
Chloe Marshall has caused a storm by becoming the first size 16 beauty queen to reach the finals of the Miss England contest.
Feted and fawned over for her courage in daring to break the mould, Chloe boasts she wants to be an “ambassador for curves”.
Who on earth does she think she’s kidding? What she’s demonstrating isn’t bravery but a shocking lack of self-control.
Instead of flaunting her figure, Chloe ought to own up to the truth. She is fat and she got that way by over-eating.
I don’t take any pleasure in attacking Chloe – after all she’s only 17. But I think she has been very badly advised in her bid to champion the cause of bigger girls.
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Bad role model: Chloe’s latest photo shoot shows us that it’s now not only acceptable but even fashionable to be overweight
But as a dietician I am so worried about the damage her well-oiled publicity machine is doing that I think it’s vital to speak out.
In my view, Chloe is a terrible role model.
I hope she doesn’t win the Miss England title.
It would send an appalling – and very dangerous – message to other young women that it’s OK to be fat.
Chloe is a stark reminder that obesity is now virtually normal in our society – and we should all be hanging our heads in shame.
She is an ambassador not for the beautiful larger lady as she’d have us believe but a poster girl for diabetes, strokes, heart attacks, cancers and all the other devastating and potentially fatal health problems that are caused or exacerbated by obesity.
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Sitting pretty: Chloe claims to do a lot exercise but her BMI of 26.03 instead of the optimum of 20 marks her out as being undeniably overweight
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Does my sash look big in this? We meet the size 16 Miss England contender
Size 16 Miss England hopeful Chloe unveils a curvy look in first official bikini shoot
First ever size 16 girl reaches Miss England final
As a judge on last year’s Miss England contest, I was hugely impressed, not just by the beauty but by the skills dedication and determination of the contestants.
For example, most had raised huge sums of money for their favourite charities. They shone out as young women to be admired.
But can the same really be said of Chloe?
At 5ft 10in, Chloe should have a body mass index, or BMI, (indicating her levels of fat) of 20. Hers is 26.03.
BMI is an assessment generally used by GPs and health experts to determine if a person is underweight, overweight or within a healthy weight range.
Chloe’s BMI puts her as undeniably overweight.
Our doctors’ surgeries are full of people whose problems are caused by their weight.
Devastating conditions – from Type 2 diabetes to heart problems and many cancers – are caused or exacerbated by obesity.
And if Chloe is so overweight at barely 17, one shudders to imagine just how fat she will be a few years down the line.
The Government can do all it wants to urge us to eat more healthily but – as Chloe demonstrates – it’s now not simply acceptable but fashionable to be bigger.
She talks about the “skinny minnies” she’ll be competing against. “All I wanted to do by entering this pageant was to send a message out to young girls that it is fine NOT to be a size zero.”
Well, she’s talking total rubbish.
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Big issue: Chloe criticised her ’skinny’ Miss England rivals in Femail last week
When I was a Miss England judge I was struck by how elegant, charming and yes, fit, the girls were. None of them was underweight.
It’s a total fallacy that young girls are being pressured into near-starving themselves into being too thin.
Take a look around you and you will see that the total reverse is true.
Teenage girls aren’t in danger of falling victim to an epidemic of anorexia – but of obesity.
The much-vaunted size zero of catwalk models is actually a UK size four. How many girls do you know that size?
The number of women in this country who are seriously underweight is minute around one in 70.
Levels of bulimia are actually falling. Instead our high streets are packed with young girls – just like Chloe – with “muffin tops” of fat spilling over their jeans.
Larger women may take comfort from the fact that a young girl who is quite self-evidently fat has won a place in Miss England, and Chloe argued last week that she has a healthy diet and exercises regularly.
“I refuse to starve myself to turn my body into something it was never meant to be,” she said.
I don’t doubt she is telling truth. But yet again she is exposing another myth – that you need to starve yourself to be a healthy weight, and that only junk food makes you fat.
Getting fat by eating good food is perfectly possible – if you eat too much of it.
Chloe claims she “crept up” to a size 16 after dieting to a size 12 on top and 14 on bottom. She’s kidding herself.
Her weight didn’t “creep on” magically – she ate too much food.
Every excess 1lb of weight she’s carrying – and I reckon she is at least a stone overweight – equates to five meals she didn’t need.
If Chloe chooses to be curvy, that’s fine. It is, after all, her personal choice.
But it’s time she stopped telling the rest of us that being fat is great and that the only way to be a healthy weight is by starving yourself.
It’s dangerous nonsense.
She looks fab and is a great role model to show that not everyone who is beautiful is a size 6!
- Laura, Downpatrick, Co Down
These comments are shocking in that we’re so used to hearing people defending ‘plus size’ women and berating skinny girls these days. I agree wholeheartedly with the writer of this article. I am 5′8″ and a size 10 but I am not lucky enough to be able to be that way and eat anything I want. I run 5k everyday and eat a healthy balanced diet – and deny myself too many treats like chips, crisps, fast food, etc.
So it makes me mad when people like Chloe are allowed to glamorise obesity, and even worse, make it look like a mentally and physically healthier alternative to watching your weight!
Let’s hope more of this type of article helps to nudge the popular consciousness towards healthy living.
- Suzy, Glasgow
It’s nothing to do with age, look at Sophie Dahl, Coleen Nolan, Fern Britton; they are all smaller, fitter and healthier than they were when they were younger so it’s hardly correct to say if she is this size now she is bound to be twice as big at 30.
I agree this isn’t the most attractive picture but she is wearing a very unflattering bikini and you’ve got to be a size 8 to look good in a photo wearing a bikini.
I think it’s more likely Chloe is a size 18 though; I weigh 10 stone and occasionally need size 16 trousers.
source:dailymail