Lorena Lozano, PhD candidate, Leeds Beckett University

1. Exploring men’s experiences of a
weight loss programme
Should we focus beyond
shifting the pounds?
Lorena Lozano Sufrategui
Leeds Beckett University

2. Overview
• Obesity discourses
• My research findings
• Alternative ways of thinking

3. Obesity discourse
• Obese body = diseased body
• Treatment or reform
• Top-down solution?

4. DISCOURSES

5. how is the ‘fat’ body
socially lived and
experienced?
Alternative discourse

6. The guy who was running the
activity just looked at me and
said: ‘sorry mate, you’re
probably a bit too fat to be able
to do any of these, you won’t be
fi enough. And to be honest with
you, I was probably the fittest
one there, but because I was so
much bigger than anybody else, I
was left out before I even opened
my mouth (Pierce)
FINDINGS

7. FINDINGS
Lorena: what do you remember about
the first session in this programme?
Matt: I think looking around and
realising that I wasn’t on my own
anymore, there was other guys in the
same boat as myself, and by the look
of them and by the red faces at the
end, I realised that some of them were
a lot worse than I was, so I kind of
came out and thought: ‘Well, I am not
a complete basket case after all, there
is hope for me’. And I felt positive. I
felt I had done something creative and
I had something positive about fixing
myself (Matt)

8. • Health and wellness
• Well-being, happiness and self-fulfilment
• Use PA to help people internalize values
• Personal meaning in being active
An alternative way of thinking…

9. Inspirational readings…
• Bacon, Linda. Health at Every Size: The Surprising Truth About Your Weight. BenBella
Books, 2010.
• Monaghan, Lee F. Men and the War on Obesity: A Sociological Study. Routledge, 2008.
• Gard, Michael, and Jan Wright. The Obesity Epidemic: Science, Morality and Ideology.
Routledge, 2005.
• Provencher, Véronique, Catherine Bégin, Angelo Tremblay, Lyne Mongeau, Louise
Corneau, Sylvie Dodin, Sonia Boivin, and Simone Lemieux. "Health-at-Every-Size and
Eating Behaviors: 1-Year Follow-up Results of a Size Acceptance Intervention." Journal of
the American Dietetic Association 109, no. 11 (2009): 1854-61.
• Hsu, Ya-Ting, Janet Buckworth, Brian C Focht, and Ann A O'Connell. "Feasibility of a Self-
Determination Theory-Based Exercise Intervention Promoting Healthy at Every Size with
Sedentary Overweight Women: Project Change." Psychology of Sport and Exercise 14, no.
2 (2013): 283-92.

10. L.Lozano@leedsbeckett.ac.uk
LorenaLozano86