Fat Lot She Knows!

Posted on 18/09/2014

I’ve often repeated that the idea of shaming people into losing weight doesn’t work and is in fact counter productive but I only know this through observation and personal experience.

A recent study by Dr Sarah Jackson at University College London confirms it though and I was delighted to see the story reach the front page of The Times.

It doesn’t seem to have caught the attention of the wider media however which I find puzzling. I can only assume that they are worried about not being able to continue to fill their print and online pages with open prejudice.

I was also very disappointed with Tam Fry from the National Obesity Forum who is quoted in the article. He doesn’t seem to be aware that a lot of the time the Medical Professions are  amongst the worst culprits for ‘Fat Shaming’. They might use longer words but all too frequently the message behind the lecture is ‘Oi, Fatty!’ and is totally counter productive. Ticking a box to say that you have addressed the situation is utterly worthless if all it does is cause the Client to feel bad and ultimately, gain weight.

Do please look at the article. It’s so important that there is now real academic research from a highly respected University to back up what I suspect most of us already knew.

Link: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/news-articles/0914/110914-Fat-shaming-does-not-encourage-weight-loss