Are you like Gabby Sidibe?

I'm a little depressed school is almost over and everybody is going away for the holidays. My social life had just started to pick up. Fortunately, there is something to look forward to before next semester, Vienna invited me to a NYE party. I am already planning on what I'm going to wear and how I'm going to style my hair, red lipstick or pink lipstick... I also started a high protein/ low carb diet, so I can look like a knockout in sexy clothes. I'm not sure if I'm being a bit insecure about my weight, but I think my pants don't fit me like they used to. I've gained about a size, which needs to go before Dec 31st. I wish I were as comfortable with my figure as Gabby Sidibe is.

"Between the models who are too skinny by health standards and the many American women whose expanding waistlines put them in the obese category, how can you reliably judge your own weight? Maybe you can't.

In a new study, nearly 25 percent of overweight and obese women rated themselves as normal or even underweight, while a good chunk of female participants who were normal or underweight reported practicing dieting behaviors, some of them  unhealthy, to peel off the pounds.

"Overweight individuals who do not recognize that they are overweight are far less likely to eat healthfully and exercise," One of the reasons for the gap between perception and actual poundage: "If more people are overweight who are around you, you're more likely to perceive it as normal."

More than 2,200 U.S. women ages 18 to 25 answered questions about self-perceived weight, actual height and weight, and socio-demographic variables. For instance, the survey asked, "How would you describe your weight?" and participants were given the choice of the following answers: "very underweight, slightly underweight, about the right weight, slightly overweight and very overweight."

Participants also reported the number of days over the previous week they had exercised for at least 30 minutes continuously, as well as their unhealthy weight-related behaviors over that stint, including using diet pills, diet powder or diet liquids; laxatives or diuretics; inducing vomiting; skipping meals; dieting/eating less or differently; smoking more cigarettes (which suppresses the appetite); or avoiding carbohydrates.

The participants were categorized according to their body-mass index as normal weight. Overall, 52 percent of the study participants had BMIs they classified them as overweight or obese.

The shares of overweight Hispanics and African-Americans who thought of themselves as normal-weight (nearly 25 percent and 30 percent, respectively) were significantly greater than for white respondents. Fifteen percent of the overweight white women thought they were normal or underweight.

At the other end of the spectrum, 16 percent of the white women and 20 percent of the Hispanic women who were either normal or underweight thought they were overweight.

Individuals who didn't know they were fat were significantly less likely than others to engage in healthy or unhealthy weight-related behaviors. Meanwhile, those who mistakenly thought they were overweight were more than twice as likely as women who recognized their normal weight to diet, skip meals and smoke more cigarettes." - livescience.com