Cost of a chili dog: $2.50

Cost of an eight ounce steak: $9.99

Cost of losing weight by yo-yo or fad dieting: priceless? Not by a long shot.

College students are particularly affected by weight and body image. On a college campus, 91 percent of women have attempted to control weight through dieting, and more than one in five diet often or always, according to a study done by the Eating Disorders Awareness and Prevention organization.

D. Todd Misener, assistant director of the Health and Fitness Lab at Preston Center, said he feels college students are apt to consider fast weight loss instead of balancing healthy eating with exercise.

“It is usually social factors that make students want to lose weight, not health reasons,” Misener said. “The majority have a misunderstanding of their current health concerning weight. Most just want to look ‘right’. If they look right in their minds, they will think that they have a healthy weight.”

This is the case of Mayfield sophomore Ellen O’Nan, who said that she has been on plenty of diets, beginning her freshman year of high school. She went on the Atkins diet after she and her sister ordered bathing suits from a Victoria’s Secret catalog.

“They were too small,” O’Nan said. “My sister sent hers back, but I was like, ‘No way, I’m going to fit into this by summer.’ And I did.”

Since then, O’Nan said she has tried multiple diets because she is around friends who diet often as well. She said the only thing that has ever realistically worked is eating right and exercising.

Montreal sophomore Karen Lalonde said she agrees with O’Nan and lives her lifestyle accordingly. Lalonde normally eats a yogurt breakfast smoothie on her way to class, has lunch at Subway and exercises regularly. She has never been on a diet. Lalonde said she’d rather be healthy by eating right, not by restricting herself to controlling diets.

“I don’t eat dessert foods, I don’t drink pop anymore, I drink lots of water, and I feel like I’m in shape for the most part,” Lalonde said.

Lalonde knows that extreme dieting leads to health problems down the road. She said that she doesn’t blame women for trying to lose weight through dieting, though.

“Thin girls are everywhere,” Lalonde said. “The media gives the impression that that’s what women should look like.”

Statistics show that the media is partly responsible for the image that thinner and buffer is better. Most fashion models are thinner than 98 percent of American women. Modern GI Joes have biceps that are so huge, if he were a real person, there would be no question that he used steroids. And if store mannequins were real, they would have only 10 percent body fat. But, real women usually need 17-22 percent body fat to have a normal menstrual cycle.

Reach Ashley Maines at features@wkuherald.com.