Weight-Neutral Approach

The Health At Every Size® (HAES®) philosophy shifts from a weight-centric paradigm to a weight-neutral approach. This means we focus on developing healthy eating habits, joyful movement, effective stress management strategies and a positive relationship with food and your body. These behaviours are directly related with improve physical and mental health [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]. They are also associated with improved feelings of wellbeing and improved quality of life.

Why? The pursuit of weight loss has been shown to be unsuccessful for majority of people. Consistently, studies have shown that 95-98% of people who lose weight regain the same amount within 1-5 years [1, 2]. In fact, some people regain more weight than before they started dieting [1]. These results are consistent with the anecdotal stories of people in the community.

This is not the individuals fault. It’s not because they lacked willpower or didn’t try hard enough. It’s because our bodies are fantastic self-regulators and will change its physiology to maintain balance and protect it from harm. When we are undernourished our bodies think that we are in danger of famine, thus it releases hormones to increase our hunger and then slows down our metabolism so we retain more energy [2].

When we try to push through our biological needs to lose weight, we’re putting our bodies through physiological and psychological stress, which can be harmful to our health.

Therefore, as an ethical and evidence-based health practitioner, I stand by the weight-neutral approach and am dedicated to help women improve their health through a non-diet approach, no matter their weight or size.

HAES® Framework

The Association for Size Diversity and Health (ASDAH) affirms a holistic definition of health, which cannot be characterized as simply the absence of physical or mental illness, limitation, or disease. Rather, health exists on a continuum that varies with time and circumstance for each individual. Health should be conceived as a resource or capacity available to all regardless of health condition or ability level, and not as an outcome or objective of living. Pursuing health is neither a moral imperative nor an individual obligation, and health status should never be used to judge, oppress, or determine the value of an individual. 

The framing for a Health At Every Size (HAES®) approach comes out of discussions among healthcare workers, consumers, and activists who reject both the use of weight, size, or BMI as proxies for health, and the myth that weight is a choice. The HAES model is an approach to both policy and individual decision-making. It addresses broad forces that support health, such as safe and affordable access. It also helps people find sustainable practices that support individual and community well-being. The HAES approach honors the healing power of social connections, evolves in response to the experiences and needs of a diverse community, and grounds itself in a social justice framework.

Taken from sizediversityandhealth.org

The 5 Principles of HAES®

1. Weight Inclusivity: Accept and respect the inherent diversity of body shapes and sizes and reject the idealizing or pathologizing of specific weights. 

2. Health Enhancement: Support health policies that improve and equalize access to information and services, and personal practices that improve human well-being, including attention to individual physical, economic, social, spiritual, emotional, and other needs. 

3. Respectful Care: Acknowledge our biases, and work to end weight discrimination, weight stigma, and weight bias. Provide information and services from an understanding that socio-economic status, race, gender, sexual orientation, age, and other identities impact weight stigma, and support environments that address these inequities.

4. Eating for Well-being: Promote flexible, individualized eating based on hunger, satiety, nutritional needs, and pleasure, rather than any externally regulated eating plan focused on weight control.

5. Life-Enhancing Movement: Support physical activities that allow people of all sizes, abilities, and interests to engage in enjoyable movement, to the degree that they choose.

Taken from sizediversityandhealth.org

References

[1] Bacon, L., Aphramor, L. (2011). Weight Science: Evaluating the Evidence for a Paradigm Shift. Nutrition Journal, 10(9). doi:10.1186/1475-2891-10-9

[2] Stunkard, A., McLaren-Hume, M. (1959). The Results of Treatment for Obesity: A Review of the Literature and Report of a Series. AMA Arch Intern Med., 103(1):79–85. doi:10.1001/archinte.1959.00270010085011 

[3] Tylka, T. L., Calogero, R. M., & Daníelsdóttir, S. (2015). Is intuitive eating the same as flexible dietary control? Their links to each other and well-being could provide an answer. Appetite, 95, 166–175. doi:10.1016/j.appet.2015.07.004

[4] Tylka, T. L., Annuziato, R. A., Burgard, D., Danielsdottir, S., Shuman, E., Davis, C. & Calogero, R. M. (2014). The Weight-Inclusive versus Weight-Normative Approach to Health: Evaluating the Evidence fro Prioritising Well-Being over Weight Loss. Journal of Obesity, 2014. doi:10.1155/2014/983495

[5] Clifford, D., Ozier, A., Bundros, J., Moore, J., Kreiser, A., & Morris, M. N. (2015). Impact of non-diet approaches on attitudes, behaviors, and health outcomes: a systematic review. Journal of nutrition education and behavior, 47(2), 143–55.e1. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jneb.2014.12.002