Here are two more interesting articles on the bane of our collective existence: body weight. First up is this New York magazine article, titled "The Scientist and the Stairmaster," which makes the provocative argument that there is very little correlation between weight loss and exercise. That's exceptionally bad news for someone who is pregnant, and required to gain at least 25 pounds.

The article is adapted from a new book, "Good Calories, Bad Calories: Challenging the Conventional Wisdom on Diet, Weight Control, and Disease" by Gary Taubes, who writes:

"This is not to say that there aren't excellent reasons to be physically active, as these reports invariably point out. We might just enjoy exercise. We may increase our overall fitness; we may live longer, perhaps by reducing our risk of heart disease or diabetes; we'll probably feel better about ourselves. (Of course, this may be purely a cultural phenomenon. It's hard to imagine that the French, for instance, would improve their self-esteem by spending more time at the gym.) But there's no reason to think that we will lose any significant amount of weight, and little reason to think we will prevent ourselves from gaining it."

Next is a new ad campaign by the Italian label Nolita. It features a severely anorexic actress posing naked, accompanied by the slogan, "No Anorexia." French actress Isabelle Caro weighs a little over 68 pounds, and looks simply hideous, at least to the untutored eye, though Italian medical experts claim the ad will actually encourage young girls to look more like Caro. I find that hard to believe, but take a look and decide for yourself.

Comments (28)

1. Stand-by, here will come ZERO with some rant about "feminists complaining about being fat" or something!

   Posted by Mask at 09/26/2007 @ 1:49pm

2. BTW, I've caught that Tyra Banks model show....looking for CSI reruns...and let me say...

   Those girls look they were just liberated by some GIs in 1945 Bavaria....yuck!

   Posted by Mask at 09/26/2007 @ 1:51pm

3. oh god! that was horrid...never post a link like that again!

   oh yes...i'm on the right track, going into the mental health field...

   lots of need for therapy in this world and more need every day.

   Posted by ibbleblibble at 09/26/2007 @ 2:01pm

4. funny though...

   whenever i eat less and excercise more...i lose weight...

   whenever i lie around and stuff my piehole...i gain weight...

   hmm...maybe onto something here...

   Posted by ibbleblibble at 09/26/2007 @ 2:02pm

5. Posted by IBBLEBLIBBLE 09/26/2007 @ 2:01pm

   dude, why'd ya click the link?

   sometimes words are worth a thousand pictures.

   Posted by frosty zoom at 09/26/2007 @ 2:03pm

6. Posted by FROSTY ZOOM 09/26/2007 @ 2:03pm | ignore this person

   like a gruesome car wreck...you gotta look...

   Posted by ibbleblibble at 09/26/2007 @ 2:05pm

7. posted this link on the last fat thread:

   check out epigenetics. it's the science of how genes turn on and off by environmental factors (usually food) and how these switched on/off genes can be inherited.

   maybe your mamma made you fat! [pbs.org]

   Posted by frosty zoom at 09/26/2007 @ 2:07pm

8. like a gruesome car wreck...you gotta look...

   Posted by IBBLEBLIBBLE 09/26/2007 @ 2:05pm

   no thanks.

   if this weren't the nation, i would post you some links of some of earth's more beautiful "places".

   avoiding seeing gruesome things isn't sticking my head in the sand. it's just that i'd rather fill my hard-drive (i.e. brain) with things that remind me how beautiful life can be.

   that's why i won't watch any violence in movies or t.v. ('cept godzilla and original star trek)

   Posted by frosty zoom at 09/26/2007 @ 2:11pm

9. Posted by FROSTY ZOOM 09/26/2007 @ 2:11pm

   chicken...

   bwak bwak bwak....

   its like that line from 8mm..."theres some things you can never get outta your head..."

   Posted by ibbleblibble at 09/26/2007 @ 2:17pm

10. she needs to be forcefully comitted to the psychiatric ward of some hospital....

    if that aint "danger to self" i dont know what is. wonder how it works over there...

    Posted by ibbleblibble at 09/26/2007 @ 2:22pm

11. That New York magazine article is sheer rubbish!

    Pro tennis players consume lots of bread, pasta, and even beer. For those of you suffering from carb-paranoia, do take a long look at Roger Federer, the world's #1 tennis player, or Andy Roddick, or Nikolay Davydenko, or Rafael Nadal. All are lean as can be!

    Posted by Adscititious at 09/26/2007 @ 3:08pm

12. Posted by ADSCITITIOUS 09/26/2007 @ 3:08pm

    hmmmmmm..........

    pasta!

    Posted by frosty zoom at 09/26/2007 @ 3:20pm

13. As "Hannibal Smith" used to say..."I love it when a plan (in this case prediction) comes together..."

    Stand-by, here will come ZERO with some rant about "feminists complaining about being fat" or something!----Posted by MASK 09/26/2007 @ 1:49pm

    and like clockwork....Posted by ZERO 09/26/2007 @ 3:57pm

    LOL!

    Posted by Mask at 09/26/2007 @ 4:00pm

14. Posted by ZERO 09/26/2007 @ 4:14pm

    Seriously, could somebody else check....

    I'm willing to bet Lyndon LaRouche (and his followers) are "anorexia deniers" too!

    LOL!

    Posted by Mask at 09/26/2007 @ 4:21pm

15. I've GOT TO SAY, Zero's rebuttals are always, I mean always, funny and quite enlightening. He is able to organize & verbalize much of the loose, back-of-the-drawer thoughts many of us (probably) have on the absurdities of so many Feminists!

    I AM glad rebutting nutty Femi-Nazis is among his specialties!

    Posted by Happy at 09/26/2007 @ 4:23pm

16. Zero - agreed! Maybe a five minute leisurely walk doesn't affect weight, but it's absurd to promote the idea that activity and weight have no correlation. I've had a weight problem for years - I consume more than I expend. My job entails sitting at a desk all day, and I often don't feel like finding the time for formal exercise when I get home. As a night person, there's no way I will get up and do anything more stenuous than drink a cup of coffee in the morning.

    But I discovered a love of gardening, and when I work at it, my weight tends to go down. In the past couple of years, I've lost a good bit of weight. I don't eat less, I just work in my garden on a regular basis. I'm 60 years old and I still am somewhat overweight, but I'm much less so after finding a way to exercise.

    This was a pretty dumb article, and it seemed to use information from one report rather than an entire body of medical evidence.

    Posted by LeeAnnG at 09/26/2007 @ 4:30pm

17. Chaudry's piece comes dangerously close to misinformation, IMHO, and thanks, Zero, for expressing that probability so thoroughly, even, I'd here go so far as to say, Rese-like.

    Posted by lewwelge at 09/26/2007 @ 5:45pm

18. "Zero" is much to be praised for gathering empirical data. However, nothing that he says disproves the conflicting claim that exercise and weight loss are correlated and perhaps shared by a common cause. Note that all of his data come from athletes.

    Why aren't we all be athletes? What causes some of us to be athletes and others of us to decide we'd rather watch television? To say that it's all a matter of willpower merely begs the next obvious question: Why don't we all have willpower?

    This is the kind of question that medical researchers ask. And they ask others (in the article that Ms. Chaudhry cites -- please read this, too!), such as: Why does exercise achieve different results for different people (and rats)? Why does inactivity achieve different results for different people?

    And some of the more recent answers (from the most recent research) are that whether we feel like eating or exercising actually has something to do with INSULIN, of all things, and that insulin has something to do with carbohydrate intake. It's very interesting stuff, really.

    I can't say that I understand it all, myself, and I also happen to like carbohydrates and believe they've been given a bad rap lately. But maybe for some people, diet is more important than exercise. Or vice versa.

    As for anorexia: Chaudhry wonders how women can look at a frighteningly anorexic model and imitate her. I say, sick people act according to sick motives. I believe the Italian doctors may be right to worry that the ads featuring an emaciated actress may send the wrong message.

    As child psychologists remind us, people are more strongly motivated to do something when we say "Do this" than they are to refrain from doing something when we say "Don't do this." Have you ever tried NOT to think of a monkey after somebody has told you not to?

    To come back full circle: Thanks again, "Zero," for suggesting that we all exercise. This is the right psychology!

    Posted by JakobFabian at 09/26/2007 @ 5:49pm

19. Another note: Anybody who examines "Zero's" data will quickly discover that women tend to have a higher percentage of body fat than men. This is of course natural, and to my mind delightful. There's a reason why the term "subcutaneous fat" audibly contains the word "cute."

    There may also be a reason why female models tend to be so uniformly skinny. I believe it has to do with the fashion designers' desire not to allow a woman's shape to distract attention from the all-important garment that covers her. From the designers' point of view, a woman reduced to a clothes hanger with a spine would probably be ideal.

    Theoretically, there exist probably as many types of female beauty as there are women. Yet none can deny that certain types of beauty have higher social status than others. In recent times, skinniness has nearly constantly maintained a higher social status than what we may call esthetically pleasing chubbiness.

    Now, why is that?

    The theory that it's the fashion designers' fault has some merit, but I believe it assumes that these designers have more power than they really do. Can this artsy elite really have such a widespread influence on popular notions of what makes a woman beautiful, even among people who find "haute couture" neither appealing nor affordable?

    Chaudhry, if I understand her (and many other feminists) correctly, suspects that something else is responsible for the supreme social status of skinniness as beauty: the myth that skinniness is obtainable to everyone who "works enough at it," which recent medical research throws into doubt.

    Does anyone have an alternative explanation?

    Posted by JakobFabian at 09/26/2007 @ 6:11pm

20. I wonder what all that white crusty stuff is down by her crack??

    It seems like periodically a new "study" will come out in the health field that contradicts the last one about how to lose weight. Eat all you want and lose weight; sit on your ass and lose weight. Use common sense for crying out loud, eat small portions and do lots of cardio workouts if you're trying to lose weight! Or go to Subway like Jared!

    Posted by MATTMAN at 09/26/2007 @ 6:28pm

21. Dear "Zero,"

    Your point is well taken, though I believe it was well enough taken the first time you made it.

    One more thing: Chaudhry does not actually claim anywhere that exercise does not make you HEALTHY. Her point is that exercise -- by itself -- may not make you SKINNY. There's a difference.

    Posted by JakobFabian at 09/26/2007 @ 6:40pm

22. Dear "Zero,"

    Why do you suppose that concern for anorexic women precludes concern for obese women? Or that concern for women precludes concern for men? Can't we be concerned with both?

    Chaudhry's concern is by no means limited to women. Read (for example) her article about "Good Muslims." Are Muslims only women?

    Posted by JakobFabian at 09/26/2007 @ 7:01pm

23. THAT'S JUST BULLSHIT...

    I lost over 50 pounds last year with a combination of diet (Weight Watchers -- STRONGLY recommended!) and exercise and I know (since I've tried it) that diet alone wouldn't have done the trick. I'm reminded of a study a number of years ago that showed no correlation between no cold weather and colds and flu. Maybe not, but I'm sure as hell going to be a lot more CAREFUL about these kinds of "nuisance" illnesses during cold weather and future attempts at weight loss will always include BOTH exercise and diet. Personally, I think "scientists" who undertake these kinds of "research studies" usually have a personal axes to grind (who knows, maybe they're fatties themselves! -- PC alert! I mean have a high body mass ratio) You can use "science," like theology (especially "medical science") to "prove" just about anything. Ergo, I never pay attention to reports like this one.

    Posted by w_m_bear at 09/26/2007 @ 7:40pm

24. THAT SHOULD READ...

    "a study a number of years ago that showed no correlation between cold weather and colds and flu."

    Posted by w_m_bear at 09/26/2007 @ 7:42pm

25. wanna lose weight. cook your own food.

    Posted by frosty zoom at 09/26/2007 @ 9:47pm

26. Posted by W_M_BEAR 09/26/2007 @ 7:42pm |

    cold weather is great for health - its all the precious little germ factories (kids) going back to school snotting, hacking, spitting, licking, dribbling, gooching, etc. each other in confined classroom spaces then snotting, hacking, spitting, licking, dribbling, gooching, etc. their crud and funk on their parents when they get home that makes winter disease time...confining of airborn pathogens...

    Posted by ibbleblibble at 09/27/2007 @ 2:28pm

27. Posted by IBBLEBLIBBLE 09/27/2007 @ 2:28pm

    Thanks for that imagery....now I'm dreaming of an old black woman in Nebraska and The Walking Dude in Vegas!

    Posted by Mask at 09/27/2007 @ 2:53pm

28. cold weather is great for health - its all the precious little germ factories (kids) going back to school snotting, hacking, spitting, licking, dribbling, gooching, etc. each other in confined classroom spaces then snotting, hacking, spitting, licking, dribbling, gooching, etc. their crud and funk on their parents when they get home that makes winter disease time...confining of airborn pathogens...

    Posted by IBBLEBLIBBLE 09/27/2007 @ 2:28pm

    I REMEMBER THAT...

    Though my son's all grown up now and makes more than I do. My biggest nuisance-disease worry now is corporate smorgasbords. I recently consulted for a genetics lab that used to lay out a couple of real feeds per week -- and I mean quality, catered stuff. I was catching more colds than I usually do (I do megavitamins, including of ton of C) and finally had my "well, doh" moment that I was probably getting them from eating food that people WITH small children had touched. (And maybe there was a REASON why this lab also offered free flu shots every year, including to consultants, an offer I definitely took advantage of -- BTW, whatever happened to the ole Bird Flu scare of a couple of years go?)

    Re anorexia, it's always struck me as one of the stranger disorders, eating or otherwise. We all seem to have self-destructive impulses in one form or another and my only explanation is that this is one expression of such impulses....

    Posted by w_m_bear at 09/27/2007 @ 3:27pm