Breaking rule #1: talking about fat club. A qualitative study exploring adults’ experiences of attending weight management programmes as children

Introduction: Child weight management programmes aim to reduce childhood ‘obesity’* and promote long-term health. Extant research has focused on dietary intake and physiological/weight-related outcomes, overlooking long-term impacts on body image, eating habits, and movement. This qualitative study explored: (i) experiences of attending weight management programmes in childhood, and (ii) their long-term impact on body image, relationships with food, and exercise/movement. Method: Seven adults participated in one-to-one interviews. Using Reflexive Thematic Analysis, four themes were developed: (i) immediate experiences, (ii) cognitive responses to programme messages, (iii) psychosocial reflections, and (iv) long-term impact. Results: Participants described feeling othered, victimised, disliking the programmes, and internalising diet culture. They viewed these interventions as catalysts and foundations for enduring negative body image, chronic dieting, disordered eating, and poor self-worth. Rather than functioning as neutral health interventions, these programmes acted as early stigma-based activating contexts that shape body-related meaning-making, self-worth, and health behaviours. Discussion: Findings highlight the need to re-evaluate the safety and ethical implications of childhood weight management and to broaden research focus beyond weight loss to include emotional wellbeing and its links with body image, food, and movement.*quotation marks denote socially constructed and contested terms.