The Oppression of a Weight-Cycling Culture

Graphic is a red octagon on a black background and states: RESTRICT, REGAIN, REPEAT.

by Darliene Howell

Intentional weight loss (IWL) is not sustainable. There's a reason DIE is in the word DIET. That's what your body believes is happening to you and it will fight to keep you alive. It is also a physical manifestation of oppression and steeped in racism. You can learn the historical evidence for that statement from our fall reading list book for December: Fearing the Black Body: the Racial Origins of Fat Phobia by Dr. Sabrina Strings.

IWL is based on a "standard of beauty, a concept that you must meet a specific weight or body composition to fit in and to be acceptable. This standard of beauty is used to determine superiority. It is unattainable for most people and specifically oppressive to communities of color.

Diet culture establishes a hierarchy of worthiness and morality based on beliefs that focus values on weight, shape and size. This cultural bias leads to discrimination and marginalization. Combine that with other systems of marginalization (such as race, ethnicity, sexual and gender identities) and you can see how diet culture oppresses so many in our society.

I heard a friend recently call the diet industry the "weight cycling" industry. I love that because it is so very true. In any other industry, if you had a failure rate of 95%, you'd be closing the doors. But diet culture has lied to us and told us that they didn't fail, we did. Quite the marketing tool! Since no one I know likes to think of themselves as a failure, they keep trying and end up weight cycling.

THE CYCLE OF WEIGHT CYCLING

1. HATE YOUR BODY - "If I'd only lose X number of pounds my life would be great!"

2. RESTRICT/DEPRIVE/DENY - This means you count/weight/measure what you eat daily; REPEAT.

3. LOSE SOME WEIGHT - Yes, you will lose weight initially, until your biology kicks in.

4. PLATEAU - Your body recognizes that there isn't enough to maintain your current level of being and slows things down. "Whoa! Time to slam the brakes."

5. BLAME/SHAME - "It's my fault for not having enough will-power to MAKE my body give up the weight." You can't fight your biology. Your body believes it is in a time of famine and it will do whatever it needs to do to see that you survive.

6. REGAIN - Fight as you will, IWL is not sustainable for 95% of people. Your body will win. It will work to bring back those pounds as reserve for the next cycle of famine.

This is why it's referred to as weight cycling. DIET - LOSE - REGAIN - REPEAT

The weight cycling industry (yes, it's a $72 Billion dollar industry) works to make us believe weight loss is sustainable, that diets are not temporary, that they are a LIFESTYLE. But when a lifestyle consists of focusing your entire being on what and how much you eat EVERY SINGLE DAY, where's the life? How are you making your life and the lives of those around you better?

IWL oppresses us by having us focus on unrealistic standards rather than our power. You've heard the phrase, "Throw your weight around." That phrase connotes power in physical size.

During the upcoming season of giving, give yourself a gift: give yourself a break from the oppression of meeting the standards of diet culture.

• Take back your power by loving yourself and your body.

• Focus on breaking the cycles that oppress us.

• Stop putting off things you want to do until you lose X amount of weight.

• Do what you love.

• Experience life outside the limits of intentional weight loss.

• Make LIVING your lifestyle and be a powerful force for change in our world.

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[Pic is of Darliene Howell, a Caucasian woman with white hair and glasses shown in a blue and white #FacesOfNAAFA frame with the NAAFA logo at the bottom reading national association to advance fat acceptance]

Darliene Howell is a fat acceptance activist, rabble-rouser and tons of fun! She is a member the NAAFA Board of Directors and has been active in fat community for over 20 years.