Obese People Bully Other Obese People About Their Weight

90 percent of overweight individuals have been targeted with abuse

An organisation in the United Kingdom called LighterLife recently undertook a survey of around 1,000 adults to examine the extent and scale of bullying and abuse which is meted out to overweight and obese people. The scale of the responses came as a shock especially when it was revealed that 90 percent of overweight individuals have been targeted with abuse because of their weight.

Interestingly the research shows that many of the bullies are overweight or even obese too. For example a third of those respondents who fit into the category of obese admitted that they had at times insulted overweight people by drawing attention to their weight. This figure is only marginally less than the amount of normal weight people who themselves insult overweight people. 

The researchers observed that men were more probable to insult people including their friends regarding their weight. Twenty eight percent of men admitted to doing this compared to only eleven percent for women. It is commonly known that women are far more sensitive about weight issues than men are. 

Ukmedix News has written previously about the problem of bullying and discrimination that is a common fact of the lives of overweight children and adults. Many people even have a subconscious discrimination against overweight individuals believing them to be lazier and less intelligent. Obese people are less likely to be given jobs and find it more difficult to get people to view them as social and professional equals.

Teasing people about being overweight or obese can be very demoralising for them even if they say they don’t care. If you want to help people to lose weight gentle encouragement is far better than teasing and bullying. Family members should be careful about teasing each other about their weight and should instead offer to help them with weight loss advice.