Personally speaking, as the author I have dealt with my own problems with negative body image and negative relationship with food, Although an individual’s weight loss journey will come from different places that depend completely on the person, as the author given a literary platform to speak, I wanted to highlight how damaging a specific weight loss journey and intention can become, especially for teenagers.
“I can’t. I’m trying to lose 10kg for prom/homecoming/summer” something I think all teenagers have said or heard. As the weather gets warmer, it’s normal for clothing to become tighter and shorter for the summer, in hopes to relieve some of that body heat and be comfortable as more and more activities start to move outside. Inevitably enough, with the warmer seasons comes the pressure to get that “summer body” or to lose a couple pounds in hopes that they’ll feel better about their physical appearance.
I’ve noticed that the most “popular” way that one tries to lose weight for an event is to cut calories - in theory it gets the job done quickly, but it usually leads to the opposite of the desired outcome.
When a person starts to cut meals, the body goes into this fasting state, where the brain cues the body to slow down functions that would burn more calories (digesting foods, regulating body temperature, keeping the heart beating, breathing, etc.) The body starts to hold onto calories to save as energy for later, which slows down the weight loss process indefinitely -> since the common goal is to burn more calories to lose weight for an event.
The body also has natural hunger cues that come in the form of hormones, and the brain cues the body to signal when it’s hungry or full. By ignoring these hunger cues, the body will take a hit physically and psychologically. Ignoring hunger cues causes a person’s insulin, glucose, cortisol, ghrelin, and leptin levels to be completely thrown off. Skipping meals lead the body to produce more and more ghrelin (The hormone that signals hunger) which means that when someone does get to their next meal, Ghrelin levels are completely thrown off by then, and as a person is eating, they’ll be producing less Leptin (the hormone that signals fullness) which could lead to overeating or binge eating; which becomes even more damaging to one’s physical and psychological health, and would create the opposite effect desired, in the case that someone would want to change their physical appearance for an upcoming event.
This entire concept of “I want to lose weight for this event coming up” comes deeply rooted in diet culture and this constant expectation/desire to look good for an event. As humans, there absolutely is nothing wrong with the concept of “I want to look good for an event coming up” since that’s normal, if we find something important or find something as a significant event, we want to feel good about it. However the statement “I want to look/feel good for this event” cannot pipeline substitute into “I want to lose weight for this event”
The desire to lose weight for an event to feel BETTER about one’s physical appearance suggests that there’s something wrong with the physical appearance that’s already present, and that they should change, as if the body in its current state isn’t “good enough” for a significant event. With this comes society’s default mindset of thinner = prettier/better. This stems from years and years before we could count. It’s shown through our favourite childhood cartoons, with the protagonist shown very thin with an hourglass silhouette, and the villain as a physically bigger, malicious character. A good example of this would be in the original animated version of The Little Mermaid, Alice in Wonderland,
Gen Z especially - was almost coded from a young age to believe that thin = good/better and fat = bad/evil. Entering into a world where plastic surgery was on the rise, diet culture was more toxic than ever, not to mention that all of this was available for anyone and everyone to broadcast on rapidly growing social media platforms.
It’s easier to continue down a dismissive path, than to unlearn negative ideologies and continuously call yourself out on it. Breaking negative body image is a process that happens over the course of several months - years even for some individuals. But taking that first step towards acceptance, and healthy boundaries of speech and media consumption, is the biggest step towards recovery.
Work Cited:
"Here’s What Happens When You Skip Meals | Banner Health". Bannerhealth.Com, 2022, https://www.bannerhealth.com/healthcareblog/teach-me/here-is-what-happens-when-you-skip-meals. Accessed 21 July 2023.
Zheng, Jessica. "East Asian Beauty Standards: The Real Ideals". Jiassica.Myblog.Arts.Ac.Uk, 2020, https://jiassica.myblog.arts.ac.uk/2020/09/02/east-asian-beauty-standards-the-real-ideals/. Accessed 21 July 2023.
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