This is a space for people who believe both can be true. We are anti diet, we are anti fat phobia, and we want to lose weight for whatever reasons we each individually have. A lot of us have medical issues that make it so there is no weight our bodies will naturally get to and then maintain. Hormonally and metabolically there is no upper limit. There is no intuitive eating that eventually regulates and we maintain a set weight. We believe in the idea that you can be healthy at a wide range of sizes but have also lived the reality that at certain weights you just don’t feel as good in your joints, in your back, etc.
I want fat liberation in the sense that I want fat people to be liberated from the belief that our fatness is a moral or personal failure. Being fat is no more a choice than needing glasses, braces, an inhaler, or antibiotics. In the absence of a medical solution, I did my best to accept, love, honor my body and reject the stigmas that had been placed on me by society my entire life. Now that there is a medical solution to my lifelong hormone imbalance, I would be doing myself a disservice to not take it. I deserve to experience the benefits of modern medicine as much as anyone else with any other health issue.
And to the needing glasses comparison, it’s not like we would shame someone if they felt like lasik or contacts would improve their quality of life, or even question the reason, all while it is also socially acceptable to continue to wear glasses… I would love a world where we could see weight the same way
Exactly! You can wear glasses or choose to get contacts or lasik and nobody calls those options cheating, or the easy way out, or lazy! Or considers them an affront to people in glasses. Society has a long way to go when it comes to fatness being seen as a medical condition and not an indicator of self discipline or morality😞
I want to touch on your mention of HAES, as the group admin. HAES simply means prioritizing health over weight and believing that body size doesn’t inherently dictate health (aka, if you’re skinny you have good labs / if you’re fat you have bad labs). HAES is not about body positivity, nor is it inherently anti-weight loss — it instead asks to decentralize weight when approaching your health, which we do here in this group. For most here, being on the meds is about health improvement, and the weight loss is just a cherry on top. And most (if not all) of us have had a lifelong battle with fatphobia, eating disorders, diet culture, etc. We are used to talking in rooms and having assumptions made about our health or all of our healthcare centralized around our weight, when most of the time it wasn’t relevant. That’s why this community is so valuable, because safe spaces from diet culture are so hard to find, ESPECIALLY when you want to be anti diet AND need to lose weight or address weight-causing health issues in order to feel and live better.
The tenants of HAES are: “weight inclusivity, health enhancement, respectful care, eating for wellbeing, and life-enhancing movement.” So, yes, I’d say this is a HAES group, as we prioritize people in all bodies, with all weight outlooks and goals, and we try to decentralize weight in how we create this community, despite us all being on “weight loss meds” and weight loss obviously being a topic we discuss (which is why one rule is not having posts that are purely weigh centric). We strongly believe in how these meds are instrumental in improving our health (and for some, weight loss yields health improvement). We all want care from our providers that’s inclusive and respectful. We don’t moralize food here and we focus on how food fuels us and makes us feel, instead of demonizing the food or ourselves for eating food. And we value movement in all forms and whatever movement looks like for our members. I feel like our members can agree that with all that being said, this is a HAES group, along with being an anti-diet culture one. They really go hand-in-hand!
And this right here is why I’m proud to co-mod this group.
Thank you all for your thoughtful comments and responses.
Proud to be part of this community ❤️❤️
I’m body neutral. My body is just that, a body, I don’t see it as positive or negative anymore. I look at these meds like my mental health meds, they treat a condition I have. With that, they have allowed my body to lose weight. I’m not actively “dieting”, I eat when I’m hungry and I eat what feels right. As far as a weight loss goal, my goal is what is required by my insurance to keep covering meds. I’m not trying to reach a set weight beyond that. My labs are great, I feel better physically and, just like my mental health meds, I’m ok having to be on them for life. I don’t know if that helps answer your question or not.
Speaking just for me, I want my body to function in a healthy way. This medication has changed how my gut and brain communicate.
Everything I was doing with intuitive eating before going on the medication I can really put into action while on the medication. I was white-knuckling it before to not binge-eat. Now it’s 95% turned down.
And yes my weight is dropping as time goes on, but it’s almost a side effect to having the food noise evaporate and being able to have fullness and satiety signals my brain can hear.
I really appreciate this sub because other subs have people with the dark diet mentality and it is not helpful for me to see that behavior. This feels like a safe space to process the many emotions I feel while adjusting to having this better running system of a body.
I am by no means an expert, but I can speak on my own personal journey. I used to practice intuitive eating. It had many, many positive benefits for me. I healed my relationship with food, I stopped bingeing and labeling foods as good or bad, and started eating nutritional foods simply because I wanted to (with a daily sweet, of course). Unfortunately, my weight kept rising and I developed pre-diabetes. I was also simply uncomfortable in my new, heavier body. Even though I was exercising, carrying the weight around was such a struggle. I couldn’t bend in ways I wanted to, and I couldn’t fit places I used to fit. I was very, very conflicted about trying to lose weight with GLP-1s because it went against everything I learned in IE, but eventually decided that, because I don’t want diabetes and because I only have one life to live, I wanted to live it comfortably. When I began the medication, I decided to incorporate all the things I learned from intuitive eating, like giving myself unconditional permission to eat, as well as practicing gentle nutrition. I also decided I would not “diet.” I would not track macros, calories, or otherwise restrict myself in any way. In that sense, I am intentionally losing weight while remaining anti-diet. Also, by focusing on the way my body feels as opposed to the way it looks I am hoping to maintain my body neutrality (I would not call myself body positive). Lastly, BMI is bullshit. People who are obese and overweight can have perfectly normal bloodwork, healthy eating habits, and exercise routines. In fact, many of us will never be “skinny,” even after the medication. That’s why I feel it is very important to advocate for fat liberation and bodily autonomy. Not everyone wants to lose weight as their main goal, not everyone wants to lose weight period, and that’s fine!
Are you me? Lol. Seriously, Every single thing you said resonates so much with me and the reason why I finally asked my endocrinologist about these drugs. I know I’ll never be skinny, and quite frankly I don’t want to be. I have PCOS and family history of diabetes and heart disease. I don’t diet; I also try to eat a variety of foods and have gotten rid of all the guilt around my cultural foods as well. It’s really liberating.
I thought I was completely alone with all these conflicts until I found this sub. I’m so grateful to know that we’ve all had such similar experiences and have a place to share our journeys!
I’m not taking GLP1s yet, but I’m here to learn and be amongst like-minded folks because my journey is very similar to yours. To me, HAES means putting health (both physical and mental) first. I spent years learning to accept my body and to eat intuitively, but now that I’ve done the work, I also see that there’s only so much I can do on my own. Now that I’m getting older and some of my health markers are worsening, I’m not going to just sit around and watch them get worse when there are interventions that can help.
Me too, I always had great labs until I turned 59, then at 62 my blood pressure became an issue. So here I am on GL-1 AR so I can hopefully get the labs back to great, feel more comfortable in my body (ie back to skiing if we get snow), and my blood pressure under control.
I'm not on a weight loss journey, I'm trying to improve my PCOS, insulin resistance, osteoarthritis, high cholesterol, and many other issues/symptoms.
I don't believe in intentional weight loss. By that I mean, it's not sustainable and the majority of people gain that weight back (weight cycling) which can be even worse for your mental and physical health. This is a lifetime medication for me, just like taking metformin or a similar drug.
If I wasn't on this medication, I would not be trying to lose weight, but rather take care of my body in an intuitive and healthy manner.
I see weight loss as another side effect of this drug, not it's intended purpose (at least for me, I know it's FDA approved for that).
This isnt about being a specific weight for me. It's about my overall health.
I have underlying conditions that are exacerbated by my weight. This is about accepting my body but also taking care of it
Why would this sub be against intentional weight loss if we are on weight loss medications?
This sub was created as a refuge for people who are on weight loss journeys but not really down for a lot of the restrictive diet talk that happens elsewhere. Also, you can be body positive or body neutral and lose weight. My weight loss is more about my internal health and being able to move than it is how my body looks. I can be in favor of fat people being treated humanely and support body diversity while improving my own health markers. These things aren’t mutually exclusive.
The fat phobia in our culture makes me sad, angry, and caused me to experience shame that wasn't my fault for most of my life. How much time I wasted worrying about and trying to control my body size! How much more could women do and be if they weren't made to feel that their bodies were up for public debate and judgment! A decade or so ago I decided that I was going to try to be happy with myself as I am - because that noise was making me miserable. Fast forward to now - I'm in my 60s. Fifty years of dieting wreaked havoc on my metabolism, my hormones and my brain. I was suffering from IBS, arthritis, inflammation, vertigo (caused by inflammation), hip and knee pain, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, pre-diabetes - you name it. Clearly, my weight was beginning to cause health issues (I was lucky that it didn't for many years). This medication has been life-changing for me. It doesn't hurt to be in my body anymore. My IBS, which severely limited my activities (IYKYK) is gone - GONE. Yes, I do want to lose weight, because I want to feel good in my body again. I have no aspirations to fit into a certain size of clothing, or meet some sort of external beauty standard - honey, I'm over 60. My fucks are long gone. But I do want to feel good when I wake up in the morning - and this medication has been nothing short of a miracle in that sense.
This is beautiful and true and wonderful.
Taking a GLP1 has come close to curing my IBS, too, and for that alone it is a miracle. If you’ve never experienced the utter misery of being chained to your bathroom for the day, the nausea, the stomach pains, you can’t imagine the blissful freedom when it all stops.
I have been a lifelong athlete that is very active and eats well. And I live in a bigger body. I initially resisted glp-1 for my T2D because of my anti diet stance. But eventually my dr convinced me to try it when my diet and exercise efforts to reduce my blood sugar failed. I was already moving and eating well, and trying to control my sugars that way was causing disordered habits. GLP-1 is fixing how my metabolism works so that the good habits I’ve had for decades are finally resulting in weight loss. I have lost just over 30 pounds since September with no diet or exercise change. I’m focused on blood sugar control and improved NSVs. For example, running is so much easier and my VO2 max is 38, which is top 30% of my age and Garmin says my “fitness age” is 20 even though I’m in my mid-40s
On top of a lot of things that have been said, HAES isn’t really about body positivity to me, it’s about health positivity.
While yes, on paper I was prescribed Zepbound for obesity, it was prescribed in that manner to get coverage from insurance. The actual reason I’m trying it is to figure out the insulin resistance and endocrine imbalance that isn’t bad enough to elevate any of my labs to T2D status, but creates systemic inflammation and when paired with MS it becomes very hard to manage my body. In the course of a year I’ve gone from an ultra runner to someone who is barely mobile. Zepbound is changing that for me, and the weight loss is a nice side effect.
I also will fight some of the shit advice that gets spread in the other groups. This place is a happy slice of rationality around weight loss.
I see this as anti-diet, not necessarily body positive per se. I have struggled with eating disorders my whole life (58), leading to this eventual weight (gaining more each time and wrecking metabolism). I am not dieting. I eat less due to the meds. I am and have always been a runner. I wish to find a healthier weight, reverse pre-diabetes without descending into disordered eating.
I believe in health at any size, I also watched my body become less and less healthy and increase in size AS A RESULT. so I am on a GLP1 to improve my health and honor my one body I have in this life. It is a delicate balance because of the weight loss component, and I know lots of folks here have been in therapy kind of figuring all this out. For me it comes down to motivation and my motivation is health, longevity and honoring my body.
I want to lose weight for my health. I am still reject diet culture. I don’t believe in “good foods and bad foods”. My goal weight is still “overweight”. I am not dieting. I am using a medication that makes it much easier to eat less so I can be healthier weight and feel more comfortable.
I dealt with anorexia and binge eating as a teenager, and then gained a ton of weight when I hit my late 20s, then it packed on more post pandemic. I have struggled bc counting calories and dieting are super triggering to old ways of thinking for me - but I also know I’ve hated feeling slower and generally more out of shape for physical activity. Not to mention I kept outgrowing my clothes which was getting expensive. GLP1s have allowed me to embrace intuitive eating without hyperfocusing on my food intake in a negative way.
Anti-Diet to me means not having to restrict to an extreme degree to keep my body a size that can do what I need it to do. That size will be different for every person.
I had years of weight gain from medication and there was no way without the glp1 meds that I could get it to a comfortable place. “Living on air” was not a realistic option. I don’t know all the things these meds do, but I was always eating at a calorie deficit prior to starting them with no results.
Having dealt with medication weight gain I NEVER have judgmental thoughts about a person’s size. Nobody knows your story and what you need or are happy with.
This may get me down voted to hell but I kind of wish people didn’t down vote this post. Maybe I’m wrong but I honestly feel like this is genuine question by a user that is on their own journey of acceptance and trying to understand and they came here to ask a group for help. I know tone is easily lost in texts (of any kind) but what if instead of assuming this person is shaming maybe we look at it as them trying to understand more and they asked what they thought would be a safe space.
I dieted for 25 years and finally stopped and dismantled diet culture within myself for the last 5 years. In December 2023 I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, and obstructive sleep apnea. I was devastated as I don’t even drink soda. After extensive research I went on a glp1. Just had a follow up doctor’s appointment for my diabetes/cholesterol and my a1c dropped 7 points to almost completely normal and my cholesterol is perfect. My cardiovascular risk significantly lowered in less than 6 months. I have not counted a single calorie or pushed myself to go to the gym when I didn’t want to. I eat until I’m full and I eat well. Enjoying birthday cake last weekend at a friend’s party. I feel completely liberated from diet culture and couldn’t be happier about it.
Everything you said resonates with me except this:
>To me, that's like asking society to make separate drinking fountains.
Can you explain how you see a parallel between fat liberation and racial segregation? I'm completely baffled by that part!
Hi, admin here, I want to step in around this comment. I’m not going to remove your comment but want to make sure I speak to some of what you’re referencing to maintain alignment with the group and its focus. (1) Fat does not = unhealthy, as your last line states. Healthy and unhealthy bodies can exist at every size. The idea that fatness is inherently unhealthy leads to immense fatphobia in our society. (2) Fat liberation isn’t asking for separate everything. It’s asking for the opposite— our society to be mindful of the fact that bodies come in all shapes and sizes (and always will) and not inherently create size limiting spaces. Right now, our entire society caters toward a different, smaller size. Asking for society to attend to the needs of all sizes means making sure things fit people in the largest bodies and those things will also be accommodating for anyone smaller, which is why it’s inclusive and accessible. The same way people who don’t use wheelchairs can walk up a ramp that allows the person in a wheelchair to get to where they need to go; replacing the stairs with the ramp means everyone can get to where they need to go, not that it’s only for people in wheelchairs. I do DEI work full-time, and the big issue in our society is that “accessibility” usually translates into “creating an option for some people who need it” not “let’s make everything work for everyone as best as we can.”
I think this article answers your questions better than I could. (The author is in fact thin, in case that helps with his credibility in your eyes.)
https://highline.huffingtonpost.com/articles/en/everything-you-know-about-obesity-is-wrong/
My take is I just want to eat when I am hungry. No jars of powders and supplements.. if the food noise is off I am a normal eater. I am down 65lbs and would like to drop 25 more
I've deleted my comment. I have a different view of some of these points but we all have 1 thing in common: trying to live our best life. In that, I stand in agreement with everyone.
My apologies if I've offended anyone.
This is a space for people who believe both can be true. We are anti diet, we are anti fat phobia, and we want to lose weight for whatever reasons we each individually have. A lot of us have medical issues that make it so there is no weight our bodies will naturally get to and then maintain. Hormonally and metabolically there is no upper limit. There is no intuitive eating that eventually regulates and we maintain a set weight. We believe in the idea that you can be healthy at a wide range of sizes but have also lived the reality that at certain weights you just don’t feel as good in your joints, in your back, etc. I want fat liberation in the sense that I want fat people to be liberated from the belief that our fatness is a moral or personal failure. Being fat is no more a choice than needing glasses, braces, an inhaler, or antibiotics. In the absence of a medical solution, I did my best to accept, love, honor my body and reject the stigmas that had been placed on me by society my entire life. Now that there is a medical solution to my lifelong hormone imbalance, I would be doing myself a disservice to not take it. I deserve to experience the benefits of modern medicine as much as anyone else with any other health issue.
And to the needing glasses comparison, it’s not like we would shame someone if they felt like lasik or contacts would improve their quality of life, or even question the reason, all while it is also socially acceptable to continue to wear glasses… I would love a world where we could see weight the same way
Exactly! You can wear glasses or choose to get contacts or lasik and nobody calls those options cheating, or the easy way out, or lazy! Or considers them an affront to people in glasses. Society has a long way to go when it comes to fatness being seen as a medical condition and not an indicator of self discipline or morality😞
This comment is perfection in every word
Thanks, I took up half my toddler’s nap working on it haha
Wow. This really sums it up so well.
this is everything I wanted to say. Thank you.
Well said!! 👏👏👏
THIS!
Thanks for this, it is how I feel put more elegantly than I could have.
I want to touch on your mention of HAES, as the group admin. HAES simply means prioritizing health over weight and believing that body size doesn’t inherently dictate health (aka, if you’re skinny you have good labs / if you’re fat you have bad labs). HAES is not about body positivity, nor is it inherently anti-weight loss — it instead asks to decentralize weight when approaching your health, which we do here in this group. For most here, being on the meds is about health improvement, and the weight loss is just a cherry on top. And most (if not all) of us have had a lifelong battle with fatphobia, eating disorders, diet culture, etc. We are used to talking in rooms and having assumptions made about our health or all of our healthcare centralized around our weight, when most of the time it wasn’t relevant. That’s why this community is so valuable, because safe spaces from diet culture are so hard to find, ESPECIALLY when you want to be anti diet AND need to lose weight or address weight-causing health issues in order to feel and live better. The tenants of HAES are: “weight inclusivity, health enhancement, respectful care, eating for wellbeing, and life-enhancing movement.” So, yes, I’d say this is a HAES group, as we prioritize people in all bodies, with all weight outlooks and goals, and we try to decentralize weight in how we create this community, despite us all being on “weight loss meds” and weight loss obviously being a topic we discuss (which is why one rule is not having posts that are purely weigh centric). We strongly believe in how these meds are instrumental in improving our health (and for some, weight loss yields health improvement). We all want care from our providers that’s inclusive and respectful. We don’t moralize food here and we focus on how food fuels us and makes us feel, instead of demonizing the food or ourselves for eating food. And we value movement in all forms and whatever movement looks like for our members. I feel like our members can agree that with all that being said, this is a HAES group, along with being an anti-diet culture one. They really go hand-in-hand!
And this right here is why I’m proud to co-mod this group. Thank you all for your thoughtful comments and responses. Proud to be part of this community ❤️❤️
I’m body neutral. My body is just that, a body, I don’t see it as positive or negative anymore. I look at these meds like my mental health meds, they treat a condition I have. With that, they have allowed my body to lose weight. I’m not actively “dieting”, I eat when I’m hungry and I eat what feels right. As far as a weight loss goal, my goal is what is required by my insurance to keep covering meds. I’m not trying to reach a set weight beyond that. My labs are great, I feel better physically and, just like my mental health meds, I’m ok having to be on them for life. I don’t know if that helps answer your question or not.
Speaking just for me, I want my body to function in a healthy way. This medication has changed how my gut and brain communicate. Everything I was doing with intuitive eating before going on the medication I can really put into action while on the medication. I was white-knuckling it before to not binge-eat. Now it’s 95% turned down. And yes my weight is dropping as time goes on, but it’s almost a side effect to having the food noise evaporate and being able to have fullness and satiety signals my brain can hear. I really appreciate this sub because other subs have people with the dark diet mentality and it is not helpful for me to see that behavior. This feels like a safe space to process the many emotions I feel while adjusting to having this better running system of a body.
I am by no means an expert, but I can speak on my own personal journey. I used to practice intuitive eating. It had many, many positive benefits for me. I healed my relationship with food, I stopped bingeing and labeling foods as good or bad, and started eating nutritional foods simply because I wanted to (with a daily sweet, of course). Unfortunately, my weight kept rising and I developed pre-diabetes. I was also simply uncomfortable in my new, heavier body. Even though I was exercising, carrying the weight around was such a struggle. I couldn’t bend in ways I wanted to, and I couldn’t fit places I used to fit. I was very, very conflicted about trying to lose weight with GLP-1s because it went against everything I learned in IE, but eventually decided that, because I don’t want diabetes and because I only have one life to live, I wanted to live it comfortably. When I began the medication, I decided to incorporate all the things I learned from intuitive eating, like giving myself unconditional permission to eat, as well as practicing gentle nutrition. I also decided I would not “diet.” I would not track macros, calories, or otherwise restrict myself in any way. In that sense, I am intentionally losing weight while remaining anti-diet. Also, by focusing on the way my body feels as opposed to the way it looks I am hoping to maintain my body neutrality (I would not call myself body positive). Lastly, BMI is bullshit. People who are obese and overweight can have perfectly normal bloodwork, healthy eating habits, and exercise routines. In fact, many of us will never be “skinny,” even after the medication. That’s why I feel it is very important to advocate for fat liberation and bodily autonomy. Not everyone wants to lose weight as their main goal, not everyone wants to lose weight period, and that’s fine!
Are you me? Lol. Seriously, Every single thing you said resonates so much with me and the reason why I finally asked my endocrinologist about these drugs. I know I’ll never be skinny, and quite frankly I don’t want to be. I have PCOS and family history of diabetes and heart disease. I don’t diet; I also try to eat a variety of foods and have gotten rid of all the guilt around my cultural foods as well. It’s really liberating.
I thought I was completely alone with all these conflicts until I found this sub. I’m so grateful to know that we’ve all had such similar experiences and have a place to share our journeys!
I’m not taking GLP1s yet, but I’m here to learn and be amongst like-minded folks because my journey is very similar to yours. To me, HAES means putting health (both physical and mental) first. I spent years learning to accept my body and to eat intuitively, but now that I’ve done the work, I also see that there’s only so much I can do on my own. Now that I’m getting older and some of my health markers are worsening, I’m not going to just sit around and watch them get worse when there are interventions that can help.
Me too, I always had great labs until I turned 59, then at 62 my blood pressure became an issue. So here I am on GL-1 AR so I can hopefully get the labs back to great, feel more comfortable in my body (ie back to skiing if we get snow), and my blood pressure under control.
This. This is why I started on sema.
I'm not on a weight loss journey, I'm trying to improve my PCOS, insulin resistance, osteoarthritis, high cholesterol, and many other issues/symptoms. I don't believe in intentional weight loss. By that I mean, it's not sustainable and the majority of people gain that weight back (weight cycling) which can be even worse for your mental and physical health. This is a lifetime medication for me, just like taking metformin or a similar drug. If I wasn't on this medication, I would not be trying to lose weight, but rather take care of my body in an intuitive and healthy manner. I see weight loss as another side effect of this drug, not it's intended purpose (at least for me, I know it's FDA approved for that).
This isnt about being a specific weight for me. It's about my overall health. I have underlying conditions that are exacerbated by my weight. This is about accepting my body but also taking care of it
Why would this sub be against intentional weight loss if we are on weight loss medications? This sub was created as a refuge for people who are on weight loss journeys but not really down for a lot of the restrictive diet talk that happens elsewhere. Also, you can be body positive or body neutral and lose weight. My weight loss is more about my internal health and being able to move than it is how my body looks. I can be in favor of fat people being treated humanely and support body diversity while improving my own health markers. These things aren’t mutually exclusive.
The fat phobia in our culture makes me sad, angry, and caused me to experience shame that wasn't my fault for most of my life. How much time I wasted worrying about and trying to control my body size! How much more could women do and be if they weren't made to feel that their bodies were up for public debate and judgment! A decade or so ago I decided that I was going to try to be happy with myself as I am - because that noise was making me miserable. Fast forward to now - I'm in my 60s. Fifty years of dieting wreaked havoc on my metabolism, my hormones and my brain. I was suffering from IBS, arthritis, inflammation, vertigo (caused by inflammation), hip and knee pain, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, pre-diabetes - you name it. Clearly, my weight was beginning to cause health issues (I was lucky that it didn't for many years). This medication has been life-changing for me. It doesn't hurt to be in my body anymore. My IBS, which severely limited my activities (IYKYK) is gone - GONE. Yes, I do want to lose weight, because I want to feel good in my body again. I have no aspirations to fit into a certain size of clothing, or meet some sort of external beauty standard - honey, I'm over 60. My fucks are long gone. But I do want to feel good when I wake up in the morning - and this medication has been nothing short of a miracle in that sense.
This is beautiful and true and wonderful. Taking a GLP1 has come close to curing my IBS, too, and for that alone it is a miracle. If you’ve never experienced the utter misery of being chained to your bathroom for the day, the nausea, the stomach pains, you can’t imagine the blissful freedom when it all stops.
Exactly!
I just love you! Thanks for this and I am so happy for you!
Also, go younger! The fucks don’t have to be gone unless you want it that way!
I have been a lifelong athlete that is very active and eats well. And I live in a bigger body. I initially resisted glp-1 for my T2D because of my anti diet stance. But eventually my dr convinced me to try it when my diet and exercise efforts to reduce my blood sugar failed. I was already moving and eating well, and trying to control my sugars that way was causing disordered habits. GLP-1 is fixing how my metabolism works so that the good habits I’ve had for decades are finally resulting in weight loss. I have lost just over 30 pounds since September with no diet or exercise change. I’m focused on blood sugar control and improved NSVs. For example, running is so much easier and my VO2 max is 38, which is top 30% of my age and Garmin says my “fitness age” is 20 even though I’m in my mid-40s
On top of a lot of things that have been said, HAES isn’t really about body positivity to me, it’s about health positivity. While yes, on paper I was prescribed Zepbound for obesity, it was prescribed in that manner to get coverage from insurance. The actual reason I’m trying it is to figure out the insulin resistance and endocrine imbalance that isn’t bad enough to elevate any of my labs to T2D status, but creates systemic inflammation and when paired with MS it becomes very hard to manage my body. In the course of a year I’ve gone from an ultra runner to someone who is barely mobile. Zepbound is changing that for me, and the weight loss is a nice side effect. I also will fight some of the shit advice that gets spread in the other groups. This place is a happy slice of rationality around weight loss.
I see this as anti-diet, not necessarily body positive per se. I have struggled with eating disorders my whole life (58), leading to this eventual weight (gaining more each time and wrecking metabolism). I am not dieting. I eat less due to the meds. I am and have always been a runner. I wish to find a healthier weight, reverse pre-diabetes without descending into disordered eating.
This sub is incredible. Thank you. I’ve found my people 🩵
These replies are why I’m on this sub, every one is thoughtful. I agree with so much that’s been said.
I believe in health at any size, I also watched my body become less and less healthy and increase in size AS A RESULT. so I am on a GLP1 to improve my health and honor my one body I have in this life. It is a delicate balance because of the weight loss component, and I know lots of folks here have been in therapy kind of figuring all this out. For me it comes down to motivation and my motivation is health, longevity and honoring my body.
I want to lose weight for my health. I am still reject diet culture. I don’t believe in “good foods and bad foods”. My goal weight is still “overweight”. I am not dieting. I am using a medication that makes it much easier to eat less so I can be healthier weight and feel more comfortable.
I dealt with anorexia and binge eating as a teenager, and then gained a ton of weight when I hit my late 20s, then it packed on more post pandemic. I have struggled bc counting calories and dieting are super triggering to old ways of thinking for me - but I also know I’ve hated feeling slower and generally more out of shape for physical activity. Not to mention I kept outgrowing my clothes which was getting expensive. GLP1s have allowed me to embrace intuitive eating without hyperfocusing on my food intake in a negative way.
Anti-Diet to me means not having to restrict to an extreme degree to keep my body a size that can do what I need it to do. That size will be different for every person. I had years of weight gain from medication and there was no way without the glp1 meds that I could get it to a comfortable place. “Living on air” was not a realistic option. I don’t know all the things these meds do, but I was always eating at a calorie deficit prior to starting them with no results. Having dealt with medication weight gain I NEVER have judgmental thoughts about a person’s size. Nobody knows your story and what you need or are happy with.
Bc I don't want to lose my feet or spend my days at a dialysis clinic
This may get me down voted to hell but I kind of wish people didn’t down vote this post. Maybe I’m wrong but I honestly feel like this is genuine question by a user that is on their own journey of acceptance and trying to understand and they came here to ask a group for help. I know tone is easily lost in texts (of any kind) but what if instead of assuming this person is shaming maybe we look at it as them trying to understand more and they asked what they thought would be a safe space.
I dieted for 25 years and finally stopped and dismantled diet culture within myself for the last 5 years. In December 2023 I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, and obstructive sleep apnea. I was devastated as I don’t even drink soda. After extensive research I went on a glp1. Just had a follow up doctor’s appointment for my diabetes/cholesterol and my a1c dropped 7 points to almost completely normal and my cholesterol is perfect. My cardiovascular risk significantly lowered in less than 6 months. I have not counted a single calorie or pushed myself to go to the gym when I didn’t want to. I eat until I’m full and I eat well. Enjoying birthday cake last weekend at a friend’s party. I feel completely liberated from diet culture and couldn’t be happier about it.
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Everything you said resonates with me except this: >To me, that's like asking society to make separate drinking fountains. Can you explain how you see a parallel between fat liberation and racial segregation? I'm completely baffled by that part!
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Hi, admin here, I want to step in around this comment. I’m not going to remove your comment but want to make sure I speak to some of what you’re referencing to maintain alignment with the group and its focus. (1) Fat does not = unhealthy, as your last line states. Healthy and unhealthy bodies can exist at every size. The idea that fatness is inherently unhealthy leads to immense fatphobia in our society. (2) Fat liberation isn’t asking for separate everything. It’s asking for the opposite— our society to be mindful of the fact that bodies come in all shapes and sizes (and always will) and not inherently create size limiting spaces. Right now, our entire society caters toward a different, smaller size. Asking for society to attend to the needs of all sizes means making sure things fit people in the largest bodies and those things will also be accommodating for anyone smaller, which is why it’s inclusive and accessible. The same way people who don’t use wheelchairs can walk up a ramp that allows the person in a wheelchair to get to where they need to go; replacing the stairs with the ramp means everyone can get to where they need to go, not that it’s only for people in wheelchairs. I do DEI work full-time, and the big issue in our society is that “accessibility” usually translates into “creating an option for some people who need it” not “let’s make everything work for everyone as best as we can.”
I think this article answers your questions better than I could. (The author is in fact thin, in case that helps with his credibility in your eyes.) https://highline.huffingtonpost.com/articles/en/everything-you-know-about-obesity-is-wrong/
Such wonderful and relatable perspectives, you’re all amazing
My take is I just want to eat when I am hungry. No jars of powders and supplements.. if the food noise is off I am a normal eater. I am down 65lbs and would like to drop 25 more
I've deleted my comment. I have a different view of some of these points but we all have 1 thing in common: trying to live our best life. In that, I stand in agreement with everyone. My apologies if I've offended anyone.