“I feel fat!” It is a very frequent expression especially among female people, but feel fat What does it really mean?
As much as an experience reported by many, the research on this topic is very few.
The intensity and frequency of “feeling fat” seems to be much greater in people with eating disorders.
As we well know our physical appearance, it does not correspond to the image we have of our body. The concept of body image to be defined in a complete way, requires the cognitive and emotional dimension.
The representation we have of our body, in fact, does not coincide with our external appearance, but is also mediated by the emotional aspect.
On the basis of this, it is assumed that the feeling of being fatcan be an experience caused by:
- Certain negative emotional states such as sadness, depression, boredom.
- Physical sensations that increase body awareness (for example, feeling accaled, sweaty, feeling their thighs that rub with each other while walking …)
- body check (looking at repeatedly in the mirror, weighing innumerable times …) e comparison with others.
Comparison with others
The comparison with others It is an important factor involved in the general sense of body dissatisfaction. This in some cases can reach such high levels that people are to be excessively worried about the shape of their body and weight and thus develop a disturbance such as anorexia or bulimia.
Festinger (1954), in his theory of social confrontation, identified two types of social comparison:
- Downward, which generally favors good mood and feelings of value as the comparison is made with people perceived less fortunate than us;
- Upward, who unlike the first, providing a comparison with people considered better than us, puts us in a bad mood and threatens our self -assessment.
We can easily guess how the social comparison on the physical aspect is the mechanism through which the mass media and the various social networks influence the body image. The Upward type comparison induces to process a negative idea on one’s physical appearance. It follows a body representation characterized by general dissatisfaction.
From some research it appears that less confident individuals tend to prohibit comparison with others. The increase of body and specifically exampling of the feeling of being fat.
How can “feel fat” be treated?
As we have already said, the feeling of being fatDespite being a very common experience, it turns out to be more frequent in eating disorders.
Within the CBT-E protocol (Fairburn, 2008), a cognitive behavioral treatment enhanced for eating disorders, dealing with fat feeling is inserted within phase 3 in the module ofbody image.
It is taught to patients that the “feeling of being fat” is different from “being fat”. It has a floating trend overnight, but also within the same day, and which can often mask other types of emotions.
Research on the feeling of being fat
Calugi and Da Grave (2019) recently conducted research on 62 patients with diagnosis of anorexia nervosa hospitalized at the Villa Garda nursing home, aged between 13 and 18 years. They tried to study as “concern for the weight and shape of the body”, “fear of gaining weight” and “feeling fat” can predict the results of cognitive behavioral therapy.
The results show that higher scores to “fear of gaining” and “feeling fat” have predicted a slower improvement of the EMC (body mass index). This indicates how the member of the “feeling fat” It is a clinically relevant variable. It deserves a clinical study and greater interest in scientific level.
In line with these results, another recent research (Linardon, 2018) claims that the feeling of being fat is a distinct and important component from the concerns relating to the body image typical of Food disorders. For this reason, the author supports the need for further studies to develop a test that can measure, in a standardized way, the feeling of being fat. In this way further research will be able to verify whether and how to feel fat represents an important mechanism in eating disorders.
