While many of us are aware of every single pound we gain (and, more importantly, the effect on how comfortable our best pair of jeans feel) it seems that weight awareness might not figure as prominently as the numbers on the scale exceed the healthy limits. Recent research found that obese people often aren't aware that they're obese, and many even classify their weight as perfectly normal.
Findings by the Dallas Heart Study show that in a study involving over 2,000 obese people, eight percent of participants claimed to be satisfied with their weight or even thought they could stand to gain more. And of those who had underestimated the severity of their weight problem, 44 percent hadn't seen a physician in the past year, suggesting they're living in a serious state of denial. Furthermore, while obese people who were honest about their need to lose weight were likely to engage in regular exercise, obese people who were satisfied with their weight didn't work out at all.
Needless to say, the fact that nearly 10 percent of unhealthy-weight people don't know the danger they're in is a problem. "That is a sizable percentage who don't understand they are overweight and believe they are healthy," says study author Tiffany Powell, M.D. But since many don't visit their doctor, whose responsibility is it to warn them of the dangers of excess weight?
There's no easy answer to this one, says Powell. "We have to help people understand that despite loving what you look like, if you are obese you are at risk," she told ABC. "We walk a fine line in helping people understand the impact of obesity without making them feel bad about themselves." But just how obesity awareness can be spread without causing mass offense remains to be seen.
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