Background: To assess the relative roles of body fat, body perception, and
body ideals as motivations for dieting in college women.
Method: We compared 45 college women who reported having dieted with 32 who
had not, using a novel computerized test of body image called the somatomo
rphic matrix.
Results: As expected, the difference in body fat between subjects' "perceiv
ed body" and "ideal body" was significantly greater in dieters than in nond
ieters (p < .001). Remarkably, however, this difference remained highly sig
nificant even after adjusting for the subjects' actual measured body fat (p
=.002). Further analysis revealed that this difference persisted, not becau
se dieters had unrealistic ideals of thinness, but because they had distort
ed perceptions of their fatness.
Conclusion: Distorted body image perception, a potentially treatable condit
ion, may play an unexpectedly large role in motivating young women to diet.