I have seen a lot of discussion on the interwebs about Health at Every Size (HAES)®. Unfortunately, most of what I see is a lot of fearmongering and misinformation. People that are explicitly and/or implicitly bias against fat people are terrified at the thought that people could actually be healthy at any weight. It appears that this fear is so strong that they are unable to even take in what HAES actually is or what fat people are saying about their experience.
I choose to use the word fat as someone who identifies as fat and acknowledging the bias held within the terms “overweight” and “obese.” Overweight assumes that there is a weight that we should be and that our bodies don’t fit what they should be. That is an assumption that is based on the BMI which fails to incorporate the variations in body shapes and sizes across cultures. Furthermore, the term obese means “one who has eaten themselves fat” in Latin. This holds a harmful assumption that the only reason someone is obese is due to their eating habits and lifestyle. Even though this is not supported by science nor does science support that most people can sustainably change their weight simply by making these changes, this term is still being used as a weapon against people whose bodies are a certain weight.
So what is HAES®? I don’t claim to be an expert on HAES®, but I have studied it and incorporate it into my practice. From my understanding, HAES® is taking the perspective that I mentioned before and approaching health from a different angle. HAES® is taking into account all the research that says we risk causing physical and psychological harm to patients by just focusing on weight as an approach to health. Furthermore, the research shows that outside of weight loss surgery there is no known method of weight loss that is effective for the majority of people. Even when their is initial weight loss, most people will end up gaining the weight back and more. (It’s not just you. DIETS DON’T WORK!) So taking this information into account, HAES® focuses on more effective strategies to promote health in people’s lives such as joyful movement and intuitive eating. Instead of it meaning everyone is healthy at any weight, it is a shift in focus away from weight to health promoting behaviors. At any weight, we can support our clients to pursue health without a focus on weight loss.
For more information about HAES®…check out their website
https://asdah.org/health-at-every-size-haes-approach/
