By Julie Reade
Obesity has been around for a long time. Today, rather than being called a problem, it's grown into an epidemic. It's been blamed for everything from low self-esteem to high blood pressure. The obese (and their supporters) fight right back with their type of blame game. They blame the fast food industry for tempting them with super-sized products. They blame a lack of labeling when things contain a disproportionate about of fat. And it doesn't stop there. Obese people blame their predicament on their "fat genes" or even the Grandma who used guilt to get them to eat that second serving of pie. But whether these accusations are factual or not doesn't matter. In the end, obese people are unhealthier than average weight people.

But new research may shed some light on why obese people struggle with weight. The latest study shows that many obese people suffer from something called Body Size Misperception. In this latest study, 8% out of 2,056 obese participants were satisfied with their body weight or even felt they could gain more weight, according to data from the Dallas Heart study. Basically, body size misperception is the idea that people don't see their bodies as they are. The reason this is such a problem for people who are obese is that their health cannot afford to gain any more weight.

In the study, people were shown pictures of people of various sizes. When they saw someone who was approximately their size or a bit larger, they marked this as "average weight." When all of the research was analyzed, it showed that obese people do not see themselves as obese. In fact, they did not think they needed to lose weight at all. This was a striking finding. It showed that at least a portion of the obese population is the way they are because they don't try to lose. The way they see it, they are the average American. So why try to be smaller?

While this was the first time this type of study was done with obese subjects, the idea of body size misperception has been around forever. It is one reason so many young girls become anorexic and bulimic. They look at themselves in the mirror and see something quite different than their true self. For young girls who eventually become anorexic or bulimic, they see a body much bigger than they truly are. Similar to the obese, body size misconception causes a distortion in reality and leads to health risks.