Weight Loss Needs to be an INFORMED DECISION: The cigarette analogy.

Everyone knows that smoking is bad for your health. 

The Tobacco Industry is held very accountable to ensure that people are well informed about the dangers of smoking. The majority of the surface area of any cigarette box is covered with health warnings and graphic images of what can happen to people who smoke.   Nobody who smokes claims that they are doing it for health reasons. 

Yet, many people still choose to smoke!  There are many reasons from just thinking it’s cool to wanting something to help them relax. People who choose to smoke are fully aware of the health risks and choose to live with it. And that’s fine!  People are allowed to make decisions for themselves. 

The Diet Industry is not held accountable for publicizing the harmful effects of their products/programs.  

Studies have consistently shown that focussing on your body shape/size and trying to change it using basically any method (dietary changes, exercise programs, supplements, surgery, etc.) is detrimental for health. It increases the chances of heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, cancers, etc. (*Studies also show that weight alone doesn’t increase these chances- it’s likely that any correlation between weight and bad health is due to the increased chances of fat people experiencing weight stigma and repeated dieting.)

I will never shame someone for choosing to go on a diet. This page is not here to try to make someone feel bad for pursuing weight loss. 

However, I WILL and DO shame the system that encourages people to lose weight, and advertises it as a health-promoting practice when in reality it is the opposite.

There are many people who choose to lose weight for reasons other than health- appearance, camaraderie (certain sports, classes, etc) and other reasons. I’m sure that if these individuals were aware of research showing that intentional weight loss was detrimental to health, some would continue to engage in these practices regardless, which is fine!

What’s not fine is that the vast majority of people who engage in weight loss practices do so (at least in part) in the name of “Health”!  And that those who are doing it for other reasons think that it at least isn’t doing any harm. 

Intentional weight loss IS HARMFUL.  When we are as aware of this as we are that smoking is harmful, then I will be okay with people choosing to lose weight. But until the Diet Industry is held as accountable as the Tobacco Industry to advertise the detrimental health effects of their products/programs, I will be here shouting it to whoever will listen. 

The fact that people make choices that are bad for their health ISNT THE PROBLEM. The problem is that they are not fully informed when they make that decision. It’s just really not okay.

How informed do you feel you were when you embarked on your last weight-loss attempt? Leave a comment below!

“fat” doesn’t mean “unhealthy”

“Of course eating ‘junk’ and not exercising is bad for health!” 

But I didn’t say a single word about dietary or exercise habits. All I said was “it’s not unhealthy to be fat.”

Let’s talk about this, because it happens SO MUCH. 

If I asked someone who said this type of thing “Do you think that every single fat person is sedentary and eats only ‘junk food’?” I’m almost sure they would say “NO of course not!”

Somehow in our society, Diet Culture has taught us just enough about fatness to make it seem like the average person isn’t fatphobic. 

We know that there are crazy people who yell at fat people on airplanes and throw food out their windows at fat people and take food out of fat people’s shopping carts and call them names. But the average person isn’t like that! So we must not be fatphobic.

The average person knows that “there are different healthy body types.” They know that “weight loss doesn’t equal health in every situation.” They know that “Not every fat person is lazy and doesn’t eat vegetables.” So they consider themselves pretty weight inclusive and progressive. 

However, for the average person (speaking from my own past experience as the average person), there are caveats after every one of these statements:

👉“There are different healthy body types…but all of them are under ___Lbs.”

👉“Weight loss doesn’t equal health…If you’re underweight and anorexic. If you’re not already “too skinny” then it does, though generally speaking.”

👉“Not every fat person is lazy and doesn’t eat vegetables… they just must have not done so for most of their life in order to be fat. And if they keep it up, they won’t be anymore.”

All of these caveats are false.

If you hear someone say “Being fat is okay” and you immediately start talking about lifestyle habits as an argument you NEED TO SEE that you are literally saying out loud “I THINK EVERY FAT PERSON IS THAT WAY BECAUSE OF THEIR UNHEALTHY CHOICES, and every fat person is unhealthy.” 

You also NEED TO SEE that that is LITERALLY SCIENTIFICALLY PROVEN TO BE FALSE. (Check out my saved story “resources” for info about that.)

People’s bodies are not determined solely on factors like dietary and exercise choices. There are infinite factors that determine someone’s healthy weight, and there are also INFINITE HEALTHY WEIGHTS that someone could be at. 

The truth is that it’s hard to realize the internalized weight stigma that we all have. It took me a long time to get to where I am and I’m sure I still have a ways to go. But it’s SO IMPORTANT that we do this, you guys.

 A huge percentage of the human population is fat. That’s not a flaw, it’s a fact. And we need to work at not being fatphobic.

what it means to have a body weight that is “easy to maintain”

“It’s not hard for me to maintain this weight. I just have to eat ___ calories and exercise ___/day.”

Lets discuss what a body weight that is “easy to maintain” really means.

Our bodies have a weight setpoint. This means that there is a certain predetermined weight that our bodies like to stay at. And here are a few facts about it:

  •  It is determined by many factors, including genetics. 
  • Your body can maintain this weight effortlessly.  
  • Your setpoint can and does change throughout your life. 

I personally know many people who say “But this weight that I’m at IS easy to maintain most of the time. It’s just that I don’t always have self control, and when I eat a whole bag of ___  or miss my workout from being lazy, then I gain weight. But as long as I don’t do that, I’m fine and it’s easy to stay this weight.”

Here are a few things you should know about this:

1- Maintaining a setpoint weight doesn’t mean the number on your scale is exactly the same every time you stand on it.  Different bodies have different thresholds that they are comfortable with, but generally speaking it would be somewhere between 5-20lbs.  That means that your body is happy to go 5-20lbs over or under a set weight before it worries too much and brings your weight back to center. If you are uncomfortable with your weight fluctuating that much, then I would suggest seeking help for disordered eating. (and stop weighing yourself. I’m serious.)

2- Your body has ways to compensate for eating a whole bag of ___. If you are at your normal weight setpoint, your body can handle it. Period. If one bag of ___ (even if it’s 1000 calories all by itself) causes you to spiral into weight gain, that means you are under your setpoint, and I would suggest seeking help for disordered eating. (and stop weighing yourself. I’m serious.)

3- Your body has ways of regulating calorie consumption without you. If you miss a workout, your body will figure it out. Daily workouts can be included in a healthy lifestyle, and exercising every day doesn’t mean your body is below its setpoint. But if missing one day/week at the gym causes you to spiral into weight gain that means you are under your setpoint, and I would suggest seeking help for disordered exercising. (and stop weighing yourself. I’m serious.)

Your body can EFFORTLESSLY maintain your setpoint if you are eating/exercising intuitively. There is no scientific reason to try to fight your body to be smaller than your setpoint. 

It is proven to be bad for your health, and it’s just menally and physically exhausting. There are literally no plus-sides besides cosmetic ones. Which…lets be honest… barf.

Just something to think about!

#aBraveNewFoodie

telling a fat person they’re fat doesnt help them lose weight. Also they don’t need to lose weight.

Lets pretend that “Obesity” really was a problem. (It’s not)

If in real life it was good for people’s health to lose weight (which it’s not- go read some of my other posts) we would still be going about it the wrong way.

Studies show that when people experience an increase of Weight Stigma (negative emotions about their body) they eat more.

Scientists have done research where they give people unlimited access to foods and then monitor how much they actually eat in diffeerent settings.

In some of these they simply ask people questions about their relationship with food and their bodies to pre-determine how much weight stigma they experience naturally. In others they purposefully try to make people feel badly about their bodies right before the experiment to see what happens.

Every time they do studies like this, it’s shown that people who feel they are “too fat” actually eat more! And especially if someone had just had a fat-shaming situation happen right before eating, they almost always ended up eating significantly more than they did in less stressful circumstances.

Weight stigma messes with our hunger/fullness cues! It makes us think about outside markers or “rules” about how much to eat instead of relying on our inward drive to eat and stop eating (eating intuitively).

So think about that next time you shame someone about what they’re eating in an attempt to “help them.”

Even if losing weight was helpful (which it isn’t) you would still not be helping. Making someone feel bad about themselves is never a good thing for overall health. Period.

So stop commenting/judging.