People who are fat can also be fit. People are fat for many different reasons. Keep in mind that genetics and how your body metabolizes fat play a big role in how you’re going to look including your body size and shape.

The idea that people who are fat cause their weight problems by uncontrolled eating is not true. One researcher reviewed thirteen studies about this myth, and discovered that in all but one of the studies, people who are fat ate the same amount of food or less food than thin people. Your genetics will affect your weight, distribution of body fat, frame, metabolism and appetite. It sounds like you are doing everything right and the problem lies with society’s attitude and size not your body.

It depends on why you are going on a diet. If you are changing what you eat because you want to have a healthier heart and body, a diet can be a good thing. Eating more vegetables, using oils such as canola or olive oil (unsaturated fat) instead of saturated fats, getting enough fibre, and substituting processed foods for fresh food can be good for your body.

However, if the point of your diet is to lose weight, this can be bad for both your physical and mental health. Dieting to lose weight rarely works, with more than 90% of people gaining back what they lost. Yo-yo dieting, or going on and off diets is really hard on the body. It increases people’s chances of cardiovascular diseases (heart disease) and type 2 diabetes, which may affect your quality of life and lifespan. Dieting to change body size or shape can also make people overly concerned about looking different instead of learning to like the body they already have. People can become much more critical of themselves than they normally would adding more stress to their lives. Also, if someone with a predisposition towards an eating disorder engages in this behaviour, it becomes more likely that a disorder will develop.

If you change your diet, make sure you are doing it for the right reasons, and make sure you are still getting enough vitamins, minerals and proteins in your diet to keep you at your healthiest.

That’s a tough question to answer. One of the worst things that insurance companies did for people’s body image was create the Body Mass Index (BMI). Comparing your height and weight to find out if you are “normal”, “underweight”, “overweight”, or “obese” does not mean anything and cannot tell you are healthy. It was created as a way for insurance companies to make more money. People in the US often have to pay more or get turned down for health insurance because of their rating on the BMI. Doctors also use the BMI to prescribe diets and promote weight loss products or drugs (some doctors make money for prescribing some of these). Basically, insurance companies and some doctors often make a profit from labeling otherwise healthy individuals as “overweight” or “obese”.

As far as the diet/weight loss industry goes, they make tons of cash by making people feel bad about their bodies. The problem is DIETS DO NOT WORK. If they did, the industry would stop making money. They want people to feel bad about their bodies, so they spend more money trying to change their bodies. Other industries do the same thing. Think about all the ads we see for everything from toothpaste to cars that tell us we have to fit into a narrow idea of what is “sexy” and how if we buy their product we can achieve it.

All of the messages we see in the media that pressure us to look a certain way have a huge negative impact on our body image. That is why we need to be educated, think critically about what we see and hear, ask questions, and talk about how these messages impact people. Don’t forget, one of the easiest ways to make people feel better about their bodies is to give out lots of compliments! It also helps that when you give out a compliment, one usually comes your way soon after.

We’re not sure. Many diet pills are labelled as “herbal”, so people think they are safe but even if something is herbal, it can harm you. For example, poison ivy is herbal, and harmful. Peanuts are natural, but some people with allergies can die from them.

Ephedra, a diet pill sold legally in the US, has many documented side effects. Ephedra may lead to increased blood pressure, increased heart rate, heart palpitations, and to a stroke even in people with no history of heart problems. It’s important to do some research and talk to a health care practitioner before making a decision on whether you want to put it into your body.