How Body-Shaming Affects the Obese Individuals

Extra body weight is a problem for every individual. Not only it causes limitation of physical mobility, but also makes the individual suffer in many other ways. It also brings many obesity-associated complications such as sleep apnea, diabetes type 2, high blood pressure, high sugar and high cholesterol along with many others. However, almost every patient seeking weight reduction surgery admits being discriminated for being obese, at some point in time, in their lives. Indeed, body-shaming is a very common issue faced by most obese patients. Let’s understand what is body-shaming and how it affects the patients psychologically. 

For those who understand very little about this aspect, body-shaming is a practice of criticism, exhibited against an individual who is either too fat or too thin, but about 9 out of 10 people facing this discrimination are obese individuals. Usually, body-shaming is done over and over and often in the presence of the obese individual itself, predominantly to make them feel inferior.

Body-shaming causes many adverse effects on the individuals and often results in more catastrophic results. It makes the individual feel demotivated and as a result, they often withdraw from the social circle. It makes them deprive of self-confidence and often in order to cope up with the same, they take refuge of food, which needless to say, in turn, makes them even fatter. They are often assumed as individuals who lack self-control and desires to stay healthy and fit.

Body-shaming had been proved to be a positive notch for a few people, who take it as a challenge to lose weight. If they want to loose some moderate amount of body weight, vigorous exercise and dieting help them attain the same. But weight reduction surgery remains the only feasible option for people who are obese. It should also be considered for individuals who are simply overweight as per their BMI, but their other medical conditions, such as joint pain, or heart ailments, does not allow them to try out other weight loss techniques. 

In a nutshell, body-shaming is indeed shameful but not for the victims, but the people who practice it and mostly does not help anybody. Always remember, obesity is preventable, so one should try their best to mitigate it from being set in action at the first place. However, if it is already a condition they are living with, the should consider the best possible option to remove it, preferably by weight reduction surgery, if nothing else is working.