The Health At Every Size (HAES) Movement: Size Does Not Equal Health
Written by CCTC Staff Writer
When determining a person’s health in schools, at the doctor's offices, and in fitness programs, the first (and often, only) measurement taken is weight. But weight alone does not paint the full picture of your health. Those who do not understand that health at every size is possible — and in fact, extremely normal — can cause many problems.
In this article, we will cover:
Why size, shape, and weight alone do not equate to your health
The harmful effects of assuming that these things are all that matter when it comes to health
How damaging this mentality can be for those seeking eating disorder treatment
What the Health At Every Size (HAES) movement is
The science behind the Health at Every Size movement
Adopting HAES in eating disorder recovery and beyond
The importance of intuitive eating
Weight, especially in eating disorder diagnoses and treatments, has been a gatekeeper of services, of social perception, and of self-perception. But eating disorders are mental illnesses — anyone, at any size — can suffer with an eating disorder.
It’s time for everyone to realize that your size is not the same as your health.
The Weight-Normative Approach to Health: Problems and Consequences
When you go for a physical — or for any health issue, even if it’s completely unrelated to weight — the first thing that’s measured is your height and weight. It doesn’t matter if you are going to the doctor for an earache, joint pain, or chronic migraines.
Before speaking to you at all, your weight is taken. It’s as if this will tell the story of your body better than you can.
If you are in a larger body, clinicians often prescribe a weight-loss diet, no matter your state of health, and no matter what your reason for the visit is.
This is known as the weight-normative approach: Everyone should be a certain weight, and to deviate from that is unhealthy. With this approach, weight is seen as a health issue in itself, and should be “treated,” despite there being no concrete evidence indicating any health issues to the patient related to weight.
There are many problems with this mentality in the doctor’s office. Those in larger bodies often put off going to the doctor because they fear being shamed for their weight. Many clinicians declare that any health issues you’re having are a consequence of your weight. They prescribe a weight-loss regimen, without even looking into other possible causes of an ailment.
This outlook on public health is also outside of the office. People who have no training in health believe (and verbalize) the idea that anyone in a larger body is unhealthy. If you’re unhappy, it’s because you’re fat. If you’re eating something that society has deemed “bad”, then you are declared unhealthy.
Related: Click here to learn more about the social stigma attached to the “Obesity Epidemic”.
Individuals and companies (who profit from the diet industry, which has been valued at $71 billion a year) selling people on “health” are actually just prescribing weight loss, instead of helping anyone create a balanced, holistic lifestyle.
It has actually been proven that “yo-yo dieting,” which is a very common result of a prescribed weight-loss regime, is more detrimental to an individual’s health than just being in a larger body.
There is the physical damage done to the body when fluctuating weight, especially to the metabolism. There is also the mental and emotional damage done by equating weight with health: patients may develop disordered eating behaviors as a result of restriction.
The question then begs to be asked: Do we ignore weight altogether?
The Health At Every Size Approach to Health
The Health At Every Size (HAES) treatment approach places an individual’s well-being over their weight. It comes from the scientific evolution from weight-based to weight-inclusive public healthcare.
This approach does not disregard weight altogether, but uses it as one part of the picture of an individual’s health. It is not the focus of one’s well-being.
There are several other, more important, key metrics of health, including:
Heart rate
Blood pressure
Cholesterol levels
Digestive health
Mental and emotional health status
The Health at Every Size practice recognizes that several factors, such as our natural sizes, race, natural origin, disability, are environmental factors are all contributors to health status.
HAES and Eating Disorders
The HAES movement is growing in the eating disorder recovery community. This ideology has completely changed the way patients and clinicians view the (very loose) relationship between weight and well being.
In the treatment setting, specific weights are being focused on less. Letting your body rest where it would when eating intuitively is more important now.
Intuitive Eating and Eating Disorder Recovery
In early recovery, many are assigned a meal plan to give them some structure and understanding of nutritional needs. And it's a good starting point. But our bodies have an intuitive way of knowing what we need, and getting back to that natural relationship with food is one of the huge goals of HAES.
Principles of intuitive eating include:
Honoring your hunger
Making peace with food
Respecting your fullness
Honor your feelings without using food
Reject the diet mentality
Challenging the food police
Knowing the difference between healthy and unhealthy movement
Discover what satisfaction and satiety mean to you
Honor your health with gentle nutrition
Moving towards living with these principles will bring you closer to a healthy, natural relationship with food and movement.
HAES and Body Image
Health at Every Size allows you to:
Recognize size diversity. Different bodies all have different natural sizes and can all be healthy.
Trust yourself. Trust that your body knows what it needs, and then honor that.
Accept your size. You do not have to love your body, but accept that this is where your body is meant to be.
HAES Outside of the Treatment Setting
The spread of the HAES ideology in every facet of life will help to dispel weight stigma in social settings.
Trusting that your body is where it is supposed to be makes a little easier to live in it. You can start to embrace it for what it is, and move through the world a little more confidently.
When Starting Eating Disorder Treatment:
Find out what approach a therapist, treatment center, dietician, doctor — any healthcare professional, really — takes when it comes to weight.
Ask yourself: Do they take a weight-normative or weight-inclusive approach? Is the goal here to reach a certain number or BMI (a measurement proven to be an inaccurate measure of health)? Or is it to reach a healthy relationship with food and movement, no matter where your body's natural resting place is?
Know that the Health At Every Size movement is a movement based on scientific evidence and that embracing this approach to health is backed by research.
Consider the end goal when it comes to recovery: intuitive eating. In the end, you will learn to trust and respect your body and its nutritional needs. This is the main goal of recovery. And finally, know that no matter your size and no matter how it changes, you are moving towards health.
Health looks different on everyone. And that's completely normal.
If you or a loved one is suffering from an eating disorder, take the first step today and talk to someone about recovery or simply learn more about the holistic eating disorder recovery programs we offer.