Weight watchers... doesn't work, just to clarify.

"somebody's got to say its not ok."

Too many people have their hopes and dreams hitched to a perfectly thin version of themselves in their mind and if we dare unhitch that train we take away all hope.

HAES seems to frequently be met with opposition from the very people who would benefit vastly from learning more about it.

The most basic explanation of HAES seems like the "throw in the towel club"

And that makes many people come unglued at the seams. 

Say "diets don't work" and people are like this

And then they get all but, but, but, but .... don't you realize:

Fat is unhealthy.

I just need to get to a "healthy weight."

face palm.

HAES seeks peace in body acceptance and health practices that will actually make you healthier - not smaller.

"But weight watchers works."

"Weight watchers has worked well for me - I lost 10,25, 40 lbs when I did it in the past."

"Its not a diet its a lifestyle change."

"Jenny Craig helped: filling in whatever celebrity endorsement here."

Weight watchers is good at helping people lose weight for a a little while.

 It is NOT maintained weight loss.

Only about 2 out of a thousand maintain weight loss with weight watchers and they were NOT fat to begin with and they only lost a small amount of weight:

excerpt from this fab post:

Each year only about 6% of Weight Watchers members (give or take) reached their goal weight (presumably 94% failed).

Now before you get all impressed with Weight Watcher’s 6% success rate, let’s step back. For one thing, the successful 6% weren’t so fat in the first place. The 2001 study says that most were between a BMI of 25-30 (i.e. “overweight” but not “obese” – to use definitions I find silly). The 2007 abstract says the average starting BMI for that study was 27 – which is well below the average Weight Watchers participant. So in order to achieve goal weight the average lifetime member probably had to lose less than 10 lbs and would have to include a lot of people who had even less to lose.

It turns out only 3.9% of the golden 6% were still at or below goal weight after 5 years. By my calculations that means 3.9%*6.3% = 0.24% or about two out of a thousand Weight Watchers participants who reached goal weight stayed there for more than five years.

When you hear diet drug claims that they “double” weight loss – it’s probably true – they probably had a study where their 2 lb weight loss doubled the average of 1 lb weight loss.

Which is why a popular topic for weight loss researchers to write about these days is whether “unrealistic weight loss expectations” matter. This is code for “should we feel guilty about the fact that when we talk about ‘success’ we’ve come to mean something completely different from what the public’s been duped into thinking we mean?”

I have a two-word answer: informed consent. 

(end of excerpt)

do you really know what you are getting into when you join weight watchers or the see who can lose the most weight at work competition?

What if there was really truth in advertising about diets:

from here

Why do we call it the “weight loss industry” when what we really get for our time, sacrifice, and money is weight cycling? 19 times out of 20, what we are really purchasing is the experience of weight loss and regain.

Imagine if we called it the “weight cycling industry,” and “weight cycling programs.”  Would you participate in Weight Cyclers at work?  Buy food from NutriCycle?  Hire a trainer from the Biggest Weight Cycler?

Because that is what we are doing, folks.  Better face the facts:  Of 100 people trying to lose weight, the vast majority of people will regain weight. Some significant group – perhaps a third – will gain more weight than they lost.  Some tiny number (7? 5? 3?)  will maintain their weight loss, and of that group, some number from 0-4 of them will be flirting with, developing, or fortifying an eating disorder.  Yes, you read me right.

(end of excerpt)

this can be a very, very difficult pill to swallow. Being fat carries such huge bags of shame that people will do almost anything to rid themselves of that shame.

A lifetime of tugging at clothes, wishing you looked different, trying and trying and trying to be thinner is hard to let go of just because someone says "be happy just the way you are!"

But I do implore you to consider learning more about HAES especially if you are thinking about a new years diet.

This year consider giving up.

But only on the diets! NOT ON YOURSELF.

If you have any plans of what you will do when you do lose "the weight" Please, Please make 2012 the year that you DO IT ANYWAY.

Drive past weight watchers. Don't pool your money at work.

Instead take that dance class. Get a massage. Go on a date. Take that vacation. Whatever it is you daydreamed about the "thin-you" doing - GO DO IT!!!!!!!!!!

Struggling with the "thin-you" waiting to break out? read this:

The fantasy of being thin.

And can we stop doing this to our children? This is at the play area of willow bend mall.

It made my blood boil.

Not only that body shaming starts so young it was in a place that should be a carefree area of play.

And worst of all there was an ACTUAL damn scale. Like truly find out how much you weigh.

(it was broken - thank goodness)

it even looks like Taz is teasing you.

we start our body shaming young these days.

Want to really do something great for your health:

Please click on the labels below to read all my posts about Health at every Size.