Which U.S. Cities Are Struggling Most With Body Image In 2022? 

Withinhealth.com shared that our relationship with our body goes beyond how it feels and functions. The way we feel about how our body looks is also important when it comes to feeling happy, healthy, and fulfilled.

How we feel about the way we look is referred to as body image and is also defined as ‘how an individual sees their own body and how attractive they feel themselves to be.’

The goal for most of us is to love how our body looks, but it’s easier said than done. At Within Health, we wanted to know which metro cities in the U.S. are struggling the most with unhealthy body image. We also surveyed over 1,000 Americans about how they feel about their body and how it looks.

While many Americans are struggling with a healthy body image, it’s clear that one state, in particular, is struggling more than others. Florida’s cities Orlando, Miami, and Tampa are all in the top five metro cities struggling most with body image.

Other cities that are struggling with body image include Cleveland, Minneapolis, Atlanta, Sacramento, Baltimore, Boston, and Portland.

The cities that have the healthiest body image are New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, and Phoenix. Many things can contribute to a healthy body image, so while on your journey, remember to be patient with yourself and practice radical self-love. Another option is to get to a place of body neutrality. Regardless of how you feel about your appearance, you are enough and worthy of treating yourself with love and compassion. 

It’s important to remember that body image can change over time and that the COVID-19 pandemic could have had a detrimental impact on many Americans.

Following a tumultuous few years of staying home, moving less, and prolonged stress, it’s no wonder that just over one-third (35%) of Americans say they currently have negative body image. 38% say they have a neutral body image at the moment, and 27% have a positive body image.

Although many of those surveyed say they have a neutral or positive body image, it hasn’t always been this way. 82% of survey respondents say they’ve experienced negative body image in the past. This was split almost evenly among all genders, with 53% of those being women, and 43% being men.

To read the entire report and view the graphics, click here