The woman they interviewed noted that she now weighs more than she did in college, but wears a smaller size, to illustrate how Body Mass Index calculators often don't give a good reflection of a person's body composition. Fair enough. A friend of mine is tiny, but has always felt fat because she's never been able to get her weight low enough for a "healthy" BMI. I'm tall, and the "healthy" range for my frame is a huge span, from weights so low, I know I could never attain them, to ones where I would feel very overweight.
Can you be healthy and fat? Well, some people are overweight but don't have high blood pressure, arterial plaque, or type-2 diabetes. So I guess you can.
Am I healthy? Yes. I work out 5-6 times a week, eat a high fiber diet of balanced whole grains and lean protein, my BP is fabulous, my cholesterol and blood sugar are normal. Am I overweight? Yes, a little. Could I be healthier? Absolutely. And if I were, I'm fairly certain I would lose weight in the process of becoming so. What if I cut my internet time in half and spend more time on the treadmill instead? My heart would be stronger, my resting pulse might drop a bit. I'd drop a few pounds.
The woman on the news made the comment that she lost weight once she started loving her body. "You take care of things you love. If you love your body, you will take care of it." This makes perfect sense to me, especially since I know that when I've been in a situations where my self esteem plummeted, I wanted to eat lots of sugar and fat and wrap up in a blanket on the couch and do nothing but watch TV for a weekend or more.
But I do want to note that both people featured did lose weight once they decided to "self-accept." It seemed like when people become more emotionally healthy, the physical baggage drops off along with the emotional.
Real self acceptance does make people healthier. But will people extrapolate the results of these studies to rationalize an unhealthy lifestyle? A lot of people who struggle with their weight do have compounding health factors that shorten their lifespan.
What do you think?
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I think when we drop the emotional baggage that causes us to overeat from stress, boredom, fear, whatever, we do lose weight. That could be what happened to these women.
Did you notice my book contest for November is posted?
The latest issue of Prevention has an article on Ali Vincent from The Biggest Loser, who lost over 100 pounds and has kept it off. Anyway, when she speaks to groups, her advice isn't about counting calories and putting in the hours on the treadmill, but on being happy with yourself and discovering the underlying reason a person is overweight. If being overweight was as simple as eating too much, hardly anyone would be fat.
In the same issue, there is a mention of a study that showed that a large percentage of people with a healthy BMI still had high triglycerides, high BP or high blood sugar, which are all risk factors for diabetes or metabolic syndrome. I think it's clear that weight is not always the first or best indicator of overall health.
For my height, the range for healthy BMI is an astonishing 40 pounds. At the higher end, for my frame and body type, I'd be overweight, but at the lower end, I'd be a stick insect with no muscle at all. And my 5 year old has a BMI in the 3rd percentile, which puts him in the underweight category, but his doctor is not concerned in the slightest.
In the end, I think being a little overweight but at peace with yourself is a lot more preferable to being skinny and miserable.
Thanks for your post. I am always self consciences of my weight and have always been. I know that being healthy is a lot more important than what the scales actually say! But hey if you love your body and you lose weight... what a great side effect!
Health is a whole package. Unhealthy people come in all weight ranges. But generally speaking, too much of anything is unhealthy.
Blast from the Past
I think that this sounded sane. All of it. It encouraged my attitude to adopt that. Me and the diet/exercise struggle go waaaay back. It would be nice to adopt a healthy attitude, as well as work more steadfastly for a healthy heart. Thanks for the encouragement!
I think this is an unbelievably interesting post. Thanks so much for it Jen. These are thoughts I've been wondering about myself lately.
Once I heard a fat woman say that her therapist told her to take the time, every day, to lovingly spread lotion over her entire body. At first she hated it because she'd been doing everything she could to avoid looking at her body, let alone to touch it. She hated the way her fat felt beneath her hands--to touch it was near unbearable.
But she found that she came to love that time. She came to love herself--ALL of herself. AND she began to lose weight.
So I'm adding these two things together in my head. And it's making sense. I know I don't love my body and that I mistreat every time I feed it junk.
I wonder how I can come to full accept myself? To truly love my body, even while it's less-than-desirable. Hmm . . .
I think people who have a great deal of weight to lose are usually hiding from another problem more which is why it is so hard to lose weight. If you watch the biggest loser, the contestants are always fighting mental blocks that they have to break through before they can have success. In that case I think your theory is dead on. On the other hand, if you are trying to get rid of those last 10 pounds of baby weight, I think you just have to put down the cookie and exercise! :)
Every year since she started school, we get a letter from the school that the Howler's BMI is too high. BMI does NOT take into consideration her bone structure, family health history, or the meds she takes that can, sometimes, cause weight gain.
I take the letter, every year, to the pede's office for her yearly physical. The conversation ends with him saying that she's "graphing overweight" but that as long as she eats healthy and stays active, there's no reason to turn food into a fight with a seven year old. (That's his response to my asking if he wants me to put a seven year old on a diet or what.)
I get that in not-too-many-years, she's going to be a teenager, and her weight IS going to be an issue, whether *I* make it one or not, but I also get that anyone who can look at her for less than 5 minutes and tell me that she's "got to" weigh less is just deranged.
It's great that everyone is trying to keep her healthy, but a more realistic set of standards might help more.
Very thought-provoking.
I know I struggle with this a lot. I think I have a great personality, I'm smart, I'm compassionate, but when it comes to how I feel about my body ... that's a whole 'nother story. I do feel that if I could come to a place where I loved my body, a lot of things in my life would change, but I don't know how to get there.
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