About 2 out of 10 women in Korea with a normal weight perceive themselves as obese.
On the 17th, the Korean Society for the Study of Obesity said that in a survey of adults 20 and older who participated in the 2022–2024 Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey on how they subjectively perceive their body type, 18.9% of women with a normal weight answered that they are obese.
That is more than four times higher than the 4.1% of men with a normal weight. This shows a significant perception gap between actual weight and perceived body type.
The Korean Society for the Study of Obesity's obesity treatment guidelines classify weight status by body mass index (BMI). A BMI of 18.5–22.9 is normal weight, 23–24.9 is pre-obesity, 25–29.9 is class 1 obesity, 30–34.9 is class 2 obesity, and 35 or higher is class 3 obesity.
Among women in the pre-obesity range, 66.9% considered themselves obese.
Expanding the scope to all adult men and women, those ages 20–39 had the highest rate of perceiving themselves as obese among all age groups. Among those with a normal weight, 15.7% saw themselves as obese, and among those in pre-obesity, 54.8% did.
Observers noted that this distortion in body-type perception warrants more caution as the use of obesity medications has been rising rapidly. Obesity drugs can be an effective treatment for appropriate candidates, but if a person with a normal weight uses them for weight loss, the risk of side effects may outweigh the expected benefits.