Being moderately overweight might not pose health risk.....

[Little Star]

A study finds that people who are significantly obese are at higher risk of premature death, but not those who are merely overweight. And there may even be benefits to a few extra pounds.

http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-overweight-survival-20130102,0,7418358.story

Common Sense. Glad to see someone looking into this aspect!

Body Dysmorphic Disorder or/and Body Dysmorphic Disorder by Proxy are real for some people. I've known people who seem to fit into either category.

[Odin2005]

1. Marylin Monroe would be considered "fat" today.

People's ideas about what is "fat" and what is a "healthy weight" are completely fucked up.

[Little Star]

2. Yes. And the misrepresentation of what is "fat" is causing....

both physical and mental health issues. Yet so many people are uneducated about these issues.

Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any mental illness. Just look at these statistics, wow.
http://www.state.sc.us/dmh/anorexia/statistics.htm

[Fawke Em]

5. No she wouldn't.

So what size was Marilyn Monroe actually? Luckily, many of her dresses, carefully preserved, are still around to measure off of. Further, one of her dress makers also chimed in with exact measurements he took. Those measurements were 5 ft. 5.5 inches tall; 35 inch bust; 22 inch waist (approximately 2-3 inches less than the average American woman in the 1950s and 12 inches less than average today); and 35 inch hips, with a bra size of 36D. Her weight fluctuated a bit through her career, usually rising in times of depression and falling back to her normal thereafter, but her dressmaker listed her as 118 pounds and the Hollywood studios tended to list her between 115-120 lbs

.
Read more at http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2012/04/marilyn-monroe-was-not-even-close-to-a-size-12-16/#Uwrp8b2sT7okIQJA.99

[MissMillie]

7. 5'5", 120 lbs is a BMI of 20.0

at the low end of normal

which is kind of strange when you think of how curvy she looked.

[TwilightGardener]

9. Thanks, I never thought she looked fat or heavy in any way.

[MissMillie]

10. I didn't think so either

but I would have guessed a little higher in weight due to the curves.

[LisaLynne]

3. It would be nice if this became the mainstream view.

Moderation in ALL things, you know? Maybe then people would stop all this fat phobic behavior and just relax a little.

[duffyduff]

4. Weight prejudice is still very much alive

Unfortunately, many people even here buy into it. It's a shame.

There is a lot more to a person's worth than how he or she looks.

[LisaLynne]

6. So true.

And a lot of people mask their prejudice under the guise of concern -- "but it's so unhealthy for you to be overweight!" Yeah, sure. That's really where it's coming from.

[phleshdef]

8. I'm of the mind that some extra weight when you are a senior is a good thing.

My great grandfather always said that its good to have weight to lose (this was in reference to his need to undergo chemotherapy for lung cancer).

This is especially a concern for me because I've always been underweight. I'm in my 30s now and still haven't gained a pound since 9th grade. If I ever got the kind of sickness where weight loss is unavoidable, I'd be in trouble.