NEWSPost India

A quarter of fat women think they don’t have a weight problem, according to a study. Young mothers are particularly at risk of obesity but failing to recognise they are still carrying the pounds they put on during pregnancy, say U.S. researchers. British experts said it was inevitable that as the population gets fatter, bigger people are seen as ‘normal’.

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However, this encourages denial of health-related problems caused by obesity such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease, they claim. More than 2,000 women aged 18 to 25 were asked questions about their weight and perceptions about their size. Half of them were considered overweight or obese based on their body mass Index, a scoring system which compares weight to height.

Around 25 per cent of overweight women ‘misperceived’ their body weight, saying they were underweight or normal weight. They were significantly less likely than other women to act healthily. The University of Texas study, published in the journal Obstetrics and Gynaecology, also found that one in six normal weight women ‘misperceives’ their body shape and thinks they are fat.

Dr Mahbubur Rahman, one of the researchers, said: ‘As obesity numbers climb, many women identify overweight as normal.’ Dr David Haslam, chairman of the UK’s National Obesity Forum, said: ‘Everyone is getting bigger together. But this doesn’t mean you are a healthy weight.’

The National Audit Office estimates obesity causes at least 30,000 deaths a year in the UK.