A thin line

They become anxious before eating, and feel guilty after. They fear being overweight, and weigh themselves repeatedly. They use strenuous exercise to burn off calories, and even when hungry, they try not to eat.

They are, as they themselves admit, preoccupied with their weight. To the dismay of UI nutritionist Laurel Branen, they are also 36 percent of University of Idaho female students aged 18 to 23, according to a 1999 random mail survey by Branen and her master’s student Hydee Tubbs. Their survey repeated and expanded upon Branen’s survey a decade earlier of weight preoccupation among female students at the university.

In the 1989 study, 25 percent of female students reported being preoccupied with their weight.

Illustration by Melissa Rockwood

"Things have not gotten better, and they’ve probably gotten worse," said Branen.

In both studies, the weight preoccupied students were those who agreed that they were "extremely" or "very much" preoccupied with their weight. The survey defined "weight preoccupied" as "spending too much time thinking about your weight," but did not specify how much time might be too much.

In the 1999 study, preoccupation with weight went hand in hand with preoccupation with shape.

Likewise, in both surveys, weight-preoccupied students scored high on the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT), a standard test that screens for people with eating disorders. Their average test scores fell just short of the score that screens for anorexia nervosa. "The students have a lot of the thinking of the anorexic, without all the behaviors," said Branen, who specializes in eating disorders in her clinical practice.

Average test scores were the same in 1989 and 1999, indicating that weight preoccupation was no more extreme in 1999 despite being more widespread.

While weight preoccupation is widespread, Branen is loathe to call it normal. "It’s not normal to be hungry all the time," she said. Worse, behaviors that attend weight preoccupation–low body weight, laxative abuse, diuretics use, exercise to exhaustion–can damage young bodies. Research also suggests that weight preoccupation can develop into full-blown eating disorders.

Branen is particularly concerned about the risk of osteoporosis in young women who should be rapidly building bone through good nutrition but are shunning calcium-rich milk for diet pop. "We’re looking at a generation of women at high risk for osteoporosis," she said.

Branen’s findings are in line with a handful of studies from the United States and abroad suggesting that weight preoccupation is widespread among young women in developed countries. "You can always tell when a country is developing, when it’s making progress, because the incidence of eating disorders starts to rise."

"In our country being thin shows status, and even small children know that being thin is important," she said. "Ain’t it awful" stories about ultra-thin movie stars such as Ally McBeal only reinforce the desirability of her look. "It’s not just thin, it’s totally emaciated, and yet they’re the ones getting parts."

Being thin tends to take on more importance during transitional times in people’s lives, Branen said, such as when young women are making the transition from high school to college or from college to the workplace. "A lot of them will grow out of it," Branen says of the students in her study, "but how much damage have they done to their bodies in the meantime?"

Time students spend preoccupied with their weight is also "time spent not accomplishing other things," Branen said. "I think that’s the greatest waste of all."

—Diane Noel