Body shaming is horrible, feels terrible, doesn’t motivate us to lose weight, can cause us to gain extra weight … and even cause death.

This practice of insulting or judging the way a person’s body looks needs to stop.

Celebrity body shaming is rife in women’s glossy magazines where they circle and zoom in on the tiniest ‘flaw’ in the celebrities body. “Look at Angelina’s cellulite.” “See Lindsay Lohan’s pimples without makeup.” “Does Nicole Ritchie have an eating disorder?”

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It is on our TV screens every night on Biggest Loser where participants are bullied with ridiculous amounts of excessive exercise, then faced with temptation games of needing to eat 10 cream pies, all in the name of ‘health’.

We can be our own worst critics. It doesn’t have to be that way. Photo: Getty

Body shaming is hideously obvious on the street, too. “Hey fattie, why don’t you stop eating that ice-cream and go for a run.”

But it is more insidious and harmful as the silent discrimination that happens all around us. That bigger girl who was more qualified than the slimmer girl being passed over for the promotion or new job, because of the unsaid judgement that she would be more lazy. The silent judgements, looks and stares of passers by.

And then the most damaging of all: self-shaming. After being conditioned with this kind of body judgement, a person internalises it, becoming their own bully who silently taunts and berates themselves as fat, lazy and ugly.

By the age of 10, a third of all children surveyed in a UK primary school said their body was their number one worry. This is the average age children begin dieting: 10 years old. It is so very wrong.

Body shaming is based on the belief that slimmer is better, fat is bad. This belief fuels the multi-billion dollar weight loss, beauty, and cosmetic surgery industries.  The best way to market something is to convince people they have a problem, then sell them the answer.

Whatever your shape or colour, enjoy it. Photo: Getty

Body shame is the perfect problem. Capitalism works much better if we hate ourselves.

The diet, weight loss and cosmetic surgery industries are what Susie Orbach calls the ‘Merchants of Body Hatred’. Susie is the original body image campaigner and author of the seminal book on body image Fat is a Feminist Issue, first published in 1978.

Sadly, we have all become body haters now. We use Instagram filters to make our photos look better. We take a dozen selfies to find the best one, pinch our thighs and start diets. We want to lose a few kilos for summer. We buy trashy magazines that belittle celebrities on the cover, then sell us their “dramatic weight loss secrets” on page two.

Body shaming sells us the lie that by shaming ourselves we will be motivated to take action, lose weight, be better. What happens in reality is the exact opposite: the feelings of shame drive us to give up in “stuff it” moment of hopelessness. We eat the whole tub of ice-cream, then berate ourselves for our puny willpower.

Science tells us it is far more damaging for your body weight to yo-yo up and down as you start and fail one impossible diet after another. It is in fact healthier to keep your weight stable, even if it is a few kilos more than you would like.

The latest, most dramatic study proves that discrimination itself is most harmful.

The study published in Psychological Science took a long term survey of 18,800 adults over 20 years. One standout finding was made. Even when controlling for other factors, people who felt discriminated against due to their weight were 31 per cent more likely to die.

“These findings suggest the possibility that the stigma associated with being overweight is more harmful than actually being overweight,” the authors concluded.

Body shaming inflicts physical, emotional and mental pain. It must stop.

Kylie Ryan is a NSW-based weight loss motivation coach who inspires her clients with the story of how she lost 30kgs.