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The Hijacking of “Lifestyle Changes”

  1. Rachel says:

    My question is why it’s desirable to live at the lowest end of one’s set-point in the first place. Is that somehow better than not living at the low end, or even the high end? Frankly, I find this to be a sizeist idea, because it implies that being thinner is better than being fatter, and I have no idea why it’s in a book like this.

  2. GlenysO says:

    I agree with you! What is the evidence that living at that lower end of your weight range is beneficial? How would we know if we were there? How would we even know what our range is? I think it would have been better to say, if you are eating as well as you can, living as healthfully as you can, you are probably already at your leanest livable weight, and I thought perhaps that’s what she was basically trying to say. I wondered if this was a concession to the pro-weight-loss people who make noise if you dare to say “Don’t worry about weight loss.” I still recommend the book in general because I’ve given up on the idea of perfection in ideals and it is WAY more HAES than it is not and it does support the idea of not eating for weight loss.

  3. Lana says:

    I’m reading the book now and just like you found the part with the tips a little annoying. Most of them are ways to restrict your eating. I guess it will work for people who don’t have any psychological issues with food… But that’s not most dieters. So I too am trying to read this as unbiased as I can.

    • GlenysO says:

      Thanks Lana, I’m glad I’m not the only one. As a dietitian who is not in favor of restrictive eating, I’m sometimes conflicted about how best to give diet (as in “one’s diet” not a WL diet) advice to help improve eating. I really don’t like this business of trying to trick ourselves into eating less or not eating decadent foods. If I’m the one playing the trick on myself, I’m going to figure it out! I do feel that intuitive eating is the easiest way to stop over-eating and improve eating habits without ever feeling deprived, especially for former dieters.

  4. Me says:

    Hey! I stumbled across your blog and I’m enjoying reading your posts. I have been reading Eat What You Love, Love What You Eat and trying to apply it to reverse about 8 years of disordered eating. Not an eating disorder, just unnatural eating behaviours like restriction, overeating, binging. This idea that a lifestyle change can just become another weight loss diet in disguise is new to me, but it makes a lot of sense. Just when did something as natural and innate as eating to fuel our bodies become something we need to dignify with a label? Why does it need to be elevated to an almost religious-like status? The term “following a diet”… It just dawned on me how the rules can become like some kind of mantra you live by… Whatever happened to being defined by your principles in life rather than by your weight or your holy eating habits? Anyway, sorry about that rant… I’d better write a post about it cause I’ve become inspired by this post. I’m hesitant to agree that being at your highest healthy weight is better than being at your lowest healthy weight though… Surely the less weight is on your joints and bones the less wear and tear they get over time and the less effort the heart needs to make? Obviously not to the extreme of being underweight… But then, I guess that begs the question of who sets the boundaries…. This is a tough topic.

    • Me says:

      Sorry, I realised nobody said being at the highest healthy weight is BETTER than being at the lowest, they said the same! But still… You know what I mean about your heart and joints etc, right?

      • GlenysO says:

        Hi! Thanks so much for your comments and I’m glad you’re enjoying the blog! I’m so glad you’re recovering from disordered eating – as you read more you’ll see that I had to do the same thing. Intuitive eating is really an amazing thing – it’s the way babies and toddlers learn to eat if we leave them alone with food and not harangue them to eat more or less or things they don’t like. Which unfortunately has happened to so many of us in childhood.

        Regarding being at your “highest healthy weight” vs “lowest healthy weight” – my question is, how do we know what our actual weight range is? I’m sure that my normal weight range has been changed over the years by severe restriction. So what I would advise to most people is that your weight that you can live with eating “normally” in a way that you enjoy, getting the movement that you like – that is your healthiest weight. At my lowest weight (which was at the lower end of the BMI “normal” range) I developed osteoarthritis in both my toes which later required surgery (when I was still at a low weight). I had severe back pain for two years. So being a low weight did not prevent injury to my joints at all. Now, 40-50 pounds heavier than that, I have almost no pain anywhere and can exercise and move how I want to. Whether my current weight will affect my future joint health or not, well, I can’t worry about that because trying to achieve a lower weight 1. will surely cause me to eventually gain even more weight as the evidence shows and 2. appears to be impossible without more severe restrictions which I’m not willing to do. Check out all the evidence that shows that having healthy habits (eating more f/v, exercise, not smoking) are a much stronger predictor of mortality than weight. Most weight studies don’t control for health behaviors, unfortunately.

        If you’d like to check out a lot of fat people doing great things with their bodies, check out the http://www.fitfatties.com (no weight loss talk allowed in this space).

        Thanks again for your comments and I hope you’ll continue to enjoy the blog!

        • Me says:

          You’ve given me a lot to think about again, thank you! I shall look up that link and continue to read about your own journey to normal eating with great interest!

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