Positive support ‘provides motivation to lose weight’

Positive support, not the use of the labels ‘fat’ and ‘obese’, provides people with the motivation to lose weight, an authority on the subject has claimed.

Susannah Gilbert of the Big Matters obesity support website said that the media uses the words fat and obese daily, hoping that the negative connotations will encourage people to lose weight.

“Unless there is a lot of positive support available for people through the whole weight loss journey, many of the underlying issues will remain, irrespective of the words used to start people on a course of action,” she added.

Her comments follow claims from England’s public health minister Anne Milton, who told the BBC that doctors should tell overweight people that they are fat rather than obese.

She said that it was up to people to take personal responsibility for their lifestyles, suggesting that it is up to individuals to change their diets and exercise patterns.

Which word do you think has the worst connotations – fat or obese?