Weight Loss with a Side of Shame
Weight Loss with a Side of Shame
Are Wegovy and similar weight loss drugs 'exposing' a new shame for fat people?
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I had an entirely different post prepared for today, but I decided to hold it after I read a New York Times article last night talking about how Wegovy and similar new weight loss drugs are “exposing” a new shame for fat people. (I will be using the word fat as a neutral descriptor of body weight throughout this post.)
The gist of the article is that if they take these drugs, they face the shame of admitting that they didn’t actually lose the weight through good, old-fashioned hard work and willpower. Shame, shame. This is just not the American way.
The article is problematic on multiple fronts, but let’s start with the positive.
It is acknowledging two well-established points about weight loss: 95% of diets don’t work, and some people do all the things they’re supposed to do and still can’t keep the weight off permanently.
These points are important because they help dismantle the idea that our ob*sity epidemic is an individual versus collective problem. And yet one of the biggest myths still out there, despite ample evidence to the contrary, is that the people who fail at losing weight through diet, exercise and lifestyle changes just aren’t doing enough. It’s somehow their fault.
Despite 42 percent of American adults classified as ob*se, fat people are the last group of people we’re allowed to shame and discriminate against, because it’s somehow their fault. And because we associate thinness with virtue and control and “sensible diets” and “healthy lifestyles,” we’ve given ourselves complete license.
Yes, being at a higher weight is associated with health issues, but so is being at a lower weight. Moreover, none of these health issues exist only in fat or ob*se people. Those same health problems exist for people who are so-called “normal” weights. We also know that despite our best attempts to influence health, a lot of it is completely out of our control. And finally, whether or not we choose to influence our health should not be grounds for discrimination.
These new drugmakers, and the doctors who receive money from them, acknowledge that diets don’t work, but they’re framing ob*sity as a problem that must be fixed at all costs and these drugs as the only solution. Yes, these drugs are pricey—for now—but more troubling is that we don’t know their long-term side effects. And they are meant to be taken forever. Studies have already established that once people stop taking these drugs, they gain back the weight. Are these people going to be healthier in the long-term? That is unknown.
But that is not the point of the New York Times piece, which is that now that this drug class is available to the masses, fat people who lose weight are still worried they’re going to be shamed.
As one commenter pointed out:
“Overweight people are shamed when they are overweight and now, apparently, when they lose weight with a medication.” —Commenter on New York Time article
They’re damned if they don’t and damned if they do it the wrong way.
And, yes, I do expect this will continue, and here’s why.
The diet companies not selling these new drugs don’t want to lose out on their share of the $76 billion diet industry pie. Already, Jenny Craig went out of business this year, and several are rebranding with co-opted, weight-inclusive marketing messages that are meant to get people of all sizes in the door.
devoted a whole post yesterday to breaking down Beachbody’s rebrand. The gist: It still talks like a diet.The smartest diet companies out there have already succeeded at shedding their “diet” label. Because despite the shaming, most people don’t believe diets work anymore. The diet industry has successfully pushed their new diets, rebranded as “healthy lifestyles” and pushing body positivity with a side of weight loss, and few question it. Because no one wants to be on a diet anymore.
So what can we do?
There is a simple solution to start with, but it’s not easy, and it’s not one that anyone in the diet industry wants you to do. Stop demonizing fat people. Check your own fat bias, especially against others. Almost all of us have some level of fat bias, and we can subtly challenge our own when we recognize it. And most of all, be kinder to yourself, especially if you experience shame because of your body weight or size.
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