“Before I Saw a Gas Canister, Now I See a Person”: Post Obesity-Intervention Body Acceptance and Responses to Weight Stigma among Urban Brazilian Gorda Women

Weight stigma is reportedly globalizing, but there is limited evidence of how concerns around weight change are impacting those in many places. Additionally, few studies to date have considered how weight stigma operates in the context of interventions that purposefully eschew from a focus on weight itself. We have used qualitative analysis to examine body acceptance and responses to weight stigma among urban Brazilian gorda women participating in two forms of Health at Every Size^® (HAES^®) interventions: an intensive HAES^® program (I-HAES^®, n=26), which directly addressed weight stigma and a traditional, less-intensive HAES^® program (CTRL, n=13). Individual, semi-structured interviews regarding how participants felt about their bodies were conducted post-intervention. Exploratory content analysis followed an inductive approach. The I-HAES^®-group was more prone to accept their bodies, to feel well-being, to do new things, and to give proactive responses to weight stigma, while the CTRL-group internalized and accepted stigma, reported a lack of body acceptance, and indicated they were less able to challenge stigma in their lives. Interdisciplinary, intensive HAES^® interventions appear able to meaningfully tackle responses to weight stigma and promote body acceptance, important in contexts where stigma is a major component of how women experience their weight.