The main purpose of this research project is to appreend and interpretate senses and meanings which obese students attribute to their body health practices in a Program of the University of State of Rio de Janeiro, the Physical Exercise Project Adapted to Obese (PEFAO). We intended to understand the motives that led these students not only to look for the Project, but more than this, to stay in it. Research activities consisted in a socio-anthropological analytical perspective of these motivations. Our methodological strategy articulated ethnographic observation, informal and formal interviews, as well as our own participation in the developing of practices. We may conclude that collective activities shared by subjects suffering the same stigma concerning the body can bring significant social effects to the subjects, as the meeting with their partners results in building cordial values and solidarity ties, far beyond the common desire of losing weight.
Corporal practices; health; obesity; stigma