Friday, December 07, 2007

It Only Took Me 27 Years to Get There... But I Sure Do Feel Better

The Minnesota research suggests that girls who felt good about themselves were more likely to be physically active and pay more attention to what they ate. They didn't lose much weight, but they made healthy lifestyle changes that at least prevented them from gaining more weight. Meanwhile, the researchers found that the girls who were the most dissatisfied with their size tended to become more sedentary over time and paid less attention to maintaining a healthy diet. Those who were unhappy with their bodies were, in fact, more likely to gain more weight.

Really, we've gotta stop with the "fat is an indicator of health, happiness, and quality of life" thing.

Like so many of the bullshit "truths" of life, this one really heads people down the wrong road.

6 comments so far. What are your thoughts?

Anonymous said...

You gotta love the whole "diet and exercise didn't lead to much weight loss--but thank GOD they weren't GAINING any!"

The only thing I sort of can see is being really unhappy with your body and becoming more sedentary. When I hated my body I wouldn't go be active anywhere anyone could see me. The last thing I needed was to be all sweaty and working my ass off and have random jerks say mean things or look at me weird (which has happened). I already felt bad enough.

Jackie M. said...

Though they ignored the recent findings that people in the "overweight" and "moderately obese" BMI brackets are actually living longer than people in the "normal" bracket... and they misquoted the study about "socially contagious weight gain": the likelihood of your being overweight increases with the number of your acquaintances who are overweight only if you are a man.

Kameron Hurley said...

But Jackie, didn't you know? EVERYONE is a man.

The real people, that is.

And yeah, I thought it was hilarious that they ignored the fact that the people in the "overweight" category live longest of the bunch.

I'm also considering quality of life in this instance, tho, too. I don't think spending all your time at an "average" weight hating yourself means you're going to live better or live longer, and they did touch on that a bit, which I appreciated.

Yeah, ok, they "sort of" did in a roundabout way.

Blarg

Jackie M. said...

By "average" weight, you mean in the "normal" BMI? Oh, hey, speaking of false assumptions... didn't they just say that 2/3 of American women are "overweight" or "obese"? Haha. So I guess we've got a little misnomer going on in the nomenclature, haven't we....

(Man, I just calculated my lean body mass assuming a 32% fat percentage. I'm 130 lbs. of muscle and bone! Holy shit. Which means that it's well-nigh impossible for me to ever acheive "normalcy.")

Kameron Hurley said...

"average" = "normal" weight according to the BMI.

Yeah, that was the wrong word choice, there. heh.

Today I told somebody there were 27 letters in the alphabet, too.

It's winter and I have way too much on my mind. eh.

Jackie M. said...

Hey, I'm not blaming you! The AMA is the group that decided "normal" should exclude the majority of American women...