we fatties need to view ourselves differently....
(Oct. 21) -- For all the talk about a war on obesity, few battles are being won -- and researchers suspect it might have something to do with self-image and how those warned about their weight see themselves.
In an evaluation of 2,056 people, all of them with body mass indexes that exceeded 30 -- the benchmark for obesity -- researchers determined that 8 percent of participants lacked an understanding of healthy body weight.
After seeing nine images of different bodies, ranging from thin to obese, participants were asked to choose the image that best reflected an ideal weight and another that best reflected their own body. Those 8 percent chose an "ideal" that either matched or exceeded their own size, and most of them didn't perceive themselves as obese. That translates into a failure "to recognize a need for weight loss," according to the study, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
More African-Americans opted for a heftier ideal frame, with 14 percent choosing illustrations of larger bodies. Eleven percent of Hispanics, and only 2 percent of whites, did the same.
"You walk a fine line, because you don't want people to necessarily have an unhealthy body image, but you also want people to understand that they need to lose weight," Dr. Tiffany Powell, the study's lead author, told Reuters.
Indeed, those who didn't see a problem with their weight also deemed themselves healthier, and at a lower risk of developing obesity-related illnesses, compared to those who recognized the impetus to see a smaller number on the scale.
Those who'd misinterpreted their body size were also less likely to have seen a doctor within the past year.
Health conditions are only one part of the equation, with the cost of obesity being a second important factor. Newly released figures from the National Bureau of Economic Research show that weight-related health problems cost Americans $170 billion a year -- 17 percent of our health care costs.
Researchers suspect that the prevalence of weight woes among Americans -- 68 percent of us qualify as overweight or obese -- is reinforcing misconceptions in self-perceptions.
"There is this tendency that if everyone around you looks a certain way, you either want to look that way or you're comfortable looking the way you are," Powell said.
(Oct. 21) -- For all the talk about a war on obesity, few battles are being won -- and researchers suspect it might have something to do with self-image and how those warned about their weight see themselves.
In an evaluation of 2,056 people, all of them with body mass indexes that exceeded 30 -- the benchmark for obesity -- researchers determined that 8 percent of participants lacked an understanding of healthy body weight.
After seeing nine images of different bodies, ranging from thin to obese, participants were asked to choose the image that best reflected an ideal weight and another that best reflected their own body. Those 8 percent chose an "ideal" that either matched or exceeded their own size, and most of them didn't perceive themselves as obese. That translates into a failure "to recognize a need for weight loss," according to the study, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
More African-Americans opted for a heftier ideal frame, with 14 percent choosing illustrations of larger bodies. Eleven percent of Hispanics, and only 2 percent of whites, did the same.
"You walk a fine line, because you don't want people to necessarily have an unhealthy body image, but you also want people to understand that they need to lose weight," Dr. Tiffany Powell, the study's lead author, told Reuters.
Indeed, those who didn't see a problem with their weight also deemed themselves healthier, and at a lower risk of developing obesity-related illnesses, compared to those who recognized the impetus to see a smaller number on the scale.
Those who'd misinterpreted their body size were also less likely to have seen a doctor within the past year.
Health conditions are only one part of the equation, with the cost of obesity being a second important factor. Newly released figures from the National Bureau of Economic Research show that weight-related health problems cost Americans $170 billion a year -- 17 percent of our health care costs.
Researchers suspect that the prevalence of weight woes among Americans -- 68 percent of us qualify as overweight or obese -- is reinforcing misconceptions in self-perceptions.
"There is this tendency that if everyone around you looks a certain way, you either want to look that way or you're comfortable looking the way you are," Powell said.
