Facts and Figures

Some Things That Might Interest You

 

• The average American woman is five feet four inches and weighs 140 pounds. The average American woman wears a size 14 dress.
• The "Barbie" or "Ideal Woman" you see kids playing with, in life would be five feet seven inches and weigh 100 pounds. She would wear a size 8 dress.
• One-Third of all American women wear a size 16 or larger.
• Three-Quarters of American women do not like or are dissatisfied with their appearance.
• Half of the American women are on a diet at any one time.
• Between 90% and 99% of weight reducing seats fail to produce permanent weight loss.
• Two-Thirds of dieters regain the weight they lose, in one year. Almost all regain it in five years.
• The diet industry (diet foods, programs, drugs, etc.) takes over $40 billion each year and it is still growing.
• Quick weight loss schemes are among the most common consumer dissatisfaction of any service industry.
• Young Girls are more afraid of becoming fat then of nuclear war, cancer, or losing their parents.
• 50% of nine year old girls and 80% of 10 year old girls have dieted.
• 90% of high school junior and senior women diet regularly, although only 10 to 15% are over weight recommended by doctors.
• 1% of teenage girls and 5% of college aged women become anorexic, or bulimic. (Please do not fall to that level. If you are having trouble, go to a psychiatrist, they can and will help you beat your fears and problems!)
• Anorexia has the highest mortality rate, 20% of any psychiatric diagnosis.
• Girls develop eating and self-image problems before drug or alcohol problems. There are drug and alcohol programs in almost every school but no eating disorders programs.
• There were a reported 67 deaths from Anorexia Nervosa in 1988 alone.
• Jane Fonda revealed her secret bulimia habits that she had had since she was 12 years old until her recovery at age 35! She told of bingeing and purging up to 20 times a day
• Approximately 1/3 of bulimia patients regularly engage in shoplifting
• Approximately 1/4 of bulimia patients have suffered from alcohol abuse or addiction at some point in their lives.
• The late recording artist, Karen Carpenter, was an Anorexic who used syrup of ipecac to induce vomiting, died after buildup of the drug irreversibly damaged her heart.
• An estimated 78 percent of adolescent girls wish to weigh less
• The mortality for anorexia is reported to be 6%
• Half of Anorexia patients who require a hospital stay relapse within a year.
• Cases of eating disorders have doubled over the past decade
• Anorexia is most common in white, 15-24 year old women
• 1/3 of obese patients may have the binge eating disorder

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