The first of its kind, an exciting statewide effort is underway in Colorado to use advertisements and community engagement to destigmatize obesity, with the ultimate aim of helping resident make healthier choices.

I’m all for destigmatizing obesity. Feeling stigmatized about one’s weight causes negatives like:

• low self-esteem.
• unhelpful (and desperate) approaches to long-term behavior change.
• vicious cycles of failures.

At first I was excited about this campaign. It sounded very progressive and a great thing to do. But, after thinking more about it Colorado’s initiative has become a lot more gray.

Colorado’s expensive state-wide advertising strategy is based on the premise that teaching individuals that they are “obese” instead of just “overweight” will cause people to realize the error of their ways and leap into making healthier choices.

Yet, I know of no research showing that obese people will make better health-behavior decisions if they perceive themselves as obese instead of overweight.

I watched a video of SuzAnne on the LivingWell website, and found her story and decision to be moving. Yet, the way she described learning she was “obese,” ironically, used language that to me seemed to further stigmatize obesity.

I also don’t buy that discovering you are officially “obese”  (instead of overweight) will motivate a more sustainable behavior change any more than having a clinician tell you that you need to lose weight to improve your health.  Has that strategy worked well for Americans? Not for the majority.

This is a complex issue!  What do you think? Is it a good idea to help people discover that they are obese (instead of overweight) to better motivate lasting health behaviors – Why or Why not?

I’m trying to put myself in a woman’s shoes in Colorado. I’m 48 year old. have two kids and work full time. I’m overweight and have tried losing weight numerous times but always gains it back.

I see an advertisement for LiveWell Colorado and go to the website. I check my BMI and discover that I’m worse off than I expected. I’m actually “obese” and heading down the rocky road to ill health. Then I watch a video of other people who are in the same boat and have decided to make lifestyle changes.

Is this experience more likely to:

1. Instill sufficient fear of future illness to develop the necessary resolve to “finally do it this time?”

OR

2. Overwhelm me, promote bad feelings about myself, and wonder if my chances of success just decreased because I’m worse off than I understood?

What do you think? Am I being too pessimistic about how this campaign will impact individuals?  Here’s an example of a woman living in a community-focused initiative that suggests I might be wrong about Colorado…

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