Impact of Obesity and Dieting - Psychological Aspects of Dieting and Obesity

Written by Rhonda Zabrodski BSc, MSW, RSW

Psychological Aspects of Dieting and Obesity

While stating that the physical consequences of weight cycling were unclear but likely not as serious as some would assume, the National Task Force on the Prevention and Treatment of Obesity (1994) stated that the psychological impact of weight cycling was in need of further investigation. The study did not address the devastating emotional impact that repeat dieters universally experience when they repeatedly attempt diets that result in failure. The psychological damage that has been attributed to dieting include depression, diminishment of self esteem, and the onset of binge eating and eating disorders (Berg, 1993).

People may overeat compulsively due to psychological reasons that may include sexual abuse, alcoholism, a dysfunctional relationship with food, or genuine eating disorders such as bulimia (Bass & Davis, 1992). Such individuals are believed to use food to cope with other issues or feelings in their lives. Bertrando, Fiocco, Fascarini, Palvarinis, and Pereria (1990) discuss the "message" that the overweight person may be trying to send. The fat may be a symptom or signal representative of the need for protection or a hiding place. It has been suggested that overweight family members are often found having family therapy issues as well. Dysfunctional family relationships have been known to be manifested in such areas as parent-child struggles involving eating disorders. I believe that similar issues can also be recognized in families where there are family members who are perceived to be overweight regardless as to the accuracy of this perception.

Self Esteem and Body Image

Studies suggest that obese women will have significantly lower self esteem and negative body image than normal weight women (Campbell, 1977; Overdahl, 1987). When individuals fail to lose weight, issues of low self esteem, repeated failures, and the feeling that they "didn't try hard enough" come into play. Embarking on a diet that ultimately results in failure or even a higher rebound weight will have a significant negative impact on self esteem and body image. Contempt of oneself and disturbance of body image are often seen in those that struggle with weight control issues (Rosenberg, 1981). Wooley and Wooley (1984) have stated that concern over weight leads to "a virtual collapse" of self esteem.

Body image is the picture a person has of her body, what it looks like to her and what she thinks it looks like to others. This can be accurate or inaccurate and is often subject to change. The relationship between body image and self esteem is complicated. Often dual feelings that "I am fat" and "therefore I am worthless" go hand in hand (Sanford & Donovan, 1993). Both body image and self esteem are perceptions that are actually independent of physical realities. Improving body image involves changing the way one thinks about one's body rather than undergoing physical change (Freedman, 1990). To improve body image and therefore improve self esteem, it is important for women to learn to like themselves and to take care of themselves through healthy lifestyle choices that do not emphasize weight loss as the only measure of good health.

Relationship With Food

Repeat dieters often learn to use food to cope with their emotions. Women's experiences with emotional eating have often been neglected, trivialized and misunderstood (Zimberg, 1993). Polivy and Herman (1987) contend that dieting often results in distinctive personality traits such as "passivity, anxiety and emotionality." It is interesting to note that these are characteristics often used to describe women in stereotypical ways.

Food is often used to feed or nurture oneself for both physical and psychological hunger. Food is used to literally swallow emotions. I believe that when people become weight or diet preoccupied, it is often "safer" to focus on food and eating than on underlying emotional issues. It is important for people to look closely at their relationship with food. Through repeated experiences of dieting, people will develop a skewed relationship with food. Food should not be a moral judgment as to whether or not you have been "good" or "bad" depending on what has been consumed. Similarly, a person's self worth should not be measured on the bathroom scale.

There is often the belief that if one can make "peace" with food, then the logical result will be that weight will then be lost (Roth, 1992). While it is important to look at one's relationship with food and have it become a less powerful influence in life, this will not necessarily lead to weight loss. Studies that have utilized a non-dieting approach resulting in food disempowerment have shown that weight remained approximately stable (Ciliska, 1990). It may be considered a positive result for a person to be able to resolve a distorted relationship with food and then be able to maintain a stable weight without the gains and losses that repeat dieters often undergo.

I believe that when people become weight or diet preoccupied, it is often "safer" to focus on food and eating than on emotional issues. That is, for some people it may be easier to focus on their weight than to focus on the overwhelming feelings that they have learned to cope with through eating behaviors. People use food to nurture themselves or to literally "swallow" their emotions. Food is often used to cope with emotions such as grief, sadness, boredom, and even happiness. If food loses its power to aid in distracting or avoiding difficult situations, it may be quite overwhelming to confront the issues that were previously avoided through weight preoccupation or abnormal eating. Additionally, the excessive focus on concerns about body weight and dieting may also serve as a functional distraction to other overwhelming life issues.

Social Impact of Dieting and Obesity

From a young age, a woman is often given the message that she must be beautiful to be worthy. Attractive people are not only seen as more attractive, they are seen as smarter, more compassionate and morally superior. Cultural ideals of beauty are often transient, unhealthy and impossible for most women to live up to. Women are encouraged to be delicate, frail or "waif-like." There is a very narrow range of what is considered to be "acceptable" body size. Shapes that are not within this range are met with discrimination and prejudice (Stunkard & Sorensen, 1993). Women are taught early in life to be wary of what they eat and to fear getting fat. Trusting one's body often evokes tremendous fear for most women. Our society teaches women that eating is wrong (Friedman, 1993). Young women have long been taught to control their bodies and appetites, both sexually and with food (Zimberg, 1993). Women are expected to constrain their appetites and pleasures (Schroff, 1993).

We live in an age where women are seeking equality and empowerment, yet are starving themselves through diet and weight preoccupation while assuming that they can keep up with their better fed (male) counterparts. The strong social pressure to be thin began after World-War II (Seid, 1994). Magazines began showing thinner images of models as both pornography and the women's movement increased (Wooley, 1994). Faludi (1991) states that when society makes women conform to such a thin standard, it becomes a form of oppression towards women and a way of ensuring their inability to compete on equal grounds. The emphasis on thinness in our culture not only oppresses women, it also serves as a form of social control (Sanford & Donovan, 1993).

The stereotypical view of the overweight held by society is that they are unfeminine, antisocial, out of control, asexual, hostile and aggressive (Sanford & Donovan, 1993). Zimberg (1993) questions whether weight preoccupation would be a problem for women if it did not exist alongside society's clear prejudice against fat people. "Public derision and condemnation of fat people is one of the few remaining social prejudices... allowed against any group based solely on appearance" (Garner & Wooley, 1991). It is assumed that the obese willingly bring their condition on themselves through lack of will power and self control. The discriminatory implications of being overweight are well known and are often accepted as "truths" in western society. Fat oppression, the fear and hatred of fat is so commonplace in Western cultures that it is rendered invisible (MacInnis, 1993). Obesity is seen as a danger sign in moralistic terms that may imply personality faults, weak wills and laziness.

The obese face discriminatory practices such as having lower acceptance rates in high ranking colleges, a reduced likelihood of being hired for jobs and a lower possibility of movement to a higher social class through marriage. These effects are more severe for women than men. Obese women are not a strong social force and are likely to be of lower status in income and occupation (Canning & Mayer,1966; Larkin & Pines, 1979). "Prejudice, discrimination, contempt, stigmatization and rejection are not only sadistic, fascist and intensely painful for fat people. These things have a serious effect on physical, mental and emotional health; an effect which is real, and must not be trivialized." (Bovey, 1994)

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