Weight, Fat, Prejudice, Science

I'm fascinated at the assumption out there that giving up dieting and weighing ourselves equals instant gross obesity.

When I say "dieting is unhealthy" people respond with "but fat is bad! and irresponsible! and unhealthy!"

The opposite of dieting is not obesity. The opposite of dieting is eating what works for your health. There are alternatives to restrictive punitive eating that are not donuts on the couch. Why is this so shocking?

If you stop dieting you will not automatically begin gaining weight until you are immobile, unless something is very wrong with your metabolism or mental health. If there is something wrong with your metabolism or mental health then dieting isn't a solution - it is a ANOTHER problem.

Humans aren't meant to spend their lives counting fat grams and being terrified of food. We are meant to prepare and eat meals communally and with gratitude. We are meant to eat according to our needs and not a clothing size.

Will we all be size 8s if we stop dieting? No. Why is that a problem?

Other thoughts to consider:
"We treat those who lose massive amounts of weight like rock stars"
How Childhood-Obesity Fight Damages Self-Esteem
If Carrying an Extra 10 Pounds Might Not Hurt then why are we still using the word "extra?"

Comments

  1. Right on, Laura! You said it so wonderfully.

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  2. My D18 is in recovery after we connected (almost a year ago) with a FBT therapist to coordinate the existing team of therapist, physician, nutritionist and parent(s) [Father is not a strong presence.]

    She is doing well enough that she is currently in Europe on a month-long trip. FBT and she came up with a plan to provide her with some extra support and to educate the adults with whom she's traveling about "danger" signs. One of the components was for her to email the team 2x a week, discuss how she is doing (emotionally and food-wise) and report her weight. The exact number is not what's important -- the idea is to head off a downward trend, should that happen.

    Here's why I'm telling you this. She's in Germany with a host family she stayed with 2 years ago and THEY DON'T HAVE A SCALE!

    Maybe I'm making too much of this, but it seems that there are darned few homes* in the US that do not have, as "standard" equipment, a bathroom scale.

    *other than the homes where someone with an ED resides.

    AKA graceamazes

    (I'm not sure if this went through the first time, so I'm trying again. Please ignore if it's a duplicate.)

    ReplyDelete

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