This doesn't work for everyone. I love to run, but I consistently weigh more when I'm on a running program. When I couldn't run for 8 weeks due to an injury, I lost 10 pounds. When I started running again, I gained it all back. I've also noticed that I gain a few pounds when I'm really pushing myself, and then I…

Do you really think that if all the fat people in the universe ate exactly like you, they would all be a size four? Despite all the studies that show maintaining a substantial weight loss requires eating a fraction of the calories that normal weight people can eat? Appetites, metabolisms, and hormones vary widely. …

Even if making an effort to not assume heterosexuality is only making 6% of the population [I also think it's more, but for the sake of argument] feel included, isn't that worth it? When it costs nothing? If you don't make assumptions, straight people can still immediately identify as straight and be treated as…

Someone in my family made a similar choice, although I didn't read the research on this until after the surgery (I'm a researcher, but not a medical researcher). It makes me sad to think that all of those painful costs could have been avoided, but now there's nothing I can do. But, as much as I'm concerned about…

Their evidence is that increased detection and treatment of very early stage breast cancer hasn't lead to a substantial decrease in late stage cancer — meaning that many of the women who received treatment for very early cancers never would have developed late stage cancer. The treatment that they received is…

I think there should be exceptions for flaws caused by the camera flash or ridiculously bad lighting. I have oily, pale skin, and so I have many photos of myself where my forehead is a huge white spot from the flash. I also have very pale eyes, so I have glowing red eyes in most photos where a flash was used.

I think we are largely over the tragedy elements of the first two events. The 4th has become an annual party where we drink and perhaps say patriotic things, not a time where we act like we feel deeply, emotionally affected by the Revolutionary War. Some people still commemorate Pearl Harbor, but the vast majority…

I also think it's about where you live. When I lived in the suburbs, I didn't get hit on or street harassed at all, ever, for many years. When I moved to a mixed income city neighborhood, I started getting harassed constantly — I walk everywhere, and men hang out in groups on the sidewalk, and there is a culture of…

I just don't know what it accomplishes to tell a 15 year old, "Your test results show that you're not in shape." Are they supposed to feel bad and start doing push-ups in their free time? The vast majority of kids aren't going to be motivated by these test results, and I don't think we should want them to be. I…

Because we're talking about school children with a wide variety of shapes, sizes, health issues, and life circumstances. Forcing kids to do humiliating tests — tests of their bodies — in front of their peers, and then (at some schools) *grading* them on the outcome is both unhelpful and damaging. In 9th grade, I got…