Research by the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity found that “about 1 in 5 adults engage in body-specific self-loathing behavior,” says the Danbury (Conn.) News Times. “It’s even more more common among adults who are obese, with 52 percent of them admitting to internalizing their weight bias.”
People who are trying to lose weight are more likely to employ self-stigmatization than others. “But we also see it in people who are overweight (as opposed to obese) and people who are not overweight or obese,” said the lead author of the study, Rebecca Puhl. The study was published in the journal Obesity. The News Times described self-directed stigma as thinking negative thoughts about oneself and engaging in harmful behavior.
An estimated 79 million Americans, or 35 percent of adults, are obese, according to the CDC. The Rudd Center study looked at 3,500 people who have struggled with their weight. They were asked about their demographic characteristics, weight status and dieting behavior as well as questions about how often they apply weight-based stereotypes to themselves and rate themselves poorly because of their weight. “Among adults with the highest levels of weight bias internalization, 72 percent were women, supporting other studies showing an increased vulnerability among women compared with men,” said the newspaper.