Oh this is a fucking wonderful idea: an MTV reality show called Model Maker that asks women to lose up to eighty pounds in twelve weeks. Doing the math, that’s approximately seven pounds per week. The goal is, of course, to be “thin” and “beautiful” enough to be a model. (One of [...]
Filed under: Eating Disorders, Feminism, Health, Media, Personal, TV, Weight Loss | 14 Comments »
After a whole lot of OBESITY EPIDEMIC OMG!!1! in the news lately, finally we have some good news in the New York Times, where the headline reads “Better to Be Fat and Fit Than Skinny and Unfit.”
The researchers chalk it up in part to the assumptions people make when they hear the words [...]
Filed under: Advocacy, Exercise, Fat Positive, Health, Media, Personal, Science | 18 Comments »
News flash “half of overweight adults are heart-healthy” according to this new, totally shocking study:
You can look great in a swimsuit and still be a heart attack waiting to happen. And you can also be overweight and otherwise healthy. A new study suggests that a surprising number of overweight people — about half — have [...]
Filed under: Advocacy, Fat Positive, Fatism, Health, Tidbit | 25 Comments »
I’m suspicious, in general, of nutrition information provided by restaurants. The lowfat ice cream cone at McDonald’s is supposedly 150 calories, but I’ve had them hand me a cone that was piled so high with swirls that it was about to tip over, the dairy equivalent of a game of Jenga. I know full [...]
Filed under: Advocacy, Food, Health, Personal, Question | 29 Comments »
We’ve helped a 21-year-old, a 16-year-old, and a 14-year-old. Now we have a 12-year-old, and we have a tough job ahead of us. You see, she isn’t looking for body image advice. She went to the site hello i am fat (funny blog title; sad search term) because she wants to be skinny like [...]
Filed under: Advocacy, Celebrities, Health, Kids, Miley Cyrus, Personal | 30 Comments »
Phat Science has had some interesting posts this week, and I particularly wanted to talk about yesterday’s post, where La Wade looked at some of the science surrounding so-called “permanent” weight loss, and the factors that contribute to it. These factors seem to include certain dietary and exercise habits, online support, time in front of [...]
Filed under: Advocacy, Health, Science, Weight Loss | 46 Comments »
And now for the bad news. I’m posting a link to this article not to bring down the room, but to get the message out there yet again: demonizing fat and fat people is a BAD IDEA that can seriously skew our ideas about self-worth. Just ask the women who participated in the studies [...]
Filed under: Advocacy, Fatism, Feminism, Health, Kids, Media, Science, Weight Loss | 26 Comments »
Here’s the e-mail I got today (bolding mine):
I guess I don’t really know how to start this, other than I just read the blog about the 14 year old with a bad self image, and it gave me the courage to say something too. I’m 16 years old, and I am bulimic. It doesn’t matter [...]
Filed under: Advocacy, Eating Disorders, Health, Kids, Meta | 30 Comments »
Our guest post today comes from the delightful Sara, who writes in with a question for all our readers:
I am fat. I have diabetes. The two are in no way related to one another. Interesting how that works, huh? I have type 1 diabetes, so my pancreas is going to be [...]
Filed under: Advocacy, Guest Post, Health, Personal, Question, Science | 14 Comments »
Apart from times when I’ve been tracking Weight Watchers points, I haven’t really been in the habit of tracking my eating. And I found myself becoming curious about exactly what I was eating—how many calories, how many grams of protein, vitamins, etc. So I signed up for a free account on FitDay, a site [...]
Filed under: Food, Health, Meta, Personal, Science | 59 Comments »
A very interesting and sad story about eating disorders within the Orthodox Jewish community, from Jezebel. Evidently, in arranging their marriages, one of the criteria for some Jewish men is that their brides be below a size 8.
And in a move reminiscent of that Ben Stiller movie, sometimes they take the mother’s dress [...]
Filed under: Eating Disorders, Feminism, Health | 27 Comments »
big fat ad Originally uploaded by mo pie
I saw this poster in San Francisco over the weekend, put up by some public health initiative, I believe. Of course I thought of you, and snapped this picture!
The first dotted line says “STARTED GOING FOR WALKS DURING LUNCH [...]
Filed under: Advertising, Fatism, Feminism, Health, Media, Weight Loss | 87 Comments »
I keep thinking about the Mike and Juliet Show segment about fat acceptance. I keep thinking of the comments I get from people who are starting to accept that they don’t have to hate themselves, and how much that inspires me. And then I think about their segment on binge eating disorder. And [...]
Filed under: Advocacy, Eating Disorders, Health | 9 Comments »
In the world of health care, that is. We die sooner, so we cost less! Okay, so that’s not exactly a generalization that anyone around here agrees with, but hell. It’s better than “you fat people are costing me health care money and that’s why it is acceptable that I am shaming you.” [...]
Filed under: Cold Hard Cash, Health, International, Science | 19 Comments »
Okay, let’s talk about the New York Times piece. I wasn’t interviewed for the article, although I was told there might be a mention, and so I didn’t expect this blog to be featured so prominently, which was a delightful surprise when I saw the masthead in this morning’s paper. On the whole, [...]
Filed under: Advocacy, Fat Positive, Fatism, Health, Media, Meta | 88 Comments »
At the gym yesterday, I saw that the Queen Latifah commercial for Jenny Craig is out—so I figured I should follow up on my original post about the issue. There was no sound, though, so I couldn’t hear it. So I just did a quick search and came up with an interview that [...]
Filed under: Advertising, Celebrities, Cold Hard Cash, Exercise, Health, Queen Latifah, Video, Weight Loss | 18 Comments »
…or anywhere else, actually. What diet, you ask? Why, a little something called the Tapeworm Diet. Where, presumably, YOU SWALLOW A FUCKING TAPEWORM.
Now I have provided this very short and rudimentary background to helminth therapy to create the idea of “good” worms versus “bad” worms… The beef tapeworm, in addition to immunoregulatory properties, [...]
Filed under: Eating Disorders, Food, Health, Science, Weight Loss | 33 Comments »
According to Wired magazine, chewing too much gum can have a laxative effect and cause dramatic weight loss.
Given that most weight-loss drugs have a difficult time producing one-pound per week weight loss, you might think the scientists would trumpet these findings as a prelude to the newest blockbuster pharmaceutical. But sadly, the drop in pounds [...]
Filed under: Eating Disorders, Food, Health, Magazines, Tidbit | 12 Comments »
Today, Kristen brought this article to my attention, and it’s good news for those of us who believe in trying to be healthy at every size.
Taking exercise, not drinking too much alcohol, eating enough fruit and vegetables and not smoking can add up to 14 years to your life, a study says…The findings [...]
Filed under: Food, Health, International, Science | 16 Comments »
A fascinating story on NPR about exercise and the placebo effect. Researchers studied hotel maids with some pretty incredible results. Apparently, believing that you’re exercising when you’re doing everyday activities can make a real difference. Check it out:
[H]otel maids spend the majority of their days lugging heavy equipment around endless hallways. Basically, almost [...]
Filed under: Exercise, Health, Science | 9 Comments »
