A quickarticle on body image

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I ran into the following article at the Psychology Today website

http://www.psychologytoday.com/rss/pto-20001101-000021.html

Just to grab a bit here is what it has to say.

In a study by psychologist Catherine Sanderson, of Amherst College, college women tend to believe that they exercised less and weighed more than the average person. Her study also found that this misperception increases over time, as college seniors seem much more likely than freshwomen to misjudge the weight and habits of others.

According to Sanderson, the trend goes something like this: “Jane,” the average college freshwoman, first arrives at school weighing 130 pounds. When asked, she estimates that other students weigh approximately 130 pounds—and she’s right. Years pass, and Jane observes other women eating less, bragging about rigorous exercise regimens, and skipping meals. By her senior year, Jane has put on a few pounds. Weighing in at 135, she estimates that the average female student weighs 125 pounds. This time, she’s wrong. The average student weighs what she does—yet Jane doesn’t see it.

People tend to exaggerate their body image. People that are fit seem to over train to get even fitter and people that are overweight tend to dispair because they think there is no way our of the weight problem that they have. The other problem that we all tend to have as well is to not be able to focus on long term solutions in favor of looking at short term problems.

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