NEW YORK, Apr 10 (Reuters Health) - Although people can lose weight from dieting, only rarely will they change the shape of their bodies, an equally important aspect of body image.

However, new research shows that many women nevertheless expect diets to change their body shape, which may explain why some, frustrated by the lack of effect from their efforts, have trouble maintaining their diets.

"If women are dieting with the belief that weight loss will lead to shape change, they will fail to achieve their aim and this may be one reason that diets are likely to be short-lived and, ultimately, unsuccessful," the researchers report.

The study focused on women's preferred waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), representing the diameter of their waist divided by that of their hips. Previous research has shown that women prefer pear-shaped bodies, with small waists and larger hips--a low WHR--presumably because this shape can signal health and fertility to others.

To determine whether women with higher WHRs hoped dieting might change their shapes, the researchers, led by Dr. Dorothy Heffernan of the University of Strathclyde, UK, showed women with high and low WHRs a series of body images. Each image depicted bodies with different WHRs, and the women indicated whether they believed they could achieve a similar shape after dieting.

The investigators found that women with high WHRs believed that, through dieting, they could develop pear-shaped bodies. These expectations did not stem from women's misperceptions of their current body shape; most women, pear-shaped or not, correctly identified which image best represented their own WHR.

Based on these results, Heffernan and her colleagues suggest that many women might begin dieting explicitly to change their shapes, and are in danger of being disappointed by their efforts.

"We conclude that women in the high WHR group may find adherence to diets problematic because the desired change in shape does not occur," the researchers write in the current issue of the International Journal of Eating Disorders.

"Consequently, along with increasing women's awareness that weight loss dieting does not lead to long-term weight loss, it is important to emphasize that shape change is also unlikely to occur through diet change," the authors note.

Heffernan and colleagues suggest that people might be more likely to improve their health through exercise than by losing weight.

Since increased physical activity can increase self-esteem and body image, they add, further studies should investigate whether exercise can "counteract potential negative effects on body image resulting from continued unsuccessful dieting."

SOURCE: International Journal of Eating Disorders 2002;31:339-343.

http://health.yahoo.com/search/heal...=s&p=id%3A18163

great find, doreen. thanks for posting.

Nor can everybody be a size 5...nor will everyone's cellulite disappear...nor will weight loss make me taller, blonder, or suddenly more clever in my flirting technique.

"along with increasing women's awareness that weight loss dieting does not lead to long-term weight loss, it is important to emphasize that shape change is also unlikely to occur through diet change" would be a wonderful little quote to memorize or put over our mirrors.

I think that if we keep our goals realistic & concentrate on the improved health aspects of proper diet & excerise...we can't lose or be dissappointed.

My point...dissappointment

Our emotional reaction to dissappointment can be more detrimental to our health. At different stages of our lives, obviously, body image plays a different role.
"will I be loved"?, can I compete"?, "will they accept me"?, are questions we delude ourselves with when we try to measure our worth with only what others expect of us instead the whole person..who we are.

Make every effort count..we were created with amazing possibilities & tremendous potential for achievement.

Each has to find his own way & hopefully be supportive of others on their path.

This one bothers me a lot. Diets may not work, but changing your WOE does. And that starts with weight loss dieting. Almost all of us at least started dieting to lose weight. We will keep it off because we have come to the correct conclusion that we have to make this a way of life rather than just a diet.

I personally will not depend on exercise to reduce my size. It will tone my body as I lose the fat, but exercise alone is not the answer. If I had continued to eat the way I did, no amount of exercise would have helped. From eating a primarily carbohydrate diet, I was losing energy (and subsequently becoming more and more sedentary) and muscle mass. There is no way I could have reversed that with diet alone.

To me, this article is saying that exercise is the only answer. I object.

;-Deb

What this article points out, but doesn't say, and I fully agree with, is that diet ads are unrealistic. Every day we are bombarded with ads that tell us if we lose weight on so-and-so's program or eat their wonderful diet food (mostly low fat), we will be thin and have beautifully shaped, hard bodies.

Myself, I just harken back to what I looked like before I started gaining the weight (I had a rather thick waist), and that's pretty much how I want to look when I get to that point in my journey. And that won't be the end, of course, because this is a way of life.

I am not expecting a specific look. I am expecting to look like me.

;-Deb

I expect it depends on how you loose the weight. When I did Slim Fast (Starve Fast) I lost about 30 pounds and a size, but some of that had to be lean muscle mass. ( I later regained more weight and an extra size.) I got smaller but didn't get a different body shape. On Atkins, with exercise that included weight bearing exercises, I lost what??? I 'd have to look but 50 pounds maybe and 4 sizes. I gained lean muscle mass and lost fat. I had a better waist to hip ratio. I kept my womanly shape (On Slim Fast my breasts were the first to get smaller) and looked and felt healthy and wonderful.

Beth