By: Amy Li
Most people consider body shaming as an act to help motivate obese people to make a change. According to an article by the Washington Post, Art Caplan, the head of the Division of Medical Ethics at NYU Langone Medical Center, reveals that a study on the topic of fat-shaming and motivation shows that being spiteful toward obese people does not help with weight loss. In fact, more research shows that these acts of “kindness” are just doing the opposite.
According to the article “ ‘Fat Shaming’ Actually Increases Risk of Becoming or Staying Obese, New Study Says,” researchers assessed 6,157 Americans 50 years or older of their BMI(Body Mass Index) in 2006, then again in 2010. They found out that overweight people who experienced discrimination because of their weight were twice as likely to become obese by 2010. People who are already obese are three times more likely to stay obese!
According to “Tik-Tok star Remi Bader’s Horse Ranch Incident has an Even Darker Side,” Swiss and German researchers who interviewed 30 obese adults found that the reason most of them avoid a certain sport is because of a memorable negative experience, “often as a child.” Remi Bader, a famous Tik-Tok influencer, was denied at a horse ranch because of her weight. Later, she explained that the reason she shared her experience was not because of the denial itself — horses cannot bear more than 20% of their body weight comfortably — but because of the way the ranch worker treated her overall.
In addition, body humiliation might even worsen the problem! Body shaming can either lead to binge and stress-eating or eating difficulties, sometimes even disorders. A study from the NCBI (National Center for Biotechnology Information) on associations between body shame and guilt with maladaptive eating behaviors among 561 Hungarian and Norwegian university students showed that Weight and Body related Shame and Guilt (WEB-SG) has a “significant positive relationship” with Body Mass Index (BMI). At the end of the study, NCBI announced that maladaptive weight and body-related guilt could be a relevant factors to anorexia, an eating disorder, and “critical factors to the assessment and treatment of eating difficulties.”
The article “‘Fat Shaming’ Actually Increases Risk of Becoming or Staying Obese, New Study Says” mentions another solution to obesity: “If stigmatizing isn’t the way to fight obesity, what about the effect of naming obesity a ‘disease’, like the American Medical Association did last month?” Rebecca Puhl, deputy director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University, answered the question. “I think time will tell. I think that there is reason to think it will be helpful — that this could potentially reduce stigma because it may help remove blame that is so often put on people, but I think we need to observe this over time to see what happens.” Whatever the solution is to obesity, it is certainly not body discrimination.