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 “overweight” […]

Filed under: Advocacy, Exercise, Fat Positive, Health, Media, Personal, Science | 18 Comments »

A study released yesterday attempts to answer that important question, dividing adolescent girls into groups like “Jocks,” “Burnouts,” and “Alternatives,” and discovering that their peer groups are the most important deciding factor. From the press release: The central theme of the study is that peer groups of teenage girls best determine their attitude towards their […]

Filed under: Advocacy, Exercise, Kids, Personal, Question, Science | 44 Comments »

Or “tastants,” as they are being called in the world of science. We all know that the senses of smell and taste are linked; what I didn’t know was that the olfactory nerve is in part what governs our feeling of satiety. (Also, according to this article, people who lose their senses of smell and […]

Filed under: Food, Science, Weight Loss | 29 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 discussed […]

Filed under: Advocacy, Fatism, Feminism, Health, Kids, Media, Science, Weight Loss | 27 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 dead regardless of […]

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 that […]

Filed under: Food, Health, Meta, Personal, Science | 59 Comments »

My friend La Wade, the BFD commenter and obesity researcher you all love to debate with, has started her own blog about fat and science called Phat Science. The first few posts are chock full of interesting topics for discussion, including artificial sweeteners, yo-yo dieting, and how to decide whether or not to believe a […]

Filed under: Advocacy, Meta, Science | 15 Comments »

We all know there are people who bitch at their fat spouses for gaining weight, and gym owners who berate and shame fat people. And don’t forget random people on the street who yell things and throw garbage at the overweight and obese. In case that just isn’t motivating enough for you, we now have […]

Filed under: Fatism, Science, Weight Loss | 32 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.” Here’s the […]

Filed under: Cold Hard Cash, Health, International, Science | 19 Comments »

I loved reading this article about workout playlists. I’ve worked very hard on my playlist, which is incredibly cheesy and includes things like “Pop Goes My Heart” (Hugh Grant) and “I Think I Love You” as performed by American Idol’s Constantine. (I can’t help it; my response to that one is now Pavlovian.) I need […]

Filed under: Exercise, Movies, Music, Personal, Science | 31 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, produces […]

Filed under: Eating Disorders, Food, Health, Science, Weight Loss | 35 Comments »

Another sciency study, this time looking at a part of the brain (the left posterior amygdala, or LPA as I like to call it) that registers fullness. Scientists found that the higher the subject’s BMI, the less active the LPA was. Hopefully you can look past the headline and enjoy the science part: Each study […]

Filed under: Food, Science | 21 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 held […]

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 every […]

Filed under: Exercise, Health, Science | 9 Comments »

Melinda sends along this nicely depressing news: fat people are screwed when it comes to organ transplants. Segev’s group found the wait to get a transplant increased along with the patient’s body mass index, a height-weight formula. Non-obese patients waited on average 39 months, the overweight waited 40 months, the obese waited 42 months, and […]

Filed under: Fatism, Health, Science, The Office | 30 Comments »

If there’s one universal problem plaguing women today, it’s that we all feel terribly guilty about one thing. That thing, of course, is our lip gloss. Can I get an amen? In a list of hypothetical resolutions posted at Sephora, one is (big surprise) “I Will Lose Weight.” The tie-in product to this resolution is, […]

Filed under: Advertising, Fashion, Feminism, Humor, Science, Weight Loss | 19 Comments »

This New York Times article by Gina Kolata talks about the impossibility of counting calories burned while exercising. Despite the displays on machines at gyms, with their precise-looking calorie counts, and despite the official-looking published charts of exercise and calories, it can be all but impossible to accurately estimate of the number of calories you […]

Filed under: Exercise, Health, Science, Weight Loss | 13 Comments »

Sorry for the missing posts this week! I’ve been working around the clock at both of my jobs, and the lack of sleep has given me a horrible cold. I’ve spent the last few days doped up on cold medicine, sleepy and confused. Fortunately, we’ve got BFDiva Becky to pick up some of my slack. […]

Filed under: Feminism, Health, Kids, Magazines, Personal, Science, Weight Loss | 12 Comments »

The fancy new redisigned The F-Word has an interview up today with Gina Kolata, author of Rethinking Thin. In Rethinking Thin, you contend that the diet industry often only succeeds in fattening the pocketbooks of a multi-billion dieting industry, while hopeful dieters lose only money. Why then do so many Americans continue to buy in […]

Filed under: Advocacy, Books, Meta, Science | 3 Comments »

Feeling like you don’t fit into the social norms for weight (meaning that you feel too fat or too skinny) can cause stress and depression, according to a new study discussed here. If I’m reading this correctly, it’s not based on whether you are, in fact, too fat or too thin, but whether you perceive […]

Filed under: International, Science | 7 Comments »

This obesity map of the United States is currently under discussion at The Usual Suspects. The interesting thing is that, according to the map’s data, obesity in America has sharply increased since 2004. As Beth points out: “What in the hell is going on? That’s not just fast food and television; those things have been […]

Filed under: Media, Question, Science | 13 Comments »

Oops. I got married before I read this article, reinforcing the old adage that people who get married gain weight. (At least men gain more than women, for a change.) Women in their teens and early 20s who continued to date but didn’t cohabitate gained an average of 15 pounds over five years; their male […]

Filed under: Food, Science | 22 Comments »

I’ve noticed that the BFD readers I know who have lost a lot of weight without surgery (such as Pasta Queen) and kept it off have done it on the South Beach diet. Passed along by Kari, this New York Times article reviews the new book Good Calories, Bad Calories, theorizing that carbs, not fat, […]

Filed under: Food, Health, Science, Weight Loss | 34 Comments »

If you read Junkfood Science, you might be interested in the conversation going on in the comments starting here. I’ve been waiting for Sandy to come back and respond, but so far, she hasn’t. The National Post also recently wrote: There are those who have found their life’s calling in catering to delusional overweight people, […]

Filed under: Health, Meta, Question, Science | 49 Comments »