US EditionWeight Stigma Isn’t Just Cruel — It Makes Losing Weight Harder | News Channel 3-12
- On June 5, 2025, researchers led by Larissa McGarrity at University of Utah Health published findings showing weight stigma affects mental health most after weight-loss surgery.
- The study surveyed nearly 150 patients before and 18 to 36 months after surgery to examine how stigma, not weight loss, influenced psychological health.
- Results showed patients experiencing less stigma had better mental health and healthier eating, while BMI changes did not correlate with anxiety, depression, or disordered eating.
- McGarrity highlighted that the shift in experienced weight stigma was notably greater than what is typically considered significant in clinical practice and stressed the extensive impact weight stigma has from both research and clinical viewpoints.
- These findings underscore the importance of addressing weight stigma in healthcare, as nearly 40% of patients continued to experience stigma that adversely affected their quality of life following surgery.
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20 Articles
Weight stigma isn’t just cruel — it makes losing weight harder | News Channel 3-12
By Madeline Holcombe, CNN (CNN) — Maybe you have decided that the voice inside your head judging yourself or others for body size can be pretty mean, but at least it’s encouraging weight loss, right? No, it’s not, experts say. “There has long been a misunderstanding … that if you shame people about their weight, then that will lead them to eat less or to eat more healthfully or to exercise more in order to lose weight,” said Dr. Rebecca Pearl, a…
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Weight Stigma Tied To Lingering Depression, Anxiety After Weight-Loss Surgery
Key Takeaways
Weight stigma, not weight, has the biggest effect on mental health after BMS
Weight stigma - and not weight itself - has the biggest impact on mental health and healthy behaviours in the years after bariatric and metabolic surgery (BMS), according to researchers from the University of Utah Health Sciences (U of U Health). They found that patients who had gone through BMS tended to experience much less weight stigma, and that this reduction in weight stigma - but not lower BMI - was associated with healthier eating habits…
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