Collectively, we seem to be in denial about weight. If you lie to yourself about your weight gain, or you lie to your friend about theirs, you’re putting that person’s wellbeing at risk of not making the necessary diet and exercise changes to improve their wellness.
According to a new study, you often don’t even know if you are losing or gaining weight. Participants reported weight loss in 2008, when they had in fact gained weight. They were off by an average of 1 pound, but this, and the health consequences of this, can add up over a period of years. Researcher Catherine M. Wetmore, PhD, of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington was alarmed by the results, and said that this meant ‘One way we can all address the obesity epidemic is through self-awareness of body weight and changes over time’.
The specific results were that ‘Women do a better job than men of gauging changes in their weight, and younger people are more on target than older adults’ says Wetmore. People with diabetes were off by 4 pounds a year, and adults over 50 were off by over 2. Wetmore suggests ‘It may be related to optimism or vanity or a real lack of awareness of changes’.
According to Louis Aronne, MD, founder and director of the Comprehensive Weight Control Programme at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Centre in New York, ‘We are not as sensitive as we think to changes in our weight’ and denial is common as most people ‘think they are taller and thinner than they are’.
‘Being overweight or obese increases our risk for all sorts of chronic health conditions and medical costs,’ Wetmore urges ‘We need to do a better job of monitoring changes in our weight.’ So you can start by weighting yourself regularly, and monitoring how well your clothes fit to determine whether you are gaining or losing weight. Aronne advises not wearing clothes that stretch, and that you ‘Put aside some [healthy weight] clothing and wear it once a week to see if it is getting tight.’ Then you can make the changes you need to in your diet and exercise programme to fight weight gain when it occurs.