Dieting & Weight Loss

Working in a female-dominated environment has its drawbacks. One of these is the ongoing obsession with diets and weight loss among the majority of women I encounter.

Perhaps due to the fact that I have always been ‘overweight’ (i.e. weighing more than the ‘recommended weight for height’ set by the Department of Health), I consider my weight and dress size, and my eating habits and exercise regime to be my own personal business and not fair game for communal discussion among my colleagues. I also personally believe that I am very attractive and would rather have my curvy figure than look like an ironing board. Unfortunately, said colleagues, plus various other acquaintances, seem to think differently. Most of the time I can ignore the comments, looks and hidden or sometimes quite open judgements. However, there are times when I want to shout, “I am not a bad person!”

Whereas I have experienced a great deal of prejudice in the past related to both my lesbianism and size, recently I have found that most people are careful with their comments or judgements on my sexuality. If only they were as considerate when it comes to their sizeist attitudes. Homophobia and fatphobia can be seen in a similar light. They are both prejudicial beliefs founded on a fear of what is different, coupled with a fear that it may be all-to-similar. There is the common mis-perception that if one doesn’t attack someone for being fat (or gay), then one’s own dubious eating habits (or sexuality) will be brought into question.

Apart from the fact that it is none of their business, this negative attitude towards a fat person is based mainly on fallacy and misinformation. There are many reasons given for equating ‘fat’ with ‘bad’, but the two I will focus on in this article are image and health.

Lesbians have in previous decades been less affected by the public image of sexiness than have heterosexual women (and have generally been portrayed as ‘can’t-get-a-man’ ugly and/or fat). With the rise of media interest in ‘lesbian image’, we are now beginning to fall prey to the obsession with conventional attractiveness as have many of our unfortunate high-heeled sisters. We are also equally as likely to be fat as anyone else living in the modern Western world.

Fatness is equated with laziness and unsexiness in the viewpoint of the general public. However this has not always been the case. For thousands of years humans worshipped fertility goddesses whose images are portrayed as hugely beautifully fat, often pregnant and with large dangling breasts. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, a ‘bum-roll’ was fashionable. This is a folded up piece of material worn around the waist under the skirt to give the appearance of a large bottom.

When thinness is associated with starvation and poverty, a fat woman is a symbol of wealth and luxury. Even as little as fifty years ago, in post-war Britain, models and film stars had large hips and curvy figures which now would be seen as a problem in achieving public fame and acclaim. I am proud of my ‘Rubinesque’ figure and orange-peel skin which in previous centuries have been equated with health and vitality.

Given that fashion, image and what is considered ‘sexy’ changes so drastically within and between cultures, fixating on weight/size is as useless as attempting to change your height or eye-colour based on what is the current vogue. It is also much more unhealthy, physically and mentally, to obsess about your weight than it is to change your hairstyle in line with fashion. Therefore, the current fashion for thinness is more insidious and more dangerous than other fads may be. People are, quite literally, dying to be thin.

To move on to the ‘health’ aspect of being fat, research has shown that carrying excess fat is linked with heart disease, diabetes and various other problems. However, what is considered to be ‘excess’ fat and the distribution of this fat is in debate.

Humans need a certain amount of body fat, and without this fat we would have a whole host of health problems including circulatory and skin disorders. We have evolved to store and use our body fat efficiently. There is also a significant difference between men and women in the amount of body fat that is naturally necessary. If women drop below 20% body fat then they will experience fertility problems and will age more rapidly than their ‘fat’ friends. If they were eating the fat then they wouldn’t need to rub it over their faces to look younger.

Previously a person has been regarded as clinically overweight or obese based on their BMI (Body Mass Index). The BMI is a fundamentally flawed score devised by dividing your weight in kilograms by your height in metres squared. The ‘weight for height’ charts that you may see in doctors’ surgeries are based on the BMI and many professionals in the medical services and ‘diet industry’ still swear by it. However, the BMI does not take into account significant factors:

• Muscle weighs more than fat – a fit athlete may have a high BMI and thus be ‘clinically obese’ without actually carrying excess body fat;
• Distribution of weight – two people with the same BMI may differ in the distribution of their fat and thus the threat this fat causes to their health.

If you carry fat mainly around your waist (‘apple’ figure), you are more likely to develop health problems than if you carry fat mainly on your hips, bottom and thighs (‘pear’ figure). This is true even if your BMI falls within the normal range. Indications are that fat laid down from sugar consumption is carried at the waist – beer bellies are caused by the sugar in the beer. A build up of a particular type of fat around the bowel called visceral fat has been linked to diabetes.

An accurate measurement of a person’s visceral fat and health status can only be gauged using specialist equipment, but measuring waist circumference is a more reliable approximation than the BMI. Even this, though, is still an approximation and does not take into account the differences between women who have had a pregnancy and those who have not. The media-fuelled vogue forcing a woman to ‘regain her figure’ following childbirth is ridiculous, impractical and anti-motherhood. A woman should be allowed to take pride in the belly that comes with being a mother.

It can be shown that diets don’t work. When you lose weight initially this is due to the ‘starvation’ factor of your body using up stores. However soon the rate of weight loss drops off because your body is conserving its energy and working efficiently, which includes lowering the metabolism. Then when you come off the diet (which you will inevitably do as a ‘diet’ is always seen as temporary) you go back to eating ‘normally’ i.e. unhealthily. At this point, your body begins to lay down huge stores for future starvation. Thus the ‘yo-yo’ diet will make you fatter in the long-run and it is also extremely unhealthy because your body is constantly under the strain of starving/overeating.

In the modern world we exercise little compared to the vast majority of our ancestors for whom exercise was a normal part of the daily routine. They had no need for the gym, they walked long distances and their paid and unpaid work was mainly physical labour. It would be difficult to go back to this gruelling lifestyle (and few would want to) but there are things we can do to increase our levels of physical work. However, it must be remembered that it is entirely possible to be fit and fat, and also conversely quite possible to be unfit and thin. The way you look is not necessarily an indicator of how healthy you are.

Whereas a strenuous exercise regime will keep you toned, if you embark on high-impact exercise after years of little exercise, you are likely to cause an injury which is more unhealthy in the long-run. Also, training takes a lot of commitment and many people drop off after a while and go back to their old habits. Doing something gentle and increasing just a bit every day is better for your body and your self-esteem. The best way to be healthy is to make your normal eating and exercising pattern a healthy one.

There is much confusion about what is healthy and unhealthy food. For instance, my colleagues might refer to a packet of sweets as ‘good for you’ because they have less than 200 calories, but can’t possibly eat a bag of nuts containing the same calories because nuts are ‘full of fat’. In fact, where sweets are highly processed sugar, nuts have been eaten by humans and pre-humans for millions of years and we have evolved to digest the balanced nutrition that they offer. Plus you will feel full if you’ve eaten nuts whereas sweets will make you feel hungry.

Food that is marketed as ‘diet food’ is not necessarily more healthy than ordinary, unprocessed food, and in fact is often unhealthy because of the additives and imbalances it contains. The diet industry has an investment in keeping people buying their food. Dieting is a social construct designed to keep women oppressed and distract us from the real issues facing our lives, simultaneously milking us as consumers and tying us to a dictated regimen.

Finally: it is your choice what you eat, not anyone else’s. It is perfectly natural for women to carry fat on their hips, thighs and bottoms, the internal fat wrapped around the organs is the dangerous fat, and this includes people who look thin. The stress of worrying how you look is more unhealthy than being slightly ‘overweight’. So relax, take a gentle walk and eat more nuts!

Josie Henley-Einion (Velvet Issue 9, Aug 2006)