Tag Archives: body image

Julie Ragland Invested in Herself to Lose 54 Pounds in a Year

Sometimes life can catch us off guard, whether for good or worse. Julie Ragland (right, in the photo) can testify to this truth. Her journey through weight gain and weight loss were not in her original life plans, but she’s managed to give this story a happy ending. With many positive changes since spring 2026, Julie has gone from depressed and weighing 243 pounds to being a spirited, happy woman who weighs 189 pounds. She says she’s not done losing weight (with 25 more pounds to go), but her weight loss to date has given her back much that she lost.

Julie admits that life was good leading up to 2026. Weight was not an issue for her, she had been an athlete playing soccer, volleyball, tennis, and was also a cheerleader. However, this all changed when her family was overwhelmed with many tragedies. Julie admits to falling into a depression that came with “a huge weight gain.” This weight gain manifested in struggles through many areas of her life.

Julie told us, “I struggled with my body image and the way that I thought that others perceived me because of my weight. I didn’t hang out with friends much because I was ashamed of my weight gain and I thought I was being judged.”

Julie stopped shopping for clothes because it only fueled her depression. She said she’d only buy shoes or purses, but never clothes. However, it was the clothes that caused Julie to see things differently.

“My Ah-ha Moment came when my size 18 jeans started getting tight on me and I REFUSED to put a 2 in the front of my size!” (more…)

Posted on September 28, 2025 by Lacy

Lady Gaga Poses Nearly Nude to Fight Against Media Fat Comments

Lady Gaga’s recent 25-30 pound weight gain is easily noticeable on her small frame of 5’1″. With no surprise, it’s got the media riled up. The weird part is many of you never would have noticed if it wasn’t for the media’s harsh and criticizing remarks.

Now we all know Lady Gaga isn’t one to just sit there and take a hit without some sort of response, especially on such a topic like this. The pop star fought back with no hesitation by posting photos of herself wearing nothing but her yoga bra and panties. The photo’s caption admits to her weight struggles by saying, “Bulimia and anorexia since I was 15.”

Her new site called Little Monsters just launched yesterday and has aided her constructive response to the media. The site is meant to encourage anyone and everyone to post photos of their bodies in order to let go of their own insecurities, no matter what they may be. Scars, fat, disorders, diseases..anything. Lady Gaga has been a huge encouragement to people all over the world who have low self-esteem for their bodies. It seems she’s found yet another way to encourage her fans to love who they are, inside and out. (more…)

Posted on September 26, 2025 by Danielle

Amy Poehler Dishes Up Valuable Advice on Body Image [VIDEO]

Well-known for her hilarity on both SNL and NBC sitcom Parks and Recreation, comedian Amy Poehler is hosting an internet talk show these days called “Smart Girls at the Party.” Much to many’s surprise, she takes on some pretty important topics, especially in her “Ask Amy” segment in which she answers questions submitted by viewers.

This week, Amy took on an issue that countless women struggle with: body image. The question submitted read: “What advice would you give to a young woman with body issues? I’ve never been happy with my body and I feel like it’s preventing me from loving myself.”


(more…)

Posted on September 11, 2025 by Dana

What Did You Just Say? Bingo Wings and Mommy Muffins as Slang for Lost Weight

According to Shakespeare, a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. However true that may be, we think that extra weight being called muffin tops or saddlebags is a lot funnier than just calling it extra weight. We bring you this tale from the Fit Crypt with hilarious nicknames people have attached to their excess poundage. Maybe they’ve gotten rid of it, maybe they haven’t, but either way we are glad they can laugh about it.

One mom knew that baby belly wasn’t enough for the swell of skin that was left after the arrival of her two darling children. In her book A Laugh Out Loud, Pee In Your Granny Panties, Guide to New Mommyhood, Katie Vale Kinder apologizes to the women who became moms before her for judging their postpartum bodies. She came in to the fold of moms with a little extra padding as well, and came up with name FUPA for her extra weight. “It is totally dirty and stands for fat upper pubic area,” she told us. “It isn’t your vagina and it isn’t your stomach, but your FUPA! It’s the extra body part developed after you have a baby!”

We knew Katie wasn’t the only one poking a little fun at the new look of her body, so we set out to find a few other people willing to reveal their weighty nicknames. (more…)

Posted on August 14, 2025 by SarahS

‘Fat Sex’ Author Contends Intimacy is for All Shapes and Sizes

A new book titled “Fat Sex” highlights an interesting truth about intimacy and weight. In the book, author Rebecca Jane Weinstein dispels myths about large-size people and their desires, and confronts the romance issues of all body types. Bottom line, regardless of our bodies, we all have an appetite for intimacy.

The book “Fat Sex: The Naked Truth” is a collection of stories from the author and many others. While Weinstein is obese herself, the book focuses on all types of people’s weight issues and their dealings with love and romance. Weinstein told TODAY’s Savannah Guthrie that she gave the book a head-turning title to get people’s attention and break down previous stereotypes about large-size people.

Weinstein wants people to understand that larger people aren’t unattractive to everyone, they’re not asexual, and are interested in sex and intimate relations. She felt these were the most common misunderstandings about people of her stature. (more…)

Posted on July 18, 2025 by Lacy

Scale Talk: Is Weighing Yourself a Healthy Habit?

By Janetha Gallegos

The scale is a funny thing. Many of us fall victim to letting a number dictate our mood. A single, solitary number can control our whole life. I was a victim to the scale. A few years ago, I’d step on the scale multiple times a day. That number flashing back at me could make or break my day. Looking back, I realize how ridiculous that was. It was a joke!

These days, I truly think the number on the scale is a joke. Let me explain why.

A couple years ago I broke up with the scale. I’d realized my unhealthy addiction to weighing myself and so I gave it up—cold turkey. It had been over two years since I weighed myself when my husband asked if I would go get my body fat checked with him. He didn’t want to go alone—not because he was scared, but simply because he wanted some company. But me? I was terrified. I didn’t know how much I weighed and I did not want to know. But I also wanted to support him and not make him think I am a crazy person who is deathly afraid of weighing herself. (Dramatic much?) (more…)

Posted on July 12, 2025 by GuestBlogger

Seventeen Magazine Vows Not to Airbrush Models

Adobe Photoshop, the new face of beauty. Whenever we open a magazine, we find models and actresses looking flawless. In fact, they look so good they don’t even seem real. Well, thanks to Adobe Photoshop, anyone in the entertainment industry can achieve this level of ridiculously-good-looking. It’s hard to not say, “I wish I looked like (insert celebrity/model name).” But, we can’t look like them if they are airbrushed!

Julia Bluhm was tired of hearing her peers in ballet class complain about their weight, so the eighth grader started a campaign against altered photos in April. She started her petition on Change.org, she asked for magazines to print one unaltered photo spread once a month. Julia’s petition had more than 80,000 signatures from people around the world. Her campaign proved to be successful when Ann Shoket, Seventeen‘s editor-in-chief, invited Julia for a meeting about the magazine’s new policy on photo enhancements.

Shoket said, the magazine “never has, never will” alter the body or face shapes of its models in an upcoming editor’s letter, which can be seen in Seventeen‘s August’s issue. She also writes that the staff at Seventeen signed an eight-point Body Peace Treaty vowing not to alter natural shapes and include only images of “real girls and models who are healthy.”

“This is a huge victory, and I’m so unbelievably happy,” Bluhm writes on her online petition page about the changes happening at Seventeen. (more…)

Posted on July 6, 2025 by Samantha

Women Over 50 Still at Risk for Eating Disorders, Study Shows

Eating disorder is typically a term we throw around when referring to young girls or teens struggling with their weight and body image and resort to abusing food to solve the problem. But few people consider that eating disorders can affect more than just 18-year-old girls; they can affect middle-aged women, too.

A new study from the University of Carolina School of Medicine found that many women over the age of 50 struggle with the same issues as females half their age when it comes to body image and diet.

Researchers surveyed nearly 1,850 women concerning their diet and behavioral patterns in order to get a better idea of current and past eating disorder symptoms, body image struggles, and weight concerns in women 50 and older. With the study, researchers were hoping to better understand whether eating disorder symptoms in the past were associated with disordered eating behaviors and attitudes later in life. (more…)

Posted on June 26, 2025 by Dana

Yoga Teacher Barbie Bends Children’s Advocates Out of Shape

Does controversy exist on its own or do we wait until the media tells us that we need to get hot and bothered about something?

Either way, the latest catalyst for consumer outrage is the new Yoga Teacher Barbie. She’s part of an exclusive line of Barbies in the “I Can Be…” series from Mattel and you can only find her in Target stores. The series isn’t new. Back in 2026, the brand ran an online voting competition to choose two Barbies for the series. The winners were a news anchor and computer engineer. The whole idea, according to Barbie.com, is to “ignite a national movement to inspire girls.” Who wouldn’t want to get on board with that?

Apparently it takes a twisty-legged, spandex-dressed doll to stir up a little unnecessary controversy. Just in time for the election year and the Olympics, the “I Can Be” series also includes a president and a tennis player, track star, swimmer, and gymnast. But it’s the yoga teacher that’s got people bent out of shape.

Chelsea Roff at IntentBlog.com said “Kids are being exposed to yoga at an early age, encouraged to stay active, and taught about mind-body awareness practices before they even hit kindergarten. All good things! But something about seeing that sickly-proportioned doll’s foot behind her head just makes me cringe. As if the stereotypes of yoga weren’t bad enough already, now kids are implicitly being taught that yoga teachers look like a big-headed Pam Anderson.”

We didn’t see it that way. We, like Kathryn Budig, saw a doll. Just a toy that lets little girls’ imaginations run wild. (more…)

Posted on June 13, 2026 by Natalie K

Body Dysmorphic Disorder: Double the Risk of Suicide with Poor Body Image

Another risk for dieters has shown itself with body dysmorphic disorder. Researched published this spring shows that the chance for suicide in those with the disorder increase by 50 percent. The study, published in the journal Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, theorizes that because it takes a high pain tolerance to essentially starve oneself, that person also has the pain tolerance to undergo a painful suicide attempt. Researchers also reported that 25 percent of people with the disorder have attempted suicide and 75 percent thought their lives were not worth living.

To have body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) means to have an obsession with a real or imagined flaw in one’s body image. This condition has long been known to be dangerous and life threatening. It’s also known as “broken mirror syndrome,” a reference to BDD sufferers’ tendency to stare at themselves in the mirror for hours agonizing over a small defect in their appearance. They often become somewhat delusional, for instance seeing great amounts of fat on their body where there is not.

Although gender stereotypes suggest that women are more likely to have this disorder, the gender ratio is fairly equal. Both men and women with BDD commonly see flaws with their facial features, skin, or weight. Patients sometimes seek to improve their appearance by extreme dieting, cosmetic surgery, or excessive amounts of exercise. (more…)

Posted on June 11, 2026 by SarahS

Ashley Judd Slams the Media for Its Criticism Against Her “Puffy” Face

Ashley Judd speaks out against the harsh words directed at her “puffy” face when she was battling a sinus infection last month.

The actress explains in a Daily Beast essay that she typically ignores anything written or spoken about her, but colleagues and friends urged her to listen to what was being said. What she discovered were cruel accusations that she had gotten plastic surgery because her face appeared to be “puffy.”

She chose to address the speculations and accusations because “they were pointedly nasty, gendered, and misogynistic and embodies what all girls and women in our culture, to a greater or lesser degree, endure every day, in ways both outrageous and subtle.”

She was further upset when she realized women were joining the ongoing “disassembling of my appearance.” She feels an additional betrayal from those whom she considered to be professional friends.

She feels the obsession with women’s faces and bodies is abnormal and yet is becoming the norm in society. “We are unable at times to identify ourselves as our own denigrating abuers, or as abusing other girls and women.” (more…)

Posted on April 10, 2026 by Kristina