ollieacompulsiveovereater

I'd like to give a hat tip to my sister who writes Bupkis for alterting me to the following article:
http://www.webmd.com/content/article/121/114065.htm. The article reads:

Most Americans See Excess Pounds on Others but Not Themselves

By Miranda Hitti WebMD Medical News

Reviewed By Louise Chang, MD on Wednesday, April 12, 2006

April 12, 2006 -- Most Americans see a serious weight problem among other Americans but often can't see it in themselves.

So says a new survey from the Pew Research Center. The survey, done by telephone in February and early March, included 2,250 randomly chosen U.S. adults.

The survey showed widespread agreement that the U.S. is heftier than it should be. But most participants thought those extra pounds were on other people's bodies.

Among poll takers, 90% said most Americans are overweight. A smaller group -- 70% -- said most people they know are overweight. Even fewer -- 39% -- called themselves overweight.

Participants mainly blamed insufficient exercise for America's weight problem, followed by lack of willpower about what to eat, the survey also shows.

Really? I guess that "denial" isn't just a river in Egypt any more!

The article continues:

When asked if Americans are more overweight than five years ago, 85% of poll takers said yes, and two-thirds called that trend a "major problem."

The CDC recently reported that seven out of 10 U.S. adults are overweight or obeseseven out of 10 U.S. adults are overweight or obese. But in the Pew survey, less than four in 10 thought they were overweight, showing a gap between perception and reality. [...]

Both polls showed that among people who had ever dieted, about 75% reported losing at least 5 pounds and keeping that weight off for at least a year. In other words, dieting may have been more common 15 years ago, but people weren't much better at it then.

"Nearly everyone -- dieters and nondieters alike -- say that is difficult to lose weight," the new poll states. For instance, 59% said it is "very hard" for people who are very overweight to lose weight. Women, people aged 50 and older, overweight people, and dieters were more likely to agree that weight loss is very hard for the very overweight.

Exercise a Big Issue

Why are so many people in the U.S. overweight? Insufficient exercise is the biggest reason, the poll shows.

Again, this "reason" just comes from the polls. I suppose this is part of the "well, most people are average but I am above average attitude that I see so often in many walks of life.

I also remember that when I lost a great deal of weight, I saw myself as being slimmer than I actually was.