Half of fat men don’t think they are overweight
MILLIONS of men are deluding themselves about their weight, experts have warned.
More than half of overweight men think their weight is ‘ about right’, research suggests.
Women have been under pressure for decades to diet and slim in pursuit of a perfect body – but experts believe men view obesity as acceptable.
British men are 17 per cent more likely to be overweight and 26 per cent more likely to have diabetes than women, according to a report.
Yet they are far less likely to do anything about it. Men make up only 23 per cent of participants in NHS weight loss programmes, the report says.
Peter Baker, of the Men’s Health Forum charity, which compiled the report, said: ‘Men who are overweight are less likely than women to actually believe they are overweight, they are much less aware. They convince themselves it is all muscle, and being a “big bloke” has a certain status.’
He pointed to a University of Liverpool study which showed that 55 per cent of overweight men thought their weight was ‘about right’, compared with 31 per cent of overweight women.
Mr Baker said: ‘Culturally there is so much pressure on women to be slim – women’s magazines are full of dieting tips and idealised images of thin women.’
Even if they do realise they have a problem, men are often unwilling to take action, Mr Baker said. ‘Part of the problem is weight loss programmes are just not designed for men,’ he said. ‘They do not want to sit and talk about their feelings.
‘Ironically, if men do go along they are often more successful than women.’
Professor Naveed Sattar, an expert in metabolic medicine at the University of Glasgow, who contributed to the report, said men need to be pay more attention to their weight than women because they are more at risk of heart disease and diabetes.
Obesity in Britain has increased by 92 per cent since the 1990s, with 68 per cent of men and 58 per cent of women now either overweight or obese, a relative difference of 17 per cent.
Figures show that 9.6 per cent of men have either type 1 or type 2 diabetes compared with 7.6 per cent of women, a relative difference of 26 per cent. Some 90 per cent of cases of diabetes are the type 2 form, which is linked to being overweight or obese.