The study into "obesity through the eyes of the obese" by Heather Pollitt of ICM Research offers fresh understanding of the attitudes of normal weight people to the overweight.

• One subject said: "I used to be a normal size and extremely confident. I'm horrified and find it dreadful the way people speak to you [when you're 'obese']. I think the word lazy is equated with being fat. [When you're slim to average] you just don't realise that people just have such a thing about fat people."

• Another added: "I do get quite paranoid about it. Last week my son had his open night at school and all day the sweat was lashing off me and I was thinking 'I can't do this, I can't do this, I really can't do this!' I do anything to get out of going out."

• One woman said: "I need someone to tell me to stop eating the teacakes. Without anyone to do so I just eat the whole box of 12. And you know what? As soon as I've finished that I could eat the same all over again."

• A different subject said: "It's not that we don't want to do anything about our weight, it's that we've tried everything around, short of stomach-stapling."

• And one illustrated some of the problems faced in trying to lose weight, saying: "I've been to the gym and I went to a class there. I went straight to the back of the class because I don't want everyone to see my bits bobbing and bouncing around. All the sticks, the 'thinnies' are at the front. I never went back again, it was so depressing."

"Overweight people think that other people think they're lazy, greedy, and can't be bothered to do anything about their weight.

"I suppose I used to think 'Come on, pull yourself together' - the kind of thing sometimes said to depressed people, which of course is useless. But at the end of it, I felt that they needed help, not criticism."

Attitudes may form at a young age

There are a number of reasons that society is getting more intolerant to the overweight, she says, including the often-cited criticism of thin models.

But she adds that an increased number of overweight young people might have led to intolerant attitudes developing at school, which then translates into adult society.

She concludes that one way of tackling the problem would be for obesity to be reclassified as an illness, and for people to understand that it's a type of addiction, not greed. Society should then "spend time thinking about how we can help the sufferers instead of humiliating them".

Add your comments on this story, using the form below.

At 58 I am finally getting the help I need under a psychiatrist so I completely endorse the statement that obesity can be linked to addiction. But unlike other addictions one has to eat in order to survive so its treatment is so difficult to treat and the patients need so much support.
Lucia Christodoulides, London

I used to be slim and athletic, now after many years I'm overweight. Over the years unkind people who never knew me before often made jokes at my expense. The funny thing is that over the years those same people have gained weight themselves but never find the jokes they used funny anymore.
Mark Baillie, Southampton, England

I have recently lost over 4 and a half stone with another 3 or 4 to go. However, I have noticed that more and more people are talking to me and making eye contact since losing weight. Believe it or not, if you are fat you are invisible. All of a sudden I am beginning to "fit in" - and I don't just mean smaller clothes and aircraft seats! Adults are worse than kids when it comes to abuse - they should know better.
Debra, Herts, UK

I used to think that I couldnt lose weight as I am in a wheelchair with a chronic heart/lung condition. Wrong!! when told that the only hope for a future would be a heart/lung transplant and I couldn't think about that until I had lost weight, it's amazing what can be done. I have lost to date (in 9 months) 30 kg by diet alone....I can't stress how wonderful that feels and I take great delight in buying 'normal' size clothes. I was a size 24/26 before. Now all I have to face is the decision for transplant if it arises! I assure you losing weight is infinitely easier.
Dee, Basel, Switzerland

When I was a size 8-10 I used to be judged by the way I looked, girls especially. Now I'm a espectable 12-14 and much prefer the way people speak to me, I feel I am not judged by the way I look anymore, so it's not just the fat people taht are judged it's the skinny too.....along with different cultures/races etc.
Claire Smith, Swadlincote, Derbyshire, UK

I suffer from dealing with my weight. Some days I feel very positive about going to the gym and I will do spurts, but most of the time, with all the mirrors around, the thin bodies, and the public locker rooms, I really just come home depressed. It's so hard to think of exercise as a positive thing to begin with that it really hurts our progress and self-esteem when the whole experience is made very humiliating for larger people.
Ava, Washington, D.C., US

I went up to 13.5 stones which is the largest I've ever been. As I'm 5'8'', I took the concious decision to join a gym, eat and drink less and generally improve my lifestyle. Frankly there's not miracle cure or diet, it requires hard work and committment. Reading some of the comments on here implies people get fat through no fault of their own: If you want to lose weight, eat less and do more exercise!
Richie, UK

I have been obese and thin in alternating periods of my life. I can only maintain a normal weight by what my doctor called anorexia, although I never went below 130 pounds because I believe I am naturally fat. Now I am obese again. It is a terrible way to live, having experienced both body types. Just a few years back I was running up the downs in Surrey. Now I can only walk. So much freedom is lost when you are encased in fat and I feel a deep sadness for what I have lost and what I have become.
Carolyn, Emeryville, US

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