As a person who has been:

1. overweight or obese since I was 8 years old
2. teased, bullied, rejected, and discriminated against becasue of my weight

I read an article on MSN.com today about how fat shaming does not work. I read it and wanted to share it. It touched me personally and made me empathize. I figured that everyone on this board would be able to relate to this article as well.

For the most part MFP is a supportive community. But I have seen some ugly and hateful vile on the boards here too. Especially towards anyone who has had gastric or WLS surgery. I came to the decsion to have WLS on my own. My reasons, timing, ability and desire were my own. I have told almost no-one that my "miraculous" weight loss is due to WLS becasue I have experienced so much hate and discremination due to my weight, I didn't want anyone to have additional anmunition to hurt me or hate me. This decsion too is becasue of my own reasons. If weight loss were easy, we'd all have perfet BMI's. If all overweight people were lazy then no-one would every be motivated enough to have WLS. many people have said to me int he last months a variation of "You've done so well with your weight loss...you must feel so much better now that you are pretty". I smile and say thank you. But I want to slap them and scram in their face saying, "You ignorant jerk, I was ALWAYS pretty...but your ignorance and hate and prejudice just didn't see it. That is your damage, not mine!"

Below is a clip of the article:

Research has already shown that stigmatizing overweight people leads to psychological factors that are likely to contribute to weight gain – things like depression or binge eating. This new paper takes that a step further, linking what the Internet likes to call “fat-shaming” to weight gain and suggesting that you can’t scare people skinny.


“Stigma and discrimination are really stressors, and, unfortunately, for many people, they’re chronic stressors,” says Rebecca Puhl, deputy director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University. Puhl has studied weight bias and discrimination for 13 years. “And we know that eating is a common reaction to stress and anxiety -- that people often engage in more food consumption or more binge eating in response to stressors, so there is a logical connection here in terms of some of the maladaptive coping strategies to try to deal with the stress of being stigmatized.”

The rest can be found here: http://www.nbcnews.com/health/fat-shaming-actually-increases-risk-becoming-or-staying-obese-new-8C10751491?ocid=msnhp&pos=5