Lesbians are heavier than straight women: so what?
Tags: Anyone who’s ever been to a gay bar could probably have told you the conclusion of this study.
Researchers analysed health surveys from 67,000 Massachusetts residents and found that gay men are slimmer than straight men and lesbians are heavier than straight women. Overall, they found that 14% of gay men in their sample were obese, compared to 26% of lesbians.
I’m not disputing the numbers. Even anecdotally, you’d have to admit it’s probably about right.
So let’s address the obvious. The people who are looking to attract men are obviously more concerned with their weight than those who are trying to attract women. One might be tempted to argue that men are doing the world a service, and reducing the rate of obesity by being especially judgemental about a potential date’s weight. Plenty have argued that.
They are wrong.
Obesity is determined using Body Mass Index (BMI), which takes into account your weight and height. While BMI is a sometimes useful indicator of health, it doesn’t actually equal health. There are hundreds of factors that influence a person’s health, and slim people are not necessarily healthier even than those who are obese, despite the overwhelming assumptions to the contrary. In fact, sometimes BMI doesn’t make sense at all, as Kate Harding illustrates at Shapely Prose.
BMI, along with blood pressure, waist-to-hip ratio, lung capacity, blood sugar levels, kidney and liver function, the condition of your hair and nails, etc are all indicators of health. A good result on any of these does not mean a person is healthy, especially if others are poor.
If BMI were the only calculation ever made, the whole of the English national rugby team would be classed as very-overweight to obese and at high risk of cardiovascular disease. The conclusion would have been similar for a fit, heavyweight boxer when he was at his peak. There is no way a professional boxer who is 1.88 metres tall (6ft 2 ins), weighing in at 104 kilograms (228 pounds) has the same cardiovascular disease risk as a sedentary man of same height and weight – they would both have a BMI of 29.42.
from Medical News Today
Also, the difference isn’t 100% vs 0%. There’s a difference there of 12%. It’s not that all lesbians and straight men are obese, just more likely to be obese than straight women and gay men. You may also be aware that some slim people are slim for reasons other than being health nuts.
I know this because I’ve spent quite some time around women for whom laxatives are a daily must-have. I’ve known women to voluntarily throw up their dinner every night for a month in order to slim down without their partner or children noticing that they are trying to lose weight. My gym teacher told me when I was 11 that if I wanted to shift a little weight, going without solid food for a day or two was a good idea. One friend won’t quit smoking because, if she does, she’ll gain weight. I was my slimmest when I was eating one meal a day and drinking 6 nights a week.
Plus-sized model Lizzi Miller is "overweight"
You can go into any chemists now and purchase over-the-counter weight loss supplements whose side effects include anal leakage and serious intestinal distress if you eat anything that is over 15% fat. What’s the point of being skinny if you have to put up with anal leakage and puke breath?
Being worried about your weight and how your male partner will look at you may, in fact, control your weight, however it doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll control your weight in a healthy way. Oftentimes it merely fuels our already eating-disordered culture.
There are ways to alter your BMI in a healthy way. Unfortunately there are no shortcuts. Regular activity, a healthy and balanced diet and portion control are all required. Even with all that, some people will remain “obese”. They’ll still be able to run past you up three flights of stairs, but they will be obese by a BMI scale.
So before anyone starts making us worry about how lesbian women are less healthy than straight women, let’s take a deep breath, eat some wholegrain toast and have a small pot of sugar-free, low fat yoghurt. Maybe we’ll go for a jog later.
Then we’ll look in the mirror and remind ourselves that how we look is secondary to how we feel (not the other way around), and that as long as we are eating appropriate portions of the right food and keeping active, we’re good.
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Great article!
Then we’ll look in the mirror and remind ourselves that how we look is secondary to how we feel (not the other way around), and that as long as we are eating appropriate portions of the right food and keeping active, we’re good.
And couldn’t agree more..:)
BMI annoys me. Whenever anyone brings it up as the gospel of health I quietly mention that Brian O’Driscoll is obese of you go by his BMI.
The greatest rugby player Ireland has ever produce needs to lose weight? Em….I don’t think so
BMI being cited as definitively ascertaining whether an individual is healthy really grinds my gears. The index is ubiquitous because it’s such a quick, convenient way of calculating a person’s health. But how can such a calculation be reliable when it only calculates weight and height, and excludes bone and muscle mass? It was devised by a statistician, not a medical clinician; and was intended to guage a broad overview of a population, not identify potential health risk in individuals.
Going by HAL’s BOD example, how do we know that the higher incidence of “obesity” among gay women isn’t attributable to the possibility that gay women may be more athletic than straight women?
Ah man, this kind of makes me wish I were a lesbian, lol. It’s true, I wouldn’t care if my GF were pudgy. XD
I always look at gay men and think they must be slightly insane to spend so much time exercising.. if they all spent less time obsessing over their own looks, would they still judge each other so harshly for putting on a little pudge? (What am I saying? I already know that many straight men judge women harshly for that..)
This reminds me of a saying:
“80% of statistics are wrong and 75% of them are made up”
I wonder what the results would be if they used more data than from Massachusetts and checked something other than BMI (which is a flawed measurement already). Who knows, it could be that Massachusetts lesbians have more muscle mass which skews BMI towards overweight.
LOL. fantastic statitistics. I know only to gay people – two men – and they are far from slim
Who cares anyways? It’s like saying “99% of all parrot keepers are overweight middle age women”. Who gives a crap? 
Thanks for the article anyway, though.
I would say many men do a disservice to women by judging them by their weight. How does it matter if a person has a few extra pounds?
Great Article – But come on….. gay, straight, transvestite, whatever we are, we can always eat too much and take too little exercise.
I agree that over analysing and worrying about these sorts of things will in fact only increase the chances of getting an eating disorder that could eventually ruin your life!
I think BMI is a load of rubbish if looked at as a statistic by itself. As Marion said above it doesn’t take into account muscle mass or bone density. I agree with the last comment you made in your post “as long as we are eating appropriate portions of the right food and keeping active, we’re good.” If you stick to this very basic plan, you will lose weight. That line doesn’t mention at all if we are lesbian, gay, black, white, green, alien etc. Just follow that line and it will work. Still interesting to read about the stats in Massachusetts.
Lesbians may have a higher BMI, but they are probably less prone to eating disorders and poor body image, because they are not too concerned about the judgment of men. Fat and happy, isn’t that the saying? And the suggestion from previous posters about lesbians perhaps having more muscle mass than straight women is a good point.
Yep noticed that more and more gays are very much into this whole exercise routine. To be honest it’s inspiring and annoying at the same time. Ok, so sometimes I love to eat and then sometimes I forget to do my (very very very) basic exercise routines every morning, so what?
Although, gay or lesbian or straight, it shouldnt matter. As what the author had said as long we eat right proportions of food, a bit of activity – then that’s ok right? People oughta feel good and want to look good for themselves.. and not for/from other people’s judgement. making it thus goes a long way on self confidence.