over 80 percent of the obese women underestimated their true size

Research presented to the American Heart Associations Nutrition, Physical Activity and Metabolism/Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention 2011 Scientific Sessions in Atlanta, suggests that mothers who are overweight tend to underestimate their weight problems and also the weight problems of their overweight children.

The research led by Nicole Dumas from Columbia University Medical Center also concluded that normal weight mothers and their children tended to accurately state their body weight and body size. She said that being overweight or obese is often considered the normal standard in some American families and this was a flawed perception which could have negative health consequences.

Nicole Dumas and her research team looked at and interviewed New York mothers and their pre-adolescent kids in an area with a predominantly Hispanic population. The volunteers were asked a number of questions and then showed a number of different body shape silhouettes. The women and children were asked to pick the silhouette which they felt was most closely matched to their own shape.

The results showed that over 80 percent of the obese women underestimated their true size and over 40 percent of the overweight women did the same. On the other hand only thirteen percent of the normal weight female volunteers made the same mistake.

For the group of children a huge 86 percent of the obese or overweight kids underestimated their true body size which compares with only 15 percent for the normal weight kids.

Interestingly also was the fact that almost 50 percent of those mothers who had overweight or obese children underestimated their kids weights saying they were of a normal weight when shown the silhouettes of children with different body sizes.

Nicole Dumas made the point that it was those families and individuals who were most affected by obesity who were the most unlikely to see it. She said that strategies to deal with Americas obesity problem would also have to address the misperception that obese people have about their weight and size.