by kathleen doheny
. Health reporter
Nasm Fat Loss Program - The Shame of 'Fat Shaming'
Tuesday, (Health News) - Trying to embarrass a person overweight or obese to lose weight will not motivate them to do so, and may even increase the risk of heart disease and other problems of Health, a new study suggests.
The more self-fault and devalue that people said they felt when stigmatized, the greater the likelihood of having health problems that could lead to heart disease, said leader of study Rebecca Pearl. She is an assistant teacher of psychology at the Medicine School of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.The discoveries suggest that the weight of stigma and fat embarrasses "go much more deeply than inappropriate observations or feelings," said Rebecca Puhl, deputy director of the University of Connecticut Rudd Center for Food CenterThe study team also discovered that those with the highest levels of devalued feeling were six times more likely to have high triglycerides.
The discoveries lend support for previous research, said the co-author of the comment Dr. Scott Kahan. He is director of the National Weight and Welfare Center in Washington, D.C.
"Numerous studies have shown that experiencing weight stigma increases stress hormones, blood pressure, inflammation and ultimately increases the risk of various diseases, including diabetes and heart disease," Kahan said.Weight stigma was also linked to premature death, he said as well as feeding and weight gain.
The new search, he said, suggests that "experiencing the weight stigma is bad, but worse seems to be internalizing the stigma of weight."
"For people who have been targets of weight stigmatization, it is important that they do not add insult lesions by themselves self-stigmatizing," Kahan said. More needs to be learned about the complexities of obesity, he added, so that people realize that it is a complex issue of health, not a matter of willpower.
Puhl urged people to try to avoid guilt. "Try to see the stigmatizing meeting as the other person's problem instead of internalizing or blaming," she said. Everyone deserves respect, she added.
Dear loved ones should avoid blaming or criticizing friends or family members who struggle with weight - do not motivate weight loss, puhl added.
The survey was published January 30 in obesity magazine.
