Body Image Analysis Essay

The article is about body image and exercise and how they could possibly correlate. The authors starts by listing sources for all their information. They use studies, articles, books, internet searches, conference proceedings, etc. to get their information and data. The writers also did separate searches to increase the range of their search to gather as much info as possible. To narrow the 420 results found they narrowed them down to 121 with “inclusion criteria.” These criteria included studies that correlated information, the information being english, sufficient amount of results, and the results not including mental illness and mental health problems. Next the results were coded, and separated into groups. Age, weight, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, exercise, body image, and whether they were published or not. Afterwards detailing the results, which were slightly confusing, with many different numbers and percentages to sift through. The discussion and summary sections help to clarify the results and makes them understandable to the average reader.

Although it seems like overkill to do all this research only to find out what everyone knows; exercise has a huge impact on body image. I don’t mean to disrespect researchers and I do understand the procedure and protocol that comes with publishing reliable information, but before I read the article I knew there wasn’t going to be a plot twist in the end. Body image is a big deal in the world these days, especially in the US. Most people believe that they will feel better and look better if they exercise. This is true but only to a point, you can easily over exercise or workout fine but eat too much and expect results when they won’t come. The variables involved in exercise and body image are great and make it relatively difficult to pinpoint a direct