Ha, my dear - and then you think it must be you who is wrong,because the rest of the world of course stays slim naturally! And those who do not are just people without willpower! and you beat yourself up for not having enough willpower to be slim enough, even if you are "passable"!
Until you somehow trip over the information that the societal pressure makes us starve ourselves to be slim and our bodies just can not take it more than about 10 years, sometimes less. It overrides our brain and gets that food into it, never mind that it is not healthy food anymore. At this point our body is not anymore interested in anything else than calories to sustain itself. We gain weight and the body calms down, allowing the brain to prevail once more - we diet and lose, until the body can not take it anymore. It is that simple, and it is just amazyong how we have let this to rule women during all the decades slim has been the ideal. Bthw, I sense things are getting better for current youth - there is some criticism of "too slim", like Beckham or this weird girl in sex and the city:-). I read I think somewhere that women size 14 are the happiest of the lot, followed by 12, 16 and then 10. Showing that not being too impressed by social norms and remaining at the weight where nature probably wanted you makes you happier than temporary wins over your body and slipping into these small-number clothes.
Also, diet-binge starves you all the time - you never get nutrients, because only calories matter. In diet, you get too few vitamins b and calcium, as you limit probably grains and might eat low-fat milk stuff, which does not allow you to get calcium, as it needs fat. Lots of vitamins are fat-soluble, so you miss out at all. And in binge mode we tend to neglect healthy food and pig on really sugary and starchy stuff, as "it does not matter, I am gaining anyway and will diet later". We never concentrate on vegs and liking them, we may obsessively eat them without enjoyment when on diet, but in bust moment they go out of the menu. First time ever I started to think about vitamins, omega three, calcium, all microelements, when I started to think about what I get in, rather than how many calories things give. Now I always remember to drink water and I eat veg and fruit because I really like it, and I do not treat them as replacement for something I really would like. I dip my vegs into full fat dip (home made), or eat with cheese and liver pate, and it is really good. Previously veg eas diet food, always to be eaten withput anything fattening beside it, as it ruined its low calorie value.
I strongly accuse the 90ies ultra-slim culture, to which I totally adhered to. I have a degree in natural sciences, to my shame, so .... i should not have been fooled, but I was. And I thought bthw that lots of my doctor friends were too fat, because they never dieted! They were all healthy weight and they knew it, but I thought BMI above 20 is a shame! Also, I have spent hours on the beach I did not enjoy at all , thrying to make sure I tan evenly! Because this is how you were supposed to look (I come from nordic country, were suntan can b eonly accuired from may til july, I luckily new solariums are not an option for cancer risks and they were not common in my post-soviet-occupation home country, also nnot affordable, so "worked hard" on the beach! ). I think this food journey has made me also to realise the skin color does not matter neither! I will of course still go to beach, and play with my boys, but will not consider time spent in water as waste of sun tanning option!