It might be hard to imagine, but a new study finds that some obese people don’t even realize they’re carrying too much weight. They don’t see their bodies accurately… nor the need for changes in diet or exercise.
Add this our general tendency not to be as physically active as we should be and it’s easy to see the risks these individuals have for heart disease, type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure.
The study was based on data collected in Dallas, Texas and found that one in ten participants, all of whom fell into the obese (BMI’s over 30) category, were satisfied with the size of their body and didn’t think they needed to lose weight.
“That is a sizeable percentage who don’t understand they are overweight and believe they are healthy,” points out lead researcher Tiffany Powell, a cardiology fellow at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.
She has presented the results of this work at a meeting for the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions 2009 just held in Orlando, Florida.
For the research, Powell and her team examined 2,056 people of an average age of 40 who were obese and also taking part in the Dallas Heart Study.
The subjects looked at 9 sex specific figures (outlines of bodies) with the first showing the slimmer figure, and going up to the ninth and largest one. They had to choose what they thought they looked like now, as well as their ideal figure type.
Almost 8% of the obese subjects indicated that they thought their body size was smaller than it really was, considering themselves healthy for their age. These people thought their bodies looked like a 4 (lean) on the figure scales they were given to use, putting their ideal body size at about 5.
Other obese subjects were more on target, choosing an average of 6 (obese) to represent their current body size, and just under a 4 for an ideal body shape.
In cases where participants didn’t recognize themselves as obese, the BMI measurements were, on average, nearly 35. What’s more, 35% of these subjects had high blood pressure, 15% had high cholesterol, 14% were diabetics and 27% were smokers.
Those with misperception of body size were also less likely to go to a doctor – 44% hadn’t been for a checkup in the last year. And they didn’t exercise.
Those who did see their body size accurately had BMI measurements of just about 37 and similar percentages in terms of high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes and number of smokers.
These participants were more likely to exercise regularly, and when visiting a doctor, about 70% of them recalled being advised to lose weight.
So if both groups share the same risks, what benefit to recognizing you’re too heavy?
Continues below…
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Obese Don’t Recognize A Weight Problem Continued…
Certainly having a more realistic body perception would offer some motivation to start eating better and getting more exercise in order to correct a problem you can see, and feel.
Denial of the problem only delays taking action, and this is dangerous, today and over the long term.
And with obesity becoming more common all the time, many more of us are carrying all that extra weight, resetting what many people see (and think of) as healthy.
Minority populations are also seeing rises in obesity, and the study found that African Americans and Hispanics were significantly more likely than their white counterparts to be satisfied with their body size – believing that they didn’t need to lose any weight.
Recognize that this study doesn’t show a cause and effect relationship between perceptions of body size and unhealthy behaviors like eating too much or not exercising.
Powell suggests that both doctors (and loved ones) need to offer a nudge in the right direction to those who are obese so that they can take the steps to get healthier now, before some of the nastier health risks of all that weight have taken hold.
Daily Health Bulletin
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