Dieting And Fitness Routines That Can Help Me Lose Weight

Jessica began struggling with her mental health and how she viewed her body in seventh grade, the year she made an account on the popular social media site, Instagram. Jessica’s world started to change as she spent more time online viewing the mirages of perfect lives. Everyday, she consumed edited “thinspiration” photos, and with each passing day Jessica felt more insecure about how her body measured up. She became intoxicated in the world that was social media and obsessed over popular Instagram models (people who earn endorsements on the site and advance their modeling career through Instagram). Instagram was once a fun way to interact with friends, but each time she used the website, she fed the growing destruction within her mind. Extreme dieting seemed like the only way for Jessica to achieve the pinnacle of beauty she saw every time she went on her phone. She sought validation of her appearance in likes, comments, and followers. When she didn’t get as many likes as her peers, her self-esteem plummeted. Satisfaction was never achieved for Jessica; no matter how toned her body became or how many followers she gained, she never felt like it was enough, as someone always looked better than her. After several years of maintaining detrimental habits, Jessica started to realize that social

Beauty standards in the media are one of many reasons feeding and eating disorders are a rising problem. The unrealistic body types of being extremely thin, in pop culture, are influential factors for many teens, especially teen girls. According to the Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition (DSM-5), anorexia nervosa is a “restriction of energy intake, intense fear of gaining weight, and a disturbance in the perception of one’s body size” (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Individuals diagnosed with anorexia tend to place a high value on their shape and weight, which can interfere with their daily lives. Individuals diagnosed tend to view of their body shape in a distorted representation. The motivation to become

Marya Hornbacher’s memoir, Wasted, describes her lifelong battle with eating disturbances with focuses on anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. In modern day society, thinness is associated with “wealth, upward mobility, and success” (Hornbacher, 1998, p. 46). Thinness is “an ideal symbolizing self-discipline, control, sexual liberation, assertiveness, competitiveness, and affiliation with a higher socio-economic class.” (p. 46) Not eating also suggests that one have such a full life that food is not a priority. The media influences children to believe that one must be thin in order to be beautiful. To Marya, a self-proclaimed perfectionist, she must be perfect in order to be successful. She believed she could only be perfect if she had a perfect body, a perfect career, perfect relationships, and perfect control over her life and herself (p. 231-232).

Eating disorders have become a major social problem in America, especially for woman. Our society pushes a fantasy of the idealized body through advertising, magazines, television, and social networks. It has become the cultural norm for women to be materialized out of the delusional thought process centered on the perfect body. From a very young age, women are given the message that in order to be happy and pretty, they must look like a Barbie doll. Women need to become aware that society’s ideal body image is not feasible. Your body is merely a vessel that contains the beautiful mind and soul that makes who you are. Our society has created unattainable standards of perfection in body image, and it is causing the rate of eating disorders to keep increasing. Over time, I have learned the most important aspect in life: perfection does not exist.

Today’s teens have it harder than teens back then because they are heavily influenced by the media. Teen girls today are often given an idea of the “perfect” body by the media. They see famous female celebrities online and they wonder if having a body like this would lead to their own popularity or fame. Due to many female celebrities having a certain figure, girls are willing starve themselves to get a sought after figure. The Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health found that only 22 percent of women within a normal healthy weight range

What was first a diet to lose a few pounds was now a disorder resulting in drastic amounts of weight loss. She was already a normal weight pre dieting. Talking back with her now she shares, “I didn’t realize the stronghold dieting had over me. Every time I saw myself in the mirror I just saw a girl with excess fat.” She also shares, “It is still a struggle today with constant reminders from the media of standards I don’t meet.” A survey conducted with 185 students on a campus through the Nutritional Journal, 58 percent felt pressure to be a certain weight, and of the 83 percent that dieted for weight loss, over half were already at a normal weight pre dieting” (). Eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia are huge issues within today’s society. This creates a problem because it develops unhealthy patterns in women, so women begin self-starvation in the fear of being overweight or overeat and then crash diet. “13 percent of girls age 15-17 acknowledge having an eating disorder” (“The Dove campaign for Real Beauty”). Not only are girls turning to eating disorders in hopes to raise the decline of their self-image, but they are also partaking in alternatives like plastic

Ninety Five percent of people with disordered eating behaviors are between the ages of 12 and 25 (“Eating Disorder Statistics,” 2015) making college students one of the largest sectors of those at risk. Due to the media’s portrayal of the thin ideal for women, female students are at an even greater danger than their male counterparts. The thin body ideal used in media and advertising is possessed naturally by only 5% of women in the United States (Wade, Keski-Rahkonen, & Hudson, 2011). The female thin ideal is one of the largest causes of body image dissatisfaction and research has shown that even females who are normal or underweight, perceive themselves as overweight (MacNeill & Best, 2015). Our society places

Although a small percentage of the population are cited as having had an eating disorder, majority of the population has been perplexed with their body image. Our aspiration to be perfect is exploited to sell products and reap profits in the commercial industry. For example, infomercials on cosmetic surgery encourage men and women at a high price to engage in dangerous weight loss practices to receive immediate results. These include liposuction, tummy tucks, or extreme muscle enhancements advertisements. Here, marketers seek to exploit your insecurities and provide you with solutions (at a steep price). The cost is not only financial, but a deathly one. For instance, clients with Anorexia Nervosa starve themselves until they are skin and bones and those with Bulimia Nervosa purge and vomit to compensate.

Ever since I was little, I had a goal to be thin and irrationally beautiful once I entered high school. Maybe it was the daydreams of twirling in a size two prom dress with a gorgeous date and the endless bullying about my appearance that added up to my self destruction. Then again, it was more of a choice that I made myself in the summer before freshman year. The event that I believe sent me into a dangerous spiral was when my grandfather passed away in March of my eighth grade year. As days passed from that tragic date, I remember myself increasingly looking in the mirror with disgust. I would touch my three stomach rolls of fat and pull on them, trying to will them away. Obviously this didn’t work, so that summer I pledged to myself that

Today’s generation has been greatly impacted by the media through celebrities set as constant reminders of how everyone must follow in their footsteps. Many teens actually feel shame to these flawless celebrities which often leads to depression, self-esteem issues, and eating disorders such as anorexia or bulimia (“AboutKidsHealth”). Even teen magazines pressure girls, young and old, to diet constantly. Many teens use runway twig-thick models as “thinspirations” (Hendrick). “60% of girls that diet, one in five develop and eating disorder” which means dieting, a result of negative body image, is convincing people to choose harm over health and fall into anorexia, bulimia, etc. (Hendrick). Even men are developing eating disorders although it is less than women (Derenne). Not only are people dieting and developing eating

What’s unfortunate is that half of the refinements women determine to make, occasionally cannot be reversed (depending on the severity) and/or create complications for the rest of their lives. Innumerable hours on television are handed to advertisements striving to persuade their audience that purchasing their product will result in thinness, attractiveness, approval but essentially more recognition among the people that surround them. The predominant bias, I depicted from numerous sources is the idea of what Americans define is sexy and beautiful in this culture which majority would suggest it would be a blonde, busty, slender woman with curves in all the right places and to acquire this kind of beauty through dying their hair, going on ludicrous diets and plastic surgery. Today, eating disorders are seen more frequently than before, and their manifestation has become more widespread among today’s youth. Social media has created the facility to criticize and evaluate bodies in such a way that advocates an increase in body dissatisfaction, persistent body supervision, and vague feelings regarding self-worth – all of these factors can potentially lead to severe eating

Our culture says, “Thin is beautiful. Thin is smart. Thin is in (in style). Be thin.” Thousands of impressionable (will believe in anything) young people – mostly young women – decide to do just that. They diet and exercise to get this thin body. Generally, they do not become too thin, but not always. Usually, the brightest and most agreeable children are the ones who decide not just to be thin, but to be the best at being thin. This can become an obsession (the only thing they think about), a disease known as “Anorexia Nervosa.”

The value that our society places on being thin sends the wrong messages to young girls. Adolescent girls want to look like the images that they see in magazines, TV, and movies, which are generally misleading. Studies have shown that the average time girls spend on reading fashion magazines is 4.3 hours per week (Spettigue & Henderson, 2004). In many instances, the images depicted in magazines are digitally enhanced and airbrushed giving girls a false sense of reality on body image; the effects from this can be devastating. The danger in placing so much emphasis on being thin leads young girls to believe that in order to be successful they need to be thin (Harrison & Cantor,

When my family moved away from the place I grew up I began to have a major problem with my weight; I turned to food to comfort me. I somehow felt secure while eating and because of that psychological reassurance I got from the food, I was soon over weight. I knew I had to do something but that urgency would die when I would be introduced to a new flavor of Brewster’s ice cream or a limited time only supreme large fries that I saw advertised on the television or in a magazine. My self esteem and body-image suffered a great amount during those years of constant struggle. As I looked at pictures of celebrities, athletes, average people, friends, my sister and then myself, I noticed something, all of them were thin except me. After this and

Growing up, my family always ate out a lot, for two years my family lived without a stove to cook on. So, being a young family with very little money, we resorted to eating cheap fast food. Of course, we eventually got one but the habit of eating out remained, and it was the start of my negative body image. In the eight years of elementary school, I gained lots of “baby fat”. I was slowly realizing I was big and wearing husky clothing did not help. I wore lots of baggy clothes to hide it. Furthermore, it didn’t help that I had bad acne. I didn’t want to see myself in a mirror or on pictures. Nearing the end of eighth grade, there was nothing I couldn’t really do. It wasn’t until my high school years that I wanted to be fit and have big muscles. At this point in my life I was thinning out because of my high metabolism during puberty, but I was not what I wanted to look like to be. I was stressing over acne which only produced more acne, and life was difficult for me as a teen. It was downward spiral of stressing over myself which only made me feel worse.