Ep 122 - What if someone NEEDS to lose weight? (A common question in Intuitive Eating)

<p>Welcome to this week’s episode of How to Love Your Body, today we are talking about the common question we get:</p> <p>“But what if someone REALLY NEEDS to lose weight? What if someone is xx lbs, and they HAVE to lose weight?”</p> <p>NOTE: This is a fat phobic question but it is important to address why this question is so damaging in many ways for all.</p> <p>This question, or a version of it comes up a surprising amount. </p> <p>It rears its head when we share that we advise people to not pursue weight loss (regardless of body size), that intuitive eating involves allowing all food, unconditional permission to eat and getting rid of all food rules.</p> <p>This is a MAJOR paradigm shift from diet culture which almost all of us came from. To hear the opposite of what we were always taught makes a lot of people uncomfortable EVEN if they KNOW dieting doesnt work. Theyve been at it for 20 or 30 years and it hasnt worked, its caused a lot of damage mentally and physically… but dont pursue weight loss at all? That seems crazy, certainly this cannot be the answer for everyone.</p> <p>"So what about someone who NEEDS to lose weight or they’ll die?????"</p> <p>Here’s the problem with this question:</p> <p>1. It reveals a lot about our culture’s obsession with worrying about others people’s weight and health. Whether this is a fictional example or a real person in your life it’s frankly none of your business. Do not use other people as examples to question this work. Keep it about YOU, and your health.</p> <p>2. It keeps a wall between you and the work. If you put a faceless and exaggerated example in between you and undieting it lets you remain cold and cruel to those in larger bodies. It makes it impersonal and this is what is wrong with so much of our culture’s obsession with thinness and fear of weight gain - not seeing that real people are involved. It remains cruel and judgemental. </p> <p>3. It takes the nuance out of undieting. When someone provides a fake example of who it wouldnt work for