Facts and Figures

Somebody gave me this the other day, I thought I'd share.

The average woman is 5'4", weighs 140 pounds and wears a size 14 dress, while the "Ideal Woman" portrayed by models, Miss America, Barbie and scree actresses is 5'7", weighs 100 pounds, and wears a size 2.

One third of all American women wears a size 16 or larger.

75% of all American women are dissatisfied with their appearance.

50% of all American women are on a diet at any one time.

90%-99% of all reducing diets fail to produce permanent weight loss.

2/3 of dieters regain the weight in one year, virtually all regain it within 5 years.

The diet industry (diet foods, programs, drugs, etc.) takes in over $40 billion each year and is still growing.

Quick weight loss schemes are among the most common consumer frauds.

Diet programs have the highest customer dissatisfaction of any service industry.

Young girls are more afraid of becoming fat than they are of nuclear war, cancer, or losing their parents.

50% of 9 year old girls, and 80% of 10 year old girls have dieted.

90% of high school junior and senior women diet regularly even though only between 10% and 15% are over the weight recommended by the standard height-weight charts.

1% of teenage girls and 5% of college women become anorexic or bulimic.

Anorexia had the highest mortality rate (up to20%) of any psychiatric diagnosis.

Girls develop eating and self image problems before drug or alcohol problems; there are drug and alcohol problems in almost every school, but no eating disorder programs.


Courtesy of the Council on Size and Weight Discrimination.



Pretty intersting, huh?.....