Fat-shaming firestorm: Is it motivating or bullying?

September 20 2019 by , medical review by in The obesity epidemic

Have you seen the flurry of online debate about whether fat shaming helps or hinders individual motivation to battle obesity?

The recent heated debate has been hard to miss, ever since skinny US talk show host Bill Maher said at the end of his nightly monologue earlier this month: “Fat shaming doesn’t need to go away, it needs to make a comeback.”

Maher gave statistics for the worsening obesity epidemic, puzzled over the growing body positive movement, and likened fat shaming to the motivating social pressure applied to smoking, seatbelts and racism. Said Maher about shaming: “It’s the first step in reform.”

Not surprisingly, the backlash was swift and furious, but it was fellow talk show host James Corden’s thoughtful and personal reply in his monologue September 12th that went massively viral.

“It’s bullying in disguise” said Corden who was open about his life-long battle with his weight and noted that when he heard Maher’s comments he thought ‘Someone with a platform needs to say something….ah, I guess that would be me.’

“Fat shaming has never gone away. We feel it all the time,” said Corden, noting that the common misconception about people who battle their weight is “that we are stupid and lazy, and we are not.”

If shaming worked as a motivator, said Corden, no one would ever be fat. “If making fun of fat people made them lose weight, there’d be no fat kids in schools…. Fat shaming only makes the problem worse.”

Corden’s passionate response was full of insight and on-point zingers. “We are not all as lucky as Bill Maher. We don’t all have a sense of superiority that burns 35,000 calories a day.”

But the debate did not end there. In the past week newspapers, magazines, talk shows, panel shows and Twitter have all weighed in on the issue. Most proclaimed Maher’s comments were offensive and ill-informed, but a surprising number of (usually skinny) commentators took Maher’s side, usually citing the eat-less-exercise-more dogma.

One of the most unenlightened exchanges occurred on the UK talk show, Good Morning Britain, hosted by Piers Morgan. UK celebrity personal trainer Danielle (Danni) Levy defended Maher and said, astoundingly: “The more we fat shame, the more people would keep their mouths shut and stop overeating.”

The statement garnered a huge Twitter backlash against her but she stands by her comments saying “it is not an aesthetic issue, it is about health!” She called anyone who posts a differing opinion on her Twitter feed “a troll.”

Even The New York Times got in on the debate, asking “If fat shaming doesn’t work, what does?” The article’s expert advice, frankly, was hugely disappointing. While the toxic food environment and lack of evidence-based approaches to weight loss in medical care were cited, not a word was said about the hypothesis that excessive carbohydrate loads in modern diets and the low-fat message of the last 40 years may have contributed to an over-consumption of carbs.

Nor was a word was mentioned in the article that perhaps cutting carbohydrates and upping fat, or even trying a ketogenic diet, might work for those who had life-long battles with their weight. (In the comments, some did describe their own personal success with a low-carb or ketogenic approach.)

Instead, the article promoted more government paternalism, such as Japan’s mandated yearly waist measurements (essentially state-sanctioned shaming), the need to find a “safe” pharmaceutical drug fix, and the need for more access to bariatric surgery. Sigh.

In all, the tone and tenor of the extensive debate shows how far we still need to come as a society in understanding and reversing the obesity epidemic and supporting and assisting people who may become obese despite their best efforts.

The vast majority of visitors to this site know that fat shaming doesn’t work and has never worked. It is down-right bullying, and never an effective long-term motivator. Solid, evidence-based research and individual support for dietary change is a more effective way to go.

That is what we are endeavoring to do, every day, at Diet Doctor. We aim to empower people everywhere to dramatically improve their health.

Thanks for reading — and thanks for helping spread the word about other ways to address the obesity epidemic and tackle poor metabolic health. Perhaps the Bill Maher’s and Danni Levy’s of the world, faced with new information, will eventually open their minds and update their outdated, ill-informed opinions.

—
Anne Mullens

How to lose weight

GuideDo you have trouble losing weight? Or would you like to lose faster? You’ve come to the right place. Get ready for weight loss without hunger. Forget just counting calories – you can’t outrun a bad diet. There are several better ways to lose weight, supported by science.

Weight loss

My success story with Kenneth Russell
02:52
When Kenneth turned 50, he realized that he wouldn't make it to 60 the way he was going.
My success story with Chuck Hicks
02:39
At nearly 500 lbs (230 kg) Chuck could barely move at all anymore. It wasn’t until he found a keto diet that thing started to change.
MEMBERS ONLY
My success story with Jim Caldwell
02:23
Jim Caldwell has transformed his health and gone from an all-time high at 352 lbs (160 kg) to 170 lbs (77 kg.
MEMBERS ONLY
Living low carb with Yvonne Lane
05:51
Yvonne used to see all those pictures of people who'd lost so much weight, but sometimes didn't really believe they were real.
Are all calories the same?
20:04
Are all calories created equally – regardless of whether they come from a low-carb, low-fat or a vegan diet?
MEMBERS ONLY
Diet Doctor Podcast #35 with Ben Bikman, PhD
00:00
Why is insulin so important for us to control and why does a ketogenic diet help so many people? Professor Ben Bikman has studied these questions in his lab for years and he is one of the foremost authorities on the subject.
Pie-making champion goes low carb
03:23
Learn how this pie-making champion went low carb and how it changed his life.
MEMBERS ONLY
MEMBERS ONLY
MEMBERS ONLY
MEMBERS ONLY
MEMBERS ONLY
MEMBERS ONLY
MEMBERS ONLY
MEMBERS ONLY
MEMBERS ONLY
"It was so incredibly easy!"
16:53
In this interview Stephen Bennett shares what he has learned from his low-carb journey.
MEMBERS ONLY
What's it like being a low-carb doctor on TV?
17:40
What’s it like working with patients and giving controversial low-carb advice in front of a TV audience?
Is obesity caused by too much insulin?
25:27
Is obesity mainly caused by the fat storing hormone insulin? Dr. Ted Naiman answers this question.
MEMBERS ONLY

Name

Provider / Domain

Expiration

Description

ckdc-premium

.dietdoctor.com

1 month

app-banner

.dietdoctor.dev.dietdoctor.com

1 day

This cookie shows whether user closed the App Banner prompt

_gaexp

Google LLC

dietdoctor.com

1 year

Used to determine a user's inclusion in an experiment and the expiry of experiments a user has been included in.

_gaexp

Google LLC

.dietdoctor.com

1 year

Used to determine a user's inclusion in an experiment and the expiry of experiments a user has been included in.

_opt_awcid

.dietdoctor.com

3 days

_opt_awmid

.dietdoctor.com

3 days

_opt_awgid

.dietdoctor.com

3 days

_opt_awkid

.dietdoctor.com

3 days

_opt_utmc

.dietdoctor.com

3 days

_opt_expid

.dietdoctor.com

25 seconds

gtm_auth

.dietdoctor.com

3 days

gtm_debug

.dietdoctor.com

3 days

gtm_experiment

.dietdoctor.com

3 days

gtm_preview

.dietdoctor.com

3 days

_hjAbsoluteSessionInProgress

Hotjar Ltd

.dietdoctor.com

30 minutes

The cookie is set so Hotjar can track the beginning of the user's journey for a total session count. It does not contain any identifiable information.

_ga

Google LLC

.dietdoctor.com

2 years

This cookie name is associated with Google Universal Analytics - which is a significant update to Google's more commonly used analytics service. This cookie is used to distinguish unique users by assigning a randomly generated number as a client identifier. It is included in each page request in a site and used to calculate visitor, session and campaign data for the sites analytics reports.

_dc_gtm_UA-3268327-1

.dietdoctor.com

1 minute

This cookie is associated with sites using Google Tag Manager to load other scripts and code into a page. Where it is used it may be regarded as Strictly Necessary as without it, other scripts may not function correctly. The end of the name is a unique number which is also an identifier for an associated Google Analytics account.

_hjFirstSeen

Hotjar Ltd

.dietdoctor.com

30 minutes

The cookie is set so Hotjar can track the beginning of the user's journey for a total session count. It does not contain any identifiable information.

_dc_gtm_UA-22012422-2

.dietdoctor.com

1 minute

AWSELBCORS

Amazon.com Inc.

www.podbean.com

5 minutes

The cookies AWSELB and AWSELBCORS are functionally the same cookies. The latter has an explicit SameSite attribute set because of changes made from Chrome 80 and upwards.

_ga_YMCP8KW9S4

.dietdoctor.com

2 years

_hjIncludedInSessionSample

Hotjar Ltd

www.dietdoctor.com

2 minutes

This cookie is set to let Hotjar know whether that visitor is included in the data sampling defined by your site's daily session limit

__cf_bm

Cloudflare Inc.

.vimeo.com

30 minutes

This cookie is used to distinguish between humans and bots. This is beneficial for the website, in order to make valid reports on the use of their website.

_gid

Google LLC

.dietdoctor.com

1 day

This cookie is set by Google Analytics. It stores and update a unique value for each page visited and is used to count and track pageviews.

CookieScriptConsent

CookieScript

www.dietdoctor.com

1 year

This cookie is used by Cookie-Script.com service to remember visitor cookie consent preferences. It is necessary for Cookie-Script.com cookie banner to work properly.

__cf_bm

Cloudflare Inc.

.podbean.com

30 minutes

This cookie is used to distinguish between humans and bots. This is beneficial for the website, in order to make valid reports on the use of their website.

_hjIncludedInPageviewSample

Hotjar Ltd

www.dietdoctor.com

2 minutes

This cookie is set to let Hotjar know whether that visitor is included in the data sampling defined by your site's pageview limit.

_dc_gtm_UA-22012422-1

.dietdoctor.com

1 minute

_gaexp_rc

.dietdoctor.com

25 seconds

Name

Provider / Domain

Expiration

Description

IDE

Google LLC

.doubleclick.net

1 year

This cookie is set by Doubleclick and carries out information about how the end user uses the website and any advertising that the end user may have seen before visiting the said website.

_uetvid

Microsoft Corporation

.dietdoctor.com

1 year

This is a cookie utilised by Microsoft Bing Ads and is a tracking cookie. It allows us to engage with a user that has previously visited our website.

loc

Oracle Corporation

.addthis.com

1 year 1 month

Stores the visitors geolocation to record location of sharer

test_cookie

Google LLC

.doubleclick.net

15 minutes

This cookie is set by DoubleClick (which is owned by Google) to determine if the website visitor's browser supports cookies.

_gcl_au

Google LLC

.dietdoctor.com

3 months

Used by Google AdSense for experimenting with advertisement efficiency across websites using their services

_uetsid

Microsoft Corporation

.dietdoctor.com

1 day

This cookie is used by Bing to determine what ads should be shown that may be relevant to the end user perusing the site.

uvc

Oracle Corporation

.addthis.com

1 year 1 month

Tracks how often a user interacts with AddThis

YSC

Google LLC

.youtube.com

Session

This cookie is set by YouTube to track views of embedded videos.

MUID

Microsoft Corporation

.bing.com

1 year

This cookie is widely used my Microsoft as a unique user identifier. It can be set by embedded microsoft scripts. Widely believed to sync across many different Microsoft domains, allowing user tracking.

_fbp

Meta Platform Inc.

.dietdoctor.com

3 months

Used by Facebook to deliver a series of advertisement products such as real time bidding from third party advertisers

VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE

Google LLC

.youtube.com

6 months

This cookie is set by Youtube to keep track of user preferences for Youtube videos embedded in sites;it can also determine whether the website visitor is using the new or old version of the Youtube interface.

Name

Provider / Domain

Expiration

Description

_ga_7S1SXKKDKN

.dietdoctor.com

2 years

Name

Provider / Domain

Expiration

Description

_hjSession_1945121

.dietdoctor.com

30 minutes

_hjSessionUser_1945121

.dietdoctor.com

1 year

_ga_Y4DLH4EPXM

.dietdoctor.com

2 years