Fat girls feel skinny, skinny girls feel fat.

I just dont get it. It seems that there are so many thin people out there who consistently bring up their "I'm getting fat" status or their "I'm so fat" comments. Why are these perfectly thin people rubbing on the worlds face their thinness? Is is really possible that our society suffers from such body dysmorphia that they genuinely see an overweight woman when they look at their 110 pound body in the mirror?
An obsession with body image is said to be had by all body types.
A recent study administered by a psychologist Debby Burgard of Radiance Magazine (500 women of various ages) had the following findings:
Finding #1: It is possible to "accept" your body size regardless of weight. About half the women in the study said that as far as weight was concerned, their bodies were basically acceptable as they were. Respondents' weights ranged up to 485, with an average of 160. There was no relationship between a person's weight and her degree of acceptance: it was just as likely for a woman weighing 450 to accept her body size as a woman weighing 235.

Finding #2: Higher self-esteem was associated with giving up the attempt to lose weight.
The belief that women who "give up" dieting are "giving up" on themselves was strongly challenged by this finding. Almost all of the personality and self-esteem measures were significan'tly healthier for the women who claimed they would not try to lose weight again.

One participant from the study had this to say, I find it very inspirational and direct:
"I know so many people who want to be "perfect" and think that when they are "perfect" then they'll love themselves. They think that if they accept themselves as they are, they'll never change. . . . I can't think of anything that I accomplished that was real, lasting, and healthy that was motivated by self-hatred. . . . I suspect the whole thing is backwards, i.e., if you are truly self- accepting, weight is not an issue. If you are not self-accepting, you'll find lots of things to be unhappy about and weight is likely to be one of them."

Finding #3: Women who felt they had little control over their weight in particular felt greater feelings of self-control in general.
This finding mean to say that those women who felt they were naturally a higer weight tended to have better self control as a result of non-compulsive or obsessive behaviors about dieting.
This is expressed in the following quote I found in the study:
"In 1978 I gave up weight-loss dieting and therefore stopped binging. I stopped feeling compulsive, so I started feeling in control. At an earlier age, self-control meant not to engage in any sexual behavior (Catholic background), and as I got older, it meant not eating or drinking "too much," maintaining a strict diet. The more that control was an issue, the more I swung wildly between compulsive overcontrol to out of control. When control became a non issue, it was no longer a problem."

I found this study greatly helpful in reaffirming my beliefs on body image and the dieting obsession. By reading the results of this study I hope you are reaffirmed in your personal self-confidence and awareness of societal influences.

The following link is to a quiz about body image. (just for fun) Take it to find out if you are a little too obsessed with weight:
http://www.prevention.com/quizleadin/0,,s1-4-57-39-7114-1,00.html