Nikki Svärdsén: “Overweight is not a personal failure"

Text: Annika Lund, published in Medicinsk Vetenskap nr 1 2026.

Nikki Svärdsén has always been larger than average. In her mid‑twenties, she lost a lot of weight. 

“Then I developed back problems and gained weight again. I felt like a failure and was ashamed. Body‑positive accounts on Instagram made me a little jealous; it seemed so wonderful to like your own body,” she says. 

That was why she started her Instagram account in 2018. There, she posts revealing photos. 

“It has been met with more appreciation than I had expected, which has affected me.” 

The photos became a way for her to set her own thought processes in motion. She began to ask herself whether the path away from self-hatred really lay in changing her body, or in changing the way she looked at it. 

“It is possible to develop a kinder attitude towards your body without focusing on appearance. You can get to know it better, understand what it is good at, and think about everything it can do. For me, physical activity and exercise have been a way of getting to know my body,” she says. 

Today, Nikki Svärdsén has a more neutral relationship with her body, without self‑hatred or feeling like she must love it. Her body is simply allowed to exist. 

As a medical student, she also sees the health aspects in a different light. Obesity is a risk factor for disease. 

“But not everyone with obesity develops secondary diseases, and life is not all about reducing the risk of illness. Being overweight is not a personal failure. It is society’s moralising view of obesity that creates the feeling of failure,” says Nikki Svärdsén.