Obesity and Height Survey In the US

A survey into attitudes to obesity and being overweight in America have revealed that around 90% are aware of the fact that the majority of the US citizens are unhealthily overweight but funnily enough on further questioning it is revealed that only 40% think that they themselves are overweight. The official figures relating to obesity in America say that over 60% are overweight and about 30% are actually obese meaning that their BMI is above 30 and putting them at high risk for a large number of serious illnesses.

The research involving over 2000 people also looked at the way American perceive their height and found that a big proportion of them are overstate their height and understate their weight.

The study also asked people for the reason that they thought was the the cause of men and women being overweight and the majority said that they thought that individual eating habits and the lack of good exercise, as opposed to say genes or targeted adverts from food manufacturers was the reason for the obesity problem. The food manufacturers were blamed to a certainextent by about 50% of those interviewed and about 30% felt that genetic makeup could be a cause too.

Other facts that emerged were that 25% of people were dieting at present and that just over half have been on a diet in the past. The results compare with a similar study conducted 15 year previously where nearly 60% said that they had been on a diet at some point.

Nine percent said that they did not think that body mass was important for attractiveness.