Internalised weight stigma (or internalised fat phobia), is where an individual judges themselves through the lens of fat stereotypes – i.e believing they are lazy, gluttonous, out of control, unhealthy, etc. They believe they are personally responsible for their weight and see their bodies as unattractive. Self-judgement is a foundation of internalised weight stigma and contributes to body shame, and body hatred. Studies have outlined the impacts of internalised weight stigma on both psychological and physiological health (Durso et al., 2012; Muennig, 2008; Wirth, Blake, Hebert, Sui, & Blair, 2014).
References:
Durso, L. E., Latner, J. D., White, M. A., Masheb, R. M., Blomquist, K. K., Morgan, P. T., & Grilo, C. M. (2012). Internalized weight bias in obese patients with binge eating disorder: associations with eating disturbances and psychological functioning. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 45(3), 423-427.
Muennig, P. (2008). The body politic: the relationship between stigma and obesity-associated disease. BMC Public Health, 8(1), 128.
Blake, C. E., Hébert, J. R., Sui, X., & Blair, S. N. (2014). Chronic weight dissatisfaction predicts type 2 diabetes risk: Aerobic center longitudinal study. Health Psychology, 33(8), 912.