Despite decades of research to the contrary, most people still think that our body weight is something we can control easily, by eating less and moving more. The reality is that our behaviours around food and movement are very complicated. As one woman told me:
“For me, it’s more of a mental health childhood issue than anything else. I was a normally built child, didn’t really stand out from anybody else in any particular way. I can see now when I look back at photographs of myself in my school uniform with my contemporaries at school, I didn’t look anything different to anybody else.
“But I’d been told by my mother and my father that I was overweight pretty much my entire life up to that point. So I saw myself as overweight. And nothing would convince me otherwise, even though I’ve got loads of photographs, that I was perfectly normal size.
“Erm, and then, so because of that, I’d sneak food because I didn’t want to be seen eating, because that was an opportunity for somebody to say, “you shouldn’t be eating like you’re overweight.” But I wasn’t overweight. So it sort of gave me, like, a bad start with food.”
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And food and movement are not the only things that affect our weight. Another woman told me, “because I’ve got polycystic ovary syndrome, I have insulin resistance. So, that makes it incredibly difficult for me to lose weight. And believe me, I’ve tried.”
When the pressure to lose weight, and the impossibility of doing so, collide in the doctor’s consulting room, the results can range from healthcare avoidance to denial of treatment. Later on, she described the way she was treated while seeking fertility care:
“They just kept saying, “Well, you just need to lose weight. It’s dead easy.” One consultant said, “It’s dead easy to lose weight. It’s just maths. You just lower your calories. Just have 500 calories a day, and you’ll lose the weight. Because at the minute, you’re basically, you’re too fat to have a baby.” That’s what I was told.”
Whereas someone else told me, “I’m a bit reluctant to go to the doctors because whatever your problem is, they just tell you to lose weight, even if it’s not related to your problem.”
I’m a local PhD student, and for my research, I’ve been speaking with people across Central Lancashire about their experiences of weight stigma when accessing local NHS services.
I’ve also been asking people about are their thoughts on the new generation of injectable weight loss drugs. Although some people are interested in them, others are very sceptical, and most people feel there is a lack of knowledge around the risks. As one person put it:
“I mean, I would say, if somebody prescribed them to me, I would be tempted, I would be tempted on a, on a, “I want to lose weight” sort of scale. But there’s something inside me that says, “I’m really not happy about this yet.” Erm, I don’t think it’s that safe. And it doesn’t seem to be monitored as much as maybe it should be. There’s people just buying them.”
Our research is still ongoing, and I am looking for more people to interview about their experiences before March. Later next year, I will also be interviewing NHS staff, in order to find ways we can make healthcare in Central Lancashire more accessible and compassionate for everyone, regardless of their size.
If you would like to talk about your experiences of weight stigma, or have questions about the research, please contact Stella Aster at weightstigma@centrallancashire.co.uk.
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