Shocking survey reveals prejudice levelled at overweight people

Four in ten complain they suffered some sort of personal insult or abuse at least once a week, according to a survey of more than 2,500 who struggled to lose weight.

Problems ranged from rude shop assistants in fashion chains laughing at the idea of people asking for larger sizes to supermarket staff commenting on what people have in their trolley.

Overweight people find they are mocked or filmed in the street, while girls enjoying a night out have been targeted by groups of young men.

More importantly, their opportunities to get a job or promotion – and so improve their lives – have been blocked by discrimination.

Professor James Stubbs, the chair of Behaviour Change and Weight Management at the University of Derby, said: ‘As a society we need to think more about how we treat people who struggle with weight and we need to be more aware of how discrimination can impact on people’s feelings and lifestyle behaviours.

‘Criticism of overweight people is widespread and not only is this rude and unpleasant, it’s also really unhelpful when it comes to motivating people to lose weight.

‘In fact the evidence suggests that it undermines people’s attempts at controlling their weight and, for many, even causes increased weight gain.’

He added: ‘When we’re constantly criticised and judged by others for our weight, it chips away at our self-confidence, leaving us feeling guilty and ashamed.

‘The danger with that is that all of our cultural signals; our upbringing, the media and our social, physical and cultural environments, are persuading us to use food to make us feel better.

‘That only worsens our weight problem, creating a cycle of shame and weight gain that can be difficult to break.’

The professor is Research Specialist at Slimming World, which surveyed 2,573 to understand how people treated them before they lost weight.

This found that at their heaviest, people suffered humiliations such as young people winding their car window down to shout abuse, fellow passengers refusing to share a seat on public transport, groups of men in nightclubs feigning romantic interest and teenagers taking pictures or videos on their smartphone.

As customers, some faced rude comments on their food choices from supermarket staff, laughter from shop assistants when they asked for clothes in a bigger size, and feeling humiliated as bar staff served slimmer customers that were standing behind them first.

The survey found that personal criticism does not motivate people to lose weight. Instead, some 47per cent on the receiving end felt ashamed, 41per cent felt depressed and 30per cent useless.

(dailymail.co.uk)