Weight perception among US adults predicts cardiovascular risk when controlling for body fat percentage.

Perceiving one's own weight as "overweight" was significantly associated with increased 10-year risk of a cardiovascular event when compared to those perceiving their weight to be "about right," regardless of body composition. This suggests that recent changes in normative beliefs in response to increased obesity prevalence over the past several decades could play a role in the distribution of CVD risk in the US, whereby perceiving oneself as "about right" rather than "overweight" may result from decreases in internalization of fat stigma.