What is Body Confidence?

Body confidence is something that many people lack, especially teenage girls and women, because they're highly influenced by the images they see and spend far too much time comparing themselves to seemingly flawless, beautiful celebrities. Consequently, most women will put themselves on a diet, at one time or another, in a desperate attempt to lose weight so they can obtain the perfect body shape. Instead of concentrating on the beauty they already possess, they seek out imperfections and are highly self-critical when it comes to their looks. Men are not immune to the pressure to conform to a certain body shape and size, but it definitely seems to affect women more.

There are so few women who are supremely confident with the way they look. It almost sounds as though women are highly superficial, but, then, this is a superficial world where what you look like can affect your life chances. If you're overweight you're less likely to be hired over someone who is slim and you may find it harder to get a promotion. This may not be fair, but it goes some way to explaining why body confidence is so lacking. Not only are you surrounded by images of perfect men and women in the media; you actually run the risk of being discriminated against if you don't conform to a certain body type.

The chances are you're neither massively overweight nor the perfect, skinny ideal, but rather somewhere in between. However, when you're led to believe that skinniness equates to attractiveness and that attractiveness leads to improved chances in your career and your love life, it is easy to convince yourself to lose a few pounds, since this will help you get ahead. Losing weight isn't always the answer, though, because there comes a point where you can't lose any more weight without jeopardising your health. Even at your slimmest, you will no doubt find fault with your appearance, and so you may be better off putting your efforts into learning to love yourself a bit more.

Of course, sometimes losing weight does give you a boost, especially if you're overweight, because you have actually managed to accomplish something which is quite tough. You could be setting yourself up for a fall, though, if you convince yourself that being slim is the route to ultimate happiness. The trouble is that there will probably be occasions when your weight creeps up, such as if you decide to have a baby, and then you're left feeling miserable just because you're heavier than you'd like to be. There surely has to be more to life than conforming to a certain mould when it comes to your appearance.

It's not only being overweight that can affect your body confidence – being underweight can be an issue for women and men, too. Plus, there is body shape and saggy skin; stretch marks and blemishes; having a flat chest or being large chested. It is very rare for someone to embrace themselves just the way they are and to be confident in their own skin, although usually as you get older you can better appreciate that there is more to life than the way you look. Even then, though, there are those individuals who cannot bear to get older and end up spending a fortune on cosmetic surgery. If you lack body confidence you really have to ask yourself what is the point of being so self-critical all the time when this just makes you miserable?