Commenting on Weight Loss & Weight Gain: why you shouldn’t
Picture this.
It’s your freshman year of college. You just drove home to spend winter break with your family. You’ll be home for 3 weeks. As soon as you walk into the door your brother immediately greets you by saying “wow, you’ve really put on some weight since moving out. You’ve gotten so fat that you shouldn’t wear leggings anymore.”
He’s right.
You have gained weight, 15 lbs approximately.
You blame the university cafeterias and the fact that you can literally eat whatever you want, whenever you want. You blame it on the fact that you and all of your friends make your way to the cafeteria every night to have that hearty midnight-snack (which often times consists of pizza and chicken tenders). You blame it on the fact that you’re living on your own now and don’t have parents restricting your food intake… resulting in you having food freedom unlike you’ve ever had before.
Bottom line, your brother is right. You have put on a significant amount of weight in just 4 months time and it’s time to do something about it. Time to cut back on the calories and work out excessively. Time to lose the weight, and lose it fast.
Next thing you know you find yourself hovering over a toilet throwing up the pizza that you just ate for dinner. You then follow that up by sprinting 2 miles on the treadmill. You wake up the next morning and do the same thing… eat your breakfast, throw it up, and go on a long run afterwards.
Fast forward 3 weeks, winter break has come to an end, and you’re making your way back to your college dorm. You walk into your dormitory hall and are immediately greeted by a few of your friends. One of your friends say “wow, you look soooo good. You’ve clearly lost weight. Keep doing whatever you are doing, because you look amazing!”
It worked. The purging after eating and working out excessively seemed to have worked. You lost the weight. You feel pretty again. People are noticing.
You spend the next few months eating whatever foods you want whenever you want, throwing it up immediately after eating, and exercising twice a day.
You are praised for your ‘perfect’ body almost on a daily basis.
You then feel like you need to tan, whiten your teeth, and buy expensive clothes. You are officially obsessed with your appearance. You are so obsessed that that is all you can think about. What people don’t know is that you are actually miserable behind that smile of yours. You are putting on a front to your friends and family, while also battling a serious eating disorder. You need help.
Sadly, the case described above is a common occurrence in today’s world. The presence of social media and societal norms have put a significant amount of pressure on individuals to have (and maintain) a certain look. Skinny equals pretty and fat equals lazy according to society. Our brains being saturated with images of models, beach bodies, tan skin, and perfect hair has resulted in a significant amount of individuals feeling insecure, sad, anxious, and depressed about their own appearance.
Eating disorder prevalence is exponentially on the rise and that is largely in-part due to the unrealistic expectations that social media has set for society to appear a certain way. As a registered dietitian I can’t even begin to tell you how many individuals (mainly females) have opened up to me about having a history with an eating disorder. The one thing they all have in common? Wanting to feel pretty. Wanting to feel skinny. Wanting to feel desired. And how do they accomplish this? Sadly, individuals often times resort to extreme measures such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia, laxative abuse, weight loss supplements, and excessive exercise.
Treating an individual with an eating disorder can be extremely tricky. Often times a combined approach of psychological treatment, nutrition counseling, and medication use is taken due to the complexity of the disease. In addition to these methods it is imperative that these individuals have a strong support system in place, to assist in guiding through the healing process. The goal is essentially to provide counseling to these individuals in a way that changes their focus from being centered around the number that reads on the scale to instead viewing nutrition as fuel… and recognizing the importance of consuming a wide-variety of foods and nutrients to enhance overall health and well-being.
One of the steps that we can take as a society to help combat eating disorder prevalence (that is on the rise) is to STOP COMMENTING ON WEIGHT LOSS / WEIGHT GAIN when you notice that an individual around you has had a recent change in weight. By doing this we will take a significant amount of pressure off of individuals that feel like they have to maintain a certain weight/overall appearance, and instead get them to realize that they are viewed, loved, and respected for who they are internally, instead of externally.
Let’s all take a vow that we will do our best to stop commenting on weight loss/weight gain when we notice it… because don’t we all want to be viewed for who we are on the inside, versus the outside? If we all took a weight inclusive approach, one that prioritizes health & well-being without the emphasis on body size, we would be one step closer to changing the societal norm of having to maintain a certain look. Life can be tough at times… lets give ourselves some grace and take the dang pressure off of that number that reads on the scale!
#teamweightinclusivity