ProAna sites: Health Support with Bizarre Twist
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on 3/24/2008
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Despite researching health and fitness thoroughly, when a girl mentioned that I should try to pull some girls away from proana sites and get them to join FitConnect. “They need some serious help, they’d probably like FitConnect.” Serious help? What are you talking about?
“They’re support sites for weight loss, you should advertise on them”
Well that makes sense, we’re always trying to get more weight loss oriented individuals to our site, but I was confused why she first made it seem almost like a rescue operation. She told me to just google it and I’ll find out.
So after googling for a few minutes I soon realized that Pro-Ana is slang for Pro-Anorexia – the sites are forums and blogs where anorexics (mostly female) post extreme weight loss tips, moral (or, immoral) support, and write rants of frustration. Commonly I came across message boards stating “I gained 5 lbs back and I hate myself.”
I also found many proanas that claimed, “I barely ate anything all week and I’m down 5 lbs.” And along with posts like this, the girls would post their mood as being happy. Then reading on I would find posts from the same girls at a later date stating, “I binge ate a lot today and I’ve gained 10 lbs this week”. No surprise - the mood here was quite unhappy.
So what now for our little friend who just put on 10 lbs and probably thinks she looks like a whale? She’ll probably double her non-eating efforts this week and cut her typical dinner of 2 rice cakes down to merely 1 rice cake. And half way through she might get an extra burst of motivation (from her friends on proana sites) and throw the 2nd half of her rice cake in the trash.
Doesn’t sound very healthy does it? Well, it’s not. Binge dieting – and the proana sites that support it, are not healthy and are very controversial. There are many people and organizations that are trying to get these sites shut down because of their immoral nature. Some have been successfully shut down - Although I’m not sure how, since in America we have freedom of speech. Actually, I think that died off somewhere considering I’ve once been arrested for referring to a female-enemy of mine as horse-face.
But anyway, I think the people who run these sites should be educated on how unhealthy anorexia is and they should decide to take them down themselves. And these boney proanas should clue in on what a good looking body is.
If you’re someone who is having trouble with your body image and may have an eating disorder, I recommend checking out WomensDietAndFitness.com and TheFitnessBlackbook.com – two sites that know what a healthy, good looking body is, and give quality advice on how to achieve it.
http://womensdietandfitness.com – Authored by FitConnect member, FitnessGrl, who is relatively new to FitConnect, but shoots up in the rankings due to her very informative advice.
http://thefitnessblackbook.com - Authored by FitConnect member, Rusty, who is one of the top bloggers in our community, and I often refer to his content because he mixes fact with personality.
Would I recommend either of these sites for bodybuilders? No. In fact, you’ll most likely be offended by Rusty’s strong position on looking “Hollywood” not monstrous. And following FitnessGrl’s advice won’t produce the next Ronnie Coleman, but she could probably take you from a 20 jean size to an 8. But definitely, if you’re looking to slim down the right way – these are two great sites to follow.
 Ryan Mayberry
http://fitconnect.com/ryan
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wacky finds, health watch
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