Fat talk isn’t funny. The seemingly harmless habit actually does a lot of harm. This research shows that women who engage in fat talk are less likely to maintain healthy habits than ones who don’t, and that fat talk is contagious, leading us all into a downward spiral.
I used to be the queen of fat talk, and didn’t realize that it only showed my insecurity. Let’s work together to stop transmitting fat talk, and stop comparing ourselves to others.
The bad habit is also one way women bond — albeit in a negative fashion. As Alexandra F. Corning, a research associate professor in psychology at the University of Notre Dame, told the Huffington Post: “It’s a way to keep us feeling like no one is better, no one is above the mean and we’re all the same.”
So how can you stop the fat talk? Break the cycle by catching yourself when you fat talk and not participating in it when others do. If your friend is going down a fat-talk spiral, Corning suggests saying something along the lines of: “Are you listening to the way you’re demeaning yourself? You’re so much more valuable than that,” or “You and I are not doing ‘fat talk’ — we are way above it.”
