Men are just as likely as women to experience weight-related stigma, such as teasing, bullying, unfair treatment, or discrimination, when they are children, teenagers, and adults, researchers report.
However, men (unlike women) experience bias when they are underweight as well as overweight or obese.
In a sample of 1513 American men, in which 64.9% of the men were overweight or obese and 3.6% were underweight, based on body mass index (BMI), two in five men reported that they had experienced weight stigma.
“Although prior research suggests that women experience more weight stigma than men, our results suggest that rates of experienced weight stigma among men in this sample (40%) mirror several national samples,” Mary S. Himmelstein, PhD, from the Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, and colleagues report in an article published online April 23 in Obesity.
“This ‘U-shaped’ pattern of weight stigma at the lowest and highest BMIs represents a key difference between men and women,” Rebecca L. Pearl, PhD, and Thomas A. Wadden, PhD, from the Center for Weight and Eating Disorders at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, write in an accompanying commentary in Obesity.
Moreover, finding a prevalence of weight bias of 40% “challenges the notion that men are not affected by weight stigma and rightfully highlights the need to include them more fully in research on this problem,” the editorialists stress.
“While women are often applauded for addressing their weight, men are often stigmatized for engaging in similar efforts by their peers,” said Obesity Action Coalition President Joe Nadglowski in a statement issued with the study.
“The reality is that weight bias doesn’t recognize whether someone is a female or male. All individuals with obesity tend to experience bias at some point.”
Sex Differences in Fat Shaming by Teenaged Peers?
Previous studies have shown that adolescents who are teased about their excess weight are more likely to have poor eating habits and become obese adults, and adults who experience weight-related discrimination are more likely to gain even more weight, Himmelstein and colleagues report.
Most research about this, however, has focused on women.
To investigate weight-related stigma in men, the researchers combined three data sets: from 36 men who were members of the Obesity Action Coalition nonprofit obesity advocacy group and had reported that they struggled with their weight, and from 233 and 1244 men, respectively, who were part of two online survey panels.
All the men (n=1513) replied to an online questionnaire during July 2015 to October 2016. The men had a mean age of 44.41 years and a mean BMI of 27.73 kg/m2, and 57.7% were white.
Among the 611 men who reported experiencing weight-related stigma, it mostly occurred in adolescence (58.9%) or childhood (52.0%), and was somewhat less likely in adulthood (37.5%).
The stigma was mostly verbal (37.5% – 54.0%).
It mainly came from peers (61.0%), family members (41.7%), and strangers (35.7%), and to a lesser extent from a teacher/boss or significant other (approximately 17% each) or a healthcare professional (10.3%).
Compared with other men, those who reported weight-related stigma were younger (mean age, 40.60 vs 46.83 years), with higher levels of education and lower income, and were more likely to have never married.
They also had a higher mean current BMI (29.30 vs 26.49 kg/m2), and they were more likely to have dieted in the past year and to be currently trying to lose weight.
Opportunities to Support Men, Need for More Research
“[T]here may be opportunities for supportive clinical intervention to help men cope with weight stigma as part of weight management or weight loss programs,” according to the researchers.
This is “particularly important,” as “prior work suggests that men tend to cope with weight stigma via eating,” they stress.
“Supporting men and helping them adopt effective coping strategies to deal with experienced weight stigma may help buffer against otherwise adverse health behaviors or outcomes that can arise from weight stigma,” they add.
“Currently, little is known about whether there are critical periods in which men (and women) are particularly vulnerable to weight stigma, or how the type or source of stigma shapes its potentially adverse effects,” according to Pearl and Wadden. “For example, does being teased by a peer in adolescence potentially have different effects on psychological or physical health later in life than, say, being denied a job as an adult due to one’s weight?” they wonder.
Future research should look into the age of onset of obesity, the editorialists suggest, as adults who have faced weight stigma since early childhood may be more vulnerable to this stigma than those who developed obesity later in life.
“A crucial next step for weight stigma research is to determine whether, in response to weight-stigmatizing experiences, men and women report comparable levels of distress and weight bias internalization,” such as greater internalization of negative stereotypes and feelings of decreased self-worth, the commenters conclude.
The research was supported by donations to the Rudd Foundation. Pearl is supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health/National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. The authors have disclosed no relevant financial relationships.
Obesity. Published online April 23, 2018 (article); to come (editorial). Article full text
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