Why Women Lose Weight—or Don’t

to the lady who says she has a BMI other 34 and wants the doctor to fix her problem with diet pills:
please don't blame others for what you do to yourself, take responsabilities in the choices YOU make and maybe try to exercise and eat healthier instead of taking those dangerous diet pills....maybe you would feel better about youself!

I just want to reply to the lady who is talking about her BMI and the fact that the doctor would not prescribe a diet pill.
I think that it is horrible to just blame the medical field for your weight, if you have a weight problem you should try to change your life style, exercise, eat better and make a commitment to yourself to be healthier, please don't rely on diet pills and easy other way out that are really dangerous for your health...and take responsabilities for what you do to your body.

I don't think this is particularily on subject, but with obesity becoming a larger problem in America, there has been more widespread talk of developing diabetes. The thing that bothers me is that, contrary to popular belief, a person does not have to be overweight to develop diabetes, and there are two types. Type 1, which I actually have, has nothing to do with being overweight. I am 15 years old and wear a size 0 (real size 0, not like the sizes in the article) at all the stores I shop, I eat only healthy foods, and I am a dedicated ballet dancer. I did nothing wrong to cause this disease. Type 2 is the kind that is linked to obesity. It drives me absolutely crazy when people assume things about this disease, especially speakers who visit my school to discuss health. If people fear this disease, they should at least understand it first.

I don't think this is particularily on subject, but with obesity becoming a larger problem in America, there has been more widespread talk of developing diabetes. The thing that bothers me is that, contrary to popular belief, a person does not have to be overweight to develop diabetes, and there are two types. Type 1, which I actually have, has nothing to do with being overweight. I am 15 years old and wear a size 0 (real size 0, not like the sizes in the article) at all the stores I shop, I eat only healthy foods, and I am a dedicated ballet dancer. I did nothing wrong to cause this disease. Type 2 is the kind that is linked to obesity. It drives me absolutely crazy when people assume things about this disease, especially speakers who visit my school to discuss health. If people fear this disease, they should at least understand it first.

This was my response to an MSN article a while ago about real women loving themselves and now here is another article. This story was a bunch of CRAP! I'm 41 and growing up I was always the "Her face is so beautiful. She would be the prettiest one IF ONLY she was not so big" girl. You see, pretty and beautiful were associated with weight, not face, eyes, hair, or personality. I was always the guy's best friend. The one who was funny and so fun to be with, was so easy to talk to, and gave the best advice. It didn't matter if the "other girl" was buck toothed (no, a space is not sexy) knock-kneed, cross-eyed, scraggly haired or bald, flat-chested, had the personality of a kumquat, mean as a snake and treated the guy like crap. A guy wanted to be with a skinny girl. Period. I was not accepted and taught it's ok to have a little tummy. Bikini's DID NOT come in a size 12, and it???s absolutely disgusting that now you can go into any department store and buy a size 22 and 24 bikini. That is not having confidence in your body, it's ridiculous. You can be heavy and dress decently and respectfully and look beautiful, but the bottom line is, you're still fat! I have struggled with weight my whole life. People DO treat you differently. You learn to see yourself differently and to hate it. If I would have been helped and accepted when I was younger and not taught that I couldn't run, couldn't play sports and on and on, maybe I wouldn't have kept gaining and gaining until now, my health and life are in jeopardy. You see, at some point it is no longer about "do I like the way I look?" Fat is unhealthy. Period. This article made me cry. A lot of the comments here are just plain mean and ignorant - not intelligent, and definitely not worth contributing.

AHHH H*LL NO! Put some meat on 'dem bones, saddle up along side me and let me feel what a REAL woman is! Dam! 99% of it all shows us skinny heroine looking crack hoes as models. GREAT! role models for todays young ladies... Like I said, pack on some pounds and make your rounds! By the way, my GF has put on 15+ in six months and there is NO other woman like her! Eat on ladies!

In the USA it is just to easy and cheap to get food. What percentage of people are overweight in Africa?!?!?

My wife and I are middle-aged and we both weigh the same or less than we did at 22. 170 and 110 pounds. We both enjoy good food, we eat two to three meals a day and we snack when hungry. We don't pound the gym weights right now, but walk every day. We don't eat high-sugar or high-fat foods unless we're having dessert. Yes, it's all done in moderation.

Isn't that the key? You can only become overweight if food is your comfort zone 7 days a week. You become fat when food is a major interest, not to be moderated.

So health isn't about looking Hollywood slim, it's about how healthy you actually are based on regular exercise, which can be normal activities such as cleaning your house, washing your car, walking the dog, taking the stairs at work, and it's based on eating the right balance of foods within a calorie limit for your size.

My heart goes out to everyone who battles weight. Food can be a great pleasure, enjoyed every day. But it's the emotions that drive us that keep us fat. A few changes in habits and emotional outlook can be the breakthrough that makes being overweight go away for good. It can be as easy as deciding eating good food is important, and eating too much is self-destructive. And we are all too important to let obesity control our lives.

I too appreciate your closing statement, "Maybe our New Year's resolution should be to love ourselves enough to be the healthiest we can be," it is a practice I am working on myself. While learning to ???love ourselves enough to be the healthiest we can be,??? is likely to include eating better, becoming more active and ultimately improving our health; weight loss is likely to follow naturally, without our need to obsess and feelings of hopelessness that our weight goals are not met. Starving myself and or eating foods I don???t care for in the first place have only caused me to crave those things I should live without or in moderation. In addition to the recommended New Years goal in this article, I have included making myself healthy enough to get my Doctor???s approval to reduce and eventually stop taking all the medications I need to keep all the numbers he tracks at healthy levels and save a lot of money that I could be spending on cloths that make me feel pretty....

When I was a young woman I was built like the proverbial "brick house"-at under a hundred pounds I was-large perfect breasts--teeny-tiny waist, firm legs, arms, and a near perfect behind,. At age 55 I am overweight and dealing with some of the physical ramifications of obesity: diabetes, high blood preasure, etc., I'm concerned about the health risks of being fat, and am actively working to minimize them. What I find the most interesting about going from nearly "drop-dead gorgeous" to being in danger of just "dropping dead", is that I have at last come to understand that neither my sexual self-worth nor my perceived value as a human being are no longer dependent on my weight or my BMI. In fact, it's only been over the last few years that I've begun to realize that my sexual/physical desirability has a whole lot more to do with how I perceive both myself and my partner, than how I look. At age 55 I am much more confident and much more comfortable with my sexual and physical being than I was at age 25. Do I still turn heads when I walk into a room? No, at least not for the same reasons that they once did. But I find that the people who are drawn to me by the warmth, awareness sense of come self-assurance in my eyes are a much more interesting group of people than those whose gaze never got beyond my nipples.

BMI is B.S - if you lift weights and are athletic you can be classified as "overweight" and even "obese" yet have less than 10% bodyfat. It's a ridiculous and far too simple measure of healthy weight. At the end of the day what seemed to be overweight 20 years ago, is now "normal" - bottom line we are lowering our standards instead of increasing them. Fat is not attractive, not healthy, and we should stop making excuses. Because if we believe "it's ok to be fat" we teach our kids this, and in another 20yrs "obese" will be normal ... (and life expectancy will be 50yrs... ) Time to take responsibility!

BMI is B.S - if you lift weights and are athletic you can be classified as "overweight" and even "obese" yet have less than 10% bodyfat. It's a ridiculous and far too simple measure of healthy weight. At the end of the day what seemed to be overweight 20 years ago, is now "normal" - bottom line we are lowering our standards instead of increasing them. Fat is not attractive, not healthy, and we should stop making excuses. Because if we believe "it's ok to be fat" we teach our kids this, and in another 20yrs "obese" will be normal ... (and life expectancy will be 50yrs... ) Time to take responsibility!

The popular women's clothing chain, Chico's, uses sizes 0-6. If feels great to be a size 1! (Actually a 6-8 in most lines.)