Thursday, January 03, 2008

It's not just a river in Egypt.

A couple of weeks ago, I read this article in the Chron, which outlined a University of Michigan study that concluded that parents of obese children don't realize that their children are fat. In fact, 43% of parents involved in the study categorized their (obese) children as "about the right weight." An additional 37% categorized their (obese) children as "slightly overweight." Some small percentage actually categorized their (obese) children as "slightly underweight."

Then, yesterday I read this article online about a gentleman in Louisiana who alleges he was overcharged and eventually banned from an all-you-can-eat restaurant because he was too fat and ate too much. He was quoted as saying "I ain't that fat; I only weigh 277." In reality, if he lost 37 pounds, he'd still be obese.

I'm not shocked these people are overweight--bacon tastes good and exercise is a drag. It's a miracle I'm not 277 pounds. It's the utter lack of self-awareness that's surprising the hell out of me. 66% of Americans are overweight and 32% of Americans are obese and apparently most of them are blissfully unaware.

2 Comments:

At 3:14 PM , Blogger Jessica Córdova said...

I'm no statistician, but "obese" is defined as having a BMI higher than 95% of children of that age, and 17% of children fell into this category?

 
At 1:29 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

I wonder how much of that lack of self-awareness is also not wanting to admit they are obese? Because if they admit it, it means they might have to make some major lifestyle changes. Far easier just to say they're not obese. My mom certainly never hesitated to tell ME when she thought I was fat.

 

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