Have you ever justified your weight by saying you are big-boned? What about your eating and exercise habits? How often do you really eat out? How many days did you actually get to the gym last month?
Are you being honest with yourself when it comes to your health? And are you asking others to be honest with you?
Being honest with yourself is essential for initiating health behavior changes and setting good goals. For example, someone who tells themselves they need to lose a few pounds may really need to lose much more and may not take their weight loss as seriously as they should.
Convincing yourself that you are doing more exercise than you really are may mean that you wont see the fitness or weight loss results you were expecting.
This type of self-deception is easy to do. Take body weight for example. The current standard for determining if you are at a healthy weight is body mass index (BMI), calculated from your weight and height (kg/m2). It requires a bit of math, so using a mobile app or online calculator is a good idea.
A BMI between 18.5 and 24.9 is considered normal, 25-29.9 is overweight, and if your BMI is 30 and higher you are classified as obese. To put this in perspective, a BMI of 30 is equivalent to about 25 to 30 pounds of excess fat.
Lets say your BMI puts you in the obese category, suggesting you should lose weight. But then you think about an article you read about how BMI isnt accurate because you can be considered obese if you have excess muscle, not fat.
And then there was the story on the news suggesting that it is OK to be obese as long as you are physically fit. So, maybe you dont need to worry about your weight.
See how easy it is to tell yourself that you dont really need to lose weight. In reality, BMI is an accurate method of assessing your body fatness; the inaccuracies reported in the news almost always involve athletes or people with lots of muscle mass developed through physical labor.
Be honest is that really you? Its also true that people who are fit and fat can be healthier than people who are thin and sedentary, but it requires a lot of exercise to reach that level of fitness. Again, are you really that fit?
Probably the best test is to take a good look in the mirror and be honest about what you see. Try to pinch an inch of fat around your belly. One inch isnt necessarily a problem, but take notice if you can pinch a handful of fat.
Measuring your waist circumference (or looking at your pants size) can give you the same information.
People who have a high BMI because of extra muscle, like athletes, have thin waists. If your waist circumference is greater than 35 inches (for women) or 40 inches (men), you have excess fat.
This honesty also applies to others, including your doctor. Many physicians are reluctant to discuss weight and weight loss with their patients, and many patients dont want to hear what they interpret as a personal attack.
Dont be one of those patients! Ask your doctor for an honest assessment about your weight and the impact it might have on your health.
Making changes to diet and activity habits is a difficult process, to be sure.
Telling yourself that you dont need to make them only delays getting started and can lead to poor health in the meantime.
When it comes to your health, honesty is the best policy.
Brian Parr, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Department of Exercise and Sports Science at USC Aiken where he teaches courses in exercise physiology, nutrition and health behavior.