A great many of us perceive our weight to be in the normal range when in fact we are overweight or even seriously obese. And in many cases, our doctors are not helping correct the misperception. Studies show that 55% of overweight people (BMI 26-29.9) and 33% of obese people (BMI 30+) have never been told by a doctor that they are overweight.

Twenty percent of obese patients who have never had this conversation with their doctor described themselves as “not overweight” compared to just 3% of those whose doctors had spoken to them about their weight.  A similar study of overweight patients found that 23% of females and 48% of males considered their weight to be “just right” despite their heightened risks of diabetes and many other diseases stemming from all the extra pounds of body weight.

Physicians and other health care providers do serve an important role in communicating when an individual is overweight or obese because it is such an important health matter and one that every person needs to understand so that they may begin doing something about it.

Tags: BMI, doctors, obesity, overweight

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 31st, 2011 at 5:41 pm and is filed under obesity. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.