Health At Every Size
Healing Weight Issues
Peggy Elam, Ph.D.
See the links at the
bottom of this page for resources
on Health At Every Size.
Americans have been preoccupied with weight control for several decades,
fueling (and no doubt being fueled by) a multibillion-dollar weight loss
industry. Yet most people who lose weight by dieting will regain all they
lost and often more, frequently ending up fatter than when they began.
Ironically, some scientists and professionals suspect chronic dieting and
yo-yo weight loss and regain may be contributing to the well-publicized
increase in American obesity, along with sedentary lifestyles and more
plentiful access to rich foods.
The
emotional well-being of women, especially, has taken a beating from public
and private pressures to be thin. Even those who don't develop potentially
life-threatening eating disorders often end up alienated from their
natural appetites and self-regulatory processes, feeling like failures if
they're unable to achieve what they or others consider "ideal" weight.
Prejudice toward very large women keeps many such women from exercising
(or sometimes even appearing) in public for fear of being the
object of sniggers and cruel comments. Sadly, all too often their fears
are well-founded, from "No Fat Chicks" bumper stickers to supposedly
well-meaning
—
and
usually self-righteous
—
strangers commenting on their food choices at restaurants or in
supermarket checkout lines. Other women may give up any attempt at regular
exercise if it doesn't result in a societally prized slim body.
Many fat women avoid visiting medical professionals because they're tired
of being told they need to lose weight even if they have no weight-related
health problems. When they do have health problems, weight loss is often
prescribed with little acknowledgment of the poor track record of weight
loss diets or programs and the health risks associated with weight loss
and regain.
Health professionals have often acted as though weight control is simply a
matter of willpower and discipline, which implies fat people are
undisciplined, lazy, or lack self-control, while pop psychology often sees
fatness as the physical manifestation of emotional conflict. Both views
ignore decades of research and clinical experience indicating biological
factors strongly contribute to body size and fatness, and that the body
fights to return or stay at its usual size.
It's a Catch-22, a paradox
—
round-bodied women are encouraged to lose weight or maintain a slim size
even though permanently maintaining "ideal" weight is impossible for most.
They're often blithely told to lose 100 pounds or more, even though the
maximum health benefits associated with weight loss show up after only 10
or 15 pounds are lost, after which the person will still be considered
clinically obese.
No
wonder many give up on their bodies altogether, or alternate
weight-loss-oriented restrictive eating with starvation-induced bingeing.
(Of course, people of any size can and do sometimes also eat for
emotional, rather than solely physical, reasons, but how such food intake
is translated into the body is largely determined by a combination of
genes and other physiological factors.)
How, then, can "people of size"
—
or anyone tired of feeling miserable in and about her body
—
maintain good health and emotional well-being without getting caught up in
the dieting cycle? A solution may be the growing "Health At Any Size"
movement, also referred to as "Health At Every Size," which advocates
abandoning weight loss attempts in favor of weight-neutral healthy
behaviors in which one treats one's body with love and caring.
That means providing oneself with food and drink that satisfies both body
and soul, moving about regularly, and getting plenty of sleep, rest,
recreation, and other physical, emotional, and spiritual nourishment. With
such consistent love and caring one's body will settle at its natural,
healthy weight
—
which for most people will be above model-thin, and for some will be
what's considered overweight or obese.
"It's time for a new paradigm, one that acknowledges full well that there
are significant health risks associated with obesity, but one that also
recognizes that there are more efficacious ways than a singular focus on
weight loss to improve and optimize the well-being of large people," wrote
exercise physiologist Glen Gaesser, Ph.D. in a guest editorial featured in
the October/November 2000 issue of Healthy Weight Journal.
Gaesser is the author of Big Fat Lies: The Truth About Your Weight and
Your Health. Chief among the reasons for reading Big Fat Lies
is Gaesser's presentation of the scientifically flawed development of the
"ideal weight" tables on which concepts of obesity and overweight were
based. And would it also pique your interest to know that there are
actually health benefits associated with obesity, along with
definite health risks of repeatedly dieting and regaining weight?
So
rather than trying to lose weight or pare your body down to fit a clothing
size or number on a scale, accept your body (and yourself) as you are and
pay attention to what it (and you) really want. Sometimes that might be
ice cream or a second helping at dinner, but other times it will be fresh
fruit or vegetables or the opportunity to move about with joy and abandon.
The
ultimate payoff to shifting your focus off of weight loss and toward
health at whatever size you are right now is better emotional and
physical health. Why not give it a try?
For
guidance on developing a truly natural way of eating, see The Tao of
Eating: Feeding Your Soul Through Everyday Experiences With Food by
Linda Harper, Ph.D.
For
more information, browse the
Body Positive
website of psychologist Debby Burgard, Ph.D., co-author
(with Sue Lyons) of Great Shape: The First Fitness Guide for Large
Women. Burgard and Lyons led exercise classes for large women and
noticed that many of the physical miseries their students associated with
being overweight were instead due to inactivity, and melted away with
regular movement even without any weight loss.
Other resources include
The National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance (NAAFA), the
Council on
Size and Weight Discrimination, Inc.
(CSWD), the
International Size Acceptance Association (ISAA), and the
Health At Every Size section
of the
Pearlsong Press, Inc.
website.
A
version of this article was published in Nashville Woman magazine
in January 2001.
Go to Top of Page
Health At Every Size Resources & Links
Top 10 Reasons to Give Up Dieting
Health At Every Size radio show
Size Matters radio show
Facts & Figures
Normal Eating
Association for Size Diversity & Health
Council on Size & Weight Discrimination
National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance
International Size Acceptance Association
Fat Friendly Professionals
Big Fat Blog
Show Me the Data Blog
Body Positive
FAT!SO?
Plus Size Yellow Pages
Kelly Bliss
Make Peace with Yourself (Kelly Bliss article)
Nourishing Connections
Pearlsong Press Health At Every Size section
Health At Any Size Yahoogroups forum
The Ample Traveler
Ample Knitters
Phat Camp for Kids
!2 Steps to Health At Every Size
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