Summer Brings Problem Body Into the Open

Summer evokes sizzling images of sleek, tanned bodies strolling in the sun and frolicking in and about pools of cool water. Fat is out and thin is in.

But summer is also a cruel season when many of America’s 32 million obese women find illusions of slipping into sexy swimwear dissipated by the reality of chunky thighs and assorted flabby body parts.

Summer, moreover, is the worst time of the year for people prone to eating disorders, particularly women with money who are 17 to 25 years old, says Dr. Adel A. Eldahmy, a Long Beach psychiatrist.

Peer Pressure

“When bathing-suit time arrives, peer pressure to look good at the beach and swimming pool rises enormously,” Eldahmy said.

“While appearing to have a pleasant time, many women and some men feel tortured inside because they’re not as thin as they feel they should be.”

Nearly everyone knows at least one person who is thin and still thinks she is fat. The attitude is typical of a person with anorexia nervosa.

Anorexia is the intense fear of gaining weight and refers to a person who has lost 25% or more of his or her ideal body weight. Typically an anorexic looks in the mirror and sees fat where there is none.

Bulimia is another common eating disorder. Bulimics can be of normal weight, but they have fallen into a pattern of binge eating, followed by self-induced vomiting, overexercise or abuse of laxatives or diuretics to lose weight.

A Harvard University study last year showed that up to 15% of high school and college students suffer from bulimia.

Many bulimics recognize that they have a problem, although many are too embarrassed to seek professional help, Eldahmy said.

Anorexics, however, do not realize they are starving themselves by changing the delicate balance of chemicals in their bodies.

The death rate among people with eating disorders who do not seek help is 8%, Eldahmy said.

The psychiatrist, who has an eating disorder clinic in Long Beach and is founder of Anorexics-Bulimics Anonymous, says that based on his own clinical observations, more people arrive in emergency rooms from eating disorders in the summer than any other season.

‘Competition for Thinness’

“We see more eating-disorder patients because of competition for thinness,” Eldahmy said. “It puts a lot of pressure on normal-weight people to look like Twiggy, to look fashionable and even successful.”

Eldahmy, who came to the United States from Egypt eight years ago, said that in Egypt a woman of normal weight is admired as most beautiful because so many around her are undernourished. In the United States, with the greater abundance of food, obesity is a problem and models tend to be underweight.

Eldahmy would like to see that changed.

“I was in a meeting of fashion designers in New York last week and was told voluptuous figures are coming back,” Eldahmy said. “Let’s hope we see real people modeling.”

In the meantime, Eldahmy suggests that the fashion-conscious be on guard for warning signs of impending eating disorders:

- Weight fluctuation.

- Obsession with weight and calories.

- Mild depression.

- Exaggerated diet.

- Over-exercising.

- Feeling weak and tired.

Eldahmy has few words of hope for those faced with a long summer of bulging flesh.

“There isn’t a quick, immediate answer,” he said. “I would say just avoid looking for quick solutions because you’ll just put weight back on in a few months. Lose slowly--one or two pounds a week--walk a half-hour four times a week, cut down on calories slowly and do not deprive yourself of eating. You cannot skip meals, because later on you’re going to binge.”

Eldahmy also advises people who have eating disorders to get a complete physical to rule out other weight-related diseases and to seek professional help.