As I was walking through the gym the other day, I caught a glimpse of an overweight woman across the room. But then I did a double take, and then another. The woman was me — I had seen my own reflection in a distant mirror and, for a split second, hadn’t recognized myself.

This moment of mistaken identity was disconcerting, but it wasn’t all that unusual. Many of us are surprised by our size when reflected in the mirror or a store window — it’s like thinking that a recording of your own voice sounds off. And while psychologists have worried for years that media images of superslim starlets would put the nation’s collective self-esteem at risk, it turns out that something altogether different has happened. As the population becomes fatter, study after study shows that instead of feeling bad about ourselves, we have entered a collective state of denial about how big we’re actually getting.

A team of researchers led by a group from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign recently asked 3,622 young men and women in Mexico to estimate their body size based on categories ranging from very underweight to obese. People in the normal weight range selected the correct category about 80 percent of the time, but 58 percent of overweight students incorrectly described themselves as normal weight. Among the obese, 75 percent placed themselves in the overweight category, and only 10 percent accurately described their body size. (Notably, a sizable minority who were at a healthy weight described themselves as being underweight.)

The tendency for people to underestimate their body sizes, according to studies in the United States, Canada, Europe and elsewhere, is remarkably consistent across cultures and age groups. So why are so many people in fat denial? Scientists are only now beginning to understand the complicated process in which the brain (in particular, the posterior parietal cortex) integrates signals from all the senses to form our body images. Because our bodies change over time, the brain must constantly adjust its perception. Scientists believe that this internal calibration system can sometimes go haywire, notably for sufferers of anorexia, bulimia and body dysmorphic disorder, and possibly for obese people too.

In the meantime, they certainly know that the brain’s body-perception center isn’t foolproof. In an experiment called the Pinocchio Illusion, a person can be fooled into thinking that his nose is growing. This happens when someone touching his own nose with closed eyes has his biceps stimulated to feel as if his forearm is moving forward. The brain senses the arm movement but also knows that the fingers are still touching the nose. For both sensations to be true, the brain decides that the nose must be growing.

A few years ago, researchers at University College London, conducted a similar experiment regarding waist size. While a person’s hands were resting on his waist, his wrist tendons were stimulated to create a sensation that they were moving inward — to feel, in other words, as if his waist were shrinking. Brain scans conducted during the experiment showed a marked increase in activity in the posterior parietal cortex, which gave the researchers a glimpse of the brain trying to tweak its perceived body size in real time. “The relative size of our body parts needs to be continuously updated or recalibrated,” said Henrik Ehrsson, lead author of the study, now associate professor of cognitive neuroscience at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. “One possibility is that, in people who get obese or who have body-image disorders, something goes wrong with that process.”

While researchers admit that some denial may have to do with personal embarrassment, the consistency of the findings suggests that neural processing and psychology probably both play a role. It is also possible that a few extra pounds isn’t an urgent priority for the brain to acknowledge. Researchers at University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston found that one in three women did not know when they had gained 5 pounds, and about 15 percent weren’t aware when they had gained more than 10.

But part of the explanation may have to do with perspective. In a recent study, 3,665 children and adolescents in Quebec were given a series of silhouettes showing body sizes ranging from underweight to obese. When asked to describe their own body, nearly 70 percent of the overweight and obese children chose a slimmer silhouette. But the researchers discovered that children with the heaviest parents and peers were far more likely to underestimate their weight than those with healthy-weight parents and friends. “When kids live in an environment in which they see, on a daily basis, parents or school peers who are overweight, they may develop inaccurate perceptions of what constitutes a healthy weight,” says Katerina Maximova, assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Alberta. “Their own overweight seems normal by comparison.” Now that health officials estimate that two out of every three adults in the United States are overweight, future generations may not see the difference, either.

CrossFit has arrived at ESPN.

The CrossFit movement, which first gained popularity as a workout regimen for military serving overseas, quickly has grown to become one of the most popular fitness methods – and philosophies – for health-conscious people across the globe.

The high-intensity workouts include constant movement — real life movement — beyond your typical dumbbell curls. A CrossFit workout might include sprints, swimming, gymnastics, powerlifting and other endurance exercises all rolled in one.

As the demand for CrossFit grows, ESPN is embracing the phenomenon.

The CrossFit movement at ESPN is being led by Michael DeAngelo, the manager of the Employee Wellness & Services Center on campus, and his staff of avid CrossFitters.

Front Row had the opportunity to speak with DeAngelo about his efforts to bring CrossFit to eager ESPN employees.

FR: What is happening right now to bring CrossFit to ESPN?
DeAngelo: CrossFit is pretty big right now, and it’s definitely something we’d like to offer to our employees as another service on campus. To start that effort, we’ve had five personal trainers on our staff complete the CrossFit Level 1 certificate course.

FR: Why is it important to offer CrossFit on campus?
DeAngelo: Many of our employees do CrossFit and want to do CrossFit. Some do CrossFit workouts in our gym already. Employees these days have very little time to work out and CrossFit is a great workout for ESPN employees with hectic schedules.

FR: What are some of the next steps?
DeAngelo: Our next effort is to promote CrossFit workouts to our employees by bringing “Workouts of the Week.” CrossFit has done a great job of doing this on their website CrossFit.com — and we want to do the same in the corporate setting here at ESPN. We want to create a sense of community at ESPN among those who do CrossFit through friendly competitions and challenges. We currently offer bootcamp classes Monday and Friday from 12-1 p.m. which are instructed by one of our Level 1 CrossFit certified staff so there is usually some inspiration in that class.

Overtime, we will be expressing our workouts/programs here and more and more will become offered.

FR: ESPN2 has televised the Reebok CrossFit Games over the past several months. Do you think ESPN employees have what it takes to compete?
DeAngelo: We will have several ESPN employees involved in the CrossFit Open, in late February or early March. It’s a six-week competition where employees will do a workout of the week and then post their time based on a video they submit. Based on that video, if they rank high they could be asked to go to regionals. We have a number of employees that we could help get where they want to go, whether that’s the CrossFit Games or the regionals.

ESPN2 will televise episodes of the 2011 Reebok CrossFit Games on Sunday, Jan. 15, at 6 p.m. ET and Sunday, Jan. 22, at 8:30 p.m.

What is CrossFit?

The video below, available on the CrossFitHQ YouTube Channel, gives you a sense of what it’s all about.