Psychosomatic Medicine 31:1-7 (1969)
© 1969 American Psychosomatic Society

The Response of Obese Patients to Weight Reduction

III. The Perception of Body Size

¹ The Rockefeller University, 66 St. and York Ave, New York, N.Y. 10021; Box 218, Walter Reed General Hospital, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington, D. C. 20012
² The Rockefeller University, 66 St. and York Ave, New York, N.Y. 10021

Previous studies suggested that the perception of body size played an important role in both the obese and reduced state. In this study, a body-sizing apparatus was utilized for the measurement of body size perception. The results indicated that 6 obese subjects increasingly overestimated their own body size during and following weight loss. In contrast, 4 nonobese subjects underestimated their own body size during a period of weight maintenance. In the reduced state, the obese subjects manifested a "phantom body size" phenomenon; that is, they perceived themselves as if they had lost almost no weight. Moreover, they consistently overestimated the size of other stimuli external to themselves before, during, and following weight loss.

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