Food for thought: The speaker in this TED Talk on why dieting doesn't usually work shares some information I thought you might find meaningful:
1) Girls who diet in their early teens are 3 times more likely to become overweight 5 years later, even if they start at a normal weight.
2) Being teased about their weight by family members is a predictor of girls' becoming overweight.
3) Developing just one (if you're overweight) or two (if you're obese) healthy habits reduces a person's risk of death so that their risk falls into the range of people with a "normal" weight.
I also find it interesting that this neuroscientist, who knows that she didn't need a diet as a girl, just got off of a diet even though she appears to be a healthy weight. We don't know what health issues she has, but it does raise the issue of how powerful the media images are of a woman's ideal body type, even for middle-aged women.
http://www.ted.com/talks/sandra_aamodt_why_dieting_doesn_t_usually_work?%3Futm_medium=social&source=email&utm_source=email&utm_campaign=ios-share