Obese People Don't Like Being Called 'Obese'

Or 'fat', or 'large', or 'heavy', but 'weight' will do just fine when dealing with doctors.

A new study of 390 obese patients in Philadelphia finds that they don't like doctors using terms such as "obese" or "fatness" because it makes them feel bad. The patients were asked to grade a list of 11 terms, such as "excess fat," "weight," "fatness," and "BMI," on how desirable they thought each term was. Not too surprisingly, the least desirable was found to be "fatness," followed by "excess fat," "large size," (really? Large size? Isn't that about the gentlest way to put it that someone is, you know, not medium-sized? Anyhow.) "obesity," and "heaviness." Respondents said they preferred the term "weight" above all else due to its relative neutrality, and the authors suggest that using less loaded terms when dealing with patients might actually help encourage them to tackle their weight issues.