Many Americans don't know how overweight they are.
About a third of overweight Americans think they're at a healthy weight for their height, according to a new poll released today by Harris Interactive, a market research firm.
And 70 percent of obese Americans would place themselves in the less medically-threatening category of "overweight,"as do nearly40 percent of morbidly obese respondents. Obesity is a leading cause of diabetes and heart disease.
Americans may have a skewed idea of "how fat is fat" because most adults are now overweight, says bariatric physician Karen Evans at the Medi-Weightloss Clinic in Orlando.
"The perception problem may be the fact that more than 60 percent of Americans are overweight, but because you are around those people all the time, you think it's normal," said Evans.
Most of the respondents thought they were fat mainly because of lack of exercise.
About half of overweight people thought they didn't exercise enough and three in four obese or morbidly obese adults also thought exercise was the big problem.
But exercise is rarely the biggest culprit, says Evans. It's food.
"A lot of people think that if they exercise today, they can eat more," said Evans.
But among weight loss specialists, there's a growing consensus that exercising to lose weight isn't nearly as effective as controlling portions, and often won't help shed pounds at all.
The online poll asked 2,418 adults over the age of 18 to report their height and weight, from which pollsters calculated their body mass index (BMI). A BMI between 25-30 is considered overweight and a BMI over 30 is obese. About 34 percent of adults over 20 are overweight and another 34 percent are obese.
About a third of overweight Americans think they're at a healthy weight for their height, according to a new poll released today by Harris Interactive, a market research firm.
And 70 percent of obese Americans would place themselves in the less medically-threatening category of "overweight,"as do nearly40 percent of morbidly obese respondents. Obesity is a leading cause of diabetes and heart disease.
Americans may have a skewed idea of "how fat is fat" because most adults are now overweight, says bariatric physician Karen Evans at the Medi-Weightloss Clinic in Orlando.
"The perception problem may be the fact that more than 60 percent of Americans are overweight, but because you are around those people all the time, you think it's normal," said Evans.
Most of the respondents thought they were fat mainly because of lack of exercise.
About half of overweight people thought they didn't exercise enough and three in four obese or morbidly obese adults also thought exercise was the big problem.
But exercise is rarely the biggest culprit, says Evans. It's food.
"A lot of people think that if they exercise today, they can eat more," said Evans.
But among weight loss specialists, there's a growing consensus that exercising to lose weight isn't nearly as effective as controlling portions, and often won't help shed pounds at all.
The online poll asked 2,418 adults over the age of 18 to report their height and weight, from which pollsters calculated their body mass index (BMI). A BMI between 25-30 is considered overweight and a BMI over 30 is obese. About 34 percent of adults over 20 are overweight and another 34 percent are obese.
