By Madeline Holcombe, CNN

Maybe you have decided that the voice inside your head judging yourself or others for body size can be pretty mean, but at least it’s encouraging weight loss, right?

No, it’s not, experts say.

“There has long been a misunderstanding … that if you shame people about their weight, then that will lead them to eat less or to eat more healthfully or to exercise more in order to lose weight,” said Dr. Rebecca Pearl, associate professor of clinical and health psychology at the University of Florida.

“What the research, though, has shown over and over again is that that is not true,” Pearl said. “It actually has the opposite effect.”

Stigma around weight and body size is everywhere: in US culture, messages from people around you and even at your doctor’s office, Pe

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