The TV series Game of Thrones has its share of people who meet the usual criteria for on-screen hotness - curvy women with long flowing hair and lean men with determined jaws. But it may also go down in history for turning some stereotypes on their heads. Along with a leading man who has achondroplasia, a form of dwarfism, there’s a hero who’s overweight. For anyone not glued to this program each Monday night, this is Sam, a soldier of the Night’s Watch who doesn’t let extra kilos get in the way of rescuing a woman and child from a terrifying predator, a White Walker.

But this plays out on the mythical continent of Westeros. Here in the real world people who are Sam-sized are more likely to be stereotyped as lazy and lacking self-discipline. For anyone who thinks this is a terrific incentive to lose weight, it seems the opposite is true. ‘Fat shaming’ is more likely to make weight problems worse suggests a growing body of research, much of it from the US where it’s estimated that the prevalence of weight discrimination has increased by 66 per cent in the last decade or so and is comparable to rates of racial discrimination.

Heroic and heavy: Samwell Tarly from Games of Thrones.

When overweight children are teased about their weight, they’re more likely to binge eat than children who aren’t teased about their size according to research from the University of Minnesota, while in a study from Yale University of 2400 women belonging to a weight loss support organisation, 79 per cent reported that they often coped with weight stigma by eating more food. Other research has found that adults who experience weight stigma are more likely to avoid exercise.

”We know that in Australia disordered eating is rising among people with obesity and we know that stigma can trigger binge eating and contribute to disordered eating,” says Dr Anita Star, a senior lecturer in nutrition and dietetics at Griffith University. “The next logical step is to tackle obesity stigma to try and reduce problems with disordered eating.”