Often, messages that pose as health promoting are actually the opposite. There are obvious examples, like the doctor pushing听an all-meat diet, or the telling the world that voluntarily getting stung by bees will reduce inflammation. But the more dangerous messaging is subtler, more insidious, and widespread: that fat bodies are inherently unhealthy.

In a recent article, health听columnist Jane Brody points out that Americans have been hit harder by COVID than most other countries, then blames this on our personal health habits, namely diet and exercise. She spends most of the column raising alarm bells about quarantine weight gain,听high-calorie foods, and fatness in general.

In doing so, she鈥檚 not promoting healthier habits. The truth is, health and weight are not nearly as entwined as we think they are. (Not to mention听there鈥檚 far more to America鈥檚 COVID crisis than personal health; limited access to health care, systemic discrimination and inequality, and the听politicization听of the virus have all played huge roles.) Overemphasizing weight loss is stigmatizing and can actually be detrimental to individual health. Here鈥檚 why we need to rethink this kind of messaging.

鈥淔at鈥� Does Not Mean 鈥淯nhealthy鈥�

Brody talks of the many people in her life who have 鈥減acked on quite a few pounds of health-robbing body fat this past year.鈥� This is听an undeniably stigmatizing statement, and听it also makes a major assumption that happens to be false: that gaining weight, or being naturally听bigger-bodied, is inherently unhealthy. (As a journalist, 滨鈥檓 constantly irritated that other journalists can write听things like this without citing a shred of evidence, whereas I have to add an entire paragraph with several citations every time I suggest that weight loss isn鈥檛 always a helpful or realistic goal.)

It鈥檚 possible to be healthy at a higher weight, just as it鈥檚 possible to be unhealthy at a lower one. One 听even found that Danish adults in the 鈥渙verweight鈥� BMI category actually lived the longest. Being at a higher weight is associated with a higher risk of certain diseases, yes, but that doesn鈥檛 mean someone at a higher weight is necessarily unhealthy. 鈥淵ou absolutely cannot infer health information or information about one鈥檚 health behaviors based solely on their weight,鈥� says , a researcher at the University of Connecticut鈥檚 Rudd Center for Food Policy and听Obesity. Someone in a thin body may be completely sedentary and eat a diet of mostly processed foods and very few fruits and vegetables, while someone in a larger body might be extremely active and eat loads of nutrient-rich foods.

All of this to say:听the relationship between weight and health is far too complicated to make blanket statements like 鈥渉ealth-robbing body fat.鈥� Both weight gain and weight loss can be healthful or harmful.听It all depends on context.

Eating Well Isn鈥檛 Simple

For years, Brody has presented herself as a living example of 鈥攁bout 50 years ago, she lost 40 pounds in two听years and has kept that weight off since.听In this particular column, she offers up her personal eating regimen as the solution to pandemic weight gain (and fatness in general): eat a diet 鈥渂ased primarily on vegetables, with fish, beans, and nonfat milk [as one鈥檚]听main sources of protein,鈥� along with a bit of portion-controlled ice cream, the occasional burger, and daily exercise. But while that approach may seem realistic compared to all the fad diets out there, experts warn that it鈥檚 not as accessible as Brody makes it sound.

This 鈥淚 can do it, so can you鈥澨齛ttitude is out of touch with many people鈥檚 reality, says , a dietitian based in听Albuquerque, New Mexico. The nonprofit Feeding America听estimates that can鈥檛 afford enough nutritious food to meet their needs, and Bloomberg reported earlier this year that . Stressors like working multiple jobs, raising children (especially as a single parent), lacking health insurance, and living in unsafe neighborhoods also听make prioritizing good nutrition more complicated. Health behaviors often have more to do with someone鈥檚 privilege than their motivation, Jackson says.

Even if everyone did eat according to Brody鈥檚 recommendations, it doesn鈥檛 mean we would all magically be at what Brody and the BMI听scale (the听height-to-weight ratio used to group people into weight categories)听deem听a 鈥渉ealthy鈥� weight.听鈥淲eight is not simply calories in, calories out,鈥� Himmelstein says. In fact, the body听actively resists weight loss: a听 published in the International Journal of Obesity explains that the body generally adapts to calorie deficits by burning fewer calories, using less stored fat for energy, decreasing the fullness-signaling hormone leptin, and increasing the hunger-signaling hormone ghrelin. It鈥檚 also widely accepted that there鈥檚 a genetic component to obesity, and in Current Obesity Report outlines the significant amount of evidence suggesting that stress plays a big role in body weight as well.

鈥淲eight and weight gain are the result of our genetics, our physiology, our environment, our personal stress levels, and our behaviors,鈥澨齮he authors write. Assuming that weight is impacted only, or primarily, by our behaviors, is wildly inaccurate. And听maintaining weight loss long-term is even harder than acheiving it in the first place. A in The BMJ found that while diets lead to weight loss and health improvements in the first six months, these benefits typically disappear by the one-year mark.

Shame Doesn鈥檛 Motivate

Relentlessly encouraging weight loss does more harm than good. 鈥淔at-shaming messaging increases weight stigma, which increases stress and inflammation鈥攚hich are negative health outcomes,鈥� says Amee Severson, a dietitian and the owner of in Bellingham,听Washington.听A in Obesity, of听which Himmelstein was the lead author, found that individuals who reported experiencing weight stigma had higher levels of cortisol, a stress hormone, than those who did not. Chronically elevated levels of cortisol have repeatedly been linked to an increased risk of many diseases, as outlined in this published in the EXCLI Journal.听And a in Health Psychology, also authored by Himmelstein, found that coping with weight stigma can negatively impact both physical and mental health.

While articles like Brody鈥檚 are presumably meant to promote health and healthy behaviors, they actually do the opposite. A small of 93 college-age听women听in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology found that those听who saw themselves as overweight felt 鈥渓ess capable of controlling their eating鈥� and consumed more calories after reading a weight-stigmatizing news article听than those who read a non-stigmatizing article. A larger in Preventative Medicine found that experiencing weight stigma as an adolescent significantly increased a person鈥檚 risk for binge eating and unhealthy weight-control behaviors as an adult. And, as Severson points out, it makes bigger-bodied people less likely to seek out health care, too.

Live and Let Live

No one owes it to the world to be healthy. 鈥淚 think that every single person has the right to choose how important health is to them,鈥� Severson says. People are allowed to have different values, and healthy behaviors like eating nutritious foods and getting regular movement are not a moral obligation.

Health is personal, and what is considered healthy when it comes to eating and other behaviors varies between individuals. It鈥檚 incredibly difficult to give effective health advice to a large audience, but there鈥檚 still room for health-promoting messages in the media. We need to think听critically about the harm听certain messages may cause. Mandating fruits and vegetables for people who can鈥檛 afford them is offensive and misguided. Demonizing fat and weight gain is demoralizing and harmful to people who live in larger bodies. We know that shame doesn鈥檛 motivate healthy behaviors鈥攁nd it听absolutely harms health.

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Most gym memberships cost $50 to $100 a month. Spreading that cost over time, is it possible to get the same results at home? Wes Siler details his own setup听that鈥檚 helping him stay in shape听from his basement. Products mentioned include the ($1,600), ($150), ($115), ($75), and the ($35). All together, that adds up to $1,975. An investment, sure, but one that鈥檚 offset by skipping the gym for less than two years.

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We鈥檙e in the midst of a global pandemic and national political upheaval unlike anything we鈥檝e seen in the past 150 years.听Still, wellness influencers, , and even are finding plenty of time to fret about dieting and weight gain. In response, anti-diet nutritionists, therapists, and activists have to point out that a too tight grip on your eating habits and听听that leave听you and physically uncomfortable.

I agree. In April听I wrote about how quarantine-induced worries linked to听food and exercise can backfire, and why a more relaxed approach to food听leads to better health. However,听this is easier said than done. Our relationship with weight and diets is complex, and it can be tough to distinguish a healthy habit from an unhealthy one.听If you鈥檙e working toward听a healthier mindset about听food, a good first step is to identify your own food rules听and then challenge them.

A food rule is any kind of black-and-white thinking about food. Some might be holdovers from a specific diet you鈥檝e tried in the past, like the idea that you should avoid carbs, or that there鈥檚 a static听number of calories you should eat in a day. Others are extreme versions of generally sound advice,听like the idea听that you must only eat whole foods,听or that sugar and processed goods are explicitly off-limits.

Some of these ideas are grounded in ,听but there鈥檚 a critical difference between food rules and healthy eating habits. The latter are flexible:听you prioritize nutritious ingredients听but don鈥檛 agonize over what to eat听and aren鈥檛 stressed if you go a day without vegetables or finish a meal feeling overly full. Food rules are rigid: you have strict parameters听around how you should eat, and feel guilty or anxious (or like you need to compensate) when you don鈥檛 eat according to that plan. 鈥淔ollowing food rules can be physically, mentally, and socially exhausting, which impacts overall quality of life,鈥� says , a dietitian and certified personal trainer. Here are six听new anti-rules to learn听in the new year.

There Are No Bad Foods

Morality has long snuck into the way we talk and think about eating. Look at听the way that various foods are听marketed: something听low in calories, sugar, and fat might be听labeled 鈥済uilt-free.鈥� High-sugar, high-fat, and high-calorie foods are deemed 鈥渟infully delicious,鈥� an indulgence to feel a little ashamed of. It might seem normal to think of certain foods as good or bad, seeing as how moralizing eating patterns is a听natural product of our culture鈥檚 fixation on healthy living. But that doesn鈥檛 mean it鈥檚 helpful, says Chan.

If a certain food is deemed inherently bad, and eating it is bad behavior, it isn鈥檛 a huge leap to think you鈥檙e a bad person for eating that way. Food quickly becomes a source of stress and shame, rather than nourishment and pleasure. , an anti-diet dietitian, expertly called听out the problem in an Instagram : you aren鈥檛 a horrible person with no self-control because you ate some ice cream;听you just ate something delicious because you wanted it. Thinking of it this way makes it easier to let go and move on. The point isn鈥檛 that ice cream is nutrient packed or that it should be the cornerstone of your diet鈥攖hose听wouldn鈥檛 be accurate or helpful, either! It鈥檚 that there鈥檚 never a reason to feel guilty about eating, no matter the nutritional value of the food.

Forget About Clean Eating

Clean eating is such a common phrase that it might not raise an eyebrow, but it鈥檚 problematic, too. It implies that other foods and ways of eating are dirty,听which falls into the same moralizing trap mentioned above. Plus, there鈥檚 no real definition of what 鈥渃lean鈥� means. 鈥淧eople start developing arbitrary rules about their food, which leads to restrictive and unhealthy food patterns,鈥� says , a dietitian who specializes in intuitive eating and sports nutrition.

There鈥檚 evidence to back this up. A of 1,266 young adults published in the journal听Nutrients found that over half the participants had heard of clean eating and thought of it as healthy, but that their definitions of clean听were all over the place. The researchers pointed out that while clean eating is often portrayed as healthy, it is often linked with disordered eating. It鈥檚 a dichotomous way of thinking, 鈥渃haracterized by extreme 鈥榓ll bad鈥� or 鈥榓ll good鈥� views toward food,鈥� the paper states. Additionally, someone can use clean eating to mask behaviors like severe calorie restriction, claiming that they鈥檙e avoiding various foods for health reasons when in fact they may have an underlying eating disorder or disordered-eating behaviors. The researchers also found clean eating to be associated with nutritional deficiencies, since restrictive behavior can go undetected and unchecked for so long.

If you want to eat healthfully, a better approach is to prioritize nutrient-dense foods鈥攆ruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, seeds, legumes, healthy oils, and lean proteins鈥攚ithout vowing to only eat these foods. It鈥檚 a flexible and realistic approach that won鈥檛 have you constantly questioning whether certain foods are clean enough or not.

Stop Tracking Your Intake

Religiously counting calories or macros听(carbs, fat, and protein) probably isn鈥檛 going to have the effect you want it to. One of 25 existing studies published in Frontiers in Psychology found that restricted eating habits rarely led to weight loss and, in fact, often corresponded with weight gain.

There鈥檚 no consensus on why exactly this happens, but a in the International Journal of Obesity explains that the body is designed to protect against weight loss. Restriction-induced weight loss听precipitates听physiological adaptations, including fewer calories burned overall, less fat oxidation (converting stored fat to energy), a decrease in the fullness-signaling hormone leptin, and an increase in the hunger-signaling hormone ghrelin. Even if someone who has lost weight successfully manages to override their hunger signals, their metabolism may听still be slower than before, making it increasingly harder to keep burning听fat.听This might be why many dieters don鈥檛 see the results they want from calorie counting.

Soto instead encourages an intuitive eating approach: eat what you want, when you want it. Our bodies know to seek out the variety of nutrients that they need to function, and proponents of intuitive eating explain that听paying close attention听to your cravings will naturally lead听to a nutritious diet. When it comes to gauging how much food your body requires, it鈥檚 far easier to eat until you鈥檙e satisfied than it is to count and track calories.

Don鈥檛 Demonize Macronutrients

Popular as the keto diet听may be, there鈥檚 no evidence that a low-carb diet is any healthier than one that includes a balance of all macronutrients. The same goes for low-fat diets. A of 121 previously conducted, randomized controlled trials published in The British Medical Journal听found that none of the diets limiting certain macronutrients like carbs or fats are any more effective at improving health than a regular, varied diet.

Still, it鈥檚 common to demonize certain carbs or fats, even if you aren鈥檛 on a particular diet. Maybe you pass on the bread basket because you don鈥檛 want to eat too many carbs, or always use nonstick cooking spray instead of oil because you鈥檙e wary of adding too much fat to a meal. Soto says this isn鈥檛 necessary. All three macronutrients play an important role in health and function. The recommend getting anywhere from 45 to 65 percent of your calories from carbs, 10 to 35 percent from protein, and 20 to 35 percent from fat. There鈥檚 a lot of wiggle room there. Most people鈥檚 intake already falls within these ranges, so striking the perfect balance of macros day after day isn鈥檛 something you should overthink.

You Don鈥檛 Need to Burn Anything Off

Food is more than just a source of energy, Chan says. 鈥淲e eat food for so many reasons, and it鈥檚 important to honor those,鈥� she says. 鈥淲e connect with our culture through food, we connect with others over a good meal, and we eat for pleasure and nostalgia, all of which supports overall well-being.鈥澨鼴ut the idea that you must earn food with a grueling workout听is still pervasive.

Trying to compensate with exercise when you feel you鈥檝e eaten too much can have a significant negative impact on your quality of life, Chan says. At worst, it sets into motion a cycle of overeating, compensating, and overeating again. Instead of beating yourself up, or trying to atone for eating more than feels comfortable, just let your body do its thing and digest. You鈥檒l feel fine again soon, and chances are you鈥檒l feel less hungry later on.

Yes, there鈥檚 nuance here. Food still fuels movement, and there鈥檚 nothing wrong with adjusting your intake accordingly when you鈥檙e training. The important thing is to not be too rigid听or punish yourself for eating too much. A strict calories-in, calories-out approach to fueling isn鈥檛 very effective听anyway. There鈥檚 refuting the popular idea that eating 3,500 calories leads to one pound of weight gain, and equally that fitness trackers are notoriously terrible at measuring the actual number of calories burned during a workout.

Be Mindful and Flexible

鈥淒itching food rules opens the door for nutritious foods, not so nutritious foods, and everything in between to be enjoyed,鈥� Chan says.听The goal isn鈥檛 to give up on good nutrition听but to make it less stressful and more sustainable. If your intention is to feel your best, be mindful of how different foods affect your mood and energy levels. Use that to guide what you choose to eat, instead of sticking to black-and-white听rules that set you up for failure.

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is a nationally acclaimed orthopedic surgeon and sports-medicine doctor who cohosts the popular radio show . Whether you want to know about bunions, better sleep, or running your first marathon without getting hurt, Dr. Cole can offer an expert鈥檚 take. Eric Haunschild, his research assistant, also contributes to this column. Have a question? Email AskADoctor@outsideim.com. The doctor is in.

Does apple cider vinegar actually do anything for your body or gut, or is it just something Goop has been selling us? If it is good, how should we be supplementing with it?

Apple cider vinegar (ACV) has been touted as a holistic cure-all for decades, and it鈥檚 as popular as ever in the wellness world. Proponents claim the pantry staple has all sorts of positive benefits:听,听, and promoting听, to name a few. And in theory, certain properties of ACV suggest that these claims may have some truth to them. For example, ACV contains B-complex vitamins, which 听in the body. But the anti-inflammatory properties听of these vitamins haven鈥檛 been studied听in the context of vinegar consumption. That鈥檚 the problem with most of the claims people make about ACV鈥攖hey just haven鈥檛 been proven, one way or the other.

ACV also has plenty听of antioxidants, and 听may help reduce chronic disease burden as we age. However,听scientific studies on antioxidants have been inconclusive, and there isn鈥檛 really any research about ACV鈥檚 antioxidants and their effects. When it comes to the gut,听it鈥檚 possible that the听acetic acid in ACV could aid our听digestion and thus ease gut issues,听particularly as we age and produce less of our own stomach acids.听In theory, adding another acid may help achieve the same thing, but whether it actually works is also, as yet, unproven.

However, there are a few evidence-backed, measurable physiological effects, including听increased satiety: in a small study from the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 2005, participants who supplemented a standard meal with ACV reported feeling more full than those who didn鈥檛. Another randomized controlled trial, in the Journal of Functional Foods from 2018, found that regular supplementation of two tablespoons of ACV daily for three months contributed to modest weight loss of a few pounds when compared to controls. So it seems apple cider might offer a small boost for those interested in weight loss鈥攂ut that鈥檚 not necessarily a听health benefit, unless you鈥檙e working toward听a specific goal that听you and your doctor have agreed would be beneficial for you.

ACV has also been shown to offer a small amount of help modulating blood sugar and insulin levels after you eat a meal, but not so听reliably that it could replace traditional treatments and medications.听A recent meta-analysis in the听听reported that in studies that collectively evaluated over 300 Type 2听diabetics, ACV supplementation did have beneficial effects on blood-sugar levels. However, most of the individual studies used small sample sizes, and while the results were promising, they were still pretty minimal.

If you鈥檙e interested in experimenting with supplementation, it鈥檚 safe to take ACV in small doses. Recommendations vary, but an ounce a day diluted in water is a safe place to start. The only notable side effects of overconsumption are an upset stomach and, if you take it undiluted, a sore throat or听weaker tooth enamel over time. Just don鈥檛 expect a miracle, and remember that if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

滨鈥�m obsessed with my Theragun听and generally any type of self-myofascial release, like vibrating foam rollers.听Is it possible to overuse tools like this? The Theragun feels fantastic, but it鈥檚 also pretty aggressive.听

From to ,听it seems like everyone (including myself) nowadays is raving about the benefits of self-percussion therapy devices. Manufacturers claim that these devices accelerate recovery and muscle repair, improve blood and lymphatic flow, and relieve stiffness when regularly used听before and after exercise. While some of these claims are likely overblown, there is some evidence that these听devices can alleviate delayed onset muscle soreness鈥攁nd as long as you aren鈥檛 finding that the tool is leaving you achier than you were when you started, you鈥檙e probably fine. The key here is to listen to your body, and stop if it starts to feel painful.

Most of the benefits listed above听are anecdotal; of the above claims, the only one with听scientific evidence behind it is that these devices听can听reduce soreness following vigorous exercise. A 2014 study in the examined delayed onset muscle soreness. One group received vibration therapy after exercise, and another group had regular massage therapy. Those who received vibration therapy had a greater reduction in pain 48 hours after an intense workout compared to the massage-therapy group.

When using a percussive device, you can expect to feel some transient, mild soreness over the area being massaged, but you should use common sense. If you are percussing over areas that result in significant and increasing pain of a different character than simple muscle soreness, back off. These devices should only be used on muscle鈥攐ther sensitive areas, such as an inflamed tendon or bursa, may benefit from a mild manual massage but should not be aggressively percussed. Percussing bone, in addition to being extremely painful, has no benefit. With these considerations in mind, using a Theragun on tired muscles may fast-track your post-workout recovery, and as long as you pay attention to your body, there is no real risk of overuse or injury.

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When I was 14 years old, I went on my first climbing trip to the Sierra with a man in his late twenties, a mentor of mine. We piled into his small pickup truck, smashed between ropes and climbing gear.

Above the rearview mirror was a little sign that read 鈥淏aked Goods.鈥� The words were circled and had an X听through them.

I thought it was weird that anyone would hate baked goods, but I was thankful to be there, so I didn鈥檛 say anything. We stopped at a bagel shop to fuel up. I was a late-blooming child, and food was simple to me back then: you eat when you are hungry and play the rest of the time. I ordered two bagels with extra cream cheese and consumed them before we left the parking lot. I barely felt full after I finished.

鈥淵ou aren鈥檛 going to climb anything after those bagels,听Rodden,鈥� he laughed. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 like two days鈥� worth of calories.鈥�

I had no idea what he was talking about, but I felt ashamed and dumb, like I didn鈥檛 know an important rule of climbing, or eating. The seed was planted.

Two years later, in a crowded stadium after a World Cup competition, one of my climbing heroes told me that she lost five pounds before every competition, then gained the weight back afterward. I started losing weight before comps, too, only I didn鈥檛 gain it back afterward. Weight loss, I decided, was a path to the podium.

One of the problems was: it worked. At least I thought it did. I made the podium at World Cups and won the Junior National Championships four years in a row, but I couldn鈥檛 celebrate my success because I was busy comparing myself听to my peers. No one ever explicitly told me to lose weight, but in my mind, being thin equaled听success. So I scrutinized how my competitors looked and what they ate or didn鈥檛 eat. I wanted to match or better them.

My thighs were skinnier than my knees until my late teens. I didn鈥檛 get my period听until I was 19. When I finally did, I felt like a failure鈥攊t meant I was gaining听weight.

The climbers I saw in magazines were desperately skinny听and usually scantily clad. I started to notice that most of my peers and competitors could still wear children鈥檚 clothing. I scoped out听people鈥檚 teeth and tried to guess听who threw up.听My eating became so stringent that I would go to bed hungry every night and only feel comfortable eating prepackaged听and preportioned听meals, so I knew exactly how many calories I was consuming.

Sadly, my behavior was only rewarded. I performed better, and I got more sponsorships with each competition won. I was featured in movies or advertisements听for first ascents and barriers that I broke. It was a win-at-all-costs system that, at the time, I was happy to be a part of. And it seemed that the culture was happy to have me there, as long as I was performing. I felt in control and empowered to manipulate my body to achieve the impossible.

But as I got older, nature took over. At some point, I no longer weighed as much as a child. I felt like an elephant as I matured.听I started getting my period regularly. I moved from an extra-small climbing harness to a small one. Women鈥檚 bodies change. While men just seem to get stronger, our center听of gravity shifts. We get hips and breasts. I felt that I was losing my edge.

I transitioned away from competition and toward听big walls and hard traditional climbing. But one thing that didn鈥檛 change was my eating or how I felt about my body. I was ashamed of it. I pined to have a six-pack and muscular arms so I would 鈥渓ook good鈥� in a sports bra.

At the time, I was married to professional climber . At almost every photo shoot, 滨鈥檇 be asked to take off my shirt. Tommy was able to leave his on. 鈥淐an you suck in your stomach,听Beth?鈥� the photographer would ask. I hated wearing a sports bra without a shirt.

This was the same era when I established , a 5.14c crack at听Yosemite听that would take over a decade to be repeated鈥攂y a man or a woman. It was the hardest trad climb ever established by a woman, and here I was, worried that my stomach was too big.

In my late twenties, after a decade of pushing the limits of climbing, my body started to break down. Tendons, ligaments, bones鈥攖hey all started to collapse after 15 years of deprivation. My climbing cascaded from elite to elementary in a matter of months. Depressed and听harboring听self-harmful thoughts, I gained weight. 滨鈥檇 overhear people say, 鈥淲hat happened to Beth? She鈥檚 really let herself go.鈥� Unable to perform, my pay was understandably cut. I felt like damaged goods.

I almost gave up climbing. I completely lost sight of why 滨鈥檇 started in the first place: because I loved it, and it was fun. Fortunately, with time and a lot of work and understanding about what is truly healthy, I rediscovered that climbing was not and should not be a send-at-all-costs culture. It required changing my inner dialogue and听changing who I interacted with, both in person and online, and learning to walk away from unhealthy conversations. I had to normalize normal. It took years.

Losing weight worked听for my short-term performance gains听but was extremely harmful in the long run. We need to start celebrating a culture that values sustainability, longevity, and health.听It鈥檚 time to let go of听the unrealistic expectations of what our bodies should look like.

That doesn鈥檛 mean we have to lower our听standards of what鈥檚 possible in climbing. Last year I went back to El Poussif, a boulder problem in France鈥檚听Fontainebleau Forest that I hadn鈥檛 tried since 2003. It鈥檚 everything I love about climbing:听technical and subtle and requiring听you to be strong and smart to be successful. When I first听tried it, I naively thought I would do it quickly. But I got shut down,听hard.听When I returned 15 pounds heavier, I assumed I was set up for a similar spectacular听failure.听But I tried to silence those thoughts.听I had been climbing well,听better, in fact, than I had since before having my son, and was starting to realize that maybe weight isn鈥檛 the only path to success. I always thought my previously leaner body would be higher performing, but I had never done a direct comparison. After a few hours, I听stood on top of the climb, elated. El Poussif听showed me that I could climb hard鈥攈arder even than before鈥攚ith a heavier body, a healthier body.

This year听I started climbing in just a sports bra again. It鈥檚 been five years since I had my son, and I was tired of waiting for my prepregnancy body to come back. I am heavier and softer than 滨鈥檝e ever been, but I no longer feel the need to suck in my stomach for the camera. I know that representation matters, and that a simple act like proudly baring a soft belly in a distorted culture can make a huge difference. I hope that all climbers鈥攎en, women, young and old鈥攃an see examples of all body types being celebrated in climbing. I hope that the climbing community can change.

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Scroll through Twitter or take a look at trending articles, and it鈥檚 clear that people鈥檚 feelings about food and body image are all over the place right now. The age-old 鈥溾�澨齤oke is reaching new heights. 听has been trending on and off for weeks. The headlines about healthy cooking and at-home exercise range from 听to 听to .听

I get it鈥攚e鈥檙e all looking for things to bond over right now, and body insecurities are, unfortunately, fairly听universal. Anxieties are running high, and eating听is a common response to stress. It鈥檚 natural to be听a little concerned about how things might change if you can鈥檛 stick to听routines. But frankly, all this fearmongering听around food and quarantine weight gain is听unhelpful bullshit, and it鈥檚 not something you need to buy into.

That鈥檚 not to say you鈥檙e bad for being worried about these things. We live in a fat-phobic culture that pushes all kinds of food and exercise rules听on us, whether we realize it or not. But instead of beating yourself up about (very understandable) changes in your routine, consider using听this time to establish a better relationship with food and your body by loosening the reins.听

Comfort Food Is Your Friend

If you鈥檝e been gravitating toward听certain comfort foods and eating more than usual, that鈥檚 normal. 鈥淎 lot of us use familiar coping mechanisms, such as eating, to help deal with anxiety,鈥� says , a registered dietitian who specializes in intuitive eating. 鈥淭hese times are unprecedented, so we turn to what feels safe.鈥� Eating familiar food can bring some normalcy to a time that is decidedly not normal.听

We use food as a source of comfort for several reasons. First, there鈥檚 that highly palatable foods temporarily activate听pleasure centers in our brains. Second, food is accessible. Therapy and expensive self-care habits are financially out of reach for many, and some inexpensive coping mechanisms鈥攃ertain forms of exercise, time with friends and family, normal daily routines鈥攎ay be听off the table for听now.听

Catalano鈥檚 advice? 鈥淟et it be comforting. Let it be joyful. Let it be satisfying and nourishing.鈥� As this quarantine progresses,听you鈥檒l develop new routines and other strategies for managing anxiety, she says, and you鈥檒l probably start relying on food less.

Diets Usually听Backfire

When you鈥檙e feeling insecure or anxious, dieting might seem like a great way to regain some control. 鈥淚t gives you a purpose,鈥� Catalano says. 鈥淚t gives you a plan that is supposedly going to change your whole life.鈥�

The problem? Diets don鈥檛 produce lasting results. A in the journal听Social and Personality Psychology Compass looked听at existing weight-loss studies and found that virtually all dieters abandoned their diets and regained lost weight within five years. Likewise, an 听published in looked at 121 clinical trials studying different diets听and found that while most produced weight loss and improved heart health at the six-month mark, none led to significant weight loss or health benefits at the 12-month mark.听

Instead of changing your life for the better, restriction typically leads to overeating. 鈥淭he more you obsess about what you鈥檙e eating or how much you鈥檙e eating, the more [you鈥檙e going to want to eat],鈥� Catalano says.听If you have a complicated history with dieting or听food, you may feel especially out of control right now鈥攂oredom and stress could be the immediate trigger for overeating, but long-term restrictive patterns听are听the root cause.

Remind yourself that food isn鈥檛 the reason you鈥檙e feeling so uneasy right now. 鈥淭he food is not the problem,鈥� Catalano says. 鈥淭he anxiety and the emotions are the problem; the food and the eating are the symptoms.鈥�

Eat Intuitively

It might feel scary to give yourself permission to eat whatever you want, but it鈥檚 the right choice. 鈥淓ating enough is the best way to support ourselves during a time like this,鈥� says Heather Caplan, registered dietitian and host of the podcast听. 鈥淪tressing about whether your meals are healthy enough听or macros are balanced听or calories are in check听may feel safe, but it鈥檚 not actually improving your health.鈥� And don鈥檛 fall prey to any headline or company trying to sell听you an immunity-boosting food or diet鈥攏o single food has the power to do that.

Move Along

You鈥檙e probably moving less right now, which can be challenging if regular exercise is important to you. There鈥檚 nothing like being bombarded with existential dread and having听nowhere to channel that energy. But you can still use physical activity as a way to deal with overwhelming emotions. 鈥淭ry to incorporate movement into your day, instead of just structured exercise,鈥� says Caplan, who works with athletes and is a runner herself. 鈥淲e can absolutely use movement like听walking, running, yoga, dancing, or even a virtual fitness class听to help cope with stress and anxiety. Let it be a coping mechanism without also being a way to try and manipulate your body.鈥�

鈥淵ou don鈥檛 have to be following a training plan or hitting a certain mileage every week to stay healthy,鈥� Caplan says. In fact, a few weeks or months off from听intense exercise can be a good thing, especially for people who are used to rigorous workout regimens. 鈥淚t will give your body time to relax and transition into a rest and recovery phase,鈥� says 听a certified strength and conditioning specialist and founder of New Jersey鈥揵ased .听鈥淵ou may start to detrain a bit within two to three weeks, but听we have this wonderful thing called muscle memory. Once you get back to your regular routine, you鈥檒l be pleasantly surprised how quickly your prior fitness level comes back, especially if you were very fit to begin with.鈥澨�

If you鈥檙e feeling really uncomfortable about scaling back, now is a great time to examine your relationship to exercise. Caplan recommends getting curious about why you want to move: 鈥淚s the desire to walk or run triggered by a bad body image moment? Is it to 鈥榖urn calories鈥�? Is it because you鈥檙e worried about weight gain?鈥� Those are signs that you鈥檙e using exercise as a way to control your body, which can be stressful and unhealthy.听

Put It into听Perspective

At this point, you might be thinking: 鈥淥K, fine, but won鈥檛 all of this make me gain weight?鈥� That鈥檚 a fair question, and the answer is: maybe. But try to remember that all of听this听is temporary鈥攐nce you get back to a more typical routine, your body will likely also return to whatever a typical weight is for you. Although there鈥檚 a lot we don鈥檛 yet understand about weight 鈥渟et points,鈥� research indicates that your body will fight significant loss or gain in order to maintain a certain weight, and small fluctuations听are normal, Catalano explains.听

鈥淕aining weight during this period, I want to be super clear, is not a problem,鈥� Catalano says. 鈥淚f the worst thing that happens to you from this is that you gain a few pounds, then consider yourself lucky. Everyone鈥檚 routines, everyone鈥檚 habits, everyone鈥檚 quality of life is drastically changing right now.鈥�

And if you do gain more weight than you鈥檙e comfortable with,听that doesn鈥檛 necessarily mean you鈥檒l be less healthy. 鈥淲eight changes may be an indication of disease, but weight alone isn鈥檛 a reliable measure of health,鈥� Caplan says. A听 in the听American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that 35 percent of obese subjects in several previous studies were metabolically healthy. And a听 in the Journal of the American Medical Association looked at a total of 100,000 adults in Denmark over a period of 40 years and found that those in the overweight category had the lowest mortality rate (that is, risk of death). In other words, the relationship between weight and health is complicated听and not perfectly understood.听

Just Do Your Best

The bottom line here is that you shouldn鈥檛 stress about what you鈥檙e eating or how much you鈥檙e exercising right now. We鈥檙e in uncharted waters with the COVID-19 pandemic and current quarantine guidelines, and it鈥檚 fine to turn to food as a source of comfort. While your exercise routine might change, you can still use movement as a way to decompress and establish some sense of normalcy. Remember that what鈥檚 happening is temporary, and trust that your body can handle it.

The post It’s OK to Eat More and Exercise Less During Quarantine appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

On a chilly morning last October, Jim DeBattista, 47, came trundling across the finish line of a one-mile run looking gassed. DeBattista, a youth football coach from Philadelphia, is a contestant on ,听the infamous weight-loss game show that rebooted on January 28 after being abruptly canceled in 2016. The mile run is one of many fitness challenges contestants tackle, and DeBattista is dead last. There is good news, though. His time has improved the most among all the players since their last mile run two months earlier, from 20 minutes to around 13, which has helped move him a little closer to the show鈥檚 $100,000 grand prize. When he hears the results, he gives a little fist pump. DeBattista may have lost the race, but he wins the day.听

滨鈥檝e come to check out the new Biggest Loser, which purports to have been 鈥渞e-imagined for today鈥檚 audiences鈥� by taking 鈥渁 holistic, 360-degree look at wellness,鈥� according to a press statement circulated a few months before its premiere. That could just be marketing boilerplate, but it鈥檚 in sync with a fast-changing fitness industry that has recently been retooling itself to be more inclusive, less abusive, and more focused on whole health than听looks听and performance. Or so its proprietors would have you believe.听

The episodes were being filmed just a few miles from my home in Santa Fe, on a 2,400-acre recreation complex called Glorieta 国产吃瓜黑料 Camps. The run ends on a grassy campus at the center of the facility. Nearby is a large man-made lake surrounded by clusters of outbuildings. Pi帽on- and juniper-studded hills听laced with hiking trails听rise in all directions under a cloudless sky. As the contestants race toward the finish line, the show鈥檚 two new trainers鈥擲teve Cook, 33, a former bodybuilder from Utah,听and Erica Lugo, 33, a single mom who runs EricaFitLove, an online personal-training business鈥攑ace them, shouting encouragement.

The show鈥檚 new host,听former trainer听Bob Harper, stands nearby, ready to announce the results. At 54, he looks like a pillar of health, especially for a guy who听almost听died听a couple of years ago. In 2017, Harper had a heart attack midworkout at a gym in Manhattan. He went into cardiac arrest, but a doctor happened to be at hand听and initiated CPR, saving his life. His close call, Harper later told听me, increased his empathy for The Biggest Loser contestants鈥攁fter his heart attack, he says, he 鈥渃ouldn鈥檛 walk around the block without getting winded.鈥澨�

In keeping with his newfound feelings of empathy, the revamped show is what he calls a 鈥渒inder and gentler鈥� version of the original. Gone are the infamous temptations,听demeaning听stunts like digging through piles of doughnuts for a听poker chip worth $5,000听or being forced to carry around a slice of cake for a day. When Harper鈥檚 not lording over the weigh-ins with wizened commentary, he gathers the contestants for heartfelt therapy sessions. At the end of each episode, contestants are no longer dismissed by a group vote, as in the original, but are let go based on the percentage of their weight loss that week. Those who are sent听home are set up with an aftercare program that includes a one-year Planet Fitness membership, a personal dietitian, and access to a support group.

When The Biggest Loser reboot aired earlier this year, its most striking quality was not what had changed听but how much had stayed the same. I watched the premiere with a mix of disappointment and dismay as the contestants grunted and cursed their way through workouts, barfed into buckets, and got yelled at by Cook and Lugo. There was virtually no mention of diet, stress, sleep, meditation, or any other staples of the wellness revolution. Instead, in the first episode, the contestants were told by Harper that they had, variously, Type 2 diabetes, sleep apnea, high cholesterol, and a 鈥�90 percent chance of dying from an obesity-related complication.鈥澨�

The public response to the revised show has been less than kind. 鈥�The Biggest Loser is a vile fat-shaming shit-show that science (and human decency) says never should have been reborn,鈥� 听Yoni Freedoff, a family-medicine doctor and an obesity expert in Ottawa, on January 28. The next day on Jezebel, : 鈥�The Biggest Loser is an amazing illustration of how鈥� America treats fat bodies as grotesque or tragic failures and exploits them for entertainment.鈥澨�

On the New Mexico set, when I asked what had changed and improved since the original, there was almost a winking acknowledgment from Harper and others that, hey, this was cable TV. While they had abandoned or toned down the show鈥檚 uglier antics, why would they alter a formula that worked? 鈥淲e have weigh-ins every week, just like we did before,鈥� Harper told me enthusiastically. 鈥淚 mean, The Biggest Loser without a scale is like American Idol without a singer.鈥�听

When The Biggest Loser debuted in 2004,听obesity听was being branded as a public-health crisis in most developed countries. By the early aughts, two-thirds of the adult U.S. population was overweight or obese. In May 2004, the World Health Organization released its to address the 鈥済rowing burden of noncommunicable disease,鈥� of which being overweight and/or obese was listed as one of the top six听causes. Much hand-wringing ensued about how, exactly, to overcome this听rising trend, but one thing seemed indisputable: losing weight was paramount.

At the time, diet culture was going through its own transformation. Carbohydrates were out; dietary听fat was in. Low-carb diets had been around for a while鈥攖he Atkins Diet, perhaps the best known, first appeared in the 1970s. But popular interest in this new paradigm surged after Gary Taubes鈥檚 story, 鈥淲hat if It鈥檚 All Been a听Big Fat Lie?,鈥� appeared in in 2002, challenging, if not upending, the low-fat dietary standard that had been promoted by doctors and medical associations since the 1960s. Other fads were also underway鈥擫oren Cordain鈥檚 The Paleo Diet was published in 2002, followed by The South Beach Diet in 2003鈥攂ut the pitch was always the same: if we just ate the right stuff, like, say, bacon and eggs, the pounds would melt away and good health would return.听

Into the fray came The Biggest Loser. Plenty of weight-loss programs teased us with dramatic before and after images, including Weight Watchers, Nutrisystem, and Body for Life. But no one had showcased those transformations on television听while we watched. As the , around听2003, J.D. Roth, at the time a 35-year-old reality-TV producer, approached NBC听with the idea of a show about obese contestants transforming themselves into thin people by burning off huge amounts of weight. How much weight?听the network execs wanted to know. 鈥淎 hundred pounds!鈥� Roth told them.听

Prevailing medical wisdom advises that the most weight it鈥檚 reasonable and responsible to lose is about one to two pounds a week. But The Biggest Loser participants lost much more鈥攊n some cases, more than 30 pounds in a single week. The dramatic changes were听driven by calorie-restricted diets and unrelenting exercise. The show enlisted a pair of charismatic trainers鈥擧arper and Jillian Michaels, the fiery fitness coach from Los Angeles鈥攊ncluded plenty of real tears, and featured humiliating challenges听that made fraternity hazing rituals seem quaint.

Critics were appalled. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a loathsome, mock-the-fatty undertow to The Biggest Loser,鈥� Gillian Flynn 听when the first season premiered. 鈥淏ut what鈥檚 the point of making them squeeze in and out of car windows too small for them? Or forcing them to build a tower of pastries using only their mouths?鈥澨�(When reached by 国产吃瓜黑料, NBC Universal declined to comment on past or current criticisms of the show.)听

The point, of course, was ratings. Audiences, as well as the show鈥檚 participants, seemed willing to shrug off the abuse, given the end results. The first season鈥檚 winner, Ryan Benson, who worked in DVD production, shed an astonishing 122 pounds during the six-month production, going from 330 to 208. Some听11听million viewers tuned in to watch the season-one听finale, according to Nielsen ratings. The program was a hit and would carry on for 17 seasons, making it one of the longest-running reality shows of all time.听

Things changed in the early 2010s. In 2014, Rachel Frederickson won the 15th season after she lost 155 pounds鈥�60 percent of her body weight, since she started the season at 260 pounds. When she appeared in the finale, she was unrecognizable next to the hologram of herself from the first episode. According to her new body mass index听of 18, she was, in fact, clinically underweight. Many viewers were aghast. The show seemed to have become some sort of dark, dystopian comedy.听

Audience numbers had been slowly shrinking since The Biggest Loser鈥檚 peak viewership in 2009, but between 2014 and 2016, they dropped sharply, from about 6.5听million to 3.6听million average viewers per episode. Then, in May 2016, the show was dealt a nearly fatal blow. Researchers from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) 听that followed 14 former Biggest Loser contestants over the course of six years. The participants had gained back most of the weight they lost on the show, and in some cases, they put on even more. Almost all had developed resting metabolic rates听that were considerably slower than people of similar size who had not experienced rapid weight loss. Although, on average, the participants managed to keep off some 12 percent of their starting body weight鈥攚hich makes the show a success relative to most diets鈥攖he study indicated that the kind of extreme weight loss hawked by The Biggest Loser was听unsustainable. It was also , given the risks associated with weight fluctuation. (NBC Universal declined to comment on the results of the study.)听

The study may have emboldened former contestants to speak out about their experiences on the show. In an incendiary New York Post piece published shortly after the NIH study appeared, 听that they had been given drugs like Adderall and supplements like ephedra to enhance fat burning. Reeling from controversy, and with ratings down, The Biggest Loser quietly vanished. There was no cancellation announcement. It just didn鈥檛 return for season 18.

The Biggest Loser may have imploded on its own accord, but it may also have suffered collateral damage from a cultural shift that was undermining its entire premise. Even as the show was gaining popularity in the mid-aughts, health researchers and activists were questioning the effectiveness of a conventional diet and exercise鈥攍ong assumed to be the unassailable solutions to weight problems. Maybe we were going about this all wrong; maybe our body weight wasn鈥檛 the issue. The problem was our obsession with losing it.听

Uncoupling weight and health is a tall order. It鈥檚 a medical fact that body fat can infiltrate organs, especially the liver, where it disrupts insulin action. Diabetes and cardiac-risk factors soon follow. But that doesn鈥檛 always occur, and since at least the mid-nineties, there has been ample evidence that there are听individuals who, while still at heightened risk for cardiovascular disease,听are what researchers call metabolically healthy obese鈥攖hat is, fat but fit.

The idea that being fat might not be so bad鈥攐r at least less bad than our frenzied efforts to be thin鈥攈as been around since the fat-acceptance movement of the sixties. More recently, movements like ,听or HAES, which grew quickly during the nineties, have leveraged a growing mass of research suggesting that body size in itself poses fewer health risks than some popular approaches to weight loss. HAES proponents point out that, while body fat correlates with poor health, the role of weight itself as the sole cause of chronic disease is exaggerated. What鈥檚 more, they argue, weight cycling (losing fat and then regaining it) tends to result in more problems than remaining at a higher but stable weight. Hardcore diets and draconian exercise regimens can also lead to eating disorders, body dysmorphia (hating the way you look), and risky interventions like using weight-loss drugs.听

鈥淭here is such a sharp disconnect between what we know from scientific research and what is transmitted to the general public,鈥� says physiologist Lindo Bacon, author of the 2008 book Health at Every Size. 鈥淚t鈥檚 appalling, and I think The Biggest Loser represents the worst of it.鈥� HAES has plenty of critics, who contend that the movement attempts to normalize obesity听and therefore poor health. But the larger point may be this: losing weight can be so difficult that it often thwarts听efforts听to develop better habits, like eating nutritious foods or being regularly active.

It took a while for market forces to catch on. Many听folks still put their trust in diet and exercise programs to get and stay fit. But the myth of transformation was largely created by marketing agencies鈥攖hat is, before the government stepped in to enforce more transparency in advertising. The diet industry has been slapping disclaimers on products since 1997, when the Federal Trade Commission required Jenny Craig to inform consumers that dramatic weight loss 鈥渨asn鈥檛 typical鈥� for those using its program.听

But such caveats hardly slowed down the industry. The diet business doubled between 2000听and 2018, according to the market-research firm Marketdata. By 2018听it was generating around $72听billion a year. It took a whole new generation to realize that none of it was working.

鈥淭erms like 鈥榙iet鈥� and 鈥榳eight loss鈥� just aren鈥檛 cool anymore,鈥� says Kelsey Miller, author of the memoir Big Girl and creator of the , which launched in November 2013 on the online publication Refinery 29. 鈥淧eople were ready to hear something that wasn鈥檛 about changing their bodies or manipulating their bodies听but rather accepting their bodies. A lot of beauty standards were ridiculous, and we were starting to listen to this rational part of our brain that was saying, Let鈥檚 just drop all this nonsense.鈥澨�

The market began to tilt in the 2010s, and many weight-loss companies struggled to stay relevant. Dieting had left such a wide wake of disordered eating, stress, and anxiety鈥攁long with more intractable issues like anorexia and bulimia鈥攖hat many people started to reject the approach altogether. (One popular recent book is Caroline Dooner鈥檚 The F*ck It Diet.) The anti-diet movement champions intuitive eating, which lets natural hunger and satiety signals guide food intake as opposed to calorie counting and macronutrient experiments. Weight Watchers, which essentially created modern diet culture back in 1963, rebranded itself as WW, a wellness听company, in 2018.听

When the body-positivity movement gained momentum around 2013, largely thanks to social media, it spread the message that teaching overweight people to hate themselves as a motivator was a bad idea. One reason the rebooted Biggest Loser has met such strident blowback is that it brazenly reinforces those prejudices. Shaming and scaring overweight people about their weight has been shown to exacerbate issues like overeating and depression, not resolve them. The show听also reinforces weight bias. In one small听but well-publicized 2012 , viewers who watched only a single episode of The Biggest Loser came away with increased negative opinions about large听people. In 2019, scientists at Harvard 听that looked at public attitudes toward six social factors鈥攁ge, disability, body weight, race, skin tone, and sexuality鈥攁nd how they changed over time. Their results concluded that when it comes to implicit (or relatively automatic) biases, body weight was the only category where people鈥檚 attitudes worsened over time. However, explicit (or relatively controllable) biases听improved in all six categories. Because lower body weight also tends to correlate to higher levels of socioeconomic privilege in the United States, fat shaming functions as a kind of classism.

Still, there have been noticeable changes in some public opinions, thanks to influencers, models, athletes, and brands that have taken a more weight-neutral position. When Ashley Graham became the first plus-size model to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated鈥檚 swimsuit edition, in 2016, the photos of her were heralded as a听victory for body positivity. In January, when Jillian Michaels 听expressing concern that听the pop singer Lizzo听might develop听Type 2 diabetes, she was swiftly denounced for 鈥渃oncern trolling鈥� and body shaming. Lizzo听responded听that she 鈥渉ad no regrets鈥� and 鈥渄eserved to be happy.鈥� She probably was.听She鈥檇 just won three Grammy Awards and was on the cover of Rolling Stone.

During my second visit to The Biggest Loser set, I watched the contestants grunt through a Last Chance Workout鈥攖he final fat-blasting gym session before the weekly weigh-in. The high-intensity circuit involved treadmills, rowing machines, battle ropes, free weights, and other torture-chamber accoutrements. The trainers barked. The contestants slogged away. I didn鈥檛 see anyone throw up, but they looked like they were about to.

This scene wasn鈥檛 a one-off: workouts and fitness challenges fill most of the show. It鈥檚 easy to see why they鈥檙e the most prominent. Who wants to watch people eat a salad听or sleep really well听when you can watch them doing box jumps until they crumple?

If dieting has fallen out of favor in recent years, so, too, has our frustrating and often fruitless attempts to sweat our way to thinness. Physical activity has many extraordinary benefits and is arguably the first line of defense when it comes to personal health. But research has taught us that working out is a weak strategy for sustainable weight loss. In 2009, in the wake of several prominent studies, a Time magazine cover story blared, 鈥淲hy Exercise Won鈥檛 Make You Thin.鈥� Ultimately, this wasn鈥檛 an argument to stop going to the gym, but it was a reason to stop flagellating yourself听in a quest to shed pounds.

Part of the problem is that many people understand weight loss to be a thermodynamic issue. This may be fundamentally true鈥攖he only way to lose weight is to burn more calories than you consume鈥攂ut the biological reality is more complex. Researchers have shown听that the more aggressively we take weight off, the more fiercely our body fights to put it back on.听One of the insights provided by the 2016 NIH metabolism study is that such听metabolic effects persist for years after the听initial weight loss;听the body听lowers the听resting metabolic rate (by as much as 600 calories a day in some cases) and reduces the production of leptin, a hormone that helps us feel full. 鈥淭he metabolic slowing is like tension on a spring,鈥� says Kevin Hall, a senior NIH researcher who led the study. 鈥淲hen you pull on the spring to stretch it, that鈥檚 the lifestyle intervention, the weight loss. The more weight you lose, the more tension there is, pulling you back.鈥�

A popular theory suggests that we have a body-weight set point that works like a thermostat: your brain recognizes a certain weight, or weight range, and adjusts other physiological systems to push you there. How, when, and how permanently that weight is set is a matter of much debate. It鈥檚 fairly well understood that genes play a significant role in determining our body mass鈥攕ome of us simply put on weight easier than others鈥攂ut around the late 1970s, the average weight of Americans began to climb significantly听relative to previous decades. It wasn鈥檛 our genes causing the uptick.

One of the thorniest problems in obesity research may be that we live in bodies engineered for a very different world than the one we inhabit now. Scientists often refer to our modern surroundings as an 鈥渙besogenic environment,鈥� where a host of factors, including food supply, technology, transportation, income, stress, and inactivity, contribute to weight gain. For many years, the weight-loss industry has convinced us that, by disciplining ourselves to embrace the right diet and exercise, we could听whittle ourselves back down to a more socially acceptable weight. But it has failed to produce the kind of health outcomes we might expect. The reality is that the twin forces of genetics and environment quickly overwhelm willpower. Our weight may be intractable because the issues are so much bigger than we realize.

When I talked to trainer Erica Lugo on The Biggest Loser set, she seemed less fixated on weight loss than she鈥檚 portrayed to be in the show. 鈥淭he fitness industry is so hung up on being a certain size or having a six-pack, and 滨鈥檝e struggled with that on the show a couple of times,鈥� she told me. 鈥淔itness is a mindset. I want people to know that, and I want everyone to feel accepted. I don鈥檛 want them to be embarrassed or feel like they can鈥檛听do things or even try.鈥�

A few weeks later, while I was watching early episodes, something surprising happened. While I fully understood how the show can manipulate my emotions, I still found myself caught up in the stories. I got misty when 400-pound Robert Richardson was sent home in the first episode because he had 鈥渙nly鈥� managed to drop 13 pounds in a week. When Megan Hoffman, who鈥檇 been struggling since the start, started flinging tractor tires like a beast in the second episode, I was thrilled.听By episode seven听(of ten), the show hits its emotional peak when the five remaining contestants get video messages from home. The stories are human and relatable鈥攁 son with a recovering-addict mother,听a distant husband wanting his wife to 鈥済et healthy.鈥� The message is clear: gaining weight may be as much psychological as it is physical.

Despite The Biggest Loser鈥檚 wellness head fake, and regardless of its woefully outdated tone and thinly veiled fat shaming, I now understood why, for its millions of fans, the show was a beacon of hope. How many of them, when faced with unrelenting negativity about their weight, yearned for inspiration and motivation, for agency, for the belief that they could reclaim ownership of their bodies?

I wasn鈥檛 sure how to reconcile this in our bold new world of woke fitness. How could you endorse a show conveying听the idea that self-worth was tied to BMI? On the other hand, anything that prompted positive change, no matter how small, seemed like a step in the right direction. Obesity never warrants discrimination, but acceptance and compassion shouldn鈥檛 eclipse听concern for听health risks either鈥攁 in The New England Journal of Medicine concluded that, by 2030, nearly 50 percent of Americans will be obese.听

About a month after the show wrapped, I talked on the phone with contestant Jim DeBattista, the youth football coach. I wondered how his experience had been听and how he was doing now that he鈥檇 been home for a while. 鈥淚t鈥檚 going great!鈥� he said cheerfully. 鈥淢y big goal was to make this work after the contest was over. I knew I wasn鈥檛 going to be living in a bubble. But so far, I haven鈥檛 put any weight on, and 滨鈥檓 eating more and working out less.鈥�听

I asked what had been his biggest takeaway. 鈥淵ou have to surrender your old habits,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he old me led me to be almost 400 pounds. I had to completely change who I was, and the show helped me do that. I can鈥檛 lie. Now听when I see a Dairy Queen, I hit the gas.鈥�

The new Biggest Loser wants us to believe that the journey of transformation is internal and individual, that we can shape our bodies to our will. But what if it鈥檚 not us we need to transform听but the world we鈥檝e built? Real wellness鈥攔egular movement, nutritious food, social connection, access to health care, and quality rest and relaxation鈥攃an鈥檛 be at war with the way we live. It has to be baked into our lives, our schools, our work, and our cities. It may not prevent us from getting heavier, but it would certainly make us healthier. And that would be a big win for everyone.

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Forty-five听million Americans听, and though they might see short-term success,听 of those people regain the weight they lost. That鈥檚 because dieting, at least as we鈥檝e been doing it,听.听

We鈥檙e made to believe that diets fail because we听lack willpower or discipline. But the odds are stacked against a person trying to lose weight through dietary restriction. Recent research has shown that our bodies have a set weight range largely , and a听 found that if you dip below your natural weight, your brain triggers changes in metabolism and energy output to get you back to normal and prevent further weight loss.听

Fixating on appearance and weight also affects our well-being. A 听published in the journal Social and Personality Psychology Compass indicates that many of the poor health outcomes associated with 听could instead be traced to the stigma against bigger-bodied people and the stress it causes.

In short, what ails us isn鈥檛 weight鈥攊t鈥檚 our obsession with it, according to听, a registered dietitian nutritionist听and New York Times contributor. In her听book,听, which came out in December, Harrison proposes that the solution isn鈥檛 weight loss鈥攊t鈥檚 burning diet culture to the ground.听We鈥檙e trained to believe that being thin means you鈥檙e healthy and being fat means the opposite, Harrison says, when you can actually be healthy at any size.

鈥淲eight bias explains much if not all of the excess health risks in people with larger bodies,鈥� Harrison says. 鈥淔raming people鈥檚 body size as an [obesity] epidemic is weight stigma.鈥�

The overzealous pursuit of thinness鈥攗nder the guise of a visual indication of health鈥攈as an unfortunate byproduct: the foods, lifestyles, and body types that don鈥檛 fit into this听narrow paradigm are demonized, Harrison argues. When a low-carb diet or a juice cleanse is dubbed 鈥�clean eating,鈥� the natural assumption is that other ways of eating are dirty. Before-and-after photos celebrate weight loss听but also imply that a bigger body is a problem to be solved or a project to be worked on. Complimenting someone on looking thin suggests that something was wrong with their body before. Harrison also notes that our physical spaces reflect these ideals, like how bus and airplane seats only accommodate people of a certain size. Clothing stores often don鈥檛 carry sizes that accommodate larger bodies, and听if they do,听the options are typically few.

鈥淭he way [wellness and diet culture] conceives of health is bound up in healthism: the belief that health is a moral obligation, and that people who are 鈥榟ealthy鈥� deserve more respect and resources than people who are 鈥榰nhealthy,鈥欌�� Harrison writes. 鈥淗ealthism is both a way of seeing the world that places health at the apex and a form of discriminating on the basis of health.鈥�

Anti-Diet explains that discrimination itself can lead听to a wide array of听negative听: a听 from Obesity Reviews听found that repeated weight loss and gain can lead to blood pressure and heart problems. A听 in Obesity听found that people who had experienced听 in the past year were twice as likely to have a mood or anxiety disorder听and 50 percent more likely to have a substance-use disorder than those who had not.听

Institutional fatphobia can also affect the quality of health care that听larger-bodied people receive, Harrison explains. Women with high BMIs鈥攁bove 55鈥攁re almost 20 percent less likely to get gynecological cancer screenings听and have to deal with disrespectful treatment, unsolicited weight-loss advice, and inappropriately sized medical equipment in the doctor鈥檚 office, a 听found. That kind of treatment leads larger-bodied people to avoid spaces where they can expect to be stigmatized, like doctor鈥檚 offices or gyms, according to research from the听 and the听. While there is a correlation between and health outcomes like hypertension or heart disease, high weight alone doesn鈥檛 necessarily cause poor health鈥攖here are other risk factors to take into account.

It is possible to change what and how you eat without becoming a part of diet culture yourself. Instead of going keto, quitting sugar, or committing to Whole30, Harrison suggests her readers try something a little simpler:听intuitive eating, which basically means eating what you want without stress, shame, or restriction听but with careful attention to how your body feels. (If you鈥檙e looking for a how-to guide on the approach,听check out Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch鈥檚听.)

鈥淒iet culture convinces us that honoring our hunger, seeking satisfaction, and feeling full will send us down the road to perdition. It tells us our instincts鈥re听bad and wrong,鈥� Harrison writes. 鈥淲e have the capacity to get back to a place where our relationships with food are as simple as they were when we were babies鈥攚here hunger and pleasure are nothing to be ashamed of, and where fullness is a signal that we can take our minds off food for a while.鈥澨�

Anti-Diet offers a much-needed unbrainwashing for anyone feeling stress, stigma, or shame about their appearance, diet, or activity levels. Even the socially conscious reader will have an aha听moment when Harrison debunks something they have accepted as truth. Though some of the more nuanced concepts are tricky to absorb, like the ways in which diet culture infiltrates progressive movements like food activism, Anti-Diet is an approachable read for anyone ready to untangle their eating habits from their self-worth.

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Since 1980, the government-issued have been the de facto bible of healthy eating. They鈥檙e updated every five years based on an ever-evolving body of nutrition research, but despite constant headlines proclaiming breakthroughs in diet science, they haven鈥檛 changed all that much in the past four decades. Nutrition science is always moving forward, sure, but the basic principles of healthy eating hold steady.

While some people are coming around to the idea that fad diets don鈥檛 work, that so-called superfood aren鈥檛 magic, and that healthy eating looks different for everyone, it鈥檚 easy to get confused about what advice to follow鈥攁nd what diet habits to avoid. Here鈥檚 what you need to know about how to eat well, without obsessing over details or feeling guilty about food.

Prioritize Unprocessed Foods

The key recommendations of the most recent guidelines are to eat plenty of fruits,听vegetables, legumes, whole grains, lean proteins, nuts, and seeds,听and to听limit saturated fats, trans fats, added sugars, and sodium. Food activist and author Michael Pollan even further: 鈥淓at food. Not too much.听Mostly plants.鈥�

鈥淲hole foods have stood the test of time听and have repeatedly been听shown to be healthy,鈥� says Shivam Joshi, an internal-medicine physician at听the New York University听School of Medicine whose research focuses on nutrition. 鈥淭hey improve cholesterol and blood-sugar levels听and reduce the risk of several chronic diseases.鈥� When foods are processed, he says, they鈥檙e generally stripped of important micronutrients (vitamins and minerals), as well as fiber. At the same time, sugar, salt, and fat are often added to make processed听foods taste better and go down easier, he says. So听these foods are less nutritious, and we tend to eat them in larger quantities.

This isn鈥檛 to say that processed foods need to be avoided at all costs. 鈥淢ake processed foods the exception, not the rule,鈥� says Kristen Gradney, a registered dietitian in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Abandon Diets and Labels

A fad diet or weight-loss program might yield some early results, but science overwhelmingly shows that diets just don鈥檛 work long-term. A in Social and Personality Psychology Compass looked at several comprehensive weight-loss studies and found that most people regain lost weight within a few years; in fact, a in Nutrition Journal found that dieting can actually lead to weight gain.

What鈥檚 more, diets typically come at a mental, financial, and social cost. 鈥淒iets are usually labor-intensive and take a lot of money and/or a lot of time,鈥� Gradney says. This isn鈥檛 sustainable听and doesn鈥檛 leave people with the skills they need to actually eat healthfully. She recommends steering clear of any program that promises quick or easy weight loss, requires a 鈥渕agic鈥� product, or comes with a complicated set of guidelines or steps that must be strictly followed.

Even when it comes to plant-based diets, like vegetarianism and veganism, it probably isn鈥檛 necessary to be so extreme. Joshi himself is a vegan, but he doesn鈥檛 prescribe veganism or vegetarianism to his patients. Instead, he tells them to eat mostly unprocessed, plant-based foods听and to eat animal foods sparingly. 鈥淣o research has really been able to show that going full-on vegan is better,鈥� he says.

Just because traditional diets don鈥檛 work听doesn鈥檛 mean there鈥檚 no way to improve your relationship with food听or no value in learning to eat in a way that makes you feel better. Since dietitians Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch published in 1995, many others have adopted the approach for their clients and themselves. The听idea is to get in tune with your body鈥檚 particular wants and needs when it comes to food, and then use them to eat in a way that feels good to you. Even among dietitians who don鈥檛 practice intuitive eating, many focus on implementing healthy behaviors鈥攄rinking more water, eating more fruits and vegetables, not always using food to cope with stress and emotions鈥攊nstead of prescribing diets.

Let Go of Food Guilt

Even the simple mandate to eat mostly whole foods can leave you feeling guilty if you slip up. It鈥檚 easy to think of nutrient-dense whole foods as good and processed foods as bad, but moralizing food comes with its own set of risks. 鈥淭hat way of thinking leads you to internalize: 滨鈥檓 eating a bad food, therefore 滨鈥檓 bad,鈥� Tribole听previously told 国产吃瓜黑料. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a really black-or-white way of thinking, but actually, health and nutrition exists on a gradient.鈥� A truly healthy person is someone who is flexible and realizes that no one food can make or break their health鈥攁nd that eating habits shouldn鈥檛 shape their sense of self.

Eating well is about long-term habits, not individual food choices. This also goes for things like cooking from scratch, shopping local and organic, and meal-prepping healthy food staples鈥攁ll of them can contribute to healthy eating, but you shouldn鈥檛 feel guilty for not doing them if they don鈥檛 work with your budget, schedule, or preferences.

Approach Supplements and Superfoods with Skepticism

鈥淭here are cases when supplementation is appropriate,鈥� Joshi says. For example, someone with a proven iron deficiency will likely be prescribed an iron supplement by their doctor, along with advice about eating more iron-rich foods if possible. 鈥淎part from that, most people are overdoing it with supplementation,鈥� he says. Before you decide to supplement your diet with a vitamin or mineral, check with your doctor to make sure it鈥檚 something you actually need.

Gradney explains that nutrients fall into two categories, water-soluble and fat-soluble. There鈥檚 not a significant risk of overdosing on water-soluble nutrients, like vitamin C and the B vitamins, since our body gets rid of whatever we can鈥檛 use. But fat-soluble nutrients, like vitamin E and vitamin D, get stored in fat tissues, so eating them (and thus storing them) in excess can negatively impact key bodily functions.

As for superfood supplements? Skip them. 鈥淧eople are so quick to supplement with ashwagandha or turmeric or whatever snake oil is the supplement du jour,鈥� Joshi says. Often these are harmless, and sometimes there鈥檚 even a placebo effect. 鈥淏ut I have seen people with adverse outcomes, generally in the kidney or liver. It鈥檚 always a risk, because we just don鈥檛 know what鈥檚 in these things.鈥澨齓ou鈥檙e better off eating more fruits and vegetables, says Gradney, because they鈥檙e known to be 鈥渉igh in antioxidants, biologically accessible, and full of great nutrients without additives.鈥�

Do What Works for You

Here鈥檚 the thing about dietary guidelines: they outline a way of eating that has been shown to yield the best health outcomes for the largest number of people. They serve as general advice, not personalized nutrition mandates. Ultimately, you are the only one听who knows how different foods and ways of eating make you feel. Honor that. Use your own personal experience to guide what healthy eating looks like for you. Gradney recommends paying attention to which foods or eating patterns make you feel your best, physically and mentally. If something works for you (and doesn鈥檛 stress you out or make you obsess about food), do it. Make sure you鈥檙e eating fruits and vegetables, drinking water, and moving your body every day, she says鈥攐therwise, there鈥檚 plenty of flexibility in healthy eating.

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There鈥檚 no denying that childhood obesity is a significant problem. from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that one in five children in the United States is obese. Obesity is associated with a wide range of diseases and disorders, including heart disease, cancer, and joint degradation. It is against this backdrop that Weight Watchers, recently rebranded as WW, launched ,听an app that by having them track what they eat and regularly check in with a health coach. On its face, Kurbo may seem like it could potentially be helpful. But dig a little deeper, and there鈥檚 plenty of reason to believe it鈥檚 actually quite dangerous.

鈥淭he second you say you鈥檙e going to do something to combat childhood obesity, people are just going to assume it鈥檚 a great thing,鈥� says , a California child psychiatrist who specializes in eating disorders. 鈥淏ut that鈥檚 patently false,鈥� he says. 鈥淚f Kurbo has the reach it desires鈥攎illions of kids鈥攖hen it will be the initiation of eating disorders for many, and people will die.鈥� 听

Stotesbury isn鈥檛 just being dramatic: eating disorders have the of any mental illness. Studies show that between of children and adolescents with eating disorders die as a result.

And because children鈥檚 brains are still developing, they are to learned psychological disorders鈥攐nes that are largely influenced by one鈥檚 environment and behaviors鈥攍ike anorexia and bulimia. that childhood weight loss programs can create or exacerbate disordered eating and body image issues. A found that over half of 18- to 25-year-olds who used what researchers called 鈥渉ealthy eating鈥� and fitness apps reported negative feelings like guilt, isolation, and obsession. In a of 14- and 15-year-olds, dieting was the most important predictor of developing an eating disorder. Those who dieted moderately were five听times more likely to develop an eating disorder, and those who practiced extreme restriction were 18 times more likely to develop an eating disorder than those who did not diet. The National Eating Disorders Association youth focusing on 鈥渃lean eating鈥� can be just as dangerous.

For this reason, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued in 2016 advising doctors and families not to discuss weight loss or dieting with children, and instead to focus on healthy lifestyles.听

鈥淚 would never, ever, ever broach dieting with a child,鈥� says Stotesbury, who has young kids himself. 鈥淲eight Watchers鈥� whole thing, which seems to be Kurbo鈥檚 approach, is 鈥楨at whatever you want鈥攂ut with rigorous tracking and math.鈥欌�� he says. 鈥淎nd to me, this is eerily similar to dieting.鈥�

Though Kurbo does not explicitly mention dieting on their website, the 鈥溾�� tab shows pictures of children ages 8 to 17 with one of two stats: how much weight they lost or how much their BMI dropped.

Kurbo uses a traffic light system鈥攇reen for fruits and vegetables, yellow for lean proteins and grains, and red for foods like candy and soda鈥攆or kids to track and score their food consumption. The company听boasts that this system is 鈥渟cientific鈥� and founded upon a program developed and tested at Stanford Health Care. But that鈥檚 not entirely true. The traffic light system was first by Len Epstein, at the University of Buffalo. And while Stanford鈥檚 pediatric weight loss program uses the traffic light system, there are some crucial differences between the two approaches: the has screening for entry, and is built around 25 in-person weekly meetings between groups of 12 families and healthcare professionals.

Kurbo has no screening or in-person meetings (where trained professionals can more easily spot psychological distress), and only uses 鈥渃ertified鈥� health coaches, who, , have no standard medical certification. (I reached out to Kurbo to ask about this, and a representative told me that coaches come from diverse backgrounds but are all 鈥減assionate about health, must pass an extensive background check, and undergo training on the Kurbo approach to behavior change.鈥�)

None of this is to say that we should accept rates of childhood obesity as they are. But a questionable band-aid solution won鈥檛 help, and could do more harm than good. It鈥檚 not surprising that Kurbo is already facing skepticism and a on the internet. Many similar apps have been born and proliferated in Silicon Valley, where Kurbo makes it home. And while the intentions of the digital start-up culture may be noble, when it comes to health, a common theme has emerged: captivating stories, lots of hype, little benefit, and great potential for harm. Kurbo seems to fit this bill.听

鈥淎ddressing childhood obesity in a safe and effective way will require nothing short of an overhaul of culture and food policy change,鈥� says Stotesbury. 鈥淣ot a dieting app for kids.鈥澨�

Brad Stulberg () coaches on performance and wellbeing and writes 国产吃瓜黑料鈥檚 Do It Better column. He is also bestselling author of the books and . Subscribe to his newsletter .听

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