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From The Biggest Loser to Mike and Molly, globally televised representations of fatness are multiplying in reflection of heightened governmental and medical concern that the size of our bodies constitutes a problem of epidemic proportions. This project demonstrates how television acts as a forum for not only the politics of fat visibility and world health policies, but also for debating issues of fatness in connection to weight-loss and self-discipline, self-love and size acceptance, and even disability and discrimination. Ultimately, this project traces public health, medical, and fat acceptance discourses throughout culture, from media industry documents and regulatory hearings to newspaper reports and television texts, in order to understand television's role in enabling and constraining the ways in which we understand bodies, fatness, and health.

The thesis is focused on the lifestyle of people with elevated cholesterol level. Fundamental terms, which are basic for the topic, are explained. The latest findings stated in professional literature on lifestyle, health, diseases, health promotion and health prevention are presented. The most recent statistical results are mentioned The first section of the thesis is focused on the issue in general, i.e. on lifestyle, the definition of health and its determinants, nutrition and stress. A large section is devoted to determinants of health that significantly affect human health. These are healthcare, genetics, environmental impacts. Therefore, the great importance of our lifestyle, which may be influenced by smoking, stress, physical activity, drug use, alcohol consumption and diet, is demonstrated. A large part of our activities can be positively influenced by ourselves. The determinants and their effects on human body are mentioned. The main focus is put on diseases associated with elevated cholesterol levels, where cardiovascular disease stands first. Another aspect makes a positive side and this is healthy lifestyle. Healthy lifestyle and practices how to positively influence our health are characterized. A specific decalogue, giving certain constrains, is outlined. And also the irreplaceable role of prevention and health promotion, which is one of activities of the public health protection authorities, is mentioned. The projects of the World Health Organization also contribute to the population health promotion. The project Health 21 is also mentioned in this thesis. The objective of this study was to analyze the results of cholesterol tests in the framework of a screening program in the South Bohemian Region carried out over the period of three years. A sub-objective was to determine the lifestyle changes in clients with the decrease in blood cholesterol levels. The main hypothesis is ? there is a rising trend in elevated cholesterol levels in the blood In the practical section the results obtained from the qualitative research focused on the lifestyle of people with elevated cholesterol levels are presented. The issues concerning their lifestyle such as physical activity, stress, smoking, dietary habits, fluid intake and sleep are investigated. The questionnaire survey and the subsequent analysis of the data obtained have shown that these persons have a more responsible approach to their lifestyle. They admit that the results of the tests focused on cholesterol levels positively affect their lifestyle. The majority of respondents positively affect their lifestyle according to theoretical recommendations. Comprehensive investigation has proved that the overall lifestyle is comparable to the general population.

The purpose of this thesis is to use specific fat pornographic imagery as a means to help us understand fat tropes and fetishization. The goal is to use our understandings of masculinity and race within fatness to create a possible launching point for further study within the field of fat sexuality studies. My rationale for writing such a paper is because fat sexuality studies is a field which has very little content, but potential for incredible scholarship which can impact not only our understandings of fat bodies, but of all bodies. The method for this thesis involves looking at specific images of “still-image” fat pornography and using these images to explain theoretical conceptions of fat sexuality. My hope for the significance of this work is that it will help to more firmly place fat sexuality studies in the academic landscape as a site for further research.

In recent years, there have been many debates about fat female bodies in the media. Fat women are often associated with moral failure, laziness and stupidity. Women’s fat bodies are loaded with negative meanings because of dominant negative attitudes. These attitudes tells fat women that they need to change their bodies, in order to fit in a society where beauty standards are characterized with certain ideals around skinnyness. In this study, i will show how fat female bodies are being discussed on Flashback forum. I’m using a gender and intersectionalitative perspective. Anti-feminists uses Flashback forum to express sexist, homophobic and racist comments about different authors of feminist and body-positive blogs. These feminist bloggers are questioning the oppression that fat women faces in their everyday lives, and they wan’t to make all bodies visable by countering prejudice about fat female bodies. When does Flashback take threats against female feminist bloggers seriously?

Previous reports have demonstrated that children’s physical activity is typically intermittent in nature. Accelerometers are reliable and valid tools for quantifying the pattern of activity in children. However, in order to interpret accelerometer output it is necessary to apply appropriate accelerometer thresholds for classifying physical activity intensity. Currently multiple accelerometer thresholds are available in the literature and it is unclear which are the most appropriate or whether thresholds should be sample specific. Additionally, there is little information regarding how the pattern of activity in children varies across groups and how activity patterns relate to health. The overall aim of the thesis was to describe the pattern of habitual physical activity, using objectively-measured physical activity data, in relation to health outcomes in pre-adolescent boys. The first objective was to characterize the pattern of boys’ habitual physical activity, using objectively-measured physical activity data. The second objective was to investigate the relationship between habitual physical activity and specific aspects of the activity pattern and health outcomes in boys. The final objective was to investigate the effects of continuously- versus intermittently- accumulated physical activity on acute health outcomes in boys, using an intermittent activity protocol based on the measured pattern of habitual activity in boys. The first four studies used a sample of 54 boys, aged 8 to 10 years. The final study used a different sample of 10 boys, aged 9 to 11 years. Both samples were from the county of Devon, UK. The first study of this thesis established sample-specific accelerometer-intensity thresholds through calibration research with ActiGraph accelerometers (counts•2s-1) in boys. The second study in the thesis demonstrated that relationships between time accumulated at different activity intensities and health (fatness, peak oxygen consumption and resting blood pressure) in boys were similar irrespective of whether sample-specific or published thresholds were employed as long as the threshold was at least equivalent to a brisk walk (i.e. >4 METs). However, the prevalence of children reported as meeting activity guidelines did differ according to thresholds employed. Study three showed that, despite little difference between overweight and normal weight boys in overall activity, time spent sedentary and minutes of light, moderate and vigorous intensity activity accumulated, aspects of the activity pattern (frequency, intensity and duration of ≥4 s (short) and ≥5-min (long) bouts of ≥light, ≥moderate, ≥vigorous and ≥hard intensity activity) differed by weight status. Overweight boys accumulated fewer and shorter bouts of activity, particularly sustained bouts of activity which were of moderate intensity or greater. Study four examined the relationship between activity pattern and health in boys further, focusing on body fatness, aerobic fitness, blood pressure and microvascular function. Results demonstrated that summary measures of activity were negatively related to body fatness, and positively related with both aerobic fitness (i.e., total, moderate, vigorous and hard activity) and endothelial function (i.e., total and light activity). Time spent sedentary was negatively related to endothelial function. The frequency and duration of activity bouts of ≥moderate intensity and the intensity of all activity bouts (i.e., ≥light intensity) were most important for body fatness and aerobic fitness. The frequency of all bouts (short and long) of at least light intensity was most important for endothelial health. Finally, study five moved away from chronic measures of health and examined the acute physiological effects of the recommended daily amount of physical activity (60 minutes of physical activity of ≥moderate intensity) on postprandial lipaemia and microvascular function in boys the following day. Furthermore, the study aimed to assess whether the effects differed depending on whether the activity was accumulated continuously or in a manner more similar to the children’s typical activity patterns identified in studies 3 and 4. In contrast to findings from adolescents and adults, 60 minutes of >moderate intensity activity did not impact on postprandial lipaemia or microvascular function the following day in healthy, active boys, regardless of how it was accumulated. The results of the present thesis indicate that aspects of the activity pattern are significantly related to health in boys and differ according to type of day and weight status. Furthermore, the benefits of sporadically-accumulated activity are equally as strong as continuously-accumulated activity to body fatness, aerobic fitness and endothelial health in boys. Since children typically accumulate short, intermittent bouts of activity, the promotion of sporadic activity (i.e., in intervention research and current physical activity guidelines for children and youth) might increase enjoyment and adherence. The benefits of acute intermittent exercise (which simulates free-living activity) on postprandial lipaemia and microvascular function in inactive children with risk factors for cardiovascular disease should be investigated. Longitudinal investigations into the activity pattern of a much larger and more age-diverse sample of boys and girls are needed to determine whether any changes in aspects of the activity pattern might alter these and other health outcomes (i.e., cardiovascular risk factors).

Whilst the idealisation of extreme slenderness is widely recognised as a problematic issue, the negative portrayal of larger individuals is rarely criticised for its link with stigmatisation and problems with self-esteem. To the contrary, the representation of larger individuals in dehumanising terms – whether in news reports, advertising and research accounts – is generally regarded as a necessary means to encourage the pursuit of a ‘better’, ‘healthier’ self. However, these negative stereotypical portrayals – generally excluding the perspective and consent of those depicted – can also have adverse effects on human dignity, legitimacy and self-esteem of those thus depicted. Building on the work of fat studies scholars, as well as feminist marketing researchers, this research project seeks to contribute to the inclusion and rehumanisation of fuller-figured individuals, by involving them in the dialogue of visual and research representation. To do so, this research invited a group of fuller-figured women living in the UK and Canada, to ‘envision’, ‘model’, and ‘review’ their own self-presentations, primarily via the use of self-directed portraits, blogs, and conversations. Whilst the inclusion of their embodied perspectives is expected to contribute to humanising the representation of larger individuals – and offer a glimpse into what could be if we started considering women ‘of size’ as authors of their own depictions – it also contributes in filling a gap left by consumer researchers who have overlooked the way larger individuals make sense of their selves, bodies and well-being. As such, this research contributes to existing consumer research theories by explaining the ways individuals can envision their selves/bodies in the shadow of, but also in contrast with, the dominant marketplace promotion of slenderness. In terms of contribution, this research illustrates the relevance of therapeutic and embodied perspectives to understand the self, the body and to engage in acts of consumption. A new ‘self-nurtured’ discursive position offers challenges to the meanings generally attributed to larger individuals, and to the traditional approaches taken by consumer researchers to solve the ‘obesity crisis’. Overall, this research provides empirical, methodological and theoretical contributions to the field of consumer research. It also offers practical implications for the representation of larger individuals, and recommendations for those interested in the social marketing of health to enjoin people of all sizes in mindful acts of self-care and consumption.

This dissertation is about boys and fatness. In it I explore the central discourses that shape young men’s (13-15 years) experiences of their bodies, particularly in relation to body size, shape, and fatness. A central objective is to listen, hear, and take seriously the embodied health rationalities of young men as they negotiate the multiple and contesting discourses that confront them in their daily lives. I employ a feminist poststructural lens to account for the nuanced, alternative, and contextually specific ways young men think about and do health. Data collection was divided into three phases (non-participant observation, photo(focus) groups, and interviews) and was implemented at two Toronto area sites, including an exclusive private school and a publicly funded parks and recreation community centre. I demonstrate that there is not one way of experiencing fatness and masculinity, rather the young men’s constructions of fatness and health were fluid, shifting, contradictory and cross cut by other salient identity categories such as gender, race, ethnicity, social class, and age. Using Michel Foucault’s concept of governmentality, I show how obesity discourse provides a set of resources by which young men are able to construct themselves as autonomous, rational, neoliberal subjects, and how these subjectivities are differentially constituted depending on social and cultural positioning. I also reveal how differently raced and classed young men take up and embody normative ideals of the lean muscular male body through culturally appropriate masculine technologies of the self (i.e. sport and heterosexuality). The multiplicity of health and body discourses available to the young men gave rise to contested and ambivalent experiences and practices, such that dominant discourses were not always articulated in a straightforward and predictable manner, but were imbued with alternative and, in some cases, subversive meanings. To date, the social sciences have neglected to account for the relationship boys and men have with fatness discourses. By centering the analysis on the embodied experiences of diverse racialized and classed youth, this research demonstrates that weight and shape is more than a biomedical problem to be eradicated, but a discursively compelled embodiment that exists at the crossroads of the social, cultural, psychic, and biologic.

This dissertation is about boys and fatness. In it I explore the central discourses that shape young men’s (13-15 years) experiences of their bodies, particularly in relation to body size, shape, and fatness. A central objective is to listen, hear, and take seriously the embodied health rationalities of young men as they negotiate the multiple and contesting discourses that confront them in their daily lives. I employ a feminist poststructural lens to account for the nuanced, alternative, and contextually specific ways young men think about and do health. Data collection was divided into three phases (non-participant observation, photo(focus) groups, and interviews) and was implemented at two Toronto area sites, including an exclusive private school and a publicly funded parks and recreation community centre. I demonstrate that there is not one way of experiencing fatness and masculinity, rather the young men’s constructions of fatness and health were fluid, shifting, contradictory and cross cut by other salient identity categories such as gender, race, ethnicity, social class, and age. Using Michel Foucault’s concept of governmentality, I show how obesity discourse provides a set of resources by which young men are able to construct themselves as autonomous, rational, neoliberal subjects, and how these subjectivities are differentially constituted depending on social and cultural positioning. I also reveal how differently raced and classed young men take up and embody normative ideals of the lean muscular male body through culturally appropriate masculine technologies of the self (i.e. sport and heterosexuality). The multiplicity of health and body discourses available to the young men gave rise to contested and ambivalent experiences and practices, such that dominant discourses were not always articulated in a straightforward and predictable manner, but were imbued with alternative and, in some cases, subversive meanings. To date, the social sciences have neglected to account for the relationship boys and men have with fatness discourses. By centering the analysis on the embodied experiences of diverse racialized and classed youth, this research demonstrates that weight and shape is more than a biomedical problem to be eradicated, but a discursively compelled embodiment that exists at the crossroads of the social, cultural, psychic, and biologic.