The men's magazines are just the opposite. The problem, as Wachs sees it, is that useful health and fitness advice is getting lost in the push to sell more products that are advertised in the magazines. Misleading readers even extends to the height and weight indexes found in the magazines. If you are exercising regularly you will develop muscle and body mass and will carry a little more weight as a result. That's not healthy.
Any body fat is interpreted as a sign of weakness when in reality there is a wide healthy range.
While women may get a complex about their weight by reading women's health magazines, men may get a complex about sexual performance when reading men's health magazines, she says. It's cruel what they are doing to men. Wachs concludes that the magazines are driven by advertisers who are interested in selling the latest exercise fad, whether it be a new diet or a piece of equipment that promises to get your body closer to its gender ideal. The readers must demand something different by refusing to buy these magazines. Wachs, who received her doctorate from the University of Southern California, plans to return to Los Angeles and, with her research colleague, Shari Dworkin, approach publishers of some of the magazines studied.