Obesity: possibilities of developing and care practices

Abstract

Obesity has a multifactorial origin and is quite frequent in Brazil. Eating habits may reflect psychic conflicts, which directly influence care practices, especially diet and physical activity. Obesity expresses ways of being: according to Merleau-Ponty, through the body, man experiences the world, the body carries values and perceptions. To understand which behaviors are experienced as care by obese people, and which implications it has for professional practice in health, we conducted a qualitative study with obese people in grades I and II, seven men and five women. Interviews were recorded, transcribed and later analyzed by the Discourse Analysis Method. The results were divided into 3 categories: (1) decision-making in caring for themselves or not, reveals the moment of initiating care and factors influencing such decision; (2) experience of forms of care: possibilities and difficulties, revealing possibilities and difficulties found in the provision of care; and (3) weight loss as an option or obligation, questioning of motivations to take care of oneself, due to health or to meet aesthetic standards. We conclude that several possibilities of care and experience of obesity exist. We also observe the need for approaches that understand the particularities of this phenomenon.