Study Says Lesbians More Likely To Be Obese Than Heterosexual Women

[matcom]

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I just report! I just report!

<snip>

According to a new report lesbians are twice as likely as heterosexual women to be overweight or obese.

Ulrike Boehmer of the Boston University School of Public Health looked at a 2002 national survey of almost six thousand women and found that lesbians were 2.69 times more likely to be overweight and 2.47 times more likely to be obese.

The report which has been published in the American Journal of Public Health is one of the first major studies to look at obesity among lesbians.

Researchers say the results indicate that lesbian women have a better body image than heterosexual women

http://www.skynews.com.au/health/article.asp?id=166506

[Zuiderelle]

1. I also think you will find more lesbians to be comfortable with their bodies than straight women.

In my observation. :)

[crim son]

2. I guess I don't see the connecion between obesity and

comfort with the body. Yeah, I understand the obvious point that somebody who is unconcerned about how they are judged physically might be less inclined to worry about their weight, but how does it follow therefore that they become overweight or obese?

[Zuiderelle]

3. My thinking is that the scale (hehe) is a bit off in the study.

Since you would find far more straight women who are on the other end of the scale (the obsessively, unhealthily thin). So, therefore the numbers would be weighted to show more overweight lesbians (per capita, I guess?) than overweight straight women, since per capita, there are also more underweight straight women (a guess on my part, based on the comfort with the body concept).

[crim son]

4. That makes sense although it means the statistician

who came up with the final figures ain't too bright.

There are still obsessively, unhealthily thin women in this country? When I take a look at films, commercials or pics from the eighties, there I see what we've come (accurately) to describe as unhealthily thin. But times have changed and the "thin" person becomes rather rare, IMHO. It strikes me that there has been a real effort to redefine what is healthy and normal & that the effort has been pretty successful. Here in Maine, anyway.

[Zuiderelle]

6. I see plenty of unhealthily thin women.

I don't see what you see, in fact, I think that the commercials and ads in magazines are depicting even THINNER women than there were in the 80s.

The study doesn't tell us what overweight is. To me, being 20 pounds overweight isn't really overweight, but I think that it would be counted as such in a study like this. I have an extra 20 pounds and I feel very confident in my appearance, am very healthy, and have no desire to reach some ideal correct weight. I'm sure I'd be counted as one of those overweight lesbians.

I wonder what use this study does anyone anyway. Usually studies are done to show you what risk factors you can change to avoid some result. Well, there's not much I can do to change my sexuality. I just find it odd that someone did a study on obesity comparing gay women to straight women. Weird.

[Missy Vixen]

5. Ahhh, morning

Those damn fat women screw it up for everyone, don't they?

:popcorn:

Julie

[matcom]

7. yeah, real douchebags

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:popcorn: