Dr. Jon Robison recently published a wonderful Special Report through the Wellness Council of America (WELCOA) called “10 Things You Can Do Right Now to Ease Concerns About Your Weight And Improve Your Health.” All of his advice is Health at Every Size oriented and such a breath of fresh air from a mainstream health organization. This week’s tip comes courtesy of Dr. Robison, my friend and mentor.

Dr. Robison also wrote:

“Nothing in the health and medical fields has been proven more soundly, than the fact that focusing on weight loss is unlikely to lead to permanent weight loss and more likely to lead to weight cycling and weight gain. People who diet repeatedly over the years end up weighing more than they would have if they had never dieted. Weight cycling can make all the health problems weight loss supposedly helps (diabetes, hypertension, lipid abnormalities, etc.).”

He goes on to say to health professionals:

“Read claims made by weight loss researchers with great care. The National Institutes of Health says 5 years should be considered long-term success for weight loss programs. Anything less
should be viewed with suspicion. Just as importantly, be sure to check how many people started in the study and how many people’s data were actually used in the final analysis. It is not unusual for weight loss studies to claim as a success a relatively small amount of weight loss in a small subset of the people who began the study. This is bad science at best.”

Though you may not be a health professional, I share this with you because of the degree to which you are bombarded in the media with messages supporting weight loss and studies claiming that thinner is healthier and that your fat will kill you. It’s important to know that those studies are probably not being communicated to you accurately and that, at the very least, you should not be accepting them at face value.

I would just like to expand on this with a personal anecdote to let you know how true this is. 

Previously, I had a client who would diet, take supplement foods, do intense exercise, cut out sugary drinks and more, all to eventually stop these things and go back to his unhealthy lifestyle.  This was my client’s Yo-Yo cycle of living throughout his calendar year. 

From this ‘Weight Centered Approach’ he would gain more weight every time and found it a lot harder to lose every time when he went back to his dieting cycle.  It was up to me to recreate my client’s way of thinking so that he would stop using supplements, stop doing intense exercise in sporadic bursts and stop removing sugary foods all at once in favor of a healthy lifestyle approach that focused on behaviors rather than weight. 

When it came to social events on his yearly calendar, for example, he would get particularly apprehensive. At Christmas time I would give him Enjoyable Body Movement tips in order to keep him focused on movement for movement’s sake and to re-educate him on how to feel the pleasure of movement so that he could feel as though he could enjoy the Christmas indulgences without beating himself up. Also to lose the “weight loss” mentality, we focused on learning to eat intuitively, enjoy body movement and live life to the fullest. 

Since this reeducation that allows him to think critically about the weight loss gimmick behind everything he was trying, my client has been working on this new way of thinking. He has maintained his same weight - a “normal weight” for his body rather than an affected weight - and become a lot more fit and considerably better at making healthier food choices. He hardly even thinks about dieting or weight loss anymore.

Do you still think about dieting and weight loss? Tell me where you see things trying to convince you to lose weight? How do you ignore them? Did you follow up with any of them to find out if there’s really any science behind their claims? Share your thoughts in the comments!

And thanks again Dr. Robison for allowing us to use one of your great tips this week!

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As a personal trainer who's always loved her body, Sue Bary was tired of being classified as 'mildly obese' and wanted to help others experience Enjoyable Body Movement without being subject to the usual verbiage of weight loss and dieting. Thus, she created enarji, a personal training practice steeped in the Health at Every Size approach and attitude. To learn more about Sue, click here. Because you are a special More of Me to Love member, Sue wants you to enjoy a FREE consultation through enarji's Virtual Health Coach services. .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) to schedule your free consultation today!