WATERLOO - Andrea Riggs was ready to take on the competition when she opened her personal training studio in Black Jack, Mo.

The niche for Body Beautiful was to help black women get into shape, be healthy and look good.

The competition she ran into, however, wasn't Bally or Gold's or 24 Hour Fitness. Instead, her greatest competition came from attitudes about exercise and diet from the people she wanted for her clients: African-American women.

"They told me they didn't want to lose weight," Riggs said, recalling her efforts to recruit clients. "It's cultural expectations and pressures."

Lori Jones, an instructor in nutrition and dietetics with St. Louis University, agrees that cultural norms can be a route to bad health.

"There is some truth to that in our culture," said Jones, who is black. "Black women with a little more meat on them seem (attractive), and that's not a bad thing. A little bit of hips, being curvier, is appealing, and sometimes you do have men telling their girlfriends and wives not to lose weight because they like the curves, the extra softness."

People who battle health disparities in African-Americans agree with Riggs and Jones. But they admit the topic rarely is broached because of fear of political incorrectness.

The American Obesity Association says that cultural factors related to diet, exercise and weight among African-Americans play a role in interfering with weight-loss efforts. The association also says that 78 percent of black women are overweight, and that includes the 50.8 percent who are obese.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that black women suffer higher percentages of diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, cancer and premature death than their white counterparts.

Janice Edmunds-Wells, a consultant at the office of multicultural health at the Iowa Department of Public Health, cautions against using studies to generalize based on race or other factors.

"You have to realize they're looking at a certain group at a certain time with a certain socioeconomic status," she said. "There are a lot of black women who do exercise. I think if you talk about health in general as far as women, there are some things that transcend race and ethnicity."

Many factors play into female obesity, including work and family commitments, age, access to exercise equipment or facilities, health restricitons, motivation, social support and weather, Edmunds-Wells said.

Nia Carter of Waterloo said as an African-American woman she doesn't feel pressure to be "thicker," but doesn't want to be too thin, either. She recently started working out about twice a week and said health, feeling good about herself and looking nice serve as her exercise motivators.

Bobbie Walker, also of Waterloo, said she used to exercise to an aerobics tape nightly, but now has two jobs that keep her too busy for exercise. "I would like to do it, but I can't," she said.

Edmunds-Wells, who is African-American, said ideal body types that tend toward heavier shapes may be traced back to historical times.

"The African continent is considered the cradle of civilization. Some research has stated that (African-American womens') hips are wider because we as women gave birth to the nations," she said.