Your body image and your health

October 16th, 2006

Interesting research has been published which shows how your body image can affect your willingness to control your weight within healthy limits.

You can read more about the experiment here, but in essence the research found that subjects who were asked to think about their body image were more encouraged to slim and lead a healthy lifestyle than those who had no cause to consider how they looked.

I guess that these findings should not surprise many people, however it does tie in with thoughts that I have had previously about how people perceive themselves when they look in the mirror.

I know that if I look at myself in the mirror and think that I’ve put on a few pounds, I immediately think “uh oh I need to shed those excess pounds as soon as possible”. I’ll take care to do so until the image that stares back at me in the mirror looks “right”.

I guess that I have a strong body image.

I wonder, though, about those who are grossly overweight or obese. They haven’t just acquired that extra weight overnight, but have gradually gained pound after pound. Do they adjust their standards when they look at themselves ie “I look ok with those extra few pounds, I needn’t do anything about it”.

Then later “I look OK with that extra stone - I’m fine”.

I don’t know what goes through their minds, but as our series of articles on eating disorders show, the way in which people perceive themselves and the pressures that are placed upon them by society, can be very damaging.

It depends on the individual if they end up suffering from an eating disorder - either leading them towards anorexia or towards obesity - or steel themselves to lose weight until their actual image matches their perceived image, in a healthy way.

Entry Filed under: Healthy Lifestyles