is being skinny worth it?

I never eat food I don't like. I love how I feel after a workout (and it's great girl time when I go with friends). And I like being thin. And I'm happier thin than crying and feeling angry when I hate how clothing fits me. I'm unhappy being fat.

I can't tell you if it's worth it to you. It is worth it to me.

I'll never be skinny, it's absolutely not in my genetics. I'd have to be very, very ill to be skinny and I hope that doesn't happen! But I can be strong and healthy, free from joint pain, and reduce my risk of certain diseases. And I can feel good in my clothes and happy with my own body shape, at its best.

I suppose it's a matter of perspective.

There is a lot of pressure to be skinny *at any cost* (this last is the most critical part). Culturally, war has been declared on the obese, funded by chemical companies that make drugs to make you skinny and companies that sell surgery to make you skinny. Most of the "diseases" associated with obesity are correlational at best, and there is absolutely NO PROOF that they are causal, as skinny people also get diabetes, heart disease, and arthritis.

It's like suggesting that just because there is more ice cream sold in July, and there are more murders than any other month in July, that ice cream causes murder.

Tall people take up more room on an airplane than short people, but you don't see tall people being charged for an extra seat or being told that they could be shorter if they just tried harder by their doctors.

Standard weight loss programs have a five percent success rate over the five year period; if we proscribed birth control that only worked five per cent of the time, it would be yanked off the market.

The thinness of models is unobtainable by approximately ninety seven per cent of the population.

Photographs are retouched to take out wrinkles, remove wrinkles in fabric, and yes, to add flesh back into models so you can't see their ribs (go ahead and Google it... I'll wait).

In that sense? No. It's not worth it.

The cure for social stigma is, to quote Ragen Chastain (danceswithfat.wordpress.org), not to lose weight, it's to end social stigma. Many of the so called obesity diseases are also correlated with being under huge amounts of emotional stress.

When you consider the general failure rate of "dieting", and the cultural pressure to be thin, AND the increasing tendency for "food" to be processed to within an inch of its life (given that most grains and legumes are toxic in their natural forms, a lot of processing is involved to make flour, never mind the increasing use of cornstarch and corn sweeteners), you have to rethink the whole thing.

There is an increasing cultural movement towards a concept called "health at every size". Google Linda Bacon and do a bit of reading. Take as your markers your bloodwork, your general ability to perform daily tasks, your flexibility, your energy levels, and focus less on what the scale says or whether or not you are a single digit size.

Eating healthy is not about starvation. It's not about forbidding any given food group (although the definition of food does have to be altered somewhat to exclude most of the processed things that are called food these days).

It's about becoming aware of what your body - your particular body - needs to eat and when it wants to eat, and how much it would like to eat to feel satiated and healthy. That means being aware of your body and aware of how food makes you feel.

Given that most of us no longer live below our necks, this might feel a little strange. Many of us are spending more time trying to rebuild our relationship with food and learning not to hate food and see it as the enemy than we are trying to get skinny.

Given the huge cultural stigma certain foods have as fattening, it can be hard to accept that maybe you want a two egg omelet for breakfast with four ounces of cheese and a slice of cooked ham because that's what your body is craving instead of a bowl of Special K (which is processed wheat and cornstarch and mostly empty calories with no nutritional value) and two cups of cow's milk (which is designed to feed baby cows, and may not be so good for some people). If, like me, you loathe Special K with a special burning passion because you think it tastes like wood paste, then sure, being told you have to eat it to be "skinny" is a hardship. But if skinny isn't the goal, then you can make the choices you need to be happy, and maybe a little healthier.

Does it mean I can never have a slice of fruitcake at the holidays ever again? No. But it DOES mean that I have to have that slice and not the whole fruitcake, and be a little more mindful of what goes in my mouth.

Most processed food tastes good because it's DESIGNED to, and giving it up can feel like you're being denied everything good about living in the Western world. But most of that is marketing hyperbole.

Potatoes are not the enemy. Food that is food has a built in break point. You can't eat seventy baked potatoes a day or a hundred apples a day because your body will tell you enough.

But you can eat the equivalent amount of calories in chocolate or potato chips or Booster Juice in a day because the foods that are processed hit the sugar -sweet - fat brain receptors that say more-more-MORE and sort of bypass our body's "I'm full" response. "Betcha can't eat just one" is more than a marketing ploy, it's a planned design model.

Exercise is another thing that we've lost our sense of attachment to. Culturally, exercise is punishment for not starving ourselves appropriately. It is work, and an inconvenience, and a penance paid for too much enjoyment of food and of life in general. We have sedentary jobs, and so we fell guilt that must be expiated through exercising.

Physical activity should be fun. Most people don't "need" more than a half an hour or so of moderate physical activity a day to maintain a reasonable level of health.

There is no need or expectation to kill yourself at the gym to be healthy. I walk forty minutes a day - twenty minutes to work and twenty minutes back. The expectation that fat people need to work out to be healthy is a cultural meme tied into the whole shame issue about fat people not deserving to exist.

If you enjoy lifting weights, then do that. If you enjoy Zumba, then do that. If you enjoy chasing your neighbor's kid around the park and playing Frisbee, then do that. Google 23 1/2 hours a day - it's a great video that talks about the half hour a day activity model.

Some physical activity is better than none. But doing something you hate to do just because you feel you should be doing it to be skinny is a recipe for failure.

You will not sustain something that inconveniences you, that you don't enjoy, and that you resent. It' more important to find something you like, and if that's Dance Central instead of Pilates or skipping instead of heavy lifting, then do it. Weight loss is more about food choices than exercise anyway.

Is being "skinny" worth it? No. There is no **guarantee** that being skinny will allow you to live forever, nor that it means you will never get diabetes, or arthritis, or have a heart attack, or even that it will reduce your odds of getting any of them, because there are so many environmental and hereditary factors involved.. Let me say that again, there is NO GUARANTEE that being skinny does a DAMN THING for ANY of the so called "obesity caused" diseases. (This is because nobody understands basic statistics any more and confuses correlation with causation.)

Is being healthy and getting off the diet bandwagon and out of the cycle of shame, anger and self-loathing that is perpetuated by our culture worth relearning my relationship with food and redefining health as something that isn't a pant size but involves me being an active and aware passenger in my body and making choices deliberately about food and about participating in activity I enjoy?

Yep. THAT is worth it. For me.

Your mileage may vary.

=Betty=

I *was* skinny in my youth and young adult years. At 5'5, 125#s, I could rock some tight jeans. Two children and too much pregnancy indulgence packed on an extra 100#s I have the advantage of knowing what life was like before I gained this weight. I was active in many ways. Depression, bad marriage and self-loathing took over the last 15yrs. Hopelessness replaced day-dreaming about my next adventure. It wasn't until my lower back screamed "enough already!" that I took a hard look in the mirror and realized how this weight really affected my quality of life. It's not just the vanity motivating me, or the notion that I'm socially unacceptable now. It's also about the life I once had.

My ex-hubby hated my weight gain and tortured me mentally about it until I left. My kids are almost grown and I have NEVER taken them to the local water park due to shame. They begged me, and I'd make them ask their dad. Trips to the beach, gone. Confidently meeting new people, gone. Dating, gone. Horseback riding, gone. Dancing all night, gone. I could go on forever about things that I enjoyed once becoming a distant memory. I don't know how I got this far without slamming on the brakes. What I do know, is I will continue to careen towards the cliff (diabetes, heart attack, stroke) unless I climb behind the wheel and drive!!!

Tell ya something else. I wasn't necessarily "happy" when I WAS skinny. I sought out dysfunctional relationships, and had confidence - but no self-esteem. So dropping weight won't make the world right either if you don't have your head straight. Skinny might be nice, but I would take PAIN FREE MOBILITY over skinny any day now! I count calories and try to eat healthy, but I don't give up things I like. I reward myself with them now. If I could go back in time 10-20yrs, I would NEVER had let myself get to this point!! My spine is falling apart on me overnight, because of the yrs of abuse it took. Every pound I lose helps.

It's a shame society in general discriminates against the obese, but that's just a fact of life. I won't say it doesn't hurt sometimes, when you see that look on someone's face and know what they're silently thinking, or ask when you're "due" - but I don't live life for others anymore. I desire my health more than vanity.

i think it's worth it. i want to be skinny so bad. and your right, it is the medias fault, along with society. and unfortunately for girls like myself, media and society has engraved the image of skinny in my mind. and makes me think that everything is worth it.

Exercise should be fun, food should be delicious and life is for living! It is possible to enjoy your meals and your workouts and still reach your goals.

The real question is eating junk and feeling terrible all the time worth it? After eating clean for as little as three weeks, I think you will find that the old junk foods you used to love have some how turned disgusting. We are omnivores, we can change up our pallets with relative ease.

I am not dong this to be skinny, I am doing this to be healthy and improve my quality of life. I want to enjoy all the fun things with my kids, grand kids and friends that being over weight prevents me from doing.. I am enjoying challenging my body and seeing what it is capable of. I never think of my exercise regimen as something I don't really want to do. I like the way it makes me feel.

I don't want to be skinny. I want to be healthier and for me that does mean losing weight but it's about being healthy and having muscle tone and a lower blood pressure and better insulin resistance not so much about being skinny. So for me, most days, it is worth it because I've found healthy foods I like, I'm learning which unhealthy ones I can do without, and I like being active.

There are plenty of people who are skinny but not very healthy and for them they may not need to lose weight but they could benefit from dietary changes and exercising as well.

Being skinny isn't worth jack. Being fit and healthy, however, is.

really, is it worth all the time and effort that women put into eating foods they don't really love, exercising when they'd rather not

I DON'T eat food I don't love or like. No celery sticks for me.
As for exercising I do that because it makes me feel better. I have a desk job and spend sitting on my butt 10 hours a day. A little bit of exercising after work is something that I look forward to.

I got obese because I had exactly same mind set: getting "skinny" means I have to suffer through food I don't like and exercise when I don't want to.

Guess what? It does not have to be that way.