Why You Shouldn’t Set a Weight Loss Resolution
Happy New Year! 2021 is right around the corner and many people may be engaging in the age-old tradition of setting a New Year’s resolution. I want to encourage you to not set any resolutions—especially ones about your weight. Here are a few reasons listed below, as well as some recommendations are resources as you welcome in a new year.
They don’t work. No matter what the resolution is, about 80% of people fail to complete them. Failing to meet our goals can spiral our difficult thinking patterns. Instead of engaging in a tradition that typically ends with the thought “I wasn’t strong enough to follow through on my goal,” use that time and energy to care for yourself where you are. Not only do New Year’s resolutions not work, but intentional weight loss often does not work. About 5% of people who seek to intentionally lose weight keep it off within 5 years. Often this is passed off as a moral or control failing of the individual. The truth of the matter is these “diet,” “lifestyles,” and “wellness plans” don’t work. Bodies and weight are complex. Instead of spending the time, emotional energy, and cognitive energy on restrictive eating and exercise, find things aligned with your values to add into your life. P.S. January weight loss plans are great business for the diet industry. It is okay to say “no thank you” to advertising shoved down your throat.
You may be saying to yourself: “But having high weight is bad for my health!” This is a short blog so I won’t get deep into the science of it. But truth is very complex and not as understood as we tend to think. First off, just throw out the BMI. The end. Also, people of higher weights face stigmatization and discrimination in our culture and medical community. People with larger bodies tend not to seek medical care because the remedy prescribed is often to “lose weight.” People in smaller bodies are prescribed medication, physical therapy, and other medical interventions. This stigma is believed to account for some of the “negative health effects” that are ascribed to people with larger bodies. If you are interested in learning more about Health at Every Size, check out these resources.
Use that energy towards gaining rather than losing. 2020 is over, but 2021 will still be difficult, when we face stress our bodies tend to soften and reserve weight to protect us for the future. Instead of battling against this stress cycle recognize that your body is trying to do its part. Instead of fighting against it, recognize what you might gain if you give up the battle and used the small amount of energy you have on building the life you want. If you focus on things to your life rather than losing weight or changing your body. What would you focus on? Find enjoyable ways to move your body. Maybe this is a high intensity workout. Maybe it is dancing around your house to your favorite song. Read and engage in learning about how to eat intuitively and move in ways that feel good to your body. When we give up the quest to lose weight, we gain a freedom that allows us to pursue the things that truly matter to us. If there are things that you have been putting off until you can fit into a certain size, do them now. There is no time like the present to live the life that you want to live. You don’t need society’s permission to take up space and be seen. This journey is one that goes against decades and centuries of a culture telling us to be smaller and take up less space. Now is the time to recognize that you are enough just the way you are.
Be Kind to Yourself. We when let go of diet culture and accept our body we often experience grief. This brings with it sadness, anger, bargaining on the road of accepting our bodies. There is a grief that comes with giving up the “thin ideal” and all the judgement and stigmatization that comes from other people and our internalized diet culture. Some days will be easier than others, some emotions may be more difficult than others, and it is worth it. Be kind to yourself throughout this process. The decision to give up diet culture and pursue acceptance and intuitive eating is a daily choice and it comes with its ups and downs. Self-compassion is a tool that we use to change those negative and “judgey” thoughts to ones of kindness and grace.
Congrats on making it this far and welcome to the conversation. There are several activities and resources that can help you on this journey. Learning to navigate the anti-diet culture takes patience and is very rewarding. Studies have found that when you give up the pursuit of weight loss and pursue intuitive eating and self-compassion most people see decreased depression and anxiety, decreased stress, lower rates of “emotional eating”, improved cholesterol levels, weight stabilization, decreased disordered eating behaviors, and increases in body esteem and compassionate actions. The goal of this is not to lose weight or secretly diet, but rather learn to accept yourself, your body, and your health as they are and build a life worth living.
Self-Care Actions:
Journal
Move your body in ways that feel good to you
Practice intuitive eating:
Focus on metabolic fitness rather than weight as health markers
Look into restorative yoga (for reals, look into it)
When your mind becomes critical of a part of your body, place your hand on it and thank it for it all existing and what it adds to your life.
Practice saying “it’s okay” when your mind gets critical instead of joining in the judgement cycle.
Go for a walk
Take a nap
Change up your feed: start following Health at Every Size, Anti-Diet, and Body Affirmation pages on social media. The difference changing up the messages you receive can do for your mental health is amazing.
Go to therapy! We all have a story and old relationship with our body. Instead of trying to lose weight and turn your body into something, maybe 2021 is the year to repair that relationship and learn to trust it again. If you live in the state of Arkansas and are interested in pursuing therapy with me please click here to set up a free phone consultation.
Books: *Note that some of the book covers feature images of slavery and partially nude bodies
Intuitive Eating by Evelyn Tribole, MS, RDN
Heath and Every Size by Lindo Bacon, PhD
Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fatphobia by Sabrina Strings, PhD
Anti-Diet by Christy Harrison, RD, MPH
The Body is Not an Apology by Sonya Renee Taylor
Podcasts and Podcast Episodes:
This American Life Episode 589 “Tell Me I’m Fat” https://www.thisamericanlife.org/589/tell-me-im-fat
Unlocking Us with Brene Brown with Sonya Renee Taylor on “The Body is Not an Apology” https://brenebrown.com/podcast/brene-with-sonya-renee-taylor-on-the-body-is-not-an-apology/
Hearing Our Own Voice by Melissa Toler: ‘Hearing Our Own Voice is an anti-diet, weight inclusive podcast that centers Black stories and experiences. I have conversations with Black health and wellness professionals and fat activists who have taken a weight-inclusive approach to their work. My goal is to uncover the lies and myths that get sold to us, but more importantly I want us to explore how we can filter out the cultural noise and begin to hear our own voice.”
Food Psych with Christy Harrison “In each episode, Christy talks with guests—including health and psychology professionals, anti-diet activists, and leaders in the body-liberation movement—about their relationships with food, paths to body-image healing and fat acceptance, and experiences of recovery from weight stigma and eating disorders. This podcast calls out diet culture for the life thief that it is, and challenges it in all its sneaky forms—including the restrictive behaviors that often masquerade as wellness and fitness.”
References:
https://www.intuitiveeating.org/
https://www.todaysdietitian.com/newarchives/0116p26.shtml
https://www.sizediversityandhealth.org/health-at-every-size-haes-approach/
http://www.dishlab.org/pubs/2013%20Compass.pdf
https://www.forbes.com/sites/dawngraham/2019/12/27/why-new-years-resolutions-dont-work-and-what-you-can-do-instead/
Puhl & Brownell (2001) https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1038/oby.2001.108
Ulian et al. (2018) https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/obr.12749.
Tykla et al. (2014) https://www.hindawi.com/journals/jobe/2014/983495/
Bacon & Aphramor (2011) https://nutritionj.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1475-2891-10-9