In our society it has become the norm for us to believe our bodies correlate with our personal worth. Products and services are constantly being pushed on us to better the way we look and as a result we become harsh critics of others and ourselves. Negative body image can be a serious symptom of eating disorders and plagues people in our society.

Something which vastly impacts negative body image is a term called “fat talk”. Fat talk is conversation which occurs between people regarding a need to lose weight or reduce fat in the body. Engaging in fat talk conversation implies a preference for thinness, decreased body fat, or a smaller body size for self and often, other people too. 

Topics of fat talk may include discussion about dieting, exercise, or speaking negatively about ones own body size/shape. Fat talk can also involve praising others for their weight loss and putting people down for weighing too much (aka “fat shaming”).

Fat talk has become a norm. Common conversations involve talking about dieting techniques and workouts. The conversations we have are so entrenched with talk about what we should and should not eat, we begin to feel guilt and shame for our food choices. Negative body image has understandably become a natural consequence of a society infiltrated with fat talk.

Marketing and media play a big role in why fat talk has become so prevalent in our society. We are bombarded by advertising telling us we need to lose weight, we need to tone up, and we can have the “perfect” body; we just have to buy whatever they are selling. This kind of marketing in our society focuses on changing ourselves on the outside with the idea that this will change us so we can then love ourselves. This is backwards. Self-love, it comes from the inside and works it’s way outward. Negative body image can only be resolved from the inside out. Just imagine if all the energy and resources spent on changing our outside was instead spent on nurturing our own (and each other’s) minds, hearts, and souls!

You can start to love yourself by catching yourself engaging in fat talk and deciding not to be a part of it. By simply noticing your own participation, you can begin to improve the culture of body image within yourself, the people around you, and society in general.

If you have low self-esteem that’s caused by negative body image you might benefit from individual or group counseling. Even if you do not have an eating disorder, working with a therapist who specializes in this area will help you in your journey to love yourself regardless of your body size and shape.