The Great Weight Debate: Is It OK to be FAT??

Here's a great piece, with video, from Nightline, discussing if you can be healthy and still overweight or fat. Great video, too. Check it out.
http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/FaceOff/weight-debate-fat/story?id=9911743

Check out "The Fat Chick"

This is a great site by a fat woman who helps other "people of size" learn to exercise and improve their health, all the while loving it. A very entertaining and interesting site.
http://www.thefatchick.com/About.html

More People are Giving Up Dieting

What a relief! News that more people are quitting dieting, because it doesn't work for most of us. It's often just a cycle of losing and gaining the weight, which is NOT good for your longterm health. Actually the "yo-yo" effect is more damaging to health than being a healthy overweight person.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/09/21/interest_in_dieting_slims_down/

And YES, you can be overweight and still be healthy. Health professionals now think about "metabolic fitness", which means that your blood pressure, blood sugar, and blood lipids such as cholesterol are in normal range. This also refers to your cardiovascular fitness, including heart rate and ability to exert yourself.

Diets are often just not the answer.

Hatred of Fat People

One of the leaders is the "Health At Every Size" movement is Paul Campos, a professor at the University of Colorado. He writes about our society's fear and hatred of fat or overweight people. In this article he writes about MeMe Roth, the President of National Action Against Obesity. It seems that many of Ms. Roth's behaviors about her own health and her body are indicative of anorexia nervosa. She gets herself a lot of publicity, especially about how lazy, thoughtles, and basically stupid fat people are, and that they SHOULD be able to do something about their "problem". As professionals in this field, we know that much of body shape and size is dictated by genetics, and that HEALTH is really what's important, not body size.
Check out this article: http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-02-17/leave-fat-people-alone/?cid=bs:archive8

Is there really a crisis of childhood obesity?

http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/childhood-shmomesity

Michelle Obama has declared "war" on childhood obesity, but is there really a big crisis? Paul Campos, a professor of law at the University of Colorado, argues there is no crisis, just a campaign against fat kids.
I agree that if Mrs. Obama's approach to the "problem" of her overweight child worked, there would be NO FAT KIDS! She referred to her daughter's weight (she's chubby)in public, which is a set up for eating disorders. Her approach to changing TV habits and her kids' diets speaks to a desire to improve their health, which, Dr. Campos argues, can do so, but why link this to their weight??

Listen to a Poscast Where I'm interviewed on Intuitive Eating

This company in Australia recently interviewed me on an alternative to dieting to manage your weight. We think of this as a "non-diet" or intuitive way of eating, without restricting what you eat. You simply eat when you are hungry, eat what you really want, and stop when you are full. You can trust your body to tell you when, what and how much to eat!

http://www.foodthinkers.com/2010/01/podcast-weight-management-resolution/

Video on food labels and portion size

Check out this excellent video with William Neuman of the NY Times. He really describes the problem with "Nutrition Facts", the labeling on most food products. Take a look, and I think you'll be surprised at how easy it is to be fooled!
http://video.nytimes.com/video/2010/02/05/business/1247466717641/serving-size-snafu.html?th&emc=th