Here’s another explanation for the obesity epidemic: Body size misperception –

This is probably true — so many people say that they decided to make a real change in their lives after seeing a picture of themselves. We get so wrapped up in raising our kids, living our hectic lives that we don’t stop and really see ourselves. I bet we all know people who have not yet come to terms with the physical changes that have happened to them for whatever reason…

Researchers have identified another cause of the American obesity epidemic – too many of us don’t realize that we’re overweight.

In fact, the doctors and other experts who published this hypothesis this week in Archives of Internal Medicine have a clinical name for this problem: body size misperception. And about 8% of adults in Dallas have it, according to their study.

The primary symptom is that when shown pictures of nine figures – ranging from very thin to morbidly obese – these adults selected an “ideal body size” that was the same or bigger than the image they thought best reflected their own body size. The result is that they failed “to recognize a need for weight loss,” according to the study.