The big news for all those undergoing the tortures of the latest diet fad or sweating away at exercise in an endeavor to attract a mate is to STOP! There’s no need. According to a research study just out of California, you’re already more successful with the opposite sex than your undernourished dating competitors, at least in theory.
The study surveyed 60,058 heterosexual men and women, asking them their weight and height to calculate their Body Mass Index (BMI), and how many sexual partners they have had. The finding that stands out is that if you’re a male, the best BMI range to be in for success with the ladies is “Overweight”. Even being “Obese” presents no problem in the bedroom stakes, unless you’re in the super-obese category.
The study found that men with a perceived weight problem have better luck with the ladies than “Healthy” weight guys and definitely much, much better than skinny “Underweights”.
BMI values place a person in various bands: “Underweight”, “Healthy”/”Normal”, “Overweight” and “Obese”.
Study head and psychology professor David Frederick says, “It may be initially surprising that more overweight men reported the highest number of partners, but it is important to note that the medical classification of overweight does not necessarily map onto social perceptions of overweight … Men who appear somewhat larger, more powerful, or more athletic generally report more sexual experiences than other men.”
Fredrick says the best band for women in terms of bedroom attractiveness, according to his study, is actually “Obese” whereas “Overweight” and severely-obese women do not do so well in the bedding stakes. Those women who have a BMI reading of “Healthy” were streets behind the “Obese” women, while the “Underweight” hardly rated at all.
Health experts say that although they do not recommend anyone carry extra weight, the study does highlight a major flaw in the BMI system. The system tends to categorize tall and/or muscular people as fatties because it assumes healthy weight “should scale up in relation to the square of height”.
Since it was was introduced, there have been no changes made to the BMI system to take into consideration the way western populations have increased in height. A vast number of people have unnecessarily been labeled “Obese” or “Overweight”. In many cases, being BMI “Overweight” is really now healthier than being BMI “Healthy”.
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