Is it possible to ‘diet yourself fatter’?

Reductil, Australia’s most popular weight loss drug, is just one of a raft of weightloss drugs pitched as a quick fix for those desperate to conform to the thin ideal, despite harming themselves in the process.

Yet we are not in the midst of an obesity epidemic, as it is often claimed. We are in the midst of an epidemic of disordered eating. The solutions prescribed to combat obesity are often the same behaviours we as practitioners are diagnosing in those suffering from eating disorders.

Many find that no matter what they do they can never sustain a thin physique because ‘thin’ is simply not their natural body size. Pressuring people to take prescription drugs, go on a liquid diet, and count every step in the pursuit of thinness, should alert us to the fact that Australians are now living in an eating disordered, fat phobic culture.

…Think about what happens after the ‘after’ photo. Current weight loss prescriptions carry a 98 per cent failure rate, meaning that you actually have more chance of surviving cancer than losing weight and keeping it off after 2-5 years. Encouraging people to prioritise thinness rather than emphasise a healthy lifestyle is damaging our health. Diets are nothing more than prescriptions for disordered eating.

To top it off, obesity ‘experts’ continue to use BMI charts despite knowing that they are not accurate measures of health. Fitness is a far better predictor of health than knowing the ratio of your height to your weight – and larger sized people can often be fitter than skinny ones.

[You can read Lydia’s full article here at The Drum] [image from Crikey]