Last night was my October webinar and the topic was “What is a Healthy Weight? Key Components of a Healthy Lifestyle.”
I am grateful that Amber Thomas, RD, CSO (of www.cancernutritionsolutions.com) joined me to add her expertise to the conversation.
Watch the recording here!
If you want a copy of the slide set you can download it here.
Here is the quick overview of our take home points!
Bottom Line: We do not recommend using weight as a health goal.
Why?
- Your health and wellness is depending on many factors, and physical health is just one aspect of your overall wellness.
- Body weight is influenced by a wide range of things, including genetics.
- You can control behaviors, not outcomes
- behaviors – types of foods that make you feel good, movement practice you enjoy, taking time to sleep/rest, recharge, etc.
- outcome – body weight
Key Recommendations:
I have experienced that when people focus on weight as a health goal, they often choose behaviors that are not healthy. We have strong evidence that dieting actually results in weight gain over the long term.
We know that healthy behaviors, regardless of weight outcomes, promotes good health. I aim to assist my clients in promoting long term health, and a positive relationship with food.
As a result, we recommend using Intuitive Eating practices to focus on achieving health goals.
Here is the list of Intuitive Eating resources that we recommend.
Websites:
Books:
- Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Anti-Diet Approach (4th edition)
- The Intuitive Eating Workbook
- Anti-Diet by Christy Harrison
And here are our references and recommended reading:
- Excess Deaths Associated With Underweight, Overweight, and Obesity
- How and why weight stigma drives the obesity ‘epidemic’ and harms health
- Motivating or stigmatizing? Public perceptions of weight-related language used by health providers.
- Mann, T. et al. (2007) Medicare’s search for effective obesity treatments: Diets are not the answer.
- Warning: Dieting Increases Your Risk of Gaining MORE Weight (An Update)
Let me know what you think!
– Julie
PS – this is the wellness wheel visual from the Yale Medical Residents program that we mention in the webinar.
