Abstract
The aim of this study was to determine whether the desire for slenderness in young men was associated with perception and misconception of self-evaluated physique. The study subjects were 287 male students of high school, 317 male students of vocational school and 170 male university students, who were targeted in a self-administered questionnaire survey. They were divided into two groups, those desiring weight loss (group A) and those not (group B).
The results obtained for desiring weight loss revealed that 30.9% of high school students, 43.0% of vocaitonal school students and 38.8% of university students desired weight loss, but 81.9 %, 74.7% and 68.2% of high school, vocational school and university students in group A were 18.5≦BMI<25.0, i.e. were in the normal weight range.
In group A, 25.0% of high school students, 30.2% of vocaitonal school students and 37.9% of university students and in group B, 24.0% of high school students, 28.1% of vocaitonal school students and 22.2% of university students had misconceptions about their weight. Almost all students who had misconceptions about their weight in group A overestimated their physiques, whereas in group B, subjects were apt to underestimate their physiques, irrespective of age. The number of subjects who had dieted more than 5 times dieiting was higher in group A than in group B. These results demonstrated that the misconception of physique was associated with unnecessary weight loss, and the importance of health education based on appropriate recognition of the physique is discussed.
