Can You Hate Diet Culture But Still Want To Lose Weight At The Same Time?
If you’re here- your probably take issue with the diet industry and how movement practices have been muddied with it. But if you’re a living human person— you probably also feel pressure to change your body at the same time.
See, that’s the beauty of being human- we can feel two different things at the same time and they can both be true and valid.
It’s also very human to want to feel worthy, loved, and beautiful. It just so happens that the current beauty ideal is one that’s not really attainable for most people (and is only attainable to certain celebs because of plastic surgery). I am VEHEMENTLY pro doing whatever the f you want with your own body, whether it pertains to your uterus, pursuing weight loss, or having plastic surgery. Your body, your choice.
There is enough shame in the fitness industry without you shaming yourself extra. You are not “bad” at body positivity because there are things about yourself you want to change. I feel it too- even as someone who promotes intuitive eating and intuitive exercise, I still have difficult body image days and feel the temptation to restrict or overexercise sometimes.
What I have learned from intuitive eating though, is that dieting doesn’t work. Rather, it doesn’t work long term. You may initially succeed at losing weight and you may even succeed at that for months, or years even, but not without the expense of your mental, and even physical health.
For so long we have viewed larger bodies as a sign of weakness and illness because we see so much diabetes and heart disease in this country. More and more, researchers are discovering that the correlation between size and disease is not because fat causes illness- but rather than fat stigma causes illness. Studies show that people in larger bodies (and for that record, any marginalized group) experience higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol that causes inflammation in the body- which we know causes illness. We also know that one can be a size 2 and also be very ill- I say this from experience- and that appearance is just not an adequate descriptor of health.
Traditional fitpros seem to get really emotionally caught up in the mistaken assumption that when we say health exists at every size that it means we should all give up on fitness, that we should all be fat, and that we should all binge eat donuts all day. That’s not what it means.
Rather, HAES means that health looks different on all of us. For me, my genetic predisposition happens to be a size 4, and I’m super privileged that society is ok with that. But you can also be a size 14 etc, and be healthy. Even if we could all get on the same page about what diet and what workout is best, if a bunch of biologically unique people did the same thing, our bodies will still look different. Understanding that thinness doesn’t = health is crucial.
With this knowledge in mind, we can’t possibly equate exercising for health with exercising for vanity. They’re separate. I, the proud doer of a 86 million step skin care routine am not immune to vanity. But I don’t talk about weight loss when I talk about the health benefits of exercise- because it’s distracting, and one of the worst long term motivators. Guilt, shame, and fear of rejection may inspire you to workout at first, but you’ll never develop a healthy relationship with exercise or food for that matter, if that’s the only thing that can get you on the mat.
Through practicing intuitive eating and intuitive exercise your body will arrive at your healthiest size for your own individual genetic blueprint. Yes, some people who do intuitive eating do in fact lose weight, but that is usually because they were so out of touch with their physiological fullness cues and eating past satiation that they’d passed their genetic blueprint. Anyone who markets a diet with restrictions as intuitive eating, doesn’t fully understand what it is. It’s also common for people to gain weight, especially if you’ve spent a lifetime depriving yourself.
As an eating disorder survivor, I recognize how scary and uncomfortable that can be. Adjusting to the body size where you function at your healthiest (mentally and physically) and mourning the body you expected to have can be really emotional. There is a real grieving process when you let go of dieting that shouldn’t be underestimated- but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth it.
Conclusion
TLDR; you can recognize the harm of diet culture and still want to lose weight. It’s human. You as an individual are not to blame for systemic and internalized fat-phobia, or for your human emotional reaction to it. I just hope you spend more time thinking about what weight loss will give you. Confidence? Happiness? Bravery? Self worth? If you do decide to pursue weight loss, you’ll have to work on those things separately- because weight loss will not- it cannot- deliver those things.
One of my favorite quotes is “Losing weight to heal body image is like smiling to cure depression” and it says it all. Whether you decide to dive deeper into intuitive practices for your body or put pressure on yourself to maintain a certain beauty standard- I hope you are at least more gentle with those around you, and stop assigning morality to size and health.
To me fitness, is about so much more than changing your body. Yeah, it can do that- but it also strengthens your resilience, improves your mental health, increases your energy, empowers you, relieves chronic pain, and feels really damn good. I created Helen Phelan Studio to highlight all of these things to help people build a positive relationship with movement. Check it out for free for 10 days and see what I mean.