Facts & Figures About Dieting & Weight Loss * The average American woman is 5'4", weighs 140 lbs, and wears a size 14 dress. * The "ideal" woman--portrayed by models, Miss America, Barbie dolls, and screen actresses--is 5'7", weighs 100 lbs, and wears a size 8. * One-third of all American women wear a size 16 or larger. * 75% of American women are dissatisfied with their appearance. * 50% of American women are on a diet at any one time. * Between 90% and 99% of reducing diets fail to produce permanent weight loss. * Two-thirds of dieters regain the weight within one year. Virtually all regain it within five years. * The diet industry (diet foods, diet programs, diet drugs, etc.) takes in over $40 billion each year, and is still growing. * Quick-weight-loss schemes are among the most common consumer frauds, and diet programs have the highest customer dissatisfaction of any service industry. * A recent survey found only 30 percent of 250 randomly chosen women age 21 to 35 had normal bone mass--the researchers concluded women are so afraid eating dairy products will make them gain weight that they are starving themselves into osteoporosis. * Young girls are more afraid of becoming fat than they are of nuclear war, cancer, or losing their parents. * 50% of 9-year-old girls and 80% of 10-year-old girls have dieted. * 90% of high school junior and senior women diet regularly, even though only between 10% and 15% are over the weight recommended by the standard height-weight charts. * 1% of teenage girls, and 5% of college-age women become anorexic or bulimic. * Anorexia has the highest mortality rate (up to 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 disorder programs. This information is a public service of Largesse, the Network for Size Esteem [http://www.largesse.net/] and may be freely copied and distributed in its entirety for non-commercial use in promoting size diversity empowerment, provided this statement is included.

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