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No, I\u2019m not on a rant. But I sure could be. What\u2019s funny about a chronic disease that impairs health and renders people more sensitive to deadly co-morbid factors associated with COVID-19? Nothing. Nothing is funny at all.<\/span><\/p>\n I write about obesity a great deal, have been caring for those with emotional and behavioral components related to the disease, speaking and teaching about it since the early 1970s, and won\u2019t stop. When it comes to promoting health, there\u2019s nothing I find more important. Obesity\u00a0is recognized as one of the most pressing public health issues of our time.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n So why are we observing an increase in jokes, memes, and weight stigma\/bias during COVID-19? These behaviors contribute to the nonsensical but popular, and frequently economically driven, belief that obesity is a self-inflicted impairment. \u201cJust learn how to change your behavior through my app, my fitness, and health coaching, my willpower increasing methods\u2026\u201d while whispering somewhere deep in the unconscious, \u201c\u2026you lazy person.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n As if living with obesity isn\u2019t tough enough, during COVID-19 these jokes only serve to push those with the disease further away from proper health care out of shame or fear of being perceived as an onus on an already overburdened healthcare system. Weight bias also\u00a0negatively affects psychosocial well-being and increases vulnerability to harmful lifestyle behaviors, leading to a reduced quality of life.<\/span><\/p>\n Far long before COVID-19, an ignored part of helping those with obesity are the social determinants of health including bias, prejudice, and discrimination, with their demonstrated negative impact on physical and emotional health. Types of weight bias that are commonly seen include stereotypes that those with obesity are noncompliant, lazy, lacking in self-control, weak willed, unsuccessful, unintelligent, and dishonest. Considerable research on weight bias has documented the impact of this sorrowful set of behaviors in education, health care and employment, as well as in gyms and health clubs, popular media, news media and amongst friends.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n According to\u00a0<\/span>Rebecca M. Puhl, Ph.D. and Christopher M. Wharton, Ph.D.<\/span>\u00a0in\u00a0ACSM\u2019s\u00a0Health\u00a0& Fitness Journal, \u201cWeight bias generally refers to negative attitudes and beliefs about body weight that are expressed in the form of\u00a0stereotypes,\u00a0stigma, prejudice, and unfair treatment toward children and adults because they are\u00a0overweight\u00a0or obese. Weight bias can be displayed in multiple forms, including verbal comments (<\/span>e.g.,<\/span><\/i>\u00a0derogatory remarks, negative\u00a0stereotypes), physical aggression, and social exclusion or avoidance. Thus, it can be expressed in both subtle and overt ways.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Here is a list of keywords identified by the Obesity Action Coalition and the<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/i>Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity\u00a0<\/span>to be aware of:<\/span><\/p>\n Least<\/i><\/b> Stigmatizing \/ Blaming Words Most<\/i><\/b>\u00a0Stigmatizing \/ Blaming Words Most<\/i><\/b>\u00a0motivating for weight loss Least<\/i><\/b>\u00a0motivating for weight loss Here are additional examples of how to use people-first language:<\/span><\/p>\n These organizations and others endorse using people-first language:<\/span><\/p>\n Try these simple, but deeply thought-provoking questions to help you determine your own biases, from Mary Forhan, Ph.D.\u00a0in the Department of Occupational Therapy, Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine at the University of Alberta.<\/span><\/p>\n There are many aspects of our current challenges that one can shake one\u2019s head at. But shaking one\u2019s head at an illness that is itself of pandemic proportion, that leads to billions suffering with it worldwide, that is closely associated with a poorer outcome of COVID-19? It\u2019s always a good time to find something to laugh at for sure, but never at obesity.<\/span><\/p>\n Dr. Michael Mantell, earned his Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania and is one of the most sought-after behavior science experts in the world. For more than 45 years, he has been helping people find lasting change, contentment and a more awakened life as they move past crippling emotions like anxiety, stress, depression and burnout with his short-term, powerful, compassionate approaches. He has served as Chief Psychologist for Children’s Hospital of San Diego, the San Diego Police Department, Chief Behavior Science Consultant for the American Council on Exercise, co-founder and Chief Science Officer of Plus Size Certified, Inc. and is a member of the Science Advisory Council of the International Council on Active Aging. Dr. Mantell has also served as Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at UCSD Medical School.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" No, I\u2019m not on a rant. But I sure could be. What\u2019s funny about a chronic disease that impairs health and renders people more sensitive to deadly co-morbid factors associated with COVID-19? Nothing. Nothing is funny at all.<\/p>\n I write about obesity a great deal, have been caring for those with emotional and behavioral components related to the disease, speaking and teaching about it since the early 1970s, and won\u2019t stop. When it comes to promoting health…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":367,"featured_media":29443,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[198,286],"class_list":["post-29442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-mfn","tag-fitness-professionals","tag-obesity"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/367"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29442\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medfitnetwork.org\/public\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/b>Weight\u00a0\u2022\u00a0<\/span>Unhealthy weight\u00a0 \u2022 <\/span>High BMI<\/p>\n
\n<\/b>Fat <\/span>\u2022 Morbidly Obese \u2022 Obese\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/b>Unhealthy Weight \u2022 Overweight\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/b>Fat <\/span>\u2022 Morbidly Obese\/Chubby\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n
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