“For example, women tend to underreport their weight, men tend to overreport their height, and so those people’s true BMI is higher than what comes out on the self-report,” Gotay says.
Gotay and her colleagues also used maps to show the changing obesity rates over time in different regions and for different genders. The study was published in the Canadian Journal of Public Health last week.
Changing Habits
While the study focused on the prevalence of obesity rather than its causes, Gotay says possible reasons for the growing rates of obesity could include people’s eating and working habits.
“We know that people have tended toward larger portion sizes, a lot more processed food—that’s what’s catching up with people,” she says.
“We are eating more of that stuff and then we’re sitting much more looking at screens at home and at work, and these two things together likely account for much of the rise.”
She also speculates that income and access to fresh food could be possible causes of differing rates in different parts of Canada.
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