Learn if a Thigh Gap is Dangerous to your Health

A thigh gap.is a space located between the inner thighs of women who are standing upright with their knees touching each other. The idea of having a thigh gap has grown to become a physically attractive trait among young women and girls in the United States.  The thigh gap has become associated with femininity among women. While it might sound like any other fashion trend, many experts are worried about the growing obsession with having a thigh gap.  With women trying to become thin enough that their thighs don’t touch, there are some experts who are concerned about eating disorders being the result of the quest for a thigh gap.

The Desire for Skinny Legs is Not New

“The issue of focusing on a particular body part is very common,” according to Claire Mysko, who oversees teen outreach and digital media for the National Eating Disorders Association, an advocacy group. “What is new is these things have taken on a life of their own because of the Internet and social media.”

The desire among women to have skinny legs is not new. Many women have a thigh lift to remove excess skin and fat to improve the look of their upper legs.  The wish for skinny legs has become a popular hashtag on social media.  It’s also become a meme among the “thinspiration movement.” Many eating disorder experts like to point out that most lean athletes do not have a thigh gap.  According to Angela Guarda, an associate professor of psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and director of the Johns Hopkins Eating Disorders Program, “Most women’s thighs touch somewhere from between their crotch and their knees.”  Guarda went on to say except for a minority of body types, “you have to be severely underweight for (the thighs) to separate, but that’s not the message that’s being perceived by teens.”

Thigh Gap Obsession

Some experts feel that part of the obsession with having a thigh gap is that there is a visual goal women can aim to achieve.  They can look at the photos of other women with a thigh gap and see how their own body looks compared to those who have achieved the goal. It is important to take into consideration the fact that the space between a person’s legs is mainly due to genetics. There are some people who might not have a body type that can achieve having a thigh gap.  A person generally needs to be both skinny and have wide hips to be able to have a thigh gap.

While the phrase “thigh gap” might be relatively new, the quest for thin thighs is not a new idea.  Dr. Mohan Thomas is a cosmetic surgeon at Breach Candy Hospital & Cosmetic Surgery Institute in India.  Dr. Mohan says, "When I was a medical student in the US, we'd call it letting the light through — the idea being that when there's a silhouette with the legs joined together, light should be able to pass through the legs."  He went on to say that he has multiple patients per week that are concerned about having thick thighs.  While the phrase “thigh gap” might not be used by these patients, they are worried about the same area where the thigh gap is supposed to be located.

Factors that Determine a Thigh Gap

Like height and shoe size, a thigh gap is dependent on the genetic makeup of a person. The bone structure and body shape determine whether it is physically possible for a person to even have a thigh gap.

The first trait to determine the space between your thighs is the width of the hips and the angle of the pelvic bones. "The width of your pelvis combined with the angle at which your thigh bones attach to your pelvis determines the distance between your thighs, regardless of how much muscle or fat you do or don't have," Dr. Herold explains. "Some people with wide pelvises may have leg bones that are farther apart, while people with narrower pelvises may have leg bones set closer together, closing the gap. Obviously, this can't be changed with diet and exercise."

The second factor in determining the space between the thighs is the body type of a person. Some people have a very difficult time gaining weight, whether from fat or muscle. Because of their low body mass, they are more likely to have a gap between their thighs. However, most women's bodies tend toward accumulating either muscle or fat in the thigh area which can cause a closure of any gap.

As Dr. Norman Rowe, a plastic surgeon based in New York City explains, "The size of a person's thighs is determined not just by fat, but by muscle. In the middle of our thighs are sartorius and gracilis muscles, which help us walk and move our legs in and out."

Thigh Gap Surgery

There are a lot of teen patients desiring a thigh gap and wouldn't mind getting it via surgery. However Dr. Rowe emphasizes plastic surgeons cannot remove muscle or make changes to the leg bone structure. "If someone does not have a genetic predisposition to a thigh gap, plastic surgeons cannot create one. If someone is genetically predisposed to having heavier muscles, there is no amount of suction that can change that."

The quest to achieve a thigh gap does not appear to be going away anytime soon.  As long as the thigh gap is one of the ideals of beauty in the fashion industry, there will be women trying to achieve and maintain the look.  The use of social media platforms, such as Tumblr, to create communities that glorify the look also help fuel the desire to achieve it.  In fact, Tumblr is well known as a forum for “pro-anna” (pro-anorexia) and “thinspo” communities that bond over their quest for weight loss and thigh gaps.  It’s important for a person to diet and exercise wisely in their quest to achieve the beauty ideal of a thigh gap.  Trying to maintain a balance between beauty and fashion can help a person achieve their goal without the loss of a healthy lifestyle.