"Lose weight to improve your health"... just doesn't make sense!

When someone (even a doctor) tells you to "lose weight to improve your health", it just doesn't make sense.

Your weight isn't reflective of your health behaviours, nor is it an accurate indicator of health status.

Weight-loss seeking diets will deprive you both physically and psychologically as you restrict your food intake, variety and pleasure.You might also engage in obsessive exercise regime "to burn the calories".

Your thoughts will be occupied by what you eat; what you don't eat; how much you eat; how much you don't eat; the grams of weight you lose; the grams of weight you gain; the hours of exercise you do; the hours of exercise you don't do…

There will come a time where you can't handle it anymore and "give in" to the "bad" foods.

You will feel defeated, that you don't have enough willpower to sustain a weight loss diet.Since you've broken the diet rule, you may think "I might as well eat badly for the rest of the day/week and start all over again after".

And this whole process has a name

The Diet Cycle

The Diet Cycle leads to weight cycling (commonly known as yo-yo-ing) which is known to have negative impact on physical and psychological health. 

So why is it that so many people, even health professionals, give weight loss advice?  

Because for so many years and decades we have been educated from a very young age to believe that weight is a marker of health.

What has happened to EVIDENCE BASED PRACTICE when the evidence states that this is not right!? 

So if you are thinking of weight loss, I want to offer you my two cents.

Imagine you're already at your 'ideal weight' (whatever that may be for you).

Now then, in what ways will you be nourishing yourself? What activities will you be enjoying?

And what valid reasons are there for not engaging in such ways of eating and movement?

Your body is precious whatever size or shape it may be.It is worth every piece of self-care, nourishment, and fun activities, and you don't need to wait until that "...If I Reach This Weight..." 

Reference

Miller WC. The weight-loss-at-any-cost environment: how to thrive with a health-centered focus. J Nutr Educ Behav. 2005 Nov-Dec;37 Suppl 2:S89-94. Review.

Bacon L, Aphramor L. Weight science: evaluating the evidence for a paradigm shift. Nutr J. 2011 Jan 24;10:9. doi: 10.1186/1475-2891-10-9. Review. Erratum in: Nutr J. 2011;10:69.

Bacon L, Stern JS, Van Loan MD, Keim NL. Size acceptance and intuitive eating improve health for obese, female chronic dieters. J Am Diet Assoc. 2005 Jun;105(6):929-36.

Macpherson-Sánchez, Ann E. Integrating Fundamental Concepts of Obesity and Eating Disorders: Implications for the Obesity Epidemic. American Journal of Public Health 105.4 (2015): e71–e85.