Starving to be thin

Avatar for cl_shywon
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-20-2003
Starving to be thin
16
Fri, 08-18-2006 - 7:15pm

I just have to rant a bit.


I have two collegues/friends who are on this near-starvation diet at the moment, and it's really getting to me.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 11-01-2005
Fri, 08-18-2006 - 7:28pm

Shy~

I guarantee your quality of life is much better than these girls/women. You know that life is about more than fitting some stereotype, and you are actually *enjoying* your food and life while you're at it. These women are so obsessed with outward appearances that they are forgetting to follow their own hearts and desires along the way.

As you know from previous posts of mine, I am a huge advocate for eating healthy. Healthy means actually *eating* and not depriving yourself of the things you enjoy.

Take pride in the fact that you have a strong sense of self and a healthy outlook. You don't need to worry about feeling fat for actually eating real food.

~TG

AJ, enjoying life with C.

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-13-2004
Fri, 08-18-2006 - 8:44pm
Please do not let their insecurities, ruin your self-esteem. Just remind yourself that people who feel they need to starve themselves to get to their "perfect" weight is just plain insecure. For them, perfect will never be perfect enough...
iVillage Member
Registered: 08-17-2006
Sat, 08-19-2006 - 2:04am
I understand how you feel about your young relative. I have a cousin who is now about ten, and when she was 7 or 8, I remember her taking me aside and telling me that her thighs were too fat. My stomach just dropped to hear that, because she is and always has been a normal, skinny little girl. But she idolizes girls like Lindsay Lohan, and I'm afraid that she's going to have a rough time figuring out what "normal" means.
iVillage Member
Registered: 07-17-2004
Sat, 08-19-2006 - 5:21am

Cl-Shywon,

It's really sad isn't it? I work for a publishing company and I work in men's titles but from what I understand that every time a Lindsay Lohan or a Nicole Ritchie are on the cover, there will be a sales spike for the magazine. I personally have a problem with magazines promoting healthy self esteem and at the same time using these images to sell magazines. In respect to the men's titles, they prefer women on the cover like Carmen Electra, Eva Longorio and J-Lo who are busty and curvier. It's really frustrating that women are virtually starving themselves to meet the expectations of other women. I really do believe that men prefer women who have meat on their bodies.

Starvation, liquid or no carb diets only work temporarily and are no good for you in the long run. It frustrates me when you hear stories of celebrities who lose weight for a movie like Beyonce with her Maple Syrup diet. I believe that people should be exercising and watching their diet within reason but you need to follow a diet or lifestyle plan as I like to call it which is realistic and one you're able to maintain with a busy lifestyle. It also frustrates me when people diet but they don't exercise. The two need to go hand in hand and exercise is something everyone should do regardless of whether they need to lose weight or not.

One lifestyle plan I can recommend is "The Abs Diet" which I have been following. Here is a link to the author's Website: http://www.absdiet.com.

Feisty

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-17-2006
Sat, 08-19-2006 - 7:20am
Yes, this problem with weight identification is truly sad, when women aren't sure which image to latch onto and imitate. But to me, it is the saddest that kids are looking at this stuff and considering themselves fat. In my case, a 7 year old little girl, and a normal weight little girl at that, worrying that her "thighs are too fat." It scares me for the sake of this little girl, whom I care about. She is approaching middle school in the next few years, and I want to be able to guide her towards a more healthy approach to womanhood. I can tell her things, but she will be inundated with information from these magazines, and how can I make sure that she gets the best information?
Avatar for cl_shywon
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-20-2003
Sat, 08-19-2006 - 10:25am

It's the thighs that my sister is obsessed with as well.

Avatar for cl_shywon
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-20-2003
Sat, 08-19-2006 - 10:29am

Eva Longoria curvy?

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-17-2004
Sat, 08-19-2006 - 7:01pm

Cl-Shywon,

Well Eva's not exactly a Nicole Ritchie is she? And if you look at porn magazines (not that I do ... heheheh but we also produce them), the women are even curvier still especially the real pictures sent in by the women themselves.

OMG ... do people know nothing about exercise? Of course you're going to put on weight because muscle weighs more than fat. I was 47kgs and underweight as I'm 5"6 and I am now 55kgs which is the ideal weight for my height. In stature though, I probably look smaller than I did when I was the lower weight as I'm more toned. I have a real problem with women who complain about their weight and at the same time, don't want to exercise. I am always complimented on my body and to be honest, if I ate junk food and didn't exercise, I would maintain the same weight but I make an effort to go to the gym at least four times a week which is why I have little tolerance for people who don't.

Anyway, that's why I recommended the lifestyle plan which is a realistic eating plan rather than a crash diet where you lose weight drastically and put it back on just as quickly.

Feisty




Edited 8/19/2006 7:24 pm ET by feisty01
iVillage Member
Registered: 02-06-2004
Sun, 08-20-2006 - 12:39am

It's like my sister says: "People will do anything to lose weight...besides diet and exercise."

Good for you for not falling for the eating disorders trend! Obviously, you're well-informed enough to not need me to recite all the ugly side-effects that accompany purging and starvation. But I will say this...by *not* eating like them, you are actually doing more to manage your weight. You know how they say restricting your diet to below 1,200 calories a day can slow your metabolism? Its the truth. I knew a girl who gained a lot of weight after recovering from an eating disorder because her body just clung to the calories, as if to say, "Uh-uh! No way are you doing that to me again!" That kind of weight is hard to lose.

Man. Two liquid meals a day and a freaking ham sandwhich? That isn't good. I'm what you'd consider "slender" and although I'm grateful for that....if somebody told me, "You can have functional organs, strong bones, thick hair, and a size 7 waist...OR...diseased organs, brittle bones, patchy hair and wear a size 3"........yeah, I'd definitely choose the first option.

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-14-2006
Mon, 08-21-2006 - 2:29pm

Oh honney i know how you feel!

This really hit home with me becuase i struggle with my weight and body image as well. The saddest part of it all is that i am maybe a size 3 on my fattest day and i still think that i need to loose weight. I hate my butt and my thighs and my arms and well, everything about myself. I seriously think i have a very bad case of body dysmorphia becuase when i look in the mirror i see someoen that is quite chubby when everyone tells me that i am super thin.

A lot of my issues i have to admit stem from magazines and seeing other women. I have a hard time going out because i start looking at other girls and wishing i looked like them. When i read magazines i start to feel terrible because i don't have thin perfectly tanned legs. Then i start to tell myself that i am single because i don't look like them. I try to go on diets all the time and i have to be careful when i workout because i don't want to over do it and exhaust myself to the point of not being able to walk the next day. This summer i haven't been very active because i started a new job and i barely have time to even eat so i get mad at myself for that too.

It is truly terrible what women (and men) put themselves through in order to look good. I am very worried about the "next generation" of girls (i am 23 right now myself) because i see them worrying about their weight earlier and earlier. I did not start thinking about my weight until i was 18 years of age and i was a "late bloomer" in that sense. Now as many have pointed out, girls as young as 7 are wanting to diet and be "super thin".

This entire post reminds me of an article that Jamie Lee CUrtis did to show much much work actually goes into a magazine photo shoot.

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