People overestimate their physical form
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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Did you ever think that there is a difference when a person sees his reflection in the home mirror and, for example, in the mirror of the gym? There is a feeling that the mirror that hangs in your apartment reflects only our dignity, but all the other mirrors can show the disadvantages, including extra pounds.
Scientists have noticed an amazing thing: when women look in the mirrors hanged in the locker room of the gym, they think that they look fuller than it really is. However, the experts have nothing to please the ladies, because they claim that it does not just seem to them, in most cases it really is.
A study of specialists shows that people tend to be optimistic about their own weight, while women are firmly convinced that they weigh about two kilograms less than they actually are. Men were slightly more modest in their expectations and therefore habitually mow the real weight by about one kilogram.
Before measuring the height and weight of participants in the study, experts asked them how much they thought they could weigh. Also, scientists weighed the children of the subjects and before that they also asked parents about the weight of their child. Specialists were interested in how parents relate to the weight of their children, whether they consider them too thin or maybe on the contrary - too full for their age.
Almost half of the parents, whose children were obese, answered that the weight of their child does not exceed the normal for their age indicators.
The largest gap between perception and reality was found among women aged thirty-five to thirty-nine. These ladies underestimated their weight by about three and a half kilograms.
"Our research gives a new understanding of how different the perception of their weight by middle-aged people is from their actual weight," says lead author Tim Strogan.
17% of men and 20% of women were unhappy with their weight. They said that they consider themselves complete. But in fact, the number of people whose weight exceeded the norm was much higher. Men who suffered from obesity were not 17, but 24%, and women who are overweight - 26%.
The study shows that people as a whole know exactly how much they weigh, but the problem is that many can not adequately assess whether they are obese or whether their weight is almost normal.
Based on a survey of 8,610 adult women, experts concluded that adult women weighing 75 kilograms were actually slightly heavier and weighing 75 kilograms. Men were not so optimistic and could more adequately assess their weight. Those who weighed about 84 kilograms, were mistaken by only 1.5-2 kilograms.
In addition, scientists noticed that people can overestimate not only their shape and weight, but also actually make mistakes in the number of drinks drunk daily - they usually drank more than they thought. And the unhealthy way of life, which is conducted by about 37% of study participants, affects their health - people complained of chronic pain that lasts for more than three months.
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