How thoughts can impact on your health and physique

 It is not so important how often you workout, but rather how you perceive your own physical condition in comparison with other people. 

Recently, I have read about a research which claimed that there is a distinct connection between how you estimate your physical form and your actual health condition. An overly strict attitude towards your physical form can have a detrimental impact on your overall health condition.

The researchers from the Stanford University have analyzed the data about the death rate among 61 thousand people. They have been registering various indicators of the participants over the course of 21 years, paying specific attention to the frequency of workouts as well as the way how the participants compared themselves with their peers.  

It turned out that those who thought that they don't exercise frequently enough died sooner than those participants who were convinced that they exercise more frequently and intensely, though both groups got the same amount of physical workload. Interestingly, other factors, such as the overall health condition and smoking habit, didn't have a particular influence on the final results of the research.

Certainly, a moderate physical activity can add a few years to our life, but our perception of your physical condition and appearance also play a great role.        

To put it simply, the mortality risk among those who thought that they didn't exercise often enough was 71% higher than among those who were convinced that they exercise more often than their peers. It may seem incredible, but there are at least three reasons which may explain such unexpected results. 

Stress

If we are surrounded by people who seem to be constantly working out, and the media is trying to aggressively persuade us to start leading a healthy lifestyle, it may lead us to believe that we don't pay enough attention to our physical appearance which, in most cases, is a straight road to the chronic stress.

Motivation

If you think of yourself as an active person, you have a motivation to exercise more in order to match the self-perception. On contrary, if you are certain that you are in a worse physical condition than your friends, you are far more likely to quit working out in a year or less.

The nocebo effect

Nocebo is an opposite to placebo. When we have negative expectation regarding certain medication or in our case the effect of physical exercise on our body will be significantly lower.