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21 November 2007
Women's Body Image Badly Skewed 
Most normal-weight women (almost 90 percent) yearn to be thinner and half of underweight women want to lose even more weight, say Cornell University researchers. Somewhat cryptically, they also found that most overweight women don't want to be thin enough to achieve a healthy weight. Societal ideals propagated by the media and advertising have led many people to be dissatisfied with their bodies, said Lori Neighbors, who conducted the research. Her study made the following findings: - Men and women are similarly dissatisfied with their weight by an average of about 8 pounds, though women are much more dissatisfied with their bodies. Men have more mixed desires - some want to lose weight while others want to gain weight.
- Most of the normal-weight women who want to weigh less desire a weight still within the normal-weight range. However, 10 percent want to weigh what experts deem as officially underweight.
- Half of the underweight women want to stay the same or lose weight even though experts have deemed their body weights unhealthful.
- Overweight women want to weigh less. But about half want a body weight that would continue to make them overweight.
Neighbors noted that the findings suggest; "that the idealized body weight and shape, especially among underweight females and overweight individuals of both genders, are not in accordance with population-based standards defining healthy body weight. While both men and women express some degree of body dissatisfaction, a surprising proportion of people with less healthy body weights - underweight females and overweight individuals of both genders - do not idealize a body weight that would move them to a more healthy state," she concluded. Related articles:
More Evidence For Obesity Virus
Researchers Investigate "Fat Talk"
BMI: A Big Fat Lie? Source: Cornell University
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