Body image satisfaction survey and the psychological traps of a weight loss vacation

How many people are dissatisfied with their body shape?

We conducted a body image satisfaction survey of 13,000 women, ranging in age from 12 to 25, with educational backgrounds from elementary school to master's degree. Participants came from 11 public and private junior high schools, 13 public and private vocational high schools, 5 junior colleges, 8 universities in Taipei City, and students from specialized departments including dance, drama, fashion design, physical education, arts, and nursing-a total of 12 institutions. The participants' ages ranged from 12 to 25 years old.

The questionnaire is divided into two parts. The first part asks about personal information, including seven questions about body image. The questionnaire uses declarative sentences, and the answers are scored on a scale of 5: 1 point for no, 2 points for rarely, 3 points for sometimes, 4 points for usually, and 5 points for always.

result:

I am satisfied with my figure: not 41.7%, rarely 25.5%, sometimes 22.5%, usually 7.6%, and always 2.8%.

I think I'm too fat: not 22.3%, rarely 8.5%, sometimes 26.9%, usually 17.9%, always 24.4%.

I feel my legs are too thick: not 16.7%, rarely 8.6%, sometimes 18.4%, usually 16.3%, always 39.9%.

I feel my waist is too thick: rarely 23.6%, sometimes 14.4%, sometimes 22.3%, usually 16.0%, always 23.6%.

I feel my hips are too big: not 22.8%, rarely 14.2%, sometimes 20.7%, usually 14.2%, always 28.1%.

I feel my arms are too thick: not 43.3%, rarely 16.6%, sometimes 17.2%, usually 8.5%, always 14.2%.

I feel my calves are too thick: not 16.9%, rarely 10.3%, sometimes 19.6%, usually 16.5%, always 36.7%.

The results show that half of the women deserve attention, as anorexia and bulimia are already creeping up on them.

Weight Loss Holiday

We often hear patients trying to lose weight say, "I won't start dieting today, I'll start next meal!" This usually results in them gaining more weight than they intended. Especially for those gourmets who are very particular about their food, the temptation of delicious food often leads to overeating, ruining their weight loss plans. In reality, for such people, dieting is just a slogan in their lives, so there should be no holidays for weight loss.

If there are holidays for dieting, it will cause significant weight fluctuations. According to modern medical research, large fluctuations in a person's weight may affect heart function and increase the mortality rate of cardiovascular diseases. On the other hand, people who frequently diet and then don't diet, who are overly concerned about their weight and body shape, and who cannot resist the temptation of delicious food, may be suffering from bulimia.

These patients might move from one weight loss center to another, and then back to yet another. They might sometimes tell the truth, and sometimes they might not. Their weight fluctuates wildly, which is a characteristic feature. Another characteristic is that they eat large amounts of food at once and then vomit it up, or they use extremely drastic dieting methods, perhaps eating only one meal a day or just a serving of fruit. Using such extreme methods to lose weight, or taking weight-loss drugs, coupled with an excessive focus on body image, could very well indicate anorexia.

Therefore, we do not want to have a vacation for weight loss. Patients who frequently try to lose weight but also frequently fail to do so may be suffering from bulimia.

Why do people get anorexia?

Analyzing eating syndromes may require a multi-faceted model of pathogenic factors, such as whether an individual has concerns about autonomy, identity, and separation; chronic diseases; a family history of biological inheritance; exaggerated cultural factors; parent-child interactions; stress related to weight loss; and achievement pressure.

Starting to diet or fast can be a reaction to a psychological disorder, most typically involving low self-esteem, helplessness, or feelings of worthlessness due to illness. The feeling of regaining control and the pleasure of self-control at the beginning of dieting can temporarily relieve the stress of unresolved issues.

However, the problem remains, and the problems caused by hunger at the same time will cause people to continue to diet, and such a vicious cycle will gradually form until the patient suffers from hunger symptoms or enters a vicious cycle of continuous dieting, binge eating and diarrhea.

Common symptoms of hunger include dry skin, fine and light hair, brittle nails, slow heartbeat, orthopnea, abdominal distension, constipation, and hypothermia. Most of the physical and behavioral manifestations of anorexia are side effects of hunger and can be cured with nutritional rehabilitation. However, because of the distorted body image and excessive pursuit of thinness, the symptoms of anorexia are very difficult to recover from.

Many patients with bulimia originally had a weight above the standard. So when a patient's weight falls into the normal range, it cannot be ruled out that they are already in a state of long-term starvation due to dieting. In these patients, the onset of binge eating is just a reaction to insufficient calories, and laxatives are just an attempt to eliminate unnecessary calories. However, this only exacerbates the hunger, and thus a vicious cycle occurs again and again.

Sometimes, different environments and emotional cues can also become triggers for binge eating.