The Health At Every Size® Approach
The Health At Every Size Approach
As a weight-inclusive dietitian, I’m often asked “what is the ideal size for a healthy body?” And more times than not, my clients are shocked when I reply “there’s no such thing as an ideal body size.”
Black. White. Fat. Thin. It’s the differences in our bodies that make this world beautiful. Unfortunately, not everyone in our society shares this sentiment.
Over the last decade, weight discrimination in the U.S. has increased by 66%. The so-called “obesity epidemic” and the way larger bodies have been portrayed in popular media have created a wave of fatphobia and weight-shaming that’s left many of our peers vulnerable to social injustices and even healthcare inequities.
Diet culture tells us that large bodies are synonymous with unhealthy bodies. Diet culture obsesses over body size and the pursuit of weight loss as means to be healthier or to have an “idealized body” with little to no mention of the harmful effects of dieting has on our mental and physical health, including the stress and weight fluctuations, food anxiety, compulsive exercising, and crippling body shame.
How we view our own bodies and the bodies of others greatly affects how we treat the people around us. The biases surrounding larger bodies are especially detrimental in healthcare and can even determine how individuals are diagnosed and treated for various diseases and ailments. That’s why I chose to base my Mindful Meal Planning program on HAES or the Health at Every Size approach.
What exactly does that mean?
What is HAES?
Health at Every Size is a facet of weight science that seeks to treat patients well at their current body size rather than at a targeted weight or under a one-size-fits-all healthcare scope. This paradigm shifts the focus away from body weight and BMI as indicators of good or poor health to self-care behaviors that actually improve long-term health and physical wellbeing.
If you examine weight science through a critical lens, you’ll find that conventional approaches to weight management are archaic and harmful. When health care providers focus solely on size as a measure of one’s health status, they sometimes miss or disregard other critical indicators of poor health. This often leads to clinical misdiagnosis and ineffective treatments for otherwise manageable diseases and ailments. The Health at Every Size approach seeks to irradiate these preconceived biases and treat patients on an individualized basis rather than as a collective. Or worse, a number.
HAES Principles
The Health at Every Size approach is broken down into five key principles:
Weight inclusivity – Accept and respect the inherent diversity of all body shapes and sizes and reject the idealizing or pathologizing of specific weights or physical features.
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.
Health enhancement – Support health policies that improve and equalize access to information and services and personal practices that improve wellbeing, including attention to physical, economic, social, spiritual, emotional, and other needs.
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.
Eating for wellbeing – Promote flexible, individualized eating based on hunger, satiety, nutritional needs, and pleasure, rather than any externally regulated eating plan focused on weight control.
3 Common Misconceptions about HAES
Health at Every Size is NOT Healthy at Every Size
Health at Every Size does not suggest everyone is healthy regardless of their weight. Thin bodies can be just as healthy or unhealthy as larger bodies. The Health at Every Size approach suggests that health is a spectrum that is NOT dependent on size.
Health at Every Size is not anti-weight loss
Too many people think HAES is against weight loss or promotes an unhealthy lifestyle. That’s simply not true. HAES acknowledge that optimal health and wellbeing can be achieved without a singular focus on weight. However, research has shown focusing on healthy lifestyle behaviors overtime can lead to a healthy weight range.
Health at Every Size is not well researched
Early studies have shown using the HAES approach is associated with health improvements, improvement in blood pressure, cholesterol levels, physical activity and body image. Some studies have also seen a reduction in eating disorders behaviors. And while HAES is still in the early stages of research, not a single study has produced a negative outcome. That’s crucial since many healthcare professionals incorrectly assumed not focusing on weight would automatically result in worse health outcomes.
✨Feel confident in your own skin and the food choices you’re making.✨
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