Fat People Don’t Think They Are Fat – A new research study of fat people found that many don’t see themselves as fat.
That could be an unhealthy attitude as these same people tend not to exercise and have many risk factors for cardiovascular disease.
The study, based on survey data collected in Dallas, found that one in 10 participants – all of whom were classified as obese – were satisfied with their body size and didn’t think they needed to lose a few pounds.
“That is a sizeable percentage who don’t understand they are overweight and believe they are healthy,” said lead researcher Tiffany Powell, a cardiology fellow at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.
Either way, obesity packs many negative health effects, including increased risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes and hypertension.
In the study, Powell and her colleagues focused on 2,056 individuals who were obese and took part in the Dallas Heart Study. They had an average age of about 40.
Participants looked at nine sex-specific figures (outlines of bodies, with the first showing the slimmest figure and increasing up to the ninth and largest) and chose what they thought they looked like and their ideal figure.
Studies on Caucasians have shown a score of 4 is lean, while a 6 indicates a body mass index, or BMI, of 30.
BMI is calculated from a person’s weight and height and indicates body fatness and weight categories that may lead to health problems, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
A score of 30 or above is considered obese; 25 to 29.9 overweight; 18.5 to 24.9 normal; and below 18.5 is considered underweight.
About 8 percent of the obese participants indicated they thought their body size was smaller than reality.
Such individuals, considered to have body-size misperceptions, said they thought their bodies looked like a 4 on the figure scale on average, with an ideal body size of about 5.
Other participants were more on target, choosing an average of 6 for current body size and just under a 4 for ideal.
In reality, participants who were unaware they were obese had an average BMI of nearly 35, while the others had a BMI of nearly 37.
Those with a misperception of body size believed they were healthy. But 35 percent of them had high blood pressure, 15 percent had high cholesterol, 14 percent had diabetes and 27 percent were current smokers.
If both groups of obese participants have health risks, why does it matter whether they know it or not? Isn’t ignorance bliss?
Other unhealthy behaviors researchers found include:
Participants who didn’t think they were obese were less likely to go to a physician, with 44 percent saying they hadn’t visited a doctor in the past year, compared with 26 percent of those without body misperceptions saying the same.
Among those who had a doctor visit, nearly 40 percent of the people with misperceptions about body size said their doctor mentioned they needed to lose weight. That’s compared with about 70 percent of those in the know about their obesity.
Obese people who were satisfied with their body size didn’t exercise on average, while others who recognized they had a weight problem exercised regularly.
And that’s the latest on fat people don’t think they are fat.
Tags:
diet,
fat,
fat people,
obese,
weight loss
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