Looking at what science has to say about weight - getting beyond "ought", shame, trends, etc. - is that each person is meant to fall within his or her own weight range. If you're meant to be plump, you will be. You can diet, you can lose successfully, but your body will fight back. Dieting and then overeating is just like holding your breath and then breathing heavily.

This is not permission not to eat healthy food and be inactive. It's just acknowledging that reality that some people have bigger appetites than others and that even then, the same food is going to look different on different people.

If you want to check it out, start with "Rethinking Thin" by Gina Kolata.

Oprah Winfrey is selling eating disordered ideas to all of her readers and viewers.

I happened to read the January 2009 issue of "O" magazine while I was delayed and waiting for a plane. It was full of guilty, self-abasement by Oprah for gaining weight. The kicker is that Oprah has gained weight because she has thyroid problem, which destroys metabolism. There were no vows to get healthy and then worry about her appearance, just a long article filled with relentless self-criticism.

[Oprah, honey, you're in your mid-50s and you have a thyroid problem and you gained some weight. It's not your fault. When you get the health problem under control, then you can worry about your appearance.]

Oprah's article had the elements of a pro-anoxeria blog. She compared herself to Cher and talked about great Cher looks. (She very nearly said that Cher is her "thinspiration.")

She invited her personal trainer to write an article on weight loss. He suggested that people need to embrace feeling hungry for the sake of their appearance. (One pro-ana site tells people that "Nothing tastes as good as thin looks" and "Hungry feels better than fat.")

Oprah quote: 'I’m so embarrassed,” she said. “All the money and all the fame and all the attention and the success doesn’t mean one thing if you can’t control your own being.'

Actually, I think it (fame, millions, sucess) does mean something to most everyone. I think it means something to her too. I'll bet she'd be more depressed if she was in a dead-end job, crappy home life & pushing 200 lbs.

Sounds like another super rich person trying to make 'the little people' feel sorry for them. I do like Oprah, consider her a liberal & think she'd have made a fine senator (much better than Oyziburrisass).

In her defense, TV adds pounds so she appears even fatter than she really is.

bad for her health.

Proof that you can have an eating disorder without being super-thin!

People wonder why a lot of women worry more about eating disorders than obesity. This is why. Healthy is not self-deprivation and compulsive exercise, but because that's what it takes for a lot of women to maintain an attractive weight, that's how it's sold to us.

Your normal weight is what you get when health issues are managed and you eat and exercise with variety, moderation, pleasure and simple satiation in mind. It's not what you are when you fit into your skinny jeans.

I'm also getting sick of the self-help culture, but as a sexual abuse and physical battery survivor myself, it's been shoved down my throat my entire life. It becomes a kind of emotional anorexia, a deformation of personality, and it gets just as awful after a while. I'm finally, in my 40s, starting to think that I'm okay as I am, up to and including the remnants of the PTSD and other crap, because what do we think will result from that kind of abuse? Pollyanna? Superwoman? Supermodel? All three combined?

There's a reason these things are linked. Going from one emotional and psychological extreme to another is no more healthy than going from one physical extreme to another, and it's really strange that the lower your starting point, the higher the bar is set. It isn't enough for people whose natural weight is high to simply be fit. They must become thin. And it isn't enough for people who spend childhood in a domestic war zone to do okay. They must overachieve.

You might also mention that she once shouted down an audience member who questioned the official justification for the Iraq War... Helped instigate and support the witch hunt for child molesters in the early 90's...

And... Well, there's much more. The ugly side of Oprah has always been on display. Its just suprising that she is so rarely called on her B.S.

Amazing how Oprah's statement is the exact contrapositive of an anorexic's outlook:

Oprah: "None of my success matters if I can't control my own body."

Anorexic: "I can put up with unlimited chaos in the rest of my life as long as I can exert complete control over my own body."

Thus, anorexics who heard Oprah's remark probably rested easier that night, knowing that their own toxic behavior makes them a happier person than this famous, pampered billionaire.

(I'm not saying that every public figure needs to watch what they say lest they enable unhealthy behaviors in the populace; I'm just saying that someone like Oprah, who fancies herself the savior of middle-class humanity, should know better.)

I was struck by the her statement:

“All the money and all the fame and all the attention and the success doesn’t mean one thing if you can’t control your own being.”

I don't know Oprah. I don't know if she is calculating and trying to appeal to people (somewhat unsavorily) about this. I don't know if she wants to be a beanpole. Who really knows.

But the truth about her statement is both simple, profound, and true. At least for me.

Speaking from my own experience, when I am unable to possess myself in self control, if I am unable to live by something important that I put a high value on (in this example it would be being physically healthy) -- the rest of my life is deeply affected. In fact, I could say that it is hard to fill good about myself on the whole.

Yes, this might say something about my humanity. We all have struggles. Yes, it might say something about acceptance of one's self. But to me, it says more. It isn't a get over yourself moment. And that fact that the most successful woman in entertainment is struggling with this (and willing to put very powerful, insightful words to it) says a lot.

We aren't talking about 5 pounds or a stubborn tummy. Oprah is more than simply overweight. And it breaks her heart (my reading into this).

And for me and my similar struggle. It breaks mine.

Being extremely heavy takes (potentially) takes years off of your life and compromises the life you have. Why would one be criticized for that? It seems very understandable to me.