I am fully aware that this blog is generally dedicated to discussing topics relevant to obesity prevention and management. Readers may therefore be surprised to see that today’s post deals with anorexia.

However, regular readers will probably recall previous posts on this topic and on how the problem of eating disorders in general can be promoted by ridiculous beauty ideals promoted by the media and the fashion and beauty industry in particular (see Dr Eyecandy for more on this topic).

Recently, one fashion designer has been caught promoting particularly ridiculously photoshopped advertisements to promote his ware. A widespread outcry resulted in retraction and apologies, but several other photoshopped images from the same designer remain in use.

As a result, Darryl Roberts, the producer and director of America the Beautiful, an award-winning documentary on fashion-dictated beauty ideals, has called for a boycott on Ralph Lauren that is receiving worldwide attention.

The declared goal is to have at least 10,000 registered fans on a facebook group specifically started to demonstrate the massive support for this call by the end of this week!

I encourage all readers to visit the facebook site and join the call by clicking here: ATB Action Network Boycott of Ralph Lauren

Please make sure you invite your friends to do the same!

AMS
Edmonton, Alberta

November 9, 2009 marked the 20th Anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Born in Berlin, for years I we lived a few 100 metres from it, my kids played in its shadow, we biked along its perimeter, when visitors came, we took them to the outlook point to stare at life in the communist bloc.

The night the wall came down, we left our sleeping kids at home (no, we were definitely not “helicopter” parents) and rushed to see for ourselves the happy, weeping, incredulous faces of “Easterners” as they crossed over to step on “Western” soil for the first time in their lives.

For a description of what my daughter recalls of that day and what she writes about the city she loves, visit her blog Dr. Eyecandy, where she normally writes about peoples’ obsession with body weight, body image, and fashion-dictated body ideas - a must read for anyone working with weight-concerned clients (whether or not the excess weight is real or imagined).

I can only encourage all my readers to subscribe to her blog for a completely different take on obesity, its causes and consequences. (To follow Dr Eyecandy on FaceBook click here).

I believe that Dr. Eyecandy’s work is an important attempt at breaking down the walls between the “obesity” and “eating disorder” communities - two groups that should be talking to each other far more than they do.

Befittingly, given the Anniversary, I happen to be in Leipzig (former East Germany), renowned for being the location where the famous Monday demonstrations started, which led to the peaceful revolution of 1989 and ended with the fall of the Berlin Wall. 

In Leipzig, I am meeting with colleagues at Leipzig University’s bariatric centre, one of the largest academic obesity centres in Germany, where I am being hosted by my friend and colleague Matthias Blüher - well known for his work on insulin resistance and adipose tissue biology. The Leipzig group is also a major player in the German Obesity Competence Network.

Since the fall of the wall, obesity has become particularly rampant in the former “East” - interestingly affecting kids and young adults, who were not even born when the wall was still around.

An interesting sociological experiment and conundrum if I ever saw one.

AMS
Leipzig, Germany

For most people, dissatisfaction with their current weight is the biggest motivator to lose weight. This dissatisfaction is a direct function of an individual’s concept of what constitutes ideal weight. Thus a change in the perception of ideal weight, and thus in weight satisfaction, is likely associated with a change in weight-loss practices.

This notion is very much in line with a recent finding by Jennifer Kuk (CON Bootcamper!) and colleagues from Toronto’s York University, just published in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

Kuk and colleagues examined the relationship between self-declared ideal weight, body weight satisfaction and health practices among 15,221 men and 4,126 women in the 1987 and 2001 participants of the Dallas Cooper Clinic Aerobics Center Longitudinal Study.

Interestingly, participants in 1987 reported higher ideal weights than participants in 2001, an effect particularly pronounced from 1987 to 2001 for younger and obese men (85.5 kg to 94.9 kg) and women (62.2 kg to 70.5 kg).

Perhaps not unexpectedly, for a given body mass index, higher ideal body weights were associated with greater weight satisfaction but lower intentions to lose weight.

Body weight satisfaction was also associated with greater walking/jogging, better diet, and lower lifetime weight loss but with less intention to change physical activity and diet or lose weight.

In contrast, BMI was negatively associated with weight satisfaction and was associated with less walking/jogging, poorer diet, and greater lifetime weight loss but with greater intention to change physical activity and diet or lose weight.

Thus increased weight satisfaction, in conjunction with increases in societal overweight/obesity, may decrease motivation to lose weight and/or adopt healthier lifestyle behaviors.

On the other hand, as argued before, weight satisfaction may also be protective against weight cycling and negative psychological effects, which may well be as, if not more, troubling than carrying a few extra pounds.

It will clearly be of interest to determine where exactly the psychological benefits of weight satisfaction and failure to adopt a healthier lifestyle cancel each other out.

AMS
Edmonton, Alberta

Regular readers of these pages know that I rarely mention personal stuff on this blog. Today is an exception, as I would like to plug my daughter Linnie’s new blog, which I am sure many of you may find of interest (some of you may actually have suffered through her Pilates sessions at the recent Obesity Summit).

Linnie’s blog, which she calls “Don’t Reduce me to Eye Candy” (or Dr Eye Candy for short) is about peoples’ obsession with beauty and body shape. Growing up with a dad, who deals with obesity as a profession, it is not totally unexpected that Linnie has her own thoughts and ideas on this topic.

Of course, having a degree in Communication Studies from McMaster University (Hamilton) and a diploma in Marketing Management from Humber College (Toronto), means that she’s actually learnt how to bring a point across. As her dad, of course, I am convinced that she’s got enough natural talent and insights to make her mark - but, then again, I am just the dad - so go ahead and read for yourself…

AMS
Edmonton, Alberta

This story is almost not worth posting on given the media attention it received across Canada. And yet, as I was widely quoted on this, I feel obliged to bring it up.

As Canadian readers probably know by now, there is a new French-Canadian group called MEGARS (a French acronym for “elegant male who enjoys social recognition”) launched by Daniel Lafond and François Provost (two elegant big guys who obviously enjoy social recognition) to promote self-esteem and ensure that large, “overweight” men live their lives to the fullest. They coined the term “megasexual” as an oversized analogy to “metrosexual” - I guess it’s what some women out there apparently do find attractive.

I was quoted as saying,

“There’s no question that many people who are obese have self-esteem issues. A lot of the bias and discrimination that obese people face in their daily lives makes living in a large body quite difficult.
(on the other hand) This does not mean that when you are large and have significant medical problems related to your size, you don’t worry about your size and just take tablets to treat no matter what complication you have.“

Just to rule out any misunderstanding, I’d like to reemphasize my take on this – yes, you certainly can be big AND healthy (in our Edmonton Obesity Staging System, we call this Stage 0 Obesity).

If you happen to be big and REALLY have no health issues whatsoever, there is certainly nothing to stop you from having fun and living your life to the fullest – don’t let poor self-esteem stop you. In fact, if it is only your poor self-esteem that makes you worry about your weight – get over it – you don’t have a weight problem, you have a body-image problem!

On the other hand, even Lafond and Provost agree that they are not out to promote obesity. Provost is quoted as saying:

“Surely, if someone has excess weight to the point it’s unhealthy, something has to be done about it.“

It all comes down to the simple fact: don’t judge someone’s health (or lifestyle) by their weight.

If your weight is not affecting your health or well-being – eat healthy, be active and please don’t smoke – losing a few pounds (or obsessing about losing them) is unlikely to make you much healthier.

Unfortunately, however, many of the risk factors associated with excess weight (especially in men with big waistlines) are “silent”, i.e. unless you actually regularly do the measurements, you may not know that your blood pressure or blood cholesterol and glucose levels are not where they should be.

If all’s fine, then that’s great!

If not, perhaps treating your obesity may be a good idea – after all there is nothing sexy or elegant about getting a stroke, heart attack or even just erectile dysfunction.

AMS
Edmonton, Alberta