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In an article from the New York Times, it is feared that overweight is becoming the new norm. Should we also fear ‘fat acceptance’?
Overweight the new norm?
The article paints a rather bleak picture of “the battle against obesity” [1]. This is a concern we have mentioned here before. Therefore, I delved into it and looked up the referenced studies.
While overweight is becoming an increasingly significant problem, so is the acceptance of those extra kilos. That is the general trend of the article. We have previously referred to this as the ‘Wall-E future’.
More and more Americans who are overweight actually consider their weight to be okay. This is evident from research conducted by one of the researchers mentioned. Mary Burke is an economist who studies social norms. She was one of the authors of a study from 2010 which found that 21 percent of women and 46 percent of men who were overweight described their weight as ‘about right’ [2]. Twenty years earlier, these percentages were 14 and 41 percent respectively.
‘A subtle form of peer pressure that consciously or unconsciously convinces many that it is acceptable to be significantly heavier than the range for a healthy weight according to BMI’. This is how Burke describes it for the NY Times article. Some readers may likely explode at the audacity of using such an unreliable instrument as BMI. Perhaps a large portion of the respondents are exceptionally active, with above-average muscle mass. I assume this is not the case, particularly because the data comes from the large NHANES population survey.
More people overweight, fewer people wanting to lose weight
To further color the doomsday scenario, reference is made to research from last year by Georgia Southern University [3]. This research also utilized NHANES data and analyzed information from 27,350 participants. Different time periods were compared, the earliest being 1988-1994. The percentage of people overweight or obese in that first period was over 52 percent. In the last period, 2009-2014, this had risen to over 65 percent.
However, between the same periods, the number of overweight people trying to lose weight decreased from 55 percent to 49 percent. Burke then articulates the logical conclusion: “If people perceive their overweight as normal or even desirable, they are less likely to attempt weight loss.”
In some cases, doctors may have even given up advising and guiding their patients in weight loss. This would be evident from the fact that hardly any reimbursed consultations are utilized for this purpose. Earlier, I wrote an article about guidelines that healthcare providers should use to initiate conversations about this. This would help ensure that such a constructive conversation doesn’t come across as fat shaming.
Fit or fat?
It also happens that doctors wrongly focus solely or too much on overweight as a possible cause of complaints. I wrote an article last year about a study with this conclusion.
Perhaps we are too obsessively focused on weight. Don’t get me wrong; it remains an important indicator of health. However, cardiovascular fitness is increasingly being assigned a more important role in health. While exercise is often used as a means to lose weight, fitness should be the goal. We recently wrote an article with a similar theme. The NY Times article refers to research from 2016 called ‘Fitness or fatness?’ [4]. It discusses various studies comparing the risk of poor fitness with the risk of overweight. The results vary, and ‘the biggest loser’ is difficult to pinpoint. However, it does show that failing to lose weight is not a reason to avoid engaging in more physical activity.
Why does the reason for exercise matter? Because working on fitness is easier than working on weight. Partly because exercising more is often easier to sustain than eating less. If weight loss is your goal and it’s not happening (long term), it’s not surprising if you eventually reach a point of giving up. If fitness or health is your goal, you’ll stick to those daily walks, even if you don’t lose weight.
Fit and fat-free
The article in the NY Times then proceeds with fairly standard tips for weight loss. Because a healthy weight and good fitness are naturally the best way to maximize your chances of a healthy life.
We probably wouldn’t exist as a fitness blog if we didn’t believe that combination was possible. Of course, it’s possible; the entire fitness industry revolves around such examples. However, due to current global figures, we cannot say it is possible for everyone, as good as it may sound in a motivational quote.
The combination of genetic and socio-economic factors makes it increasingly unfeasible for more people to maintain a healthy weight. The circumstances are simply too stacked against them. So, we will have to accept this. Placing the right emphasis on the right solutions (more on exercise, less on weight loss) can be of great significance.
Fat acceptance
But we must not go too far in this and forget that overweight is undesirable and remains so.
The ‘fat acceptance movement’ is a movement aimed at rejecting the ‘stigmatizing image of overweight people’. That is a commendable goal. However, it goes wrong if that means people should no longer work on their weight. If overweight itself becomes the norm. If Oprah Winfrey is called a traitor by feminist ‘fat acceptors’ because she wants to lose weight [5]. Oprah!
Other consequences of this movement include magazines no longer featuring titles on their covers promoting weight loss. That would be hurtful.
Of course, it can be confronting if you are overweight and read advice to lose weight. However, that doesn’t change the reality; that losing weight likely offers significant benefits. Banning the message because you don’t like it is what dictators do, and that usually ends badly.
Offering alternative facts is also a popular method. By changing the beauty ideal, for example. By setting overweight as the norm. “I’m not fat, you’re thin”.
Plus size is the new regular size. Now just convince your body of that.
So, we don’t have to accept overweight, let alone see it as the norm. Accept yes, adore no. However, it also doesn’t have to be the sole focus.
Sources
- NY Times ‘More Fitness, less fatness’ Feb 26, 2018
- Citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.373.1482&rep=rep1&type=pdf
- Snook KR, Hansen AR, Duke CH, Finch KC, Hackney AA, Zhang J. Change in Percentages of Adults With Overweight or Obesity Trying to Lose Weight, 1988-2014. JAMA. 2017;317(9):971–973. doi:10.1001/jama.2016.20036
- Kennedy AB, Lavie CJ, Blair SN. Fitness or FatnessWhich Is More Important?. JAMA. 2018;319(3):231–232. doi:10.1001/jama.2017.21649
- therebel.media/feminists_call_oprah_a_traitor_for_joining_weight_watcher
