“Weight is like a role you play,” according to Susan Head, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist and consultant at Duke University’s Rice Diet Program. “You’re the fat friend, the fat wife or girlfriend, the one who listens to problems, who’s not threatening, who doesn’t have a social life,” she told Elle magazine. “Some part of the identity of people close to you is based on your weight, so when you throw off that role, you upset the whole balance of things.”
Fat as a role
