Ideals versus reality: Are weight ideals associated with weight change in the population?

Abstract

Objective: To quantify weight ideals of young adults and to examine whether the discrepancy between actual and ideal weight is associated with 10-year body mass index (BMI) change in the population. Methods: This study comprised 4,964 adults from the prospective population-based FinnTwin16 study. They reported their actual and ideal body weight at age 24 (range 22-27) and 10 years later (attrition 24.6%). The correlates of discrepancy between actual and ideal body weight and the impact on subsequent BMI change were examined. Results: The discrepancy between actual and ideal weight at 24 years was on average 3.9 kg (1.4 kg/m . Weight ideals at 24 years were not correlated with 10-year weight change. At 34 years, just 13.2% of women and 18.9% of men were at or below the weight they had specified as their ideal weight at 24 years. Women and men adjusted their ideal weight upward over time. Conclusions: Irrespective of ideal weight at baseline, weight gain was nearly universal. Weight ideals were shifted upward over time. Obesity (2016) 24, 947-953.

Do Disordered Eating Behaviours Have Long‐term Health‐related Consequences?

“…The characteristics of our participants in their mid-twenties are presented in Table 1. As previously reported, women on average weighted 61 kg and men 77 kg, and their mean BMIs were 22.2 and 23.9, respectively (Table 1) (Kärkkäinen et al 2016). Waist circumference was on average 75 cm among women and 85 cm among men.…”

Successful weight maintainers among young adults—A ten-year prospective population study

“…To date, it remains controversial whether factors that explain successful weight loss or maintenance differ in women and men (Stroebele-Benschop et al, 2013). Yet, our previous study showed that women and men perceive their weight differently (Kärkkäinen, Mustelin, Raevuori, Kaprio, & Keski-Rahkonen, 2016), and other researchers have suggested that women and men respond differently to weight maintenance and weight loss approaches (Robertson et al, 2016).…”

Body areas satisfaction and body mass in adolescents: mediating effects of actual–ideal body weight discrepancies

“…The actual (self-reported)–ideal body weight discrepancy was assessed by subtracting the actual body weight (self-reported) from the ideal body weight. Similar procedure of assessing body weight discrepancies was applied in the previous studies [ 14 ].…”

“…Previous research [9,14,15] on body weight perceptions have most often used self-reported discrepancies since they are easier to asses than objectively measured discrepancies. Indeed, some studies indicated that the objective reality (actual body weight) is a weaker correlate of future BMI than the subjective perception of that reality (perceived body weight) [15,16].…”

“…The relation between BAS and BMI as being mediated by both indices of actual (self-reported and objectively measured)-ideal body weight discrepancy was not investigated so far. It might be due to the frequent usage of self-reported measures of BMI in previous research [14]. Summing up, previous studies usually applied cross-sectional design, relied only on self-report measures, and did not include gender as a moderator or a covariate.…”