Overweight and real weight
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From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I'm Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.
Do overweight or obese mothers and children realize how much they weigh? A study indicates that many don't. At Columbia University Medical Center, Nicole Dumas looked at data on people in New York City. They were asked to estimate their body size, and researchers also computed their real size.
The researchers say 82 percent of obese women underestimated their weight. Eighty-six percent of overweight or obese children did. Only 13 to 15 percent of normal weight people underestimated.
And Dumas says:
``Almost half of women with overweight or obese children believed that their children were of normal weight.'' (6 seconds)
The study supported by HHS was presented at an American Heart Association conference on nutrition and physical activity.
Learn more at hhs.gov.
HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I'm Ira Dreyfuss.