Adherence
Experiencing weight-based stigma is associated with increased use of maladaptive coping strategies, specifically eating more food, which may perpetuate weight gain and obesity.
If you experience weight stigma, be aware that eating more is a very common way people cope with that stress. This is not a moral failing but a learned response. To manage weight, consider developing alternative coping strategies for dealing with bias, such as positive self-talk or seeking social support, which were also reported but less frequently linked to weight gain.
It is important to note that a frequent coping strategy reported by participants to deal with stigma was eating more food. Seventy-nine percent of the total sample reported using this strategy more than once or multiple times... Closer examination indicated that this coping response was reported among the top five most frequent coping responses to deal with stigma in each category of weight from normal weight to obese category III.
Why this rating
Large sample size (N=2449 women, N=222 matched) and robust statistical correlations, though observational.
Source
Confronting and Coping with Weight Stigma: An Investigation of Overweight and Obese Adults
Rebecca M. Puhl et al. · Obesity · 2006
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