A Scale Down Challenge participant (let's call her Mera) shared an intriguing story with me the other week about body image. Mera asked me to consider writing a blog about it, but I was reluctant to do so. Don't get me wrong, I am fascinated by women's issues and feminist theory. I even feel that being raised by a single mom gave me a fair degree of insight into a woman's psyche. But I'm not a woman. I do not have the capacity to fathom how body image is internalized by women. And guess what, guys? Neither can you. Men will never come close to understanding the barrage of messages women receive from infancy about their bodies. I want to be perfectly clear that I am utterly incapable of doing this subject justice because I will be speaking from my own perspective. Understood? Okay, here we go.

Mera told me that she was trying to pick a goal for her weight loss program, but it was difficult because she had been overweight her entire life. She was unable to visualize being thin since she didn't know what being thin looked and felt like. So Mera somewhat arbitrarily picked 120 pounds to shoot for. When she started her workout regimen, though, she was discouraged by the fact that she still couldn't see herself at her target weight. Finally Mera researched what 120 pounds looks like for her height, and she was shocked to see stick-thin women who looked like they needed a cheeseburger to keep from falling over. Upon doing more research, she discovered sites that discussed differences in BMI goals for men and women, such as this one: http://life.familyeducation.com/weight/body-image/46748.html?page=4. Mera's goal changed to 150 pounds afterward because she saw how 150-pound women looked and she could see herself hitting that goal. It was a tangible yet healthy goal.

Mera empowered herself by finding a realistic goal, and she used this website to help her: http://www.mybodygallery.com. This is a photo search of women who have the body specifications that you plug in. There are so many factors you can put in, and it's not limited to just height and weight. The site also has body shape, pant size, and shirt size, so you can customize your specific goal and see if it looks like you were expecting it too. From playing around on the site I found that there are rarely exact photos of the body type you're looking for, but if you start with general criteria and work from there you can get a pretty accurate idea of what your goal could look like. Mera and I both had very eye-opening experiences. What I found particularly interesting was the amount of variance between clothing sizes for the exact same weight and height. For the specifications I searched for, I found women with a pant size of 2-8. It goes to show you: hyper-focusing on an arbitrary weight or clothing size is not going to help you feel better about yourself. Bodies vary, so try to just find a healthy weight and love yourself whether or not you hit it.

-Kris