A recent study has revealed that most overweight people blame themselves for their condition, but they find themselves too helpless to do anything about it.
The study led by Monash University involved 141 obese Australians who were widely interviewed regarding their perception of their own weight and how they think they can manage it.
Dr. Samantha Thomas, Head of Monash University's Consumer Health Research Group and co-author of the study, said that people who were severely overweight with a Body Mass Index (BMI) of more than 40 were often found to be battling their own bodies.
Severely obese helpless while trying to become healthy
"Severely obese individuals felt an urgent and desperate need to change their health behaviors, but felt completely powerless to do so,” said Dr. Thomas.
Dr. Thomas revealed that despite being aware of the ruinous consequences of their health, most obese individuals could not really get into a healthy shape as they held themselves responsible fat being fat and were embarrassed of it. The guilt worsened their condition.
“Most felt worried and scared about the potential health consequences of their weight. Most felt blamed and ashamed by public health and education campaigns about obesity, which did little to actually help them address their weight," she said.
Moderately obese see no need to improve
However, the status is not the same for all obese individuals. While the highly overweight fight with their bodies and see the need to improve their health, the ones with mild to moderate obesity are rather comfortable in their bodies. They do not find the need to improve their health.
According to Dr. Thomas, people with mild to moderate obesity were aware of the excessive weight they carried on their bodies but they did not feel that shedding some pounds could actually do good to their health.
"Those individuals, with a BMI between 30 and 40, believed they could lose weight if they needed to, but did not feel this was an urgent health priority as most felt physically healthy," Dr Thomas said.
"Most of the study participants in this category deliberately sought to distance themselves from public health messages about obesity and the word obesity because of the social stigma attached to the condition.”
“They also stigmatized those who were fatter than themselves," she added.
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