by Michelle Wilkinson

Created on: January 26, 2009   Last Updated: July 21, 2010

People come in all different shapes and sizes, so why are people so obsessed with reaching a target weight, as if once they reach that weight everything will fall into place and they will be content with themselves and their bodies? The media, in particular, is obsessed with people's size rather than their health, especially when it comes to celebrities, whilst even the growing obesity problem faced by society is framed in terms of how large a person is rather than how healthy they are. Surely health is more important than mere vanity?

Whether people are thin, fat or just in the middle, it seems that everybody has issues with their weight or believes there is some aspect of their body that can be improved. Images abound of perfectly-formed celebrities with their tiny waists and perfect skin. Sometimes it is hard to remember that these celebrities have been made up by professionals and are often air-brushed to within an inch of their lives without anybody batting an eyelid. It is all too easy to buy into this notion of perfection and to regard it as something to aspire to.

In general, unless people are willing to undergo cosmetic surgery, people cannot change the way they look in terms of facial features, but they can change the shape their body takes by either losing or gaining weight. Overweight people who decide to lose weight often have a specific target weight in mind or clothing size they would like to reach. Sometimes people are realistic in their estimations and embark on a long-term weight-loss programme, losing the weight slowly but surely. More often than not, however, people want to see results straightaway, and so take an unhealthy approach to weight loss, alternating between eating too little and eating too much, tending to get trapped in a cycle of yo-yo dieting.

For some people weight loss is imperative, particularly if they are plagued by ill health as a consequence of their obesity. For a significant proportion of people, though, weight loss becomes about looking good, and it is harder to stick to long-term goals with such short-sightedness. Magazines targeted at women are particularly bad for propagating the benefits of fad diets which clearly do not work in the long term.

Celebrity magazines also distort the importance of weight loss over health, focusing on both extreme ends of the scale; very thin celebrities and celebrities that have put on considerable amounts of weight. Often they project what they think these celebrities weigh, seeming rarely to take into account the height of the individuals concerned. Non-celebrities wishing to lose weight then see such projections as the weight to aim for, regardless of their own height, shape, or frame.

People can lose all sense of perspective when they become obsessed with losing weight. Those who decide to lose weight should make it a long-term goal rather than focusing on slimming down quickly, and should set realistic goals which can be achieved, keeping the health benefits of weight loss very much in mind. Any other method is likely to end in failure.

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