Over the last decades fat has become the focus public health agencies and governments in industrialized countries. Labelled as an "epidemic", fatness has become one of the most important challenges to overcome in health interventions. Other academics have questioned the biomedical discourse for its alarmist tone and the claims made about the dangers of fat. The "obesity epidemic" discourse has been constructed as the new moral panic of the 21st century and fat people are used as a scapegoat blaming them for their ―unhealthy lifestyles‖ and inability to self-govern. To understand this phenomenon, attention must be paid to the place of enunciation of such discourse: a context characterized by the rise of neoliberal policies and the cut on public expenditure. In this presentation I provide scientific evidence in order to deconstruct some myths about fat. Based on Goffman's contributions on stigma, I will delve into stigmas commonly associated with fat people with the aim of showing that fatphobia produces social discrimination and that the issue of health is not simply a discourse of governing bodies, but life itself is at risk due to body shape standards. Taking these aspects into account I intend to promote an anti-oppressive praxis and teaching of social work with the aim to remove and fight against negative attitudes and stereotypes towards fat service users. As social workers we must be attentive and critical to the "epidemic" discourse and to the policies proposed to by governments overcome it in order to not to re-stigmatise fat individuals.