Selena Gomez and Co.: Why does extreme weight loss of stars sometimes make us sad - and what we should actually get about

Selena Gomez, Adele and Co.: Why your weight loss tripallWomen concern

I can do the pictures ofDo not look at the SAG Awards without feeling a small stitch. A wave of discomfort overruns me, as every time I see a celebrity person who has become significantly thinner. Although neither Selena Gomez nor her body tackle anything. But they stand for thatOnly a short -lived trend seems to have been.

That's why it makes me so sad when stars lose weight strongly

The problem: it is so rare that you at all-Or “Mid Size” women see on the red carpets, and every time a person changes in this way overnight-from an average for society outside of the star sky, converts too thinly-I somehow feel abandoned. Because plus and mid-size stars in particular give me hope that it is possible to be successful in this world without submitting the unrealistic beauty standards.

For years, on the other hand, I have been waking up again and again to see a new person that I had just admired for their realness, but which suddenly with striking cheekbones, a flat belly and the typicalis almost not to be recognized. It was like that with Mindy Kaling. With nobility. And with Rebel Wilson too.

Something is wrong here, nag my subconscious every time it happens, but not with these women- with me!

Decreasing celebrities are not the problem - but how this body change is sold to us

People decrease (and to) for a variety of reasons - and too often such a change is not deliberately brought about. Let us think of the numerous hormonal and illness -related reasons behind weight fluctuations. So one could ask: Why write about the weight loss of stars at all?

The reason is not found in the stars themselves, but in the headlines that report on their acceptance. If, for example, Rebel Wilson's “Years of Health” is written in which she allegedly decreased more than 30 kilos through protein -rich meals, or how Mindy Kaling managed to go through a complete transformation without diet. And Adele supposedly decreased over 40 kilos by lifting weights and doing circuit training. Sure, of course.

The common narrative of all these reports: thin is equally healthy. And if you do more sport or a little “better”, the one can also look that way. FromAnd unfortunately everyone is silent. Sure, otherwise you would have to talk about the fact that you have to be able to afford to look like this. And that losing weight is not a small side effect of a healthy life, but also an investment to be celebrated in a problematic system that has made body shaming a royal discipline.

Before and after Stars pictures suggest a wrong message

This is exactly where the problem begins, especially when such stories are presented with pictures of celebrities before and after their transformation: "I think that before and after pictures of people influence people, to believe that it is worth losing weight," says Phillippa Diedrichs, PhD, a research psychologist who is on media andspecializes. The problem lies in the fact that it is often suggested that the afterwards is the better one of both: "It conveys the message that a certain body type is not ideal and could and should be changed."

If you have ever tried, in the "old -fashioned way" - so withAnd sports - lose weight, you may know how impossible it can feel just because you don't have time to get into every dayto go. Maybe you don't have the budget to buy suitable foods either. Or you don't even know where to start training or nutrition because there is an endless flood of information on the Internet, of which few of which are realistic or trustworthy. So you are simply a normal person who does not sell hundreds of millions of records or wrote half a dozen successful television programs.

That is the reality. And stars don't live in reality. Imagine how much easier it would be to lose weight if you had a complete gym at home or access to a private fitness center in which the devices are functional and always free of use in which you have your own trainer who tells you exactly what you should do - not to mention a daily routine that allows you to do all these things even several times a day. At home, your personal nutritionist then prepares after trainingAnd perfectly coordinated meals.

If you can't lose weight as easily as the stars, you feel like a failure

We talk about very rich people here, and rich people can afford a lifestyle that makes everything easier - and this also includes weight loss by all means. But if the: The celebrities or the media that report about him: they report, a drastic weight loss as something that is easy and quick to achieve, you feel like a failure: in if you cannot lose weight after you have only eaten chicken breast for a week and every daywar.

This feeling tooCan start a cycle that affects well -being in the long term, says Dr. Diedrichs: "People often have unrealistic expectations of what they can achieve with weight loss, especially if they are sold as a result of a controlled diet and sporting activity." She notes that the weight of a person often depends on a variety of factors such as genetics, biology and socio economy, which are repeatedly hidden in marketing and in other online discussions about weight. "When influencers: inside or other people convey the message that we can easily change our body through sports and diet," adds Dr. Diedrichs, "then that is simply not supported by science."

Science proves that most dietsnotlead to sustainable weight loss (if at all weight is lost), so that those of us who see how a celebrity: r decreases, and try them out themselves in a roller coaster of theadvise. "The basic response to a diet can be that what you eat is limited and set up unrealistic rules that are impossible to follow and do not lead to the desired result," explains Dr. Diedrichs. "This in turn means that you feel lazy and undisciplined or have the feeling that you cannot keep these standards and that your body is not good enough," explains the expert. “From this point from those willing to diet, dieting tends to eat too much out of frustration, which increases self -hatred, which in turn leads to a renewed restriction of nutrition. In the most extreme cases one candevelop."

For more body positivity we also need more representation

When you see that someone who looked like yourself suddenly thinly thinIf you are unconsciously encouraged to want to lose weight, regardless of whether you have ever been interested in it or not: “Just by the fact that there are pictures with unreachable beauty standards, even if we do not believe that you can achieve them, the message is conveyed that you should strive for this. And if we don't achieve this, we are not good enough, ”explains Dr. Diedrichs and leads the picture recess as a common example that an understanding of reality is not sufficient to combat the effects of an unattainable standards.

I have spent a large part of my life, the negative effects of these things on my ownTo make conscious and yet-before and after images in my head feel like a message that I have to lose weight.I could do it as easily as the celebrities, so I should do it, right?

In a shitty way, it feels as if I lose with the “loss” of certain plus-size or mid-size prominent colleagues: inside. Those of us who do not correspond to the classic beauty standard are already fighting with a lack of fairer. If some of our most important representatives: then also “change the pages” inside, the negative can also affect our self -image: “Due to the lack of representation, we send the message that these people are not welcome or that they are not desirable or not attractive,” explains Dr. Diedrichs. "The sooner we internalize these ideas, the worse our body image is."

Indeed, I internalize that, even if I don't want it. So yes. I hate it when celebrities lose weight. It has nothing to do with who they are or why and how they did it, but it has to do with how our society and our subconscious pretend that everyone can and should be beautiful and slim. And it is certainly not a question that people who are in the spotlight should feel morally committed to staying multi -weight. It is about that the media should continue to put people of all sizes in the spotlight without themto comment on or ask about your diet secrets.

If any stars (or your publicist: inside) read this, I do not ask you to do without diets, to do sports or to publish photos of yourself in every size. I just ask you not to reveal how you decreased at the next request of a magazine (or be brutally honest about how unreachable such results are for “normalos”). Because, like Dr. Diedrichs explains, our brain is influenced by the wrong narrative that everyone can lose weight quickly and easily, regardless of whether we know that this is wrong or not.

More media literacy against body shame

Regardless of whether the reporting in the media changes or not, is according to Dr. Diedrichs an increased media literacy the solution for people who on a personal level with these unrealistichave to fight. "We know from research that if we improve the knowledge and understanding of people for the development of a media image, this can sometimes interrupt the process of comparing with other people, because this has been dismissed as a relevant goal that is actually accessible," she says. In other words, think of all the things I said about private fitness studios and personal cooking: inside.

Many of these conversations about the weight loss of celebrities are simply another means with which women are objectified and their value is reduced to the appearance of their body. Just by writing this article here, I risk to objectify these women even further, but if we miss it collectively to deal with reality, I find that this justifies a conversation. Dr. Diedrichs agrees as long as this conversationIn a way, which does not question the importance of appearance from the outset.

So the next time you will be confronted with the picture of someone that corresponds to a beauty standard that you do not correspond, and if this barely audible voice begins to nag in you, that you should be thinner, please pause for a moment and ask yourself a few things: Why is the weight the first thing that bothers me in this picture? I am with mineOr do I try to control my body to get other problems under control in my life? What are these other problems? Is it realistic or healthy to force my body to change to get rid of it?

I can't answer these questions for you, but I can tell you the following: We should not put ourselves under pressure in the footsteps of the rich, famous and ever thinner people.

This article comes from our glamor colleague Nicole Dall'asen from UK.