International study: Which professionals are people most willing to disclose their weight to?

Weight can be a sensitive topic – and it’s information that we don’t always want to disclose. In fact, a classic episode of HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm revolves around the fact that nobody wants to tell the pilot of a private airplane how many pounds they’re bringing on board (beyond their baggage allowance).

So we asked consumers across the globe about whether or not they’d be willing to tell a range of different professionals how much they weigh.

Firstly, we asked how often people weigh themselves. Some 25% say they weigh themselves at least once a week; 20% said they weigh themselves once a month; and 22% at least once every six months. Another 6% said they weigh themselves once a year; 4% less than once a year; 15% said "hardly ever, if at all" and 6% never. 2% said they did not know.

In terms of who they'd tell this information to, our data found that people are most willing to tell medical professionals, (88%), dieticians (82%), and health & safety professionals (79%), as well as fitness professionals such as personal trainers (76%). A similar proportion would tell a researcher or scientist (73%).

Some 70% would tell a romantic partner, and 55% would tell someone working in the leisure industry (one imagines a bungee jump is not the time for discretion). A similar proportion would tell someone working for an airline (54%) or in retail (51%) if asked. The group people would be least likely to tell are employers (43%).

Along gender lines, men are broadly more willing to tell professionals their weight than women.

Male respondents were more likely to tell fitness professionals (45% vs. 40%), romantic partners (44% vs. 34%), leisure staff (36% vs. 29%) retail staff (26% vs. 20%) and employers (25% vs. 17%) their weights.