Abstract
We study the relationship among real, self-perceived, and desired body mass index (BMI) in 21,288 adults from the Mexican National Health and Nutrition Survey 2012, analyzing the effect of sex and diagnosis of obesity/overweight by a healthcare professional. Self-perceived and desired BMI are analyzed via a figure rating scale question and compared to real BMI. Only 8.8 and 6.1% of the diagnosed and non-diagnosed obese, respectively, correctly identify themselves as such. For the obese, 20.2% of non-diagnosed and 12.7% of diagnosed perceive themselves as normal or underweight, while 49.1 and 37% of these are satisfied with their perceived BMI. Only 7.8% of the obese, whose real and perceived BMI coincide, have a desired BMI equal to their perceived one. In contrast, 43.2% of the obese, whose perceived BMI is normal, have a desired BMI the same as their perceived one. Although the average desired body figure corresponds to the normal BMI range, misperceptions of BMI correlate strongly with the degree of satisfaction associated with perceived BMI, with larger misperceptions indicating a higher degree of satisfaction. Hypothesizing that the differences between real, perceived, and desired weight are a motivator for weight change, one potential intervention could be the periodic assessment of real, perceived, and desired BMI in order to correct misleading weight misperceptions that could potentially obstruct positive behavioral change.
Highlights
Obesity is one of the most complex health problems worldwide, being a fast growing problem [1] that affects both adults and children alike [2, 3]
We explored the relations among three body mass index (BMI)/ body figure variables—real BMI, perceived body figure, and desired body figure—with the benefit of a large dataset of 21,288 adults, taken from the Mexican National Health and Nutrition Survey (ENSANUT) 2012 [21]
The frequency of obesity given by real BMI was 24.02 and 33.12% for non-diagnosed men and women, respectively, while the proportions of all men and women that have been diagnosed as obese or overweight were 9.56 and 13.72%
Summary
Obesity is one of the most complex health problems worldwide, being a fast growing problem [1] that affects both adults and children alike [2, 3]. It is potentially important that people are made aware of significant weight gain so that preventative interventions. It is important that people can accurately perceive, evaluate, and contextualize their real weight, and any significant weight gain, so as to be able to act appropriately before the obese state is reached. We hypothesize that adverse discrepancies between real, i.e., measured, self-perceived, and desired body mass index (BMI) may play a significant role in the obesity epidemic by obfuscating an individual’s true health state and inhibiting appropriate and necessary behavioral and lifestyle changes. Self-perception itself is, complex, involving how a person sees him/herself and how their view of normality is affected by the state of their social or family group and even up to the general population. If a person is very overweight, but all of their friends and colleagues are overweight too, their opinion of themselves may be that they are of an acceptable and normal weight, due to the state of the population around them [8]
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