A study about how people perceive their weight suggests that if you’re worried about being fat all the time you’ll actually feel physically sick more often than cool people. The study was conducted by the DUH I COULD HAVE TOLD THEM THAT er, sorry it was conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and published by the American Journal of Public Health. (OMG I lurv their Oscar Red Carpet issue.)

Science Experiment:Researchers studied data on 170,000 men and women. Keep in mind that a lot of self-

reporting involves some dude in a lab coat calling up and asking what you weigh. Researcher say they’re aware that most people like, lie. “Sure Mr. Scientist, here’s my real weight. While you’re at it I give you permission to put my picture and that number on a billboard.” So anyway these 170,000 people were asked what they weighed, what they’d LIKE to weigh and then.. here’s the INTERESTING PART… they were asked how often they felt physically or mentally unhealthy.

Results: Men who wanted to lose 1, 10, or 20 percent of their body weight reported that they felt unhealthy .05, .9 and 2.7 days a month respectively. Women who wanted to lose 1, 10, or 20 percent of their body weight were even worse off (reinforcing that medical fact that women have everything worse in all medical bad news studies) felt unhealthy .1, 1.6, and 4.3 days a month respectively.

Analysis: Researchers believe that this means you shouldn’t worry about your weight. You SHOULD worry about eating well and exercising. They say this data indicates that freaking out about your weight makes you feel like crap. After this study researchers also confirmed that horizontal stripes on your butt do indeed make it look huge. However the stripes do confuse sharks trying to attack you so don’t get rid of those striped pants. They could save your life.

Real Life Application: This research may lead to medical professionals emphasizing your diet and activity level instead of your doctor saying, “Wow.. you really need to look more like Sarah Jessica Parker if you don’t want to use up your sick days at work Bertha.”

Summary: It is STAGGERING to think that 4.3 days a month or 51.6 days a year we actually feel sick – maybe ONLY because we feel overweight. I’d like to lose 20 percent of my body weight and I think I feel like poo 2 out of 7 days a week. That means I feel sickish 96 DAYS A YEAR! 

Does the amount of weight you think you need to lose correlate to the amount of time per month you feel ill? Is it a motivator to think maybe losing 10% could cut down the days you feel physically bad? Or is your motivator for losing weight looking good in tight pants? Currently I’m all about wanting to look good in jeans. I’m working on evolving my thinking. I need to eat well and exercise so I feel better and then eventually I will look good in jeans. I love science.