I feel fat today

Facebook tells me I'm fat almost everyday. Or at least that is how it makes me feel.

Call it lack of self-confidence or a distorted body image, but being constantly bombarded with advertising for Oprah's Miracle Akai diet or ways to cut down the flab on my middle section, I can't help but feel like there is something I need to improve, and as a result, spend time scrutinizing myself in the mirror.

I have a feeling that I'm not the only person who feels this way.

According to the Wardenburg Health Centre at the University of Colorado, "women overestimate the size of their hips by 16 per cent and their waists by 25 per cent, yet the same women were able to correctly estimate the width of a box".

However, women are not the only ones who struggle with the way they look and how society tells them to look. The same study from the Wardenburg Health Centre discovered that one out of four men are on a diet at any time, whereas for women, it is only one in three.

I think it is fair to assume that most people, both men and women, have one thing about themselves that they would change if they had the chance, and Dr. Kim Gammage in the Department of Physical Education and Kinesiology at Brock University can explain it in terms of what society believes to be the ideal for both genders, and how many of us strive to achieve it.

"There are a couple of major differences between men and women. First, the ideal is different - for women it is thin, toned - not too muscular - and young. For men, the ideal is muscular,with a v-shaped torso - broad shoulders, narrow waist," she said. "Women tend to be more concerned with the lower body - hips, thighs, buttocks - while men tend to be more concerned with the upper body - chest, arms, back. The other major difference is the direction of dissatisfaction - women pretty consistently want to be thinner than they are and often will overestimate their body size, while men are more equally divided between wanting to be thinner and wanting to be bigger - more muscular.

"Because of these differences, women are more likely to use diet (dietary restraint, eating disorders) to achieve the ideal. Men are more likely to use exercise. They are also more likely to use steroids and supplements. However, there is some shifting going on in what is ideal - it is becoming more muscular (slightly) for women."

Women, as it seems, are fuelling the $40 billion diet industry, which includes diet food, drugs and programs. I too have been guilty of this, trying fad diets in place of eating healthier and exercising more. Being a student juggling work, my education and social life it is just easier to pop a fat burner after lunch rather than going to the gym. The results are certainly faster than working out three times a week, but I quickly understood the damage I was doing to my body. Dr. Gammage whole-heartedly agrees.

"From a body image perspective, any extreme dieting can be dangerous (e.g., a lot of the fad diets). From a physical perspective they don't give the body all the nutrients it needs. From a more psychological perspective it can lead to feelings of deprivation, which can lead to binging. Also, if people attempt to diet to lose weight and fail, it can lead to poor body image, depression, anxiety, etc.", said Gammage.

So why do we continue to purchase the latest diet aid or starve ourselves for months before a bikini-clad Reading Week? We all know how we should be living a healthy lifestyle, but how many of us actually do? For Dr. Gammage, it is not about education, but rather our own behaviours.

"I think in most health matters (e.g., diet, physical activity, smoking, drugs, alcohol, etc.) education is not the problem. You would be hard-pressed to find people who didn't know they should exercise, not smoke, eat low fat, etc. - and yet they still do not follow through with health behaviours," she said. "Most studies that try to increase health behaviours through providing knowledge or education do not usually result in any change in the behaviours. What is more important are people's attitudes about behaviours (are they motivated, is it too hard or unpleasant, are they embarrassed) or the attitudes of significant others (such as family and friends)."

Dr. Brian Roy, also from the Department of Physical Education and Kinesiology at Brock, believes that if our school systems would educate young children in health matters at a much younger age, than perhaps society would not experience the behavioural problems that Dr. Gammage speaks about, and perhaps we could all live healthier and more productive lives.

"I feel that not enough attention is paid to health in both primary and secondary school. Much more time is spent on Math, History and English, as compared to the single largest expense of the provincial government; health. If people were better educated in the area of health, perhaps the costs of health care would be reduced," he said." The Ontario government has developed a Ministry of Health Promotion, which is a positive step towards promoting health rather than just spending on health care. Curriculums should include more emphasis on health and healthy living, and should be taught by educators with a strong foundation in health education, such as graduates from our Physical Education and Kinesiology degree programs."

In regards to body image, there is little that I can say that will change the way you feel about yourself. We will all continue to strive for the ideal, and potentially damage our bodies in the process. But, in regards to health, there are small things that we can all do to improve our health on a basic and relatively easy level, according to Dr. Roy.