21.2 C
Nairobi
Friday, March 29, 2024

In desperate search for the right body shape

Array

On

Related stories

Why Insurance is crucial when making Travel Plans

By Faith Muriungi As we prepare for the Easter holidays,...

One weekend – three top matches!

One weekend – three top matches: How to bet...

Pastor Ng’ang’a breaks silence after Brian Chira controversial burial ceremony

Pastor James Maina Ng’ang’a, the founder of Neno Evangelism,...

There was nothing wrong with 29-year-old Isabella’s* body. She had been told that she was a beautiful woman countless times. Standing five feet eight, Isabella – who requested anonymity – looked like a model.

And though she had a string of admirers, the rising public relations officer never quite believed that her body was as okay as her admirers said. On the contrary, Isabella was convinced that she was too slender weighing 49 kilogrammes.

To validate her beliefs, she remembered how two former boyfriends had derided her for being too thin. They ridiculed her small bust, flat butt and non-existent hips. They had told her that she didn’t have the feminine curves that attract men and these words had stuck with her.

“Every time I stood before the mirror, their remarks would ring in my head,” she says.

Consequently, Isabella perceived any compliments she got as ridicule and feeling conscious about her looks, she began to eat deep-fried foods in attempt to gain weight and curves fast.

“I ate fatty foods every four hours and at home I would cook using thrice the amount of cooking fat that was required. But unfortunately, these attempts suppressed my appetite, made me nauseous and gave me digestive issues,” she recalls.

Body shape

But not one to give up easily, Isabella remained on the lookout for an effective way to gain weight. And last year in June, just as she was on the verge of giving up, a friend shared with her that she could use some drugs to achieve her goal.

ARVs TO GAIN WEIGHT?

“She showed me a conversation from her private messages on a Facebook group where women claimed to have used anti-retrovirals (ARVs) to gain weight,” she recalls.

“At first I scoffed at it thinking it was risky or even illegal. Moreover, I wondered where I would get the drugs from. My friend, who was also trying to gain weight, was adamant about trying this method and she said that a pharmacist friend who was HIV-positive would get the drugs and sell them to group members.”

Despite her initial fears, it did not take much for Isabella to be convinced. She was willing to try anything to get to her desired weight. A year later, though she has not formed curves in the desired spots, Isabella is happy that her weight has increased. So far, she has gained five kilos and says she will only stop taking the ARVs when she hits a weight of between 61 and 65 kilogrammes.

While it may be shocking that Isabella is abusing ARVs to gain weight, she is not the only woman who has used desperate measures to achieve that perennially desirable African woman look.

Women use pills, creams, injections, fatty diets and other unconventional methods in a bid to increase their average body weight and enlarge their hips, butts and busts.

And while some women have taken to using unorthodox means such as ARVs to boost their weight, Dr Patrick Gichohi, a HIV/AIDS specialist cautions that women should be hesitant to take this route.

“Some antiretroviral drugs like Efavirenz may cause psychiatric problems, while protease inhibitors – a class of ARV drugs used to stop replication of the HI virus – may raise your levels of cholesterol.

People taking antiretroviral drugs that come from a combination of drugs from the nucleoside RT inhibitors (NRTI) which are used to stop the virus from multiplying, and protease inhibitor classes, will experience changes in the distribution of body fat,

which you may mistake for weight gain,” he says, adding that some of the long-term side effects could include kidney, liver or pancreas damage, and Abacavir hypersensitivity reaction which results in fever, vomiting, and/or nausea, high blood sugar, diabetes, and high lactic acid levels in the blood.

Away from the ARV route, there are women who have taken to eating chicken feed to boost their weight. Thirty-year-old Edna, who weighs 54 kilogrammes, is one such woman.

Edna learnt about this method when a colleague mentioned that the reason why there were so many curvaceous women in town, is that they had resorted to eating growers mash to gain enviable curves.

With an aim of hitting 60 kilos, Edna swallowed her misgivings and decided to give it a shot.

To mask the taste, she mixes the chicken feed with breakfast cereal and milk, or adds it to maize meal while preparing ugali. So far, she has gained a couple of kilos, months after starting on this extreme diet.

However, according to Dr Joseph Mugechia, a pharmacologist at Garden Veterinary Services, the risks far outweigh any benefits that could be gained.

“Chicken feed is formulated with some antibiotics. When you eat chicken feed, your body ends up developing resistance to antibiotics, leaving you at the mercy of bacterial infections.

This means that in case you fall ill, your body will resist the available treatment,” he warns.

While women like Isabella and Edna opted for unusual means to boost their body weight, there are others who are betting on fast food to get them there.

Anastasia, is one such woman. Her body mass index (BMI) was under 18, indicating that she was underweight, while her weight was dropping by the day. As a matter of health concern, a nutritionist recommended that she put on some weight. Because the nutritionist did not give her appropriate diet advice, Anastasia took to eating fast food in a bid to change the number on the scale.

“My staples were fatty high-calorie, low-nutrient foods that only caused my skin to break out, and left me panting after walking short distances,” she says.

Catherine Ochweny, a Nakuru-based nutritionist warns that though junk food tends to be high in calories, it is not recommended for people who are trying to gain weight because it lacks the nutrients the body needs and can also lead to inflammation and obesity which is the basis for other lifestyle diseases.

On another end of the continuum of women who are trying to gain weight, lies women like 32-year-old marketing executive Nekesa who uses padded undergarments to give an illusion of a curvy body.

NEVER FELT CONFIDENT

“I have never felt confident about my body shape – my bust is too small while my backside is flat. This affects my confidence levels at work, but though I am willing to look better, I am not willing to take pills or get injections to achieve that. That is why I was happy when I stumbled upon padded underwear while shopping for some undergarments. I figured, they were okay because they wouldn’t interfere with my health in any way,” says the five feet three petite woman.

Wearing them, though, initially left her feeling awkward.

“I felt nervous and worried that people could tell that I was a fraud wearing padded underwear and subject me to humiliation,” she says.

However, the first time was uneventful and she has never looked back since. She says that the padded underwear is now part of her daily wardrobe and that wearing it has boosted her self-esteem and work performance, so she wouldn’t give it up, even if a man called her out for wearing it.

Nonetheless, Robert Burale, an image consultant and founder of Naked Truth, observes that wearing of padded clothes is a crutch that only gives a temporary boost while failing to address the underlying body image issues.

“A good body will never be about hips and curves or a big bust and butt. It’s about self-assurance and being comfortable in your own skin,” he says.

“Wearing padded underwear means that you have a no self-esteem and you need something artificial to get accepted.

It gets worse if you are doing it to feel attractive to men, because for one, not all men are drawn by bigger hips and backsides, and even if they are, what happens when he discovers that the curves that attracted him to you were fake?” he poses.

With all these risks associate with some weight gain measures that women have turned to, which way forward for women who want to add some kilos? Edith Ngatia, a nutritionist based in Nairobi says that it is as simple as taking in more calories than your body requires; that way, the excess is stored in the body as fat, leading to weight gain.

“Weight gain largely depends on the metabolism disposition of an individual. There are people who will respond and add weight to a point of having excess fat which settles along the abdomen, hips and arms, and others who will remain lean,” she says.

“This means that despite packing loads of fatty foods in your body, you may only add weight around your stomach and arms areas rather than your backside or bust.”

She adds that women with excess fat are more prone to chronic illnesses such as heart disease, insulin resistance, bloating and puffiness, and diabetes.

If you must eat junk food, Catherine, the Nakuru-based nutritionist, observes that you will need to include nutritionally balanced snacks with fibre and protein.

“On average, a healthy person is estimated to require at least 2,000 calories per day to maintain his or her weight. If you consume a gramme of fat, your body will extract nine calories out of it.

The body will also extract four calories each for every gramme of protein and carbohydrate you consume.” Further, Catherine recommends a diet that comprises of among others sweet potatoes, avocados, bananas, maize, and whole grains such as rice. For example, she says, a medium-sized sweet potato will contain about 100 calories and provide you with vitamin C, folic acid, potassium and fibre. However, if you fry it, the amount of calories you will consume will increase.

Subscribe

- Never miss a story with notifications

- Gain full access to our premium content

- Browse free from up to 5 devices at once

Latest stories

Leave a Reply