Body image

[Louise Pembroke]

Young men are more drawn into the fitness/6-pack 'ideal' rather than being skeletal, steroid use is on the up as a consequence.
I would agree that the sexualisation of young people encourages the desire to look androgynous and the US 'pageants' of sexualised 6 year olds is truly obscene.
Many women know they are underweight but aspire to it because that is what is valued. Youngsters might not be aware because it can be seen as the norm.
That's good to hear about the Royal because they have a terrible history in their school. Everyone I've met of my generation who went there have awful stories to tell, like 15 yrs being humilated in class with questions like, 'are you pregnant?'

[Anne B]

John Lewis have started using size 12 models for there swimwear, I found this out while doing my ironing eating a cake watching this morning.
My nine year old thinks i am fat, i am a size 12!!!!
One of the problems is everywhere you go or when you put on TV its about what you should eat and what you shouldn't and image, people having make overs to look 10 years younger i find it all really boring!!

[Louise Pembroke]

Yay for John Lewis! That's fab to hear, and I especially like the fact that you were eating cake at the time Anne
Oh god yes those drastic make-overs with masses of surgery, it's like we are not allowed to get old. Yet in parts of Africa women with pendulous breasts are viewed as beautiful and older women are revered

[Lesley Foster]

I did write a reply to this last night but the compute crashed as I was about to send it and now I can't remember what I'd written

Anyway, I am overweight, I go Slimming World where I get weighed once a week, I am not humiliated if I put weight on and I am given lots of support by the others there. I eat a sensible diet and exercise regularly thanks to the dog needing walkies at least twice a day. I am happy being me and if people don't like it that's their problem The only reason I joined the slimming club was because my health was becoming affected by my weight gain and I couldn't do it on my own.

In the past I have tried most diets including food replacement diets such as the Cambridge and Slim Fast. The problem was that when I had lost the weight and stopped the diet the weight would return rapidly plus extra. It also caused medical problems as well.

These days I am, according to all the bumpf, obese but I am never going to be the size I was when I got married 28 years ago, I've had two children since then and it does take it's toll. What these charts and tables don't seem to take into consideration is the effect aging has on the body and in women the effects pregnany has.

It seems to me that fashion models just follow like sheep, they don't have a braincell between them to disagree about their size zero figures, they always look so b****y miserable, the only hunger they suffer from is for the obscene amounts of money they earn and to cap it all they look awful in the clothes because they are just skin and bone.

I'm glad I have two boys because I wouldn't have the patience to cope with teenage girls wanting to look like their 'heroines'. My sympathies go out to those parents with daughters I hope they can maje them see reason.

That's my rant over, thanks for listening

Lesley

[GarethB]

What annoys me is there is nothing for weight gain.

Until 2004 I was always underweight despite eating a balanced diet and on 3 occassions I have been sent to Annorexic treatment centres to have my every move watched. My experience of these places is they do not tackle the route cause of why people feel they have a problem with their body. Certainly did nothing to find why I was so thin which came down to a genetic problem in that lack the enzymes to produce body fat which is now treated.

My wife is on a diet, becuase she hates the puppy fat she has. She is not over weight, but would like better tone around the tummy area. She is in the correct region for BMI, she will never be a size 12 because she is 6ft tall. Anything less than 14 she would look ill.

[Louise Pembroke]

Diet clubs can be very supportive but the wider diet industry can be so unhealthy promoting low calorie or unbalanced diets. Then there's all the pills and sachets, that's what I'm against. You're absolutely right Lesley, ageing and pregnancy is not taken into account and the celebs have their tummy tuck and personal trainers and nannies whilst back in the real world mothers don't have the time or money for all that. I also hate the celebrity race to get post pregnancy weight off asap like a badge of honour.
Sadly Gareth Eating Disorder Units offer nothing irrespective of whether you are there for 'anorexia', 'bulimia' or 'compulsive eating'. Whether you are underweight or overweight they do more damage than help. I'm very sorry you were sent to them, they should have properly investigated you before deciding it was psychological. As for your wife, if she were a model, she would be required by designers and agencies to be a 10 and noone would object to an 8 which is deplorable I know.

[Lesley Foster]

I watched Richard and Judy today, they were talking to the woman from John Lewis about their decision to use size 12 models from now on, what shocked me was that when they, John Lewis, were looking at modelling agencies for models who were size 12 the woman said they were directed to the agencies for the larger sizes.

Per...lease since when has size 12 been extra large, that would make me at a comfortable size 18 elephantine!

Personally I favour the sea food diet - see food and eat it Oh and cheese, chocolate and chips not necessarily in that order and in moderation

Lesley.

[Louise Pembroke]

Jesus that says it all!!
I favour Vics lemon fairy cake diet because her recipe contains 4 lemons so that fits with the recommended up to 5 pieces of fruit/veg per day, the buttercream/icing is gorgeous!! I also couldn't live without chocolate!

[GarethB]

Louise,

If my were a model it would be for the Dove adverts which atleast have a campeign for real women going away from such thin models.

At work we have a placement studen from Nigeria and he made us laugh when he said the model in the picture would not last 5 minutes back home.

[Matthew_]

Well you know what they say, if you don't drink, don't eat chocolate etc...Its not that you live longer. It just feels like it.