Many people — including those who are overweight themselves — often view people with obesity as less human or less evolved.
In fact, weight bias increased by 66% between 1996 and 2006 in the United States, according to Rethink Obesity. This type of bias can lead to depression, low self-esteem, and body image distress.
One expert argued that the blows to self-esteem make it harder for people struggling with their weight to feel they can make meaningful change.
Those who experience weight-based stigmatization also:
- Engage in more frequent binge eating
- Are at an increased risk for eating disorder symptoms
- Are more likely to have a diagnosis for binge eating disorder (BED)
Changing the Stigma
“The science is actually pretty straightforward; we know that feeling stigmatized because of your weight actually leads to weight increases,” according to research fellow Inge Kersbergen. “Telling people to lose weight is a very poor way of getting people to lose weight.”
“I have worked for many years to help my clinical colleagues provide constructive and compassionate weight-management counseling,” says American Physician Dr. David Katz.
“Obesity bias, or weightism, by medical professionals or our society at large, is the literal addition of insult to injury,” he adds.
Weightism does the predictable: It adversely affects self-esteem and undermines the effort required to control weight, Katz shares.
“In my own work, with adults and kids alike, I have found that the heavy burden of such insult needs to be set down first, and the pounds readily follow,” he says.
According to National data from the 2017-2020 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 41.9% have obesity with Blacks having