasn't seen me for a while comments positively on how I look, it gives me the incentive to continue what has been a very hard slog.
And as for those who maintain that size 16/18 is obese, that may be the case for someone who is short, but what about those tall folk in the world? size 10/12 on them often makes them look ridiculously undernourished. I will certainly not be aiming for a size 10/12 as I would be just skin and bone!

And, just as those who insist on smoking etc are always bleating, ultimately, it for the individual to decide what they are comfortable with and not for everyone else to assume it's ok to have a go about the appearance of the 'fat cow 'in the street.

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