The minuses of being plus-sized

WE don't talk enough about being fat, do we? Not in the way that it should be talked about - openly, honestly and factually.

Studies show that people naturally assume that fat people are lazy and lacking in self-control. Bosses pay plus-sized women less than skinny women. And parents penalise their fat kids more often than their skinnier kids.

But studies also show that, for many obese people, it is a combination of genetic and biological factors that induces them to eat as much as they do. If they try to be slimmer by eating much less, they exist in a constant state of hunger and frustration - every day, all of the time.