That’s the conclusion of arecent paper, “Is Fat Talking a Causal Risk Factor for Body Dissatisfaction?” “Fat talking” is an expression used to describe the very common dialogue among women (and some men) about how their bodies compare to others, why they shouldn’t eat what they’re eating, and how fearful they are of gaining weight. For this article, the authors looked at 23 years of studies that measured fat talking. They were trying to understand the link between fat talk and body dissatisfaction. Is it that people who are dissatisfied with their bodies are more likely to engage in fat talking? Or does engaging in fat talking increase the risk people will be dissatisfied with their body? In that case, if you decreased fat talking, you could decrease body dissatisfaction--a worthy goal, since body dissatisfaction is linked to problems such as eating disorders and low self-esteem.
So what did the results show? Fat talking was most strongly correlated with body dissatisfaction for adolescents and adults, as opposed to for younger children. There was some indication of a cause-and-effect relationship between fat talking and unhappiness with one’s own appearance--that fat talking precedes changes in body dissatisfaction. In the one study that directly assessed this, exposure to others’ fat talking led to an immediate increase in body dissatisfaction. In other words, the more you do things such as compare your eating and exercise habits to other people and the more you evaluate other people’s appearance, the more likely you are to be unhappy with your own body. Now, people might know this intuitively. But the article is still a good motivator to be mindful about fat talking and to be conscious of its possible impact on yourself and others.
