Think role models, not supermodels!

The increasing pressure to achieve an ideal body can take its toll on inherently self-conscious people, paradoxically causing them to balloon out in adulthood, a new study shows.

Researchers from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) have found that adolescents who perceived themselves as fat despite being a normal body weight, were more likely to become overweight adults. This phenomenon prompted researchers to examine the obesity problem from a new angle, according to Koenraad Cuypers, a researcher at the NTNU, who said the study was the first to look at the relationship between perceived weights and actual weights in a longitudinal study of teenagers and young adults.

Cuypers and his colleagues at the Department of Public Health and General Practice in NTNU's Faculty of Medicine acknowledged that there was a perpetual struggle for the ideal body but said there were numerous and complex reasons why thinking you are fat as a teen (even if you are not) may lead you to become fat when you grow up.

One explanation, they said, may be related to psychosocial stress, which can be associated with gaining weight around the waist. Under this scenario, the psychosocial stress related to having (or not having) an ideal body type, together with the perception of oneself as overweight, can result in weight gain.

"Another explanation may be that young people who see themselves as fat often change their eating habits by skipping meals, for example," Cuypers said.  â€œResearch has shown that dropping breakfast can lead to obesity.”

Additionally, following a diet that you cannot maintain over time will also be counterproductive, since the body strives to maintain the weight you had before you started the diet. The researchers checked whether physical activity made a difference in the relationship between perceived and actual obesity. But they found that exercise could not compensate for the negative effect of feeling overweight at a young age.

Cuypers believes that the relationship between a perception of being overweight and the development of overweight is something the school system and society as a whole must address in order to reverse the trend and reduce societal problems associated with obesity.

"The weight norms for society must be changed so that young people have a more realistic view of what is normal,” he said. “In school you should talk to kids about what are normal body shapes, and show that all bodies are beautiful as they are. And, last but not least: The media must cease to emphasise the super model body as the perfect ideal, because it is not."

 

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