It's Not BMI, It's Body Image

We have always believed BMI (body mass index) to be a pretty dubious predictor of a person's health. Now there's a new study showing that the desire for weight loss is actually a more telling sign.

After looking at a sample 150, 577 participants, researchers determined that the more weight a person wants to lose, the more likely s/he is to engage in unhealthy behavior. Men who wished to lose 1 percent, 10 percent and 20 percent of their body weight, respectively, reported 0.1, 0.9 and 2.7 more unhealthy days per month than those who were happy with their weight. Among women, the corresponding increase in numbers of reported unhealthy days was 0.1, 1.6 and 4.3. So we're with Carson Kressley on this one. It looks like his "perception revolution" is where it's at. [Medical News Today]