Internalized Weight Stigma and Eating Disorders

Key points

Weight stigma is negative attitudes, stereotypes, and discrimination toward people based on body size.

Internalized weight stigma develops when societal prejudice becomes a part of someone’s self-belief.

Internalized weight stigma fuels the development and maintenance of eating disorders.

CBT-E reduces internalized stigma by broadening self-worth beyond weight and shifting harmful behaviors.

Weight stigma refers to negative attitudes, stereotypes, and discriminatory behavior directed at people because of their body size, most often toward individuals in larger bodies. Common stereotypes include assumptions of laziness, lack of discipline, or incompetence, ideas not supported by evidence but still widespread and rarely challenged in Western culture.

Stigma appears in seve