Analysis of Brazilian guidelines for obesity: Pathologization of fat bodies, an approach focused on weight loss and anti-fat bias

Abstract

Obesity is now considered one of the greatest public health challenges of the 21st century and has been fought against with the promotion of individual behavioral changes, glorifying weight loss as an unquestionable way to ensure health. Given this context and the importance of the Brazilian Guidelines for Obesity on the obesity field, its influence on professional practice, on the type of treatment that is to be encouraged and on the decision-making process concerning fat bodies, an analysis of this document was performed, as it is associated with an emerging discussion on how the health discourse justifies and reproduces antifat bias in society. The analysis first concerned the pathologization of fat bodies and how this is accompanied by a valuation of lean bodies. It is then followed by a discussion on the normative approach of weight, which proposes individual interventions that are always focused on weight loss. The discourse present in these guidelines reinforces the inherent health of lean bodies, reproduces stereotypes related to fat bodies, and directly relates lost pounds to better health.