It’s possible to be plus-size and healthy, and a recent poll on African American women from the Washington Post and the Kaiser Family Foundation is proving that there’s more than one form of healthiness.

Although black women polled in the survey were heavier than their white counterparts, their self-esteem was notably higher. About 66 percent of black women who were considered overweight or obese by government standards had high self-esteem, compared with just 41 percent of average-size or thin white women, which is a major plus for mental health.

High self-esteem wasn’t rooted in denial about the effects of obesity on one’s physical health either. Ninety percent of black women in the survey said living a healthy lifestyle is very important to them, coming before religion, career, marriage, and other priorities. The finding that two-thirds of these women eat at fast-food restaurants at least once a week, and just more than half cook dinner at home on a regular basis, seems to contradict the desire to live healthy, but the look of a healthy body to black women varies greatly, a write-up of the study showed.

Joseph Neil, a full-time trainer and certified nutritionist in Washington DC, said black women usually come to him with a body-mass index of 29, which he attributes to work demands that lead to eating fast food and less exercise. White women on the other hand typically have a BMI of 22 or 23.

White women “are self-conscious about the numbers. They say I want to weigh 110, 115, 120,” he said. But black women “give me sizes — 6, 8, 10, 12.

“White women are not coming to a trainer saying I want to be a 12. Every white woman who wants to work out and train wants to be petite, petite, no curves, no hips, no butt, nothing, just toned.”

For most, that’s not surprising. Despite the images we’re bombarded with on a regular basis, the lack of black women on runways and in magazines may actually be saving our self-esteem, some said. According to Heather Hausenblas, a University of Florida professor of exercise physiology, Black women “are just not comparing themselves to these white models.”

We are catching on to the high rates of obesity in our community and the negative effects that being overweight can have on our physical health, though, as writer Michaela Angela Davis pointed out.

“We’re not saying its super fly to be super fat. We’ve never said that,” Davis notes, but unlike in white culture, “black women are not criminalized for it.”

Do you think black women are finally figuring out how to balance love for their full-figured bodies with the need to be physically healthy?

Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.

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When we talk about the cost of obesity, it’s usually related to the burden weight-related issues can have on the healthcare system but obesity may be hitting overweight men and women’s wallets in another way—lower pay, according to U.S. News and World Report.

Unsurprisingly, overweight women are hit the hardest. According to the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, in 2004, average annual incomes for obese women were $8,666 less than workers with a normal weight. For overweight men, the salary was $4,772 less. In 2008, the researchers found that obese women made an average of $5,826 (15%) less than normal-weight females.

What’s odd is that this pay gap only seems to effect obese individuals who are Hispanic or white. In both 2004 and 2008, black men who were obese earned more than normal-weight black men, and wages were similar for obese and normal-weight black women.

Perhaps this is part of the reason why overweight black women have a higher quality of life than white women, or it may prove that black women’s weight doesn’t mentally and emotionally hinder them from being able to perform on the job and earn the appropriate salary.

What do you think accounts for the fact that overweight black women don’t earn less? What about the fact that overweight black men earn more than normal-weight black men?

Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.

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Forget everything you’ve read about how carbs and sugar and saturated fat in the foods we eat are at the root of America’s obesity problem. The real reason so many people are overweight is spandex.

Ridiculous right? Some people seem to think so. In NPR’s ongoing Obesity in America series, a reporter talked to a few clothing designers about the evolution of clothing over the past few decades and how spandex and stretchy material has become standard in today’s clothing and how that gives people more leeway to be overweight.

“Years ago, when we made a suit or a coat, it was built like a battleship. It was like bulletproof,” NYC designer George Simonton says. “Today, it’s beautiful clothes but high comfort level. Everything has stretch — pants, skirts, dresses, blouses, knit tops.”

When consumers were asked their take on the spandex revolution, the opinions differed by size.

One woman said, “I do like spandex because of the way it curves my body. We are not perfect bodies, but sometimes you do want to feel lean and beautiful. Put on spandex. You’re good to go.” While a size 4 argued, “I think that spandex is made to accommodate people who are overweight. I’ve seen some terrible sights. They are overweight, and they would put on the tightest spandex things they can find, and they just look absolutely awful.”

So are we talking about being overweight or wearing things that are not in your size? There’s a big difference there.

Expanding waistlines and a decline in the price of spandex in recent years has allowed for widespread purchasing of clothing and undergarments with these materials, and despite the wonders they can work on smoothing back fat and trimming a roll here or there, even those who wear them feel a bit conflicted. “It’s dishonest,” one woman said. “It lets you get away with wearing things that you probably shouldn’t just because it expands to fit. I think it is deceptive.”

What was supposed to be an article exploring America’s weight epidemic turned into a discussion of style preference,though, with comments like, “Some of us cringe when we see the things that we see. Some people will be poured into a garment and think they look fabulous, and someone else might look at that person and think that’s not very attractive.”

I personally would like to know what garments people are finding that they think would make a person feel like they’re not overweight if they are. At most, you might be able to squeeze into something one size smaller with a good pair of spanx and a dress with some flow, but for the most part all you’re going to get is a little smoothing and a sleeker silloughette. I don’t think anyone would use that for justification to not lose weight, especially if we’re talking obesity. Perhaps the point they’re trying to get at is if people didn’t look good in clothes they’d be persuaded to lose weight? Let’s just cut out plus-size clothes altogether then, that will fix the problem. Sigh.

What do you think? Does the fact that people can still find clothes in larger sizes keep them overweight?  Are spanx and leggins bad for larger women’s waistlines?

Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.

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I used to work in medical publishing so I know that studies have to be done over and over and over again to prove scientific validity, but when it comes to black women and obesity, I think we’ve got the point. A lot of black women over the age of 20—some estimates say nearly 80%–have a BMI over the recommended level for their height, some black women put off exercise for the sake of their hair, and some black women think it’s OK to carry a little extra weight. We know this. Now, yet another study has shown that  obesity is less of a stigma for black women and that they have a higher quality of life than obese white women when it comes to physical function, self-esteem, sexual life, public distress, and work. Is that a bad thing?

Some would argue that, no, black women don’t get it, otherwise so many of us/them wouldn’t still be fat, obese, overweight, morbidly obese, or however you want to label it. But that’s just not true. Just because you don’t hate yourself for being overweight doesn’t mean that you don’t care. Neither does the fact that you’re not immediately doing anything about it. How many goals do all of us label as priorities and still fail to tackle?

One analysis of the study, pointed out that white women tend to have a cruel outlook towards their body and when they are obese, tend to discriminate within themselves, or let themselves go in terms of the way they dress, and even possibly limit their social activity because they are ashamed of their weight. Overweight black women who are proud of how they look despite the weight are often criticized for being too flamboyant. There’s a way to have a happy medium that doesn’t involve compromising your physical health for your mental well-being, or vice versa. There are plenty of black women who aren’t necessarily happy with being a larger size, but aren’t suicidal about it.

I often think of my sister when I read studies about overweight women and self-esteem. While I tend to have a “white woman” attitude toward my weight, I suppose, my sister has always been able to maintain a healthy sense of self-worth in spite of the added poundage. She knows she needs to lose weight, she wants to lose weight, and she has in the past. But the fact that she is not an ideal weight right now doesn’t trump her self love or even the admiration she has for her frame in its current state. I, on the other hand, tend to need a little more coercing and affirmation when I get depressed about my weight. Which is healthier overall?

I know the goal of this study was to see if researchers could determine how to motivate black women to lose weight due to the increasing obesity epidemic—and I won’t argue that it is just that—but I’m curious what the conclusion would be if it was determined that obese black women have a low quality of life too? Would fat shaming be suggested as a viable tactic? If fat black women hate themselves enough, they’ll change? Guess what? Those white women who hate themselves aren’t doing anything about their weight either, and now they’ve got mental issues to tackle too.

Researchers need to be very careful throwing out generalizations about attitudes toward weight across races, and the public ought to be slower to draw conclusions about what’s seen as overweight black women’s delusional acceptance of their bodies. Positive thoughts trump negative ones, so it’s time for the medical community and society as a whole to sing a new song if they think they’re going to successfully motivate black women to lose weight because the “you should hate yourself because you’re fat” method isn’t going to work.

Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.

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If a television show is based around plus-size women accepting, if not loving their bodies, does it send the wrong message to overweight women? If you ask different people, the answer is yes. A television show like TLC’s new series “Big Hot” does nothing for full-figured women but make them think it’s okay to teeter over a size 20, when they should be working to lose some of the weight. Why? Because society says it’s not a good look to be a proud big girl.

While watching the entertainment show “The Insider” last night, I got a preview of the new reality series “Big Hot.” It seemed very cute, like the plus-size version of “Sex and the City,” still set in New York City, but with women of all shades living it up as big girls in the big city. The show looks to showcase their experiences with dating, modeling, and dealing with the discrimination of people who aren’t so accepting. It looked both entertaining and endearing–a win win. But not more than a minute after the preview played on “The Insider,” co-host Kevin Frazier made the statement that while he could appreciate the idea of the show, he was wondering if it was sending a bad message: telling women who are actually at an unhealthy weight to learn to enjoy their weight and rock it, rather than take care of it for health’s sake. While I understood what he was trying to say, it also came out sounding sort of…well, jackass-ish. Why? His tone showed that he didn’t seem pleased or amused by the show at all (Debbie Downer, much?) and because, well, aren’t there already like 80,000 shows centered around overweight people being told to lose weight?

Everyone loves a good fast food run. On a busy day, there’s nothing like inhaling a Big Mac, fries and strawberry milkshake to quench the hunger.  But according to National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey that quenching has lead to unhealthy results– 53.4 percent of black women 20 years or older being obese.

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