OBJECTIVE: This study discusses the indiscriminate use of weight control diets, taking into account the various levels of incentives for practices to reach the body weight proclaimed as ideal by the mass media. MÉTHODS: A qualitative methodological approach was adopted to identify the motives and incentives for inadequate weight control practices through the narratives of women with eating disorders in the Municipality of Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil, to understand the meaning of these experiences in the emergence of eating disorders. Seven individual interviews were carried out, analysing how the current psycho-social standard related to weight and body shape interferes in women's thinking, influencing the adoption of abnormal eating behaviour and inadequate weight control practices. RESULTS: The discourse shows the history and/or feeling about overweight/obesity, body dissatisfaction, diets that were unsupervised by professionals and a morbid fear of putting on weight. CONCLUSION: This study's results reinforce the need for reflection on the value given to the ideal of beauty passed on by the media and its influence on eating habits, which may lead to eating disorders.
diet; food and nutrition education; eating disorders