Eating habits and satisfaction with one’s appearance

Just like physical exercise, eating right and keeping a proper weight is also a basic recommendation for better health.  This is the only health indicator where gay and bisexual men outperform men in the general population.

Body Mass Index (BMI) is an international index which measures a person’s leanness or corpulence, based on height and weight.  Gay men score much better than the men in the general population.  Some 80% of gay men have a normal weight for their height and only 13% of them are overweight.

Eating right is a modern concern affecting more and more people.  “You are what you eat”, as the saying goes and 70% of gay men say that they do pay attention to what they eat

Something interesting to note is that while most gays have a much more ideal weight than the general male population, they are never as satisfied with their weight as men in the general population.   Contemporary gay culture, largely aided by the media, places disproportionate emphasis on a particular body type and appearance.  This very strong social and community pressure might encourage taking care of one’s body and appearance, but is also a source of much stress and takes a clear toll on one’s self-image and more generally one’s general psychological health.

More than 90% of gay men are satisfied with their looks and body image. As was mentioned above, the gay community and the media do not really give them much leeway in this area.  Let us hope that one day soon they will be just as satisfied with their ability to build relationships that will give them what they really need.