A lower number on the scales doesn't lead to a vast health knowledge
A lower number on the scales does not mean a higher score when it comes to health knowledge, according to a new study.
The research asked women to log their BMI and then tested women on their health knowledge as well as their lifestyles.
When asked what BMI meant 100 per cent of overweight adn obese women answered correctly 'Body Mass Index'. However, just 60 per cent of skinny women knew, incorrectly putting suggestions such as 'Body Monitoring Information', 'Body Measurement Index' and 'Body Mass Indicator'.
Fitness Trainer and Body Confidence coach Astrid Longhurst comments: “It’s interesting that only 60% knew what BMI stood for in the “underweight” category compared to 100% in the “overweight, very overweight and obese” categories, though this doesn’t surprise me.
"Underweight women may feel BMI is not relevant to them, because it isn’t displayed in the media as something that is of importance to underweight women - the main focus being on the overweight. In reflection we see many overweight women are “experts” when it comes to knowing about information concerning weight and also weight measuring. BMI can be a useful marker to help understand and educate women in terms of health and weight – but we should not generalise that all women with higher BMI’s are unhealthy. However, it appears from the survey that these women do not take as much care of their health.”
While the overweight and obese women tended to smoke more and drink more, there was also evidence of some very healthy habits such as eating plenty of fruit and vegetables and exercising at least once a week.
Nutritionist Dr Marilyn Glenville believes this statistics may be largely due to denial: “When we look at the ‘healthy habits’ list of overweight women as being surprisingly healthy I am not surprised. Women often think they eat healthier, eat less, drink less, smoke less than they usually do. It is not until I ask them to keep a diet diary of everything that passes their lips over two to three days that often times they are shocked as to how many of the ‘little’ bits add up. Also the questions do not take into account portion size and many women will often have large portions.”
The study also looked at perceptions of health and body weight with mixed findings. The women were asked to guess a ‘healthy weight’ for a woman of 5ft3 and the researchers found that slim women tended towards an ‘underweight’ BMI and overweight women tended towards an ‘overweight’ BMI. 80 per cent of the skinny women rated an ‘underweight’ BMI as ‘healthy’ and a further 40 per cent still rated a ‘very underweight’ BMI as healthy. While there answers were more accurate still half of the overweight women thought an overweight BMI was healthy.
“We see overweight women select an ‘overweight’ BMI as healthy and vice versa. I think this is largely denial. Overweight women will say to me ‘I have a slow metabolism’, ‘my bones are heavy’, ‘all the women in my family are large it is just our genes’. With underweight women media pressure may be driving it. Obviously it is not healthy, especially for fertility and risk of osteoporosis, but they may also have an eating disorder and do not acknowledge they are underweight,” comments Marilyn.
The women were also showed a picture of a size 10 women and asked if she was a healthy body weight. Incredibly 80 per cent of the underweight woman labelled her ‘overweight’. By contrast 54 per cent of the overweight and obese women described her as ‘about the right weight’ proving they had a better of idea of what a healthy body weight is.
The Vitality Show (22nd – 25th March, Earls Court, London) is back with a raft of top health and wellbeing experts on offer. Dr Marilyn Glenville PhD returns with a programme of captivating health talks and one-on-one nutritional health advice from her stand. Body confidence coach Astrid Longhurst will also be giving a free talk entitled ‘Winning the body wars’. For more information and to buy tickets visit www.vitalitylive.co.uk
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