Men think they are thin, women, fat (and both are bad)

An important part of overweight and even obese men consider that their weight is more or less well. There is an equally disturbing trend in a large segment of women of normal or lower weight, consisting of erroneous diagnosis of their weight in the opposite direction.

In general, parents underestimate a child's weight and overestimate their dietary needs. This tendency, although apparently trivial, actually influences to a greater or lesser extent the way people eat for the rest of their lives, as well as when it comes to shaping their self-image.

These tendencies also create serious public health problems, since much of the messages to eat well and healthier are heard by the wrong people instead of those who could benefit from it.

For example, when campaigns against obesity predict a worrying increase in obesity, in addition to associated diseases such as diabetes or cancers, many women of normal weight consider that criticism goes for them. On the contrary, many obese men consider that the message does not concern them.

Obese men

The underestimation of the weight is between double and triple in men than in women, according to a large-scale study on the perception of weight in 16,000 adult Americans. Specifically, 43% of men who were overweight considered that their weight was correct, and 12% of obese people indicated that their weight was more or less good.

It is not an exclusively American trend, because in another Australian study very similar conclusions were reached. And that despite the fact that there are more and more obese people in the world: one out of every three people, that is, 2 billion people all over the planet, are already suffering from obesity or overweight, according to a new study published in the magazine 'The New England Journal of Medicine. '

Thin women

In the case of women, most of them are classified as belonging to the group suffering from overweight or obesity, when in reality this is not the case. This inclination so accentuated in women, which even distorts how they perceive specific parts of their body, is what is called body dysmorphia. The problem is that this kind of anxiety of aspiring to physical perfection is not limited exclusively to those suffering from eating disorders.

For example, 72% of university women from six US campuses considered their thighs too thick compared to only 12% of university men who believed it, according to a study from 2003. Likewise, women suffer greater discomfort and shame at the time of weighing them on a scale that men.

These tendencies are much more aggressive in adolescence, however they perpetuate the rest of life. And, while it is true that girls will tend over the years to eat healthier (more salads, for example) than boys (less vegetables and fruit), these attempts are not very effective: their desire to be thin will finally lead to Unhealthy eating behaviors, such as anemia caused by excessive unbalanced vegetarian food.

Therefore, it seems that the nutritional problem of both sexes exceeds the margins of education or information: it also has to do with how our parents, our peers and society as a whole treat us. Addressing the problem will therefore require creative solutions that take into account all the variables.