Introduction:
Weight is an area that I spend a heap of time chatting with clients and students of my group programs about. Unpacking and processing their beliefs, fears and ideas about weight. Over the years that I've been privileged to do this work of supporting folks in their food and body freedom, I've seen weight chat fall under 3 umbrellas if you like.
Weight itself. Weight and health. Weight and worth.
Each one intertwined with the other and involving deeply conditioned ideas about their value. In this episode, I cover the first two aspects - weight and weight intersecting with health.
This episode covers:
- Weight diversity
- Weight as a metric, not behaviour
- What impacts body weight
- What's happening when we try to intentionally lower our natural weight level
- Set point theory
- What's known about the relationship between weight and health
- The reality of weight stigma
- The negative impacts of intentional weight loss
- What else we can focus on when it comes to health
Resources mentioned:
- This 2014 study in the International Journal of Eating Disorders exploring the anti-fat bias exhibited in healthcare
- A meta-analysis from 2013 exploring the relationship between BMI and health outcomes
- This 2012 study reviewing the impact of healthy lifestyle behaviours on mortality across the BMI spectrum
- A 2009 study and 2011 study exploring some of the impacts of weight stigma
SET POINT THEORY VISUALISATION
