Women are Hard Wired to Worry about Weight
Worrying about weight happens to the best of us. But a new study shows that women may actually be hired-wired to worry about their weight. A recent study shows that the brains of women react negatively when viewing photos of overweight people.
A study by Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, found that the brains of women react negatively when viewing photos of overweight people. When viewing such images, women displayed an increase in activity in the areas of the brain thought to be associated with self-reflection and assessment of self-worth. Women who pictured themselves as thin did not have the same increase in brain activity.
Men showed no marked change in brain activity when shown pictures of either overweight or thin individuals.
Study Reveals Hidden Feelings about Body Image
For the Brigham Young study, published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, the brains of both women and men were observed using MRI machines. None of the participants experienced an eating disorder, such as anorexia or bulimia, and believed themselves to have a positive self-image.
The participants were shown images of overweight and thin individuals and told to imagine that someone else said they looked like those people in the images. When women were shown images of overweight people, their brain response indicated that they questioned their confidence levels.
“These women have no history of eating disorders and project an attitude that they don’t care about body image,” Mark Allen, a neuroscientist at Brigham Young, told the Daily Mail. “Yet under the surface is an anxiety about getting fat.”
Women who have eating disorders often feel depressed and have self-loathing when they see an overweight person, putting on themselves more pressure to stay thin. This study indicates that women who appear to have healthy body images actually react much like women with bulimia if they believe they are overweight.
Risk of Developing an Eating Disorder
Women or men can develop an eating disorder such as anorexia, bulimia or binge eating disorder at any time. For women, who may claim they don’t care about body issues, eating disorders may develop without them even recognizing it, as the Brigham Young study indicated.
In today’s society, where there is often a strong message that women need to be thin to be attractive and successful, women may subconsciously struggle with body issues despite their best intentions. That can lead women to exercise excessively, go on fad diets or starve themselves in order to have what they consider the ideal body image. Ultimately, this may result in the development of a dangerous eating disorder.
Eating disorders can wreak havoc on a woman’s self-image, health and levels of self-esteem. They can also lead to the development of mood disorders, such as depression and anxiety.
Women who are suffering from an eating disorder should immediately seek treatment. A residential treatment center for eating disorders can help women end their dangerous relationship with food and develop a more positive self-image. A residential treatment center can also help women address any depression, anxiety or substance abuse that they may be experiencing in addition to an eating disorder.
