Some Doctors Simply Can't Identify Obese, Overweight Patients

Identifying obese patients can sometimes be difficult, even for doctors, according to recent findings published in The British Journal of General Practice.

Researchers at the University of Liverpool discovered that the majority of people are actually unable to visually identify whether a person is overweight, obese or just plain healthy.

For the study, participants were asked to label male models from photographs as healthy, overweight or obese.

Findings revealed that a majority of the people were unable to accurately identify healthy-weight, overweight or obese individuals. Furthermore, some researchers actually believed that overweight men were at a healthy weight.

Defining body perception can be difficult at times. This research reiterates that understanding of how exposure to certain weights can influence people's perception of healthy body weight.

"We wanted to find out if people can identify a healthy, overweight or obese person just by looking at them," said lead study author Dr. Eric Robinson, a psychologist at the University of Liverpool, in a news release. "Primarily we found that people were often very inaccurate and this included trainee doctors and qualified doctors too. Moreover, we found that participants systematically underestimated when a person was overweight or obese."