WASHINGTON – Ninety percent of Americans know that most of their compatriots are overweight, but just 40 percent believe themselves to be too fat, according to a study published yesterday.
Government statistics show that more that 60 percent of the U.S. population is overweight, and half is obese, meaning they are at serious risk of health effects from their weight.
But the Pew Research Center telephone survey of more than 2,000 adults found that many people overestimate how tall they are and underestimate how much they weigh – and thus do not rate themselves as overweight, even when they are.
“The survey finds that most Americans, including those who say they are overweight, agree that personal behavior – rather than genetic disposition or marketing by food companies – is the main reason people are overweight,” Pew said in the report.
Those polled were asked how tall they are and how much they weigh. Doctors and researchers around the world use a ration of height to weight called body mass index to calculate if someone is obese or overweight.
The women reported they weighed a median of 150 pounds and had a median height of 5 feet 5 inches, which would put them just barely on the borderline of being overweight.
But national statistics indicate that women have a median weight of 155 pounds and are only 5 feet 4 inches tall, which puts them squarely into the overweight column.
“As for men, well, they give themselves even more phantom height than women do – 2 extra inches,” the report said. “The self-reported median height of men in the Pew survey is 5 feet 11 inches, compared with 5 feet 9 inches in the government survey.”
