Does the bad mood help people lose weight?

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After American conference presenter Bill Maher called for a "shameful humiliation" to "make a comeback," his host James Corden's enthusiastic response has garnered wide support online.

"There is evidence that big shame is only one thing," he said. "It causes people to be ashamed and shame leads to depression, anxiety and self-destructive behavior – self-destructive behavior such as overeating."

"If mocking fat people made them lose weight, there would be no big kids in schools."

But does Maher have a point? Nearly two-thirds of adults in England were overweight or obese in 2017. The NHS recorded 10,660 hospital admissions in 2017/18 where obesity was the leading diagnosis.

In the United States, the situation is even darker. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, over 70% of adults over the age of 20 are overweight or obese.

On Twitter, former professional baseball player Kevin Youkilis said he owes his entire career to shame, after being neglected by scouts for his weight.

This experience, however, is atypical, says Jane Ogden, a professor of health psychology at the University of Surrey.

"Shaming is the wrong way forward," she told BBC's Victoria Derbyshire program on Monday.

"All the evidence shows that shaming fat makes people feel worse, it lowers their self-esteem, and makes them feel depressed and anxious, which leads them to self-destruct. "

A study by behavior specialists at University College London found that, rather than encouraging people to lose weight, gross shame has led people to gain more weight.

Victoria Abraham, 19, lives and studies in New York, but grew up in Florida.

She says her first hand experience shows that Mr. Maher is wrong to shame the fat.

"All my life, I was ashamed of my weight and I'm still fat.When I was making unpleasant comments when I was a kid, I was going home after school and ate for feel better

"It's not like people are saying those comments in a compassionate place, they just wanted to make me feel small and negative about my body.

"My parents and my doctor were concerned about my health, and that's all – it's the only person who has the right to talk to me about my body – street kids teasing me for their difference."

Victoria points out that she is now very confident about her body and thinks that if her youngest being could have seen her now, her childhood would have been a lot happier.

"At the time, you did not have the right to be fat and happy," she says. "You did not have the right to love yourself, no matter what you looked like".

It was changing the media that she consumed that made all the difference.

"After graduating from high school, I started reading books with big characters and watching TV with fat women, which started to change the way I look at things. that media with thin and white women, you think something is wrong, see beautiful fat women, you start to see beauty in yourself. "

Victoria also recognizes the effects of obesity on health.

"Losing weight, it's good for your health, but I'm against the diet.I have tried most of them and you're just gaining weight after the diet." I'm trying to do more exercise and eat healthier. "

"It's a very difficult conversation to have," said Professor Ogden at the BBC.

"The evidence of the impact of overweight and obesity – on cancer, diabetes, heart disease – are very clear – and it's an education we need to have."

"But as it is so difficult to get that message across and make someone feel ashamed of who he is, the conversations are very difficult."

Even if you lose weight, bad mood can have a negative impact on your health in another way.

Will Mavity, 25, lives in Los Angeles. Growing up in Atlanta, Georgia, he was, he said, "extremely chubby".

This is not a description you would use about it today.

"They called me double d, and all that stuff came in. When I started high school, I decided that the only way to avoid it was to never again to be fat, "he told the BBC.

But Will has developed a eating disorder.

"The shame caused by the fat made me lose weight, but not in a healthy way, I started to purge myself after every meal," he said.

"I get hurt again and again because of excessive exercise, I feel I have to do it, I get angry every time I can not train, I can not get it. Because of the big shame, I associate my human worth with the way I look. "

"Shaming anyone for anything does not help you – no matter what is shameful," explained Professor Ogden.

"It's just not a positive way to run a company."

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