what you don’t know about your weight

What you don’t know about your weight is that it is pretty useless information.

Especially considering how much time we spend thinking and attempting to change it. Knowing a person’s body weight is important for documenting a child’s development, prescribing medications like anesthesia, or calculating tube feeds. That is close to being it. In fact, the only correlation I can find between weight and health is that the more I focus on my weight, the less healthy my behaviors become.

Lifestyle behaviors are far better indicators of health. These behaviors include normalized eating, joyful movement, and self-acceptance.

• Normalized eating is just that, N O R M A L. Food is just food. Food rules and food shaming get in the way of normal eating, so throw all that nonsense out of your head. It’s getting in the way of you being able to listen to those hunger cues and honor your cravings. More importantly, those food rules are getting in the way of you enjoying and living your life! (Here’s a more detailed post about normal eating if you are tired of feeling icky about food/weight/eating!)
• Joyful movement is just that, moving your body to feel good. Not to reach a certain mileage on a run or calorie goal on a machine. Our bodies are meant to move most days and some days they just need rest. And when I say move, that doesn’t mean your heart rate had to be above XYZ beats per minute in order for your workout to “count.” And you certainly don’t have to workout for permission to eat certain foods or eat at all. Joyful movement is all about feeling good and enhancing your quality of life.
• Self-acceptance is knowing, understanding, and believing wholeheartedly that you are a person, not a body. That your worth as a human being is 100% independent of your size. That you’re beautiful not because of the size of your body but the size of your heart.

What you also don’t know about your weight is that your body does not want it to change. Fat cells and the digestive system are in constant communication with the brain to regulate appetite and metabolism using hormones and nerve responses…..Oh yeah, and the brain also takes into account any disease states, sleep history, stress, physical activity, inflammation, emotions, access, and environmental factors too. What a control freak, huh? 

The body doesn’t like change, that’s why it’s meticulous maintaining weight, this is called your “set point.” The body hates going below this set point while it can tolerate going above it. That is why it’s so much easier to gain weight rather than lose it, our bodies are genetically programmed to work that way. Your body not wanting to lose weight is actually protective. I mean, if it weren’t for body fat women would not be capable of reproducing.

What’s your set point? Well, first of all, the set point is more like a set range of about 10 – 20 lbs. Will I weigh what I do right now as a 20-something vs. living the #momlife vs. post-menopause? UM NO! My life will change and so will my weight. What will remain the same is my practice of intuitive eating and joyful movement.

I hope now that you know your weight has little to do with your health. Weight cannot measure health; and it absolutely cannot measure value, success, or heart. Lastly, what you don’t know about your weight is that you don’t need to know it.