FitnessFixation.com

Notice how I’m all over the research studies and articles lately? See, when I am bereft of exercise tidbits based on my own experience, I actually read more. In fact, since I’ve been recovering, I’ve read tons. Just think, if I wasn’t able to pursue my dumb jock aspirations and couldn’t work out ever again, I’d read so much I’d have to get a special neck brace to keep my giant brain full of information from tipping me too much to one side and making me constantly lose my balance. Oh, don’t get too worried: Luckily I have to spend my time reading the internet, so while I’m up on lots of research, I also have to read lots of brain-cell destroying stuff too. And I’ll even write about one of those after the study, so stick with me to the bitter end of the post.

Now, I’ve had to take pain medication lately, so forgive me if I’m stoopid on this, but there’s this new study on BMI versus self-image as a predictor of health. Some news accounts I’ve read sell this like, “Self-reports are a better predictor of health than BMI” making it sound like BMI can be crap when it comes to determining how healthy someone is, while people usually know their own health. But if you read the Science Daily story, it sounds slightly different, and Science Daily, unlike many news outlets, actually reports what the study says, not what the reporter made up in his or her own brain. So their version is that the desire to weigh less is a better predictor of physically and mentally unhealthy days than BMI. You know I think BMI is total crap, but still, there’s a slightly different spin here than “people know if they are healthy.” Now, “unhealthy days” is somewhat vague in this report—do they mean days where health (physical and/or emotional) is poor, or days when people do unhealthy things? I’m guessing the former, but check what the researchers are really saying:

“‘Our data suggest that some of the obesity epidemic may be partially attributable to social constructs that surround ideal body types,’ said Peter Muennig, MD, MPH, Mailman School of Public Health assistant professor of Health Policy and Management. ‘Younger persons, Whites, and women are disproportionately affected by negative body image concerns, and these groups unduly suffer from BMI-associated morbidity and mortality.’”

In other words, the stress of negative body image may impact health, so if you think you should lose 10 percent body fat, that might weigh (pun? No) on you so much you experience worse health than someone of the same weight who is happy where they are. That’s kinda different than the story that has been reported lots of places.

Of course, it is also possible that some people who are unhappy with their weight may be “unnaturally” carrying more than their bodies want, and they are unhealthier because the weight is not where they biologically need to be. Because clearly it is possible to be healthy at varying weights, but a smaller person who puts on pounds though being totally sedentary and eating poorly might feel worse effects than someone who is naturally bigger but still active and eats well. However, if that was the case, it is less likely we’d see differences in age, gender, and race. So it’s probably fairly safe to say that hating how you look is crappy for your health. And we could think of lots of interventions with that, including a more realistic and varied vision of the ideal body in media. Because if this study is true, entire neighborhoods of people in Los Angeles are probably in danger of dropping dead any second now.

Oh, but don’t worry—there’s weight-loss hope, and why not work on that rather than positive body image? There’s this new lip gloss that purports to help you shed pounds by curbing your appetite and giving you energy. FUZE Slenderize Guilt Free Lip Gloss has the same ingredients as the FUZE beverages (what the hell are those?) and it is “Always on the lips, never on the hips!”

Um, wha? The whole guilt free, on the hips thing makes me think they believe lip gloss consumption was responsible for previous weight gain. I mean, I vaguely remember eating Dr. Pepper flavored chapstick as a kid, but that’s about it. Honey, if your lip gloss is sabotaging your diet, you need to live a little, for the love of god. And I find it almost impossible to believe there’s a lipgloss in the whole wide world that could actually kill my giant massive frenzied hunger, but if they wanna send free samples, I’ll down a tube in the name of science. Sure, it supposedly works for “stars” but they don’t even eat anyway, nothing but weak kale soup and a side salad minus the dressing and croutons and cheese and happiness, and a few sugar free Red Bulls and asthma medication, plus one tiny crumb of cake for the taste then “oh, I’m stuffed” bullshit like they are being so wild and that’s on their birthdays.

Here’s my very favorite part: “One squeeze produces a dab of long lasting [blah blah blah] that creates juicy, sexy lips that smell as good as they taste.” So this is like a couples diet? Because presumably when someone kisses you, their hunger will be curbed as well. Maybe you could use it as a secret ploy to snake the rest of someone’s dessert—kiss ‘em when the chocolate decadence arrives, and watch them slowly push away the half-eaten portion. “It’s weird, but I just lost my appetite!”

Nah. Personally, I think you want your dates good and hungry. Fuck the lipgloss.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 13th, 2008 at 11:19 pm and is filed under beauty booty, cake, fads and facts, feelings, good gear, healthy crap, linkorama, news and research, nutrition, other mags, sanity, stress, weight. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.