Ecological Momentary Assessment of Weight Stigma and Eating Behavior in Everyday Life

Weight stigma is widespread, but the existing literature on its harmful consequences remains largely limited to lab-based experiments and large-scale longitudinal designs.

The purpose of this study was to understand how weight stigma unfolds in everyday life, and whether it predicts increased eating behavior.

In this event-contingent ecological momentary assessment study, 91 participants reported every time they experienced weight stigma and documented whether they ate, how much they ate, and what they ate. These reports were compared against a timepoint when they did not experience stigma.

Participants reported a wide variety of stigmatizing events from a variety of sources, with the most common ones being the self, strangers, the media, and family. Multilevel models showed that participants were no more likely to eat post-stigma (vs. the comparison point), but if they did eat, they ate more servings of food (on average consuming 1.45 more servings, or 45% more). Moderation analyses indicated that this effect was amplified for men versus women.

Experiencing weight stigma appears to beget behavioral changes, potentially driving future weight gain, placing individuals at ever more risk for further stigmatization.