Obesity is about much more than an unhealthy lifestyle

Despite an abundance of evidence illustrating that weight gain is caused by a complex cocktail of factors, obesity is often solely attributed to poor individual lifestyle choices – such as diet and exercise.

This type of simplistic view of what causes weight gain leads to and reinforces what’s known as “weight stigma.” This is defined as:

A bias or discrimination aimed at individuals perceived to be overweight.

But this isn’t something that just impacts people of a certain weight. In fact, weight stigma affects people of all body shapes and sizes – including people classed as a healthy weight.

These types of attitudes, ofcourse, aren’t helped by the fact that fat jokes, as well as stereotypical and derogatory images of overweight people, are so common.

We need to be honest with ourselves and recognize that we need to make some changes to control our weight. Increasing physical activity is important but for most of us who are overweight and obese, eating and drinking less is key to weight loss.