A couple of days ago I asked readers of my new FaceBook Page whether or not they preferred exercising in front of a mirror?

The response was mixed: for some definitely no mirrors, for some definitely yes, and for some the answer depends on the exercise (weights: yes; aerobic: no).

So what does research have to say on this?

A Canadian study to address this issue was done by Kathleen Martin Ginis and colleagues from McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario published back in 2003 in Health Psychology.

The researchers examined body image concerns on changes in exercise-induced feelings and self-efficacy in 58 young sedentary women, who were randomised to perform a 20-min bout of solitary exercise in front of either a mirrored or a nonmirrored wall.

The results clearly indicated that regardless of their level of body image concern, the women in the mirrored condition felt significantly worse after exercising than the women in the unmirrored condition.

The authors note that these findings are entirely consistent with predictions of the objective self-awareness theory proposed by Duval and Wicklund in 1972. According to this theory:

“…any stimulus that causes focus on the self, such as the presence of a mirror, can lead to a state of increased self-awareness. This state is characterized by a greater awareness of internal sensations and the elicitation of a self-evaluation process whereby individuals compare themselves with standards or ideals that are salient in the situation. When the self-evaluation process results in a perceived discrepancy between the actual and the ideal self, negative self-evaluations and negative affect will occur.”

As noted by the authors, this theory is supported by numerous studies showing that gazing at oneself in a mirror increases self-focus and can lead to increased negative mood, particularly among women.

Not surprisingly, the authors conclude that these findings have important implications for physical activity and exercise recommendations:

“Our findings suggest that mirrored exercise environments may not just prevent sedentary women from deriving the mood-enhancing benefits of exercise but may actually cause mood decrements.

This raises the possibility that mirrored fitness facilities are a deterrent to exercise participation among sedentary women. Certainly if a woman leaves the gym feeling even worse than when she arrived, she will not be particularly motivated to continue exercising in the future.

As such, the recommended practice of placing mirrors in exercise centers may need to be reconsidered, especially in centers that are trying to attract exercise initiates.”

As far as I can tell by the abundance of mirrored walls in fitness centres, five years later, these findings have yet to be widely translated into practice.

I wonder what my readers have to say about this? Are there actually gyms out there that offer mirror-free exercise rooms?

AMS
Edmonton, Alberta

Martin Ginis KA, Jung ME, & Gauvin L (2003). To see or not to see: effects of exercising in mirrored environments on sedentary women’s feeling states and self-efficacy. Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association, 22 (4), 354-61 PMID: 12940391

Being overweight or obese has been associated with a poor body image and a lower quality of life specially in females, but the impact on males is less clear.

This relationship was now examined by Saloumi and Plourde from McGill University, Montreal, in a paper just published in Psychology, Health & Medicine.

The analysis was based on data from the nationally representative Canadian Community Health Survey, which included 25,246 males and females aged 15-29 years.

As expected, both satisfaction with their looks and satisfaction with life were inversely associated with excess weight in females.

In contrast, excess weight in older men was associated with greater satisfaction with life (body image in men was not examined).

While older overweight men were less likely to smoke, excess weight was associated with higher rates of smoking, particularly in younger women.

Both men and women with excess weight reported avoiding food because of caloric content and an attempt to control their weight.

Although most males and females with excess weight acknowledged the fact that they were overweight, 20.4, 29.6, and 36.1% of males with excess weight in the age group of 15-19, 20-24, and 25-29, respectively, seemed to think that their weight is “just about right”.

In contrast less than 10% of females with excess weight in all three age groups thought that their weight is “just about right”.

The study points to important differences in how young men and women perceive their excess weight and the strategies that they may adopt to control it.

The authors explain their interesting finding that overweight men appear more satisfied with life than do overweight women with the notion that while men associate excess weight with being “big and strong”, women tend to associate excess weight with being “fat”, something both sexes appear to fear.

Previous researchers have also suggested that while men may avoid high-caloric foods for health reasons, women tend to do so primarily to control their weight.

These differences have important implications both for public health messaging as well as for individual counseling of men and women with excess weight.

I am guessing that distinctly different strategies will be needed to address excess weight in men and women.

I look forward to any ideas my readers may have on how to better convince men that some of that “big and strong” may actually be a significant health risk.

AMS
Edmonton, Alberta

p.s. Join my new Facebook page for more posts and links on obesity prevention and management

Saloumi C, & Plourde H (2010). Differences in psychological correlates of excess weight between adolescents and young adults in Canada. Psychology, health & medicine, 15 (3), 314-25 PMID: 20480435

In most countries the ratio of obesity between men and women is approximately equal. Yet, the clients in most obesity clinics and weight loss centres are mainly women.

So what is with the guys?

This question was now examined by Jane deVille-Almond and colleagues from the UK in a paper just published online in the American Journal of Men’s Health.

For this study, 266 male drivers were randomly recruited from motorway service stations and asked about body weight perception and awareness of the relation between adiposity and diabetes as well as weight loss attempts.

The median age of participants was 52 years, and 46% were obese based on BMI and 73% based on waist circumference.

Of participants with normal BMI, 18% thought they were overweight, whereas 26% of overweight participants thought they were “just right” and only 19% of obese participants recognized their obesity.

Based on WC, 30% of participants with normal waist circumference thought they were obese and 9% of obese participants realized they were obese.

Only 25% and 42% of participants recognized that diabetes is associated with large waistlies and obesity, respectively.

A total of 81% of overweight and 62% of obese participants (based on BMI) believed that they were not at increased risk of diabetes.

Perhaps not surprisingly, self-perception of adiposity in men was only a weak predictor weight loss attempts.

I guess a lot more has to be done to bring obesity awareness to menfolk’s attention - especially given that their risk for metabolic complications and early infarcts associated with excess weight is as high if not higher than that of women.

AMS
Edmonoton, Alberta

p.s. check out my new Page on Facebook

Deville-Almond J, Tahrani AA, Grant J, Gray M, Thomas GN, & Taheri S (2010). Awareness of Obesity and Diabetes: A Survey of a Subset of British Male Drivers. American journal of men’s health PMID: 20413385

I am fully aware that this blog is generally dedicated to discussing topics relevant to obesity prevention and management. Readers may therefore be surprised to see that today’s post deals with anorexia.

However, regular readers will probably recall previous posts on this topic and on how the problem of eating disorders in general can be promoted by ridiculous beauty ideals promoted by the media and the fashion and beauty industry in particular (see Dr Eyecandy for more on this topic).

Recently, one fashion designer has been caught promoting particularly ridiculously photoshopped advertisements to promote his ware. A widespread outcry resulted in retraction and apologies, but several other photoshopped images from the same designer remain in use.

As a result, Darryl Roberts, the producer and director of America the Beautiful, an award-winning documentary on fashion-dictated beauty ideals, has called for a boycott on Ralph Lauren that is receiving worldwide attention.

The declared goal is to have at least 10,000 registered fans on a facebook group specifically started to demonstrate the massive support for this call by the end of this week!

I encourage all readers to visit the facebook site and join the call by clicking here: ATB Action Network Boycott of Ralph Lauren

Please make sure you invite your friends to do the same!

AMS
Edmonton, Alberta

November 9, 2009 marked the 20th Anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Born in Berlin, for years I we lived a few 100 metres from it, my kids played in its shadow, we biked along its perimeter, when visitors came, we took them to the outlook point to stare at life in the communist bloc.

The night the wall came down, we left our sleeping kids at home (no, we were definitely not “helicopter” parents) and rushed to see for ourselves the happy, weeping, incredulous faces of “Easterners” as they crossed over to step on “Western” soil for the first time in their lives.

For a description of what my daughter recalls of that day and what she writes about the city she loves, visit her blog Dr. Eyecandy, where she normally writes about peoples’ obsession with body weight, body image, and fashion-dictated body ideas - a must read for anyone working with weight-concerned clients (whether or not the excess weight is real or imagined).

I can only encourage all my readers to subscribe to her blog for a completely different take on obesity, its causes and consequences. (To follow Dr Eyecandy on FaceBook click here).

I believe that Dr. Eyecandy’s work is an important attempt at breaking down the walls between the “obesity” and “eating disorder” communities - two groups that should be talking to each other far more than they do.

Befittingly, given the Anniversary, I happen to be in Leipzig (former East Germany), renowned for being the location where the famous Monday demonstrations started, which led to the peaceful revolution of 1989 and ended with the fall of the Berlin Wall. 

In Leipzig, I am meeting with colleagues at Leipzig University’s bariatric centre, one of the largest academic obesity centres in Germany, where I am being hosted by my friend and colleague Matthias Blüher - well known for his work on insulin resistance and adipose tissue biology. The Leipzig group is also a major player in the German Obesity Competence Network.

Since the fall of the wall, obesity has become particularly rampant in the former “East” - interestingly affecting kids and young adults, who were not even born when the wall was still around.

An interesting sociological experiment and conundrum if I ever saw one.

AMS
Leipzig, Germany