But I have to lose weight for my health!
“I NEED to lose weight...it’s necessary for my health.”
If I had a nickel….
This assumes that:
Losing weight is possible
Losing weight will improve your health
Weight loss should be the primary goal of any lifestyle changes you make
There’s a lot of evidence that losing weight and keeping it off isn’t possible for most people -- you really need look no further than your own experience, most likely. And each attempt to lose weight messes with your metabolism and appetite over the long term -- it’s not a benign act. At least 95% of people who lose weight through dieting gain it all back within 5 years, and the majority of people gain back more than they lost in the first place.
Let’s talk about why focusing on weight loss derails you from your actual goals.
Being “overweight” is shameful in our culture. Being told you need to lose weight is much more than a health issue -- it’s hurtful and embarrassing. It’s very hard to achieve any goals or make positive changes in your life when you’re suffering from low self-esteem.
There’s also the possibility that losing weight won’t even improve your health -- having “overweight” correlated with health problems does not determine what caused what. For example, it’s not clear that being overweight causes diabetes rather than the predisposition for diabetes causing weight gain. Being sedentary, having a low-quality diet, or suffering from chronic stress can all cause the body to become heavier, but making the body smaller doesn’t necessarily improve those conditions.
If you really do want to improve your health, then you should focus on BEHAVIORS that are scientifically proven to improve health. Exercise, eating more fruits and vegetables, drinking more water, getting more fiber, managing stress, finding emotional support...these things DO improve health. And they MAY decrease the mass of your body, but that shouldn’t be the primary goal.
You can control your behaviors. Being “overweight” isn’t a behavior.
It’s very normal and natural to want to have a smaller body. There’s absolutely no shame in that. We live in an almost universally fat-phobic culture where thin bodies have much more social currency than fat bodies. Your desire to be thin is completely understandable, but it may be preventing you from having the healthy, happy life you think it’s going to give you.
This is a tough thing for many people to wrap their heads around! Even if you don’t really believe it yet, just take a baby step in the right direction. Not getting on the scale every morning is a great place to start.
