Deanna Ibbitson: Achieving a healthy body image and weight

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      Recently, I joined Pinterest, a pinboard-style social photo-sharing website. Populated mostly by women, common shares include cupcake recipes, fashion, crafts, fitness tips, inspiring quotes, and images of cute animals. However, despite the site’s overall positive feel, there is one reoccurring theme that strikes me, as both a woman and a nutritionist, as unsettling. This theme includes photos of very toned women with unnaturally low body fat percentages with captions such as: “I want these abs!” and “Perfection!” Amongst these photos are inspirational quotes such as, “Nothing tastes as good as strong feels.”

      What this tells me is that women are shifting from viewing the super skinny runway model as the ideal to the muscular, six-pack-laden, fat-free woman. Although this new ideal is a slight improvement over the old, as it encourages women to be physically active, it is still superficial and unattainable for most women. A female body is supposed to have fat on it. The range of body fat associated with optimal health in women is 21 to 35 percent. Even at the low end of this range, a women will not have a six pack, no matter how strong her abs are. In contrast, a healthy body fat range for men is eight to 24 percent. If a man is at the low end of this range, he will likely have a six-pack.

      Restrictive dieting and striving to achieve a low body fat percentage can lead to serious health problems in women including eating disorders, amenorrhea (lack of menstruation), reproductive problems, low bone density, increased risk of bone fractures and osteoporosis, a slowed metabolism, and a lower body temperature. In fact, research shows that being five pounds underweight is more dangerous than being 75 pounds overweight and that up to 95 percent of people who diet regain their weight lost, and sometimes even more, within three years.

      This research is the foundation of the Healthy at Every Size (HAES) principles supported by many health researchers and professionals. These principles include:

      1. Accepting and respecting the diversity of body shapes and sizes.

      2. Recognizing that health and well-being are multi-dimensional and that they include physical, social, spiritual, occupational, emotional, and intellectual aspects.

      3. Promoting all aspects of health and well-being for people of all sizes.

      4. Promoting eating in a manner that balances individual nutritional needs, hunger, satiety, appetite, and pleasure.

      5. Promoting individually appropriate, enjoyable, life-enhancing physical activity, rather than exercise that is focused on a goal of weight loss.

      I hope that women will begin to understand that “Nothing tastes as good as strong feels” is a backwards message. If she wants to be strong, she needs to eat. If a woman follows a healthy eating program with adequate calories and nutrients and exercises regularly, her body will naturally settle at the weight it is supposed to be.

      Deanna Ibbitson holds a master of science degree in human nutrition from the University of British Columbia. She posts nutrition articles and healthy recipes at dinutrition.com.

      Comments

      4 Comments

      SusanP

      Mar 9, 2012 at 1:47pm

      Thank you! Finally a well articulated article that has an important message (and opinion) that is backed up by solid research.

      J-Ray

      Mar 9, 2012 at 2:14pm

      I agree with you! I've noticed the same thing there. How about starting a board of healthy body images?

      Alyssa

      Mar 14, 2012 at 10:23am

      I definitely agree with this!

      Arielle Colon

      May 31, 2012 at 4:11pm

      This is great!!! I love that you're promoting a healthy body image as well as a healthy lifestyle.