Mr. F's cure for my being 2 lbs. underweight today
As I was reading through my Sunday Parade Magazine, my attention was caught by an ad for spring cleaning products from Wal-Mart. Normally, I have a well-trained eye that skips all advertising, internet or otherwise, so what accounted for my stopping to look at this one? The ad featured a mom and her two children cleaning windows, but what startled me is that the model portraying the young mom was not fit. In fact, she had several rolls of belly fat that could be clearly seen due to her tight shirt (oddly enough, the Spring Cleaning part of the Wal-Mart website features fit models). I wondered to myself, what is Wal-Mart saying here? That now that 65% of Americans are overweight or obese that it’s time to use models that represent this norm? That Wal-Mart caters to the “real” American woman, unlike Neiman Marcus and their ultra-thin models? (And to be fair, even Neiman Marcus has “larger sized” clothing in their “special sizes” part of the website, and even there the models look pretty fit). I’m no advertising expert, so I’ll let daughter Karen and other marketing folks figure this one out.
But the ad did prompt me to wonder what was happening to body dissatisfaction among Americans. Traditionally, we psychologists have focused on body dissatisfaction as a risk for anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa, but I can’t recall seeing many data regarding body dissatisfaction and obesity. As more people are becoming overweight and obese, is it now more okay to be so? Judging from the way people are dressing (obese people are wearing the same fashions as thin people, with no effort to hide any of the weight), I’m guessing that body dissatisfaction is dropping. We need some very up-to-date research on this, as our increases in obesity have been fairly recent.
Rachel Millstein and her colleagues at the Centers for Disease Control (2008) published an interesting article about body size dissatisfaction and weight control practices in America. They conclude that “if people are dissatisfied with their body size, they may be ready to lose weight, particularly by dieting.” They stop short of suggesting that a little body dissatisfaction would be a good thing but suggest that “goals of future interventions should not be to increase body size dissatisfaction, but to work with those who are dissatisfied to promote appropriate weight-control behaviors and remove barriers to weight loss and the attainment of a healthy weight.”
Janet Latner and her colleagues (2009) asked similar questions of a group of people who had successfully maintained fairly significant weight losses. It appears that even though losing weight improved body image and satisfaction, memories of stigmatizing experiences and fear of fat actually helped people maintain their weight loss. Latner et al. made some other interesting observations, such as the fact that obese and normal weight individuals have equally negative attitudes towards obesity. However, these were people attempting to lose weight or maintain weight loss, not a sample of the general population. This reminds me of people who have successfully stopped smoking–they seem to be the most adamant advocates for limiting people’s public smoking. When I was in the middle of my weight loss with Jenny Craig, I did take an implicit associations test (IAT) regarding weight, and much to my surprise, found that I really did stigmatize weight. It remains hard for me to look at pictures of myself at my former weight.
My Weight Chart Looks Like the Dow Jones
Although I’ve only scratched the surface of this topic in my reading, this seems like another one of those “moderation works” situations. We don’t want people to be too comfortable with the image aspects of obesity, because Latner et al. point out that health concerns related to obesity seem to be poor motivators for weight loss in spite of their obvious severity. On the other hand, we surely don’t want to drive people into self-hate or low self-esteem. Perhaps a balanced view of “this weight looks about right for me” and “I feel my best at this weight” will be enough. It does appear that different mechanisms drive weight loss and the maintenance of weight loss, and we need further research in these areas.
5 Comments
ljgarcia · April 7, 2009 at 3:28 pm
i think number one it is so sad how much weight consumes our thought and our culture- for both men and women. it is becoming such a big issue affecting self esteem, self worth and what beauty is defined as. i think in relation to this article it is definitely true that fear of “fat” or going back to your “old weight” is a huge factor in keeping the weight off, not to mention all of the judgments and comments and stares one thinks they are getting when their appearance changes. which they are getting ! i think its important, like you were saying, to not let people get comfortable with the idea of obesity. it is important to recognize health and appropriate dieting and exercising.
jacquelynlaing · April 12, 2009 at 7:37 pm
I think that people judge their weight by comparing themselves to the people and examples around them. If the person lives in an environment where everyone is thin, or they are constantly looking at magazines or ad’s where being thin is glorified, they will probably be less satisfied with their weight.
Although I was never overweight myself, I grew up in a neighborhood where there were a lot of overweight people. There was a lot of talk about “being comfortable in your own skin” which I always thought was dumb because obesity should not be something you should be comfortable with. Although I think that the underweight ideals that the media promotes are harmful to body image, I do not think that the remedy is to place heavy-set models in their place. Instead, the models should be of a normal, healthy, attainable weight.
shaunashea · April 12, 2009 at 11:01 pm
Weight is such an obsession in today’s culture. It is very disheartening because people are often perceived based solely on their weight. This is unfortunate because it is incredibly superficial.
This prejudgment can go either way. I am extremely thin, and people have always asked me if I’ve had an eating disorder. I never have, but people automatically assume that I have and it is very frustrating to realize people have automatically assumed that about me.
People are so obsessed with weight and if a person cares enough about what other people think or even if they are even slightly preoccupied with a “sense of control,” an eating disorder is very possible.
It is sad because the media and society in general both promote such a disgustingly thin figure. In PSY 306, I learned that the average model is 5’9 and weighs 110 pounds. This is unbelievably thin and obviously any girl this height in the real world does not weigh that little. However, this allows for a very underweight individual to be seen as the “norm.”
jeffcurry · May 30, 2009 at 7:46 pm
Weight obsession on the surface seems to be a problem, a source for self-destroying habits that are unhealthy for anyone. But I suggest that weight obsession can be a good thing. Those who are overweight who become weight obsessed may focus harder on losing that weight (hopefully not in an extreme manner) and in turn become healthier. Those who are already at a healthy weight and are weight obsessed (not to the point of wanting to get thinner and thinner) will be able to maintain their healthy weight and continue to lead a healthy lifestyle. The problem I believe is that others people obsess about other people’s weight. It is important to be health conscious but not for others. People need to find it in themselves, not at the expense of pressure from others.
Obesity Rates Notch Up Again | Laura’s Psychology Blog · July 2, 2009 at 9:08 am
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