Portion Distortion

by Mari-Etta Parrish RD, CSSD, LDN

It doesn’t take a mathematician to tell you that you can’t solve a problem you don’t see. 70% of obese people think they are just overweight and 30% of overweight individuals think they are normal weight. So how do you know if your weight is a problem? It isn’t necessarily because your doctor told you so. In fact some reports show that only about 40% of people with a weight problem have been told by a physician or health professional that they are overweight.

Body Mass Index (BMI) is currently the gold standard for comparing your weight and associated health risk. However, most Americans use other fellow Americans to gauge if they are overweight. Indeed, you may not seem to have a weight problem compared to most Americans. 66% of Americans are overweight and 33% are obese. The people that surround you may not be the best comparison. The American Heart Association recently released a study demonstrating this very fact. In the study, when individuals were shown body images and asked which looked closest to what they perceived their body image to be, 80% of obese individuals and 40% of overweight participants chose images that were thinner than their actual size. 86% of overweight or obese children underestimated their weight as well. Since the new norm is “overweight,” more of us perceive “overweight” as acceptable, remaining in denial of the risk excess pounds pose to your health and the cost associated. People that don’t believe they have a weight problem, thin or overweight, are less likely to engage in healthful practices. Knowing your BMI and striving to stay in the optimal weight range it suggests is important. Your risk for future disease, death, and health complications are minimized when BMI is within normal range.

So you are a not a fan of BMI and haven’t weighed as much as the chart says you should since you come out of your mother’s womb? A new tool, Waist to Height Ratio (WHtR) may soon replace BMI as the industry standard for determining if your weight is a risk to your health. Research that has followed weight and health outcomes for years shows that , although BMI is an accurate and useful prediction tool, waist to height comparison may be even more accurate, especially for predicting cardiac related complications. WHtR suggests that if your waist is more than half your height you have a problem. This method better targets “apple” shaped individuals who have been proven more at risk for cardiac disease as they harbor more visceral fat around their organs. WHtR gives leniency to folks that are pear shaped, carrying their weight in their hips, butt, and thighs. Whether you go for BMI or try the new WHtR, find out if your weight is something you should be addressing. Portion distortion doesn’t just apply to food any more.