The Elephant in the Room: How Our Weight Bias Harms Us

The data on weight stigma is truly astonishing–weight discrimination is on the rise, increasing by 66% over the past decade. Weight bias disproportionately affects women, and was found to be more common than age and gender discrimination in employment settings. This matters because weight stigma impacts a person’s quality of life and poses serious health consequences: elevated blood pressure, unhealthy weight control and binge eating behaviors, bulimic symptoms, negative body image, low self-esteem, and depression among children, adolescents and adults (Tylka et al, 2014). So the risks we associate with a higher body weight might be caused by the stigma of living in a larger body, and not by the weight itself!