Aussies 'in denial' about being overweight (1 Viewer)

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Aussies 'in denial' about being overweight


THEY may live in the lucky country but Australians are in denial about their ever-expanding waistlines and claim to be the most unhappy in the world.
The findings came from an international health survey which also revealed that Australians were among the world's biggest drinkers, coming in just behind their British cousins.

The survey by health insurer BUPA showed that while 64 per cent of Australians said they were in relatively good shape, there were some worrying trends.

A measurement of waistlines among the 13,000 people from 12 countries who took part in the survey showed Australians were world leaders in self-deception when it came to being fat.

While one-third of the 1200 Australians surveyed admitted being too fat, BMI (body mass index) measurements revealed their perception was far from reality with 60 per cent actually overweight.

The BMI results put Australia in equal third place with Britain, just behind the US and Saudi Arabia where nearly two-thirds of people were overweight.

While more than half of the Australians wanted to shift those extra kilos, 44 per cent spent less than two hours a week working out.

Three-quarters said they drank alcohol - second only to Britain, where 84 per cent enjoyed a tipple - and just over a quarter ate the recommended five serves of fruit and vegetables.

Bert Boffa, a practising GP and head of BUPA's medical services, said Australians might not realise they needed to lose weight because they had become used to seeing more overweight people.

"If you look at pictures of young children on the beach 30 years ago, they were stick figures and now you go to the beach and kids aren't stick figures any more," Dr Boffa told AAP.

"It's concerning because at the same time we are trying to get messages across to Australians about reducing weight and increasing exercise.

"But one of the barriers now is that they don't realise they are starting behind the starting blocks.

"Some people out there are saying, 'I'm not overweight, so I don't need to heed this advice'."

As well as battling the bulge, Australians were also struggling with depression.

One-fifth of the Australians surveyed said they suffered from depression, the highest result for any country.

China, New Zealand and Saudi Arabia had the next highest levels of depression (16 per cent) followed by the US and Britain on 14 per cent.

Thailand had the lowest rates at just seven per cent.

Beyondblue director and psychiatrist Michael Baigent said the number of Australians who self-reported depression in the survey was slightly above the estimated 14 to 16 per cent who were clinically diagnosed.

"The likelihood of someone self-reporting depression will vary from place to place," Associate Professor Baigent said.

"In Australia there's been an increased awareness (about depression) so people may be more willing to report themselves as being depressed than other countries where mental illness has an enormous stigma associated with it."

The survey also found that Australians were most afraid of getting cancer (33 per cent) followed by dementia (15 per cent) and heart disease (13 per cent).

But 37 per cent said they did not visit a doctor when they had health concerns.



Read more: http://www.news.com.au/national/aus...ht/story-e6frfkw0-1226136340393#ixzz1XsXVK4Pe
 

Lentern

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Doesn't surprise me, I imagine a lot of people judge weight as a relative societal concept rather than a medical concept. Therefore if the median weight is medically unhealthy, a lot of folk who are medically overweight are going to perceive themselves to be normal and fairly healthy and in no urgent need to rectify the problem.

The depression thing surprises me a little more.
 
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it comes to a fore i think, in discussions regarding body image etc. people are told that it is unhealthy to be overweight but at the same time they are told that criticism of overweight people is wrong because the average size of women is like 16 or something lol
 

Lentern

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it comes to a fore i think, in discussions regarding body image etc. people are told that it is unhealthy to be overweight but at the same time they are told that criticism of overweight people is wrong because the average size of women is like 16 or something lol
Yeah but that it's tied more strongly to Australia than is normal seems just coincidental. I don't think there is anything in the "Australian psyche" if such a stupid concept even exists, that makes us more predisposed to be self conscious about body image etc
 

Garygaz

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people need to be less apologetic. if you're fat, lose weight. if you're unintelligent/not useful, you don't deserve to earn a lot of money. unhappy? then clearly you need to change something in your life, and you're the only one that can do it. goddamn these people just sitting around and sulking about how bad they have it.
 

jezzmo

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Another BMI driven scare.
My guess is Aussies have bigger frames in general than .. asians .. and tiny french kittens.
As a roughly sporting (debatable, yes), meat eating country, our BMI should be somewhat statistically higher before we begin to infer health risks.
Maybe there is an issue, but they need better data before this meth smoking monkey cuts away the cake.
 

Lentern

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people need to be less apologetic. if you're fat, lose weight. if you're unintelligent/not useful, you don't deserve to earn a lot of money. unhappy? then clearly you need to change something in your life, and you're the only one that can do it. goddamn these people just sitting around and sulking about how bad they have it.
I also think callous boneheads should be called out as dickheads instead of everyone just avoiding eyecontact when they start "calling it as it is".
 
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Another BMI driven scare.
My guess is Aussies have bigger frames in general than .. asians .. and tiny french kittens.
As a roughly sporting (debatable, yes), meat eating country, our BMI should be somewhat statistically higher before we begin to infer health risks.
Maybe there is an issue, but they need better data before this meth smoking monkey cuts away the cake.
yes that is true
bmi is a statistical average as far as i know
and having a mainly european heritage with larger than average frames and heights it does disadvantage us

on the other hand, we do have statistically higher incidences of health problems associated with being fat
like diabetes, bowel cancer, heart attack etc
 

cosmo kramer

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yeah some of it is due to the usage of bmi as the yardstick for measuring our fat our society is but a lot of these figures just reflect the reality that too many australians are fucking fat

walk outside for five minutes to confirm this
 

Ivorytw

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I'm not fat, I'm just big boned.
 

Dystocia

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Someone asked around and only 30% of Australians admitted to being overweight, but in reality 60% of them were. Fatties!!!!
 

Blastus

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I think a lot of it is socioeconomically related though
 

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