For me personally, the thing that I've noticed has the biggest effect is: when I am thirsty am I drinking water or something with calories? So, when I feel like I need to lose weight, my rule is...
For me personally, the thing that I've noticed has the biggest effect is: when I am thirsty am I drinking water or something with calories? So, when I feel like I need to lose weight, my rule is that if I'm thirsty I have to drink at least one sip of water. And then if I still want something sweet afterwards I can, but minimum one sip of water. (Of course usually this leads to me totally quenching my thirst with water and not having anything sweet, which is the point, but I'm not forbidding myself sugar drinks, just requiring water, so the rule doesn't feel restrictive to me.)
I stopped drinking soda around two months ago, and had a glass at the new years party, it tasted almost overwhelmingly sweet, I was surprised! I definitely have noticed just feeling overall better...
I stopped drinking soda around two months ago, and had a glass at the new years party, it tasted almost overwhelmingly sweet, I was surprised!
I definitely have noticed just feeling overall better without the soda
Sugary drinks are terrible for your weight. I would even go for a full glass of water before taking a sugary drink, instead of just a sip. Works great.
Sugary drinks are terrible for your weight. I would even go for a full glass of water before taking a sugary drink, instead of just a sip. Works great.
I'm going to nitpick some, but the headline ("most adults will gain half a kilo this year - and every year") is misleading, if not outright incorrect. The article references a literature review...
Exemplary
I'm going to nitpick some, but the headline ("most adults will gain half a kilo this year - and every year") is misleading, if not outright incorrect. The article references a literature review [1] which states that "the average weight gain is 0.5 to 1 kg per year" (note that this claim is already different from the headline), which is a summary of this study from 1993 [2].
I'm not here to squabble about whether a study from 1993 -- which itself is based on data collected in the '70s and '80s -- is still a good barometer for 2025; let's just assume it is. (The literature review also references a study from 2014 comparing BMI [3], which shows similar-ish results but is tabulated in a less useful way to compare trends; see table 5.) Williamson's study concerns itself with the percentage of weight gain by age, sex, and ethnicity over a ten year period; I've reproduced the table for age and sex below.
Age
Avg weight gain (%)
Weight gain std dev (%)
25 to 44 (M)
3.4(3)
11.9
25 to 44 (F)
5.4(3)
14.1
45 to 64 (M)
0.0(3)
10.4
45 to 64 (F)
0.3(3)
11.4
65 to 74 (M)
-4.1(4)
9.9
65 to 74 (F)
-6.3(4)
13.7
Average weight gain by age and sex. The parentheses in the second column denote the 1-sigma uncertainty of the last digit. The third column shows the standard deviation of the weight gain for the subjects included in the study.
There are some fairly noteworthy conclusions one can draw from this table:
Although at the population level the "average adult" (whatever that means) gains weight, from the table it's clear that the distribution is biased by younger adults . Most adults will not gain weight "every year" as claimed since older adults are more likely to either maintain or lose weight. Indeed, the study makes this point explicitly:
On average, both men and women younger than 55 years tended to gain weight, whereas those 55 years or older tended to lose weight. The magnitude of weight gain for both sexes decreased with increasing age, whereas the magnitude of weight loss increased with increasing age.
Regardless of the group averages, I find the usefulness of this information dubious at an individual level. For example, if you're a 44.5 year old woman, does it make more sense to compare yourself with category "25 to 44 (F)", average weight gain 5.4(3)%, or category "45 to 64 (F)", average weight gain 0.3(3)%?
Similarly, there is considerable variance among individuals. Even among the group most likely to experience weight gain ("45 to 64 (F)"), about 35% did not. Knowledge of the category averages only provides a weak prior on whether an individual is likely to gain weight over a 10 year span. Individual circumstances are a much better indicator.
Finally, the recommendations in the posted article are not supported by the lit review it draws from. To quote from the executive summary (emphasis added) [1],
We did not find strong evidence that any strategy prevents weight gain. This conclusion is similar to a previous systematic review on prevention of weight gain.
Interventions that were potentially effective included a clinic-based program to teach heart rate monitoring, a lifestyle intervention targeted at mothers of young children, workplace interventions with individual and environmental components, small group sessions to educate college women about healthy lifestyles, exercise for individuals at risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes, and exercise performed at home among women with cancer. Potentially effective approaches, identified from observational studies, included eating meals prepared at home among college graduates and less television viewing among individuals with colorectal cancer.
Nothing new here, but going to use this as a reminder to folks that health is more than a number on a scale, and that no matter how much of the language this coming month is centered around weight...
Nothing new here, but going to use this as a reminder to folks that health is more than a number on a scale, and that no matter how much of the language this coming month is centered around weight loss, it doesn't have to be your goal. Hopefully those you care about, and care about you, will avoid the language of diet culture of and intentional weight loss if it's not a healthy conversation for you. Advice in articles like these is not designed for everyone, especially people with disordered eating, but also people who deal with stigma around their weight and appearance year round.
Your choices are yours and your body is yours and no one is actually being helpful if they tell you to lose weight as if this is a new concept you'd never heard of.
Work with your doctor (and one that listens to you not one that doesn't treat you for anything because you're fat) and a dietician if you can on what is right for you.
Are your labs good? Are you taking your meds? Did you find a way to move around today? Did you do something that made you genuinely smile and feel good?
Find measures that mean more to you than a number that will vary every time you poop.
There's no point to stressing out about it to the point of causing anxiety-related health issues, but at the same time, it's hard to discount the dramatic health benefits of being in a healthy...
There's no point to stressing out about it to the point of causing anxiety-related health issues, but at the same time, it's hard to discount the dramatic health benefits of being in a healthy weight range will cause. Maybe it shouldn't be the number one goal in your life, but it should probably be somewhere on the list.
For some people this is suggesting that they start cutting again. Or drinking. For others it's just telling them they should do a thing despite there being nothing that statistically causes that...
For some people this is suggesting that they start cutting again. Or drinking. For others it's just telling them they should do a thing despite there being nothing that statistically causes that thing for more than a small percentage of people in the long term. Everyone has already heard of it. Almost all of the advice leads to the same outcome, a small percentage of long term weight loss, and some of it is incredibly deeply unhealthy for everyone. This time of uear is full of unsolicited weight loss advice and tons of both explicit and implicit "your body is bad and you failed last year" messaging.
People can work with their professionals on what matters most to them. Their doctor can tell them if it is useful or not. The aggregate ignores the real people impacted by one's words. Please feel free to advocate for IWL elsewhere but it won't be received well by me.
Most of those studies are about people with obesity. But additional weight just in the "overweight" category is also quite bad, and weight loss is more likely in that case. Additionally, as the...
Most of those studies are about people with obesity. But additional weight just in the "overweight" category is also quite bad, and weight loss is more likely in that case.
Additionally, as the article points out, the older you get, the more your muscle mass deteriorates and the more your stable point moves higher. So as you get older, even if you are in a healthy weight, you need to put in more effort with every year. That's something people should keep in mind.
We're also in a different time, with medications that seem to be highly effective at keeping weight down that are only getting cheaper. This includes those who are obese.
Please feel free to advocate for IWL elsewhere but it won't be received well by me.
There's nothing wrong with disagreeing, but I have no reason to not reply to your posts. I have as much a right as you do to opine on the issue.
Once again, for some people you're suggesting they start cutting themselves again and you seem to have no care for that. This is ironic given that obese people are the most likely to be told how...
Once again, for some people you're suggesting they start cutting themselves again and you seem to have no care for that.
Most of those studies are about people with obesity. But additional weight just in the "overweight" category is also quite bad, and weight loss is more likely in that case.
This is ironic given that obese people are the most likely to be told how much they need to lose weight and as you said, the least likely to benefit from any weight loss strategy because they just don't statistically work.
Additionally, as the article points out, the older you get, the more your muscle mass deteriorates and the more your stable point moves higher. So as you get older, even if you are in a healthy weight, you need to put in more effort with every year. That's something people should keep in mind.
You need to "put in more effort" at losing weight only if losing weight is your goal. People who are fat already are incredibly aware of that.
We're also in a different time, with medications that seem to be highly effective at keeping weight down that are only getting cheaper. This includes those who are obese.
They're very expensive with sometimes serious side effects and if you stop taking them, you regain the weight. Many people don't want to have to take medication to be ok with their bodies and weight is only a piece of health.
There's nothing wrong with disagreeing, but I have no reason to not reply to your posts. I have as much a right as you do to opine on the issue.
You do have all the rights. but again, to me, you're advocating for people to re-engage in self-harm and addiction. You can opine, but I find it quite harmful and hurtful. I don't find advocating for IWL a kind, caring or helpful thing to do. My responses will continue to reflect this worldview. I am trying to be very direct and explicit about that so there's no confusion.
It seems like a perfectly reasonable place for them to reply. It’s unreasonable to expect that everyone will agree with you, and /u/stu2b50 was pretty mild in their response. I’m not seeing the...
It seems like a perfectly reasonable place for them to reply. It’s unreasonable to expect that everyone will agree with you, and /u/stu2b50 was pretty mild in their response. I’m not seeing the problem here?
My perception is similar to yours, it seemed a fairly mild response. Additionally my perception is that this issue seems to be one that gets complicated because there's more to health than...
My perception is similar to yours, it seemed a fairly mild response. Additionally my perception is that this issue seems to be one that gets complicated because there's more to health than physical health and more to physical health than just weight. I'm not trying to speak for anyone by saying that, but that seems to be where if you start at that base, focusing on weight loss in particular can become contentious.
Being healthy is good, but optimal health isn't always an option for anyone at any given point in their life, and thus there's always some potential trade off for that. Personally, if I were to try to have a healthier diet than I have right now, it would make my life worse and consequently my health worse in other aspects. I didn't come away with the impression from the initial reply that it was suggesting that I sacrifice other aspects of health for better weight. I mean it might up to a point, but not to the point of being aggressive or dangerous about it.
So the way I see it is, optimal health isn't an option for everyone, probably everyone balances different health tradeoffs and perhaps focusing on weight loss more than others seems problematic or not being able to visually see other health effects since they aren't all outwardly observable like weight can be contentious. I think the balancing act is that trying to convey that health encompasses more than weight results in messages that come across as though weight isn't important for health and then trying to correct that comes across as though weight is worth so much of your health that you should prioritize it as number one. I don't think that's what was conveyed in that reply though.
If we recognize health is multifaceted and we're all making tradeoffs and some are more visible than others, as long as we're not pretending like we're not making those tradeoffs then we're not misinforming people. I'm currently a little overweight and I know I'm making that tradeoff and I know that it means I have increased risk factors for various issues, just like I know that not making that tradeoff entails various issues in other ways. Let me be clear on that last statement, I'm not intentionally choosing to be overweight, I'm just pushing away the highly intense negative feelings of hunger or avoiding certain foods by eating more than I need to or should for lack of a better alternative. I didn't come away with the impression that the reply in question was telling me I need to prioritize suffering through other issues in order to lose weight.
This strikes me as completely reasonable. Nobody is perfect, we all just try to make the best decisions we can with the information and resources we have. It’s only natural that priorities will...
if we recognize health is multifaceted and we're all making tradeoffs and some are more visible than others, as long as we're not pretending like we're not making those tradeoffs then we're not misinforming people.
This strikes me as completely reasonable. Nobody is perfect, we all just try to make the best decisions we can with the information and resources we have. It’s only natural that priorities will differ for any number of reasons from person to person.
I think the other poster who is characterizing weight loss as equivalent to self-harm is taking an overly extreme stance, which is alienating and counterproductive. I have no doubt that there are people for whom the topic is distressing, I just don’t think that’s a good reason to avoid talking about it.
I have been really explicit in the comparison of self harm that this is for some people. People who have disordered eating use the same language of recovery as many people who self harm. Talking...
I have been really explicit in the comparison of self harm that this is for some people. People who have disordered eating use the same language of recovery as many people who self harm. Talking about the benefits of weight loss is like talking about the benefits of cutting to them. Folks who do not find conversations of weight loss healthy are who my post was directed to.
I personally dislike its discussion in general, but only strongly object to the discussion of it in response to my comment, targeted at folks for whom this isn't healthy.
Look, I understand you mean well, but I think it's harmful to talk about eating disorders in such a black and white way as if weight-loss is a universally bad thing. For some people that struggle...
Look, I understand you mean well, but I think it's harmful to talk about eating disorders in such a black and white way as if weight-loss is a universally bad thing. For some people that struggle with binge eating and all the related health problems, making a New Year's resolution to lose weight and develop a healthier relationship with food is super important.
What I actually said: If you want to set a goal to lose weight, that's a "your body" thing. Also less than 10% of people succeed at meeting their resolution goals. NY resolutions are notoriously...
What I actually said:
health is more than a number on a scale,
it doesn't have to be your goal.
will avoid the language of diet culture of and intentional weight loss if it's not a healthy conversation for you.
Advice in articles like these is not designed for everyone, especially people with disordered eating, but also people who deal with stigma around their weight and appearance year round.
Your choices are yours and your body is yours
Work with your doctor and a dietician if you can on what is right for you.
Find measures that mean more to you than a number that will vary every time you poop.
If you want to set a goal to lose weight, that's a "your body" thing.
Also less than 10% of people succeed at meeting their resolution goals. NY resolutions are notoriously bad for achieving goals. That's admittedly slightly higher than the success rate for long term weight loss though, so if you are part of the 25% that makes it past a month, and the 10% that achieves your goal you might be part of the 3-5% percent that maintains weight loss with any given method.
My point here being that its probably not helpful to almost anyone to set a resolution to lose weight even if that is the goal they want to pursue. For people with a binge eating disorder, a healthier relationship with food is absolutely important, that probably won't come from guilt about gaining weight as you get older, but counseling and a doctor. And it will depend on what is right for them.
I spoke specifically to people who struggle every January with hearing how much everyone around them thinks fatness is bad and weight loss is good. Whether they have a diagnosed ED, have anxiety about their body, or just exist as a fat person in a world that will restrict your medical care, mock you for existing, and consistently tells you how bad your body is, there are folks this language is very toxic to. It is a helpful thing to be reminded that this is not everyone, and that regardless of societal pressures their goals and health can be their own to manage.
There are plenty of other voices in this thread and everywhere else advocating for IWL. I'm choosing not to be one of them. As I said, while I'm personally opposed to advocating for it, I only explicitly object to it being the response to this sort of post/comment.
Your perception, being neither mine nor the other person's, is not particularly relevant to the conversation. That's not a "nice" answer, but I find this incredibly unproductive as a response so...
I’m not seeing the problem here?
Your perception, being neither mine nor the other person's, is not particularly relevant to the conversation. That's not a "nice" answer, but I find this incredibly unproductive as a response so this is me calling it as I see it.
I don't like conversations about IWL. My post is more of a PSA. Feel free to ignore it, and this, as you like.
Sure it is - this is a public forum and your overly hostile response to the mildest of polite disagreement is seemingly not in the spirit of Tildes. Asking for clarification is trying to...
Your perception, being neither mine nor the other person's, is not particularly relevant to the conversation.
Sure it is - this is a public forum and your overly hostile response to the mildest of polite disagreement is seemingly not in the spirit of Tildes. Asking for clarification is trying to understand what, if anything, I was missing.
Apparently the answer is that I was not missing anything - you simply are not interested in having a discussion with anyone who doesn’t share your opinion. That’s your prerogative, but it seems a bit strange to be upset that people might have the audacity to reply to your post on a discussion forum.
I wrote a reminder to folks that everything doesn't have to be about weight loss for them individually, specifically addressing people with mental health issues and consistent stigma around weight...
I wrote a reminder to folks that everything doesn't have to be about weight loss for them individually, specifically addressing people with mental health issues and consistent stigma around weight loss and that people who tell you to lose weight as if it's a new concept are not being helpful. Especially in January.
Replying with "but weight loss is good actually" (when I didn't even say more than "do what is right for you") doesn't respond to what I said, but ignores it. The people who my post was for, are actually harmed by that sort of comment.
That’s very sage advice, I’m glad you shared. But I mis-parsed your last sentence and spent an unfortunate amount of time pondering how I might change my measures of success after each poop. Edit:...
That’s very sage advice, I’m glad you shared.
But I mis-parsed your last sentence and spent an unfortunate amount of time pondering how I might change my measures of success after each poop.
Edit: this comment meant for amusement purposes only
It's easy. Measure your weight in the evening, then measure your weight after pooping in the morning. Ezpz 1-2 kg weight loss every night! Actual point being is weight should be measured and...
It's easy. Measure your weight in the evening, then measure your weight after pooping in the morning. Ezpz 1-2 kg weight loss every night!
Actual point being is weight should be measured and tracked over months, not days. Kinda like stock market gains/losses.
I recommend tracking your weight; I've been doing it for many years. It's a simple thing you can do to learn things about yourself.
For me personally, the thing that I've noticed has the biggest effect is: when I am thirsty am I drinking water or something with calories? So, when I feel like I need to lose weight, my rule is that if I'm thirsty I have to drink at least one sip of water. And then if I still want something sweet afterwards I can, but minimum one sip of water. (Of course usually this leads to me totally quenching my thirst with water and not having anything sweet, which is the point, but I'm not forbidding myself sugar drinks, just requiring water, so the rule doesn't feel restrictive to me.)
I stopped drinking soda around two months ago, and had a glass at the new years party, it tasted almost overwhelmingly sweet, I was surprised!
I definitely have noticed just feeling overall better without the soda
Sugary drinks are terrible for your weight. I would even go for a full glass of water before taking a sugary drink, instead of just a sip. Works great.
Oh yeah, I do, but the RULE is a sip. That way I'm reminded of the fact that what I actually am feeling is thirst, not desire for sugar haha
I'm going to nitpick some, but the headline ("most adults will gain half a kilo this year - and every year") is misleading, if not outright incorrect. The article references a literature review [1] which states that "the average weight gain is 0.5 to 1 kg per year" (note that this claim is already different from the headline), which is a summary of this study from 1993 [2].
I'm not here to squabble about whether a study from 1993 -- which itself is based on data collected in the '70s and '80s -- is still a good barometer for 2025; let's just assume it is. (The literature review also references a study from 2014 comparing BMI [3], which shows similar-ish results but is tabulated in a less useful way to compare trends; see table 5.) Williamson's study concerns itself with the percentage of weight gain by age, sex, and ethnicity over a ten year period; I've reproduced the table for age and sex below.
Average weight gain by age and sex. The parentheses in the second column denote the 1-sigma uncertainty of the last digit. The third column shows the standard deviation of the weight gain for the subjects included in the study.
There are some fairly noteworthy conclusions one can draw from this table:
Finally, the recommendations in the posted article are not supported by the lit review it draws from. To quote from the executive summary (emphasis added) [1],
Nothing new here, but going to use this as a reminder to folks that health is more than a number on a scale, and that no matter how much of the language this coming month is centered around weight loss, it doesn't have to be your goal. Hopefully those you care about, and care about you, will avoid the language of diet culture of and intentional weight loss if it's not a healthy conversation for you. Advice in articles like these is not designed for everyone, especially people with disordered eating, but also people who deal with stigma around their weight and appearance year round.
Your choices are yours and your body is yours and no one is actually being helpful if they tell you to lose weight as if this is a new concept you'd never heard of.
Work with your doctor (and one that listens to you not one that doesn't treat you for anything because you're fat) and a dietician if you can on what is right for you.
Are your labs good? Are you taking your meds? Did you find a way to move around today? Did you do something that made you genuinely smile and feel good?
Find measures that mean more to you than a number that will vary every time you poop.
There's no point to stressing out about it to the point of causing anxiety-related health issues, but at the same time, it's hard to discount the dramatic health benefits of being in a healthy weight range will cause. Maybe it shouldn't be the number one goal in your life, but it should probably be somewhere on the list.
Why would my comment be where you'd reply saying, "no actually you should try to change your weight intentionally?"
Because I think people should, in aggregate, change their weight if it falls beyond healthy ranges?
For some people this is suggesting that they start cutting again. Or drinking. For others it's just telling them they should do a thing despite there being nothing that statistically causes that thing for more than a small percentage of people in the long term. Everyone has already heard of it. Almost all of the advice leads to the same outcome, a small percentage of long term weight loss, and some of it is incredibly deeply unhealthy for everyone. This time of uear is full of unsolicited weight loss advice and tons of both explicit and implicit "your body is bad and you failed last year" messaging.
People can work with their professionals on what matters most to them. Their doctor can tell them if it is useful or not. The aggregate ignores the real people impacted by one's words. Please feel free to advocate for IWL elsewhere but it won't be received well by me.
Most of those studies are about people with obesity. But additional weight just in the "overweight" category is also quite bad, and weight loss is more likely in that case.
Additionally, as the article points out, the older you get, the more your muscle mass deteriorates and the more your stable point moves higher. So as you get older, even if you are in a healthy weight, you need to put in more effort with every year. That's something people should keep in mind.
We're also in a different time, with medications that seem to be highly effective at keeping weight down that are only getting cheaper. This includes those who are obese.
There's nothing wrong with disagreeing, but I have no reason to not reply to your posts. I have as much a right as you do to opine on the issue.
Once again, for some people you're suggesting they start cutting themselves again and you seem to have no care for that.
This is ironic given that obese people are the most likely to be told how much they need to lose weight and as you said, the least likely to benefit from any weight loss strategy because they just don't statistically work.
You need to "put in more effort" at losing weight only if losing weight is your goal. People who are fat already are incredibly aware of that.
They're very expensive with sometimes serious side effects and if you stop taking them, you regain the weight. Many people don't want to have to take medication to be ok with their bodies and weight is only a piece of health.
You do have all the rights. but again, to me, you're advocating for people to re-engage in self-harm and addiction. You can opine, but I find it quite harmful and hurtful. I don't find advocating for IWL a kind, caring or helpful thing to do. My responses will continue to reflect this worldview. I am trying to be very direct and explicit about that so there's no confusion.
It seems like a perfectly reasonable place for them to reply. It’s unreasonable to expect that everyone will agree with you, and /u/stu2b50 was pretty mild in their response. I’m not seeing the problem here?
My perception is similar to yours, it seemed a fairly mild response. Additionally my perception is that this issue seems to be one that gets complicated because there's more to health than physical health and more to physical health than just weight. I'm not trying to speak for anyone by saying that, but that seems to be where if you start at that base, focusing on weight loss in particular can become contentious.
Being healthy is good, but optimal health isn't always an option for anyone at any given point in their life, and thus there's always some potential trade off for that. Personally, if I were to try to have a healthier diet than I have right now, it would make my life worse and consequently my health worse in other aspects. I didn't come away with the impression from the initial reply that it was suggesting that I sacrifice other aspects of health for better weight. I mean it might up to a point, but not to the point of being aggressive or dangerous about it.
So the way I see it is, optimal health isn't an option for everyone, probably everyone balances different health tradeoffs and perhaps focusing on weight loss more than others seems problematic or not being able to visually see other health effects since they aren't all outwardly observable like weight can be contentious. I think the balancing act is that trying to convey that health encompasses more than weight results in messages that come across as though weight isn't important for health and then trying to correct that comes across as though weight is worth so much of your health that you should prioritize it as number one. I don't think that's what was conveyed in that reply though.
If we recognize health is multifaceted and we're all making tradeoffs and some are more visible than others, as long as we're not pretending like we're not making those tradeoffs then we're not misinforming people. I'm currently a little overweight and I know I'm making that tradeoff and I know that it means I have increased risk factors for various issues, just like I know that not making that tradeoff entails various issues in other ways. Let me be clear on that last statement, I'm not intentionally choosing to be overweight, I'm just pushing away the highly intense negative feelings of hunger or avoiding certain foods by eating more than I need to or should for lack of a better alternative. I didn't come away with the impression that the reply in question was telling me I need to prioritize suffering through other issues in order to lose weight.
This strikes me as completely reasonable. Nobody is perfect, we all just try to make the best decisions we can with the information and resources we have. It’s only natural that priorities will differ for any number of reasons from person to person.
I think the other poster who is characterizing weight loss as equivalent to self-harm is taking an overly extreme stance, which is alienating and counterproductive. I have no doubt that there are people for whom the topic is distressing, I just don’t think that’s a good reason to avoid talking about it.
I have been really explicit in the comparison of self harm that this is for some people. People who have disordered eating use the same language of recovery as many people who self harm. Talking about the benefits of weight loss is like talking about the benefits of cutting to them. Folks who do not find conversations of weight loss healthy are who my post was directed to.
I personally dislike its discussion in general, but only strongly object to the discussion of it in response to my comment, targeted at folks for whom this isn't healthy.
Look, I understand you mean well, but I think it's harmful to talk about eating disorders in such a black and white way as if weight-loss is a universally bad thing. For some people that struggle with binge eating and all the related health problems, making a New Year's resolution to lose weight and develop a healthier relationship with food is super important.
What I actually said:
If you want to set a goal to lose weight, that's a "your body" thing.
Also less than 10% of people succeed at meeting their resolution goals. NY resolutions are notoriously bad for achieving goals. That's admittedly slightly higher than the success rate for long term weight loss though, so if you are part of the 25% that makes it past a month, and the 10% that achieves your goal you might be part of the 3-5% percent that maintains weight loss with any given method.
My point here being that its probably not helpful to almost anyone to set a resolution to lose weight even if that is the goal they want to pursue. For people with a binge eating disorder, a healthier relationship with food is absolutely important, that probably won't come from guilt about gaining weight as you get older, but counseling and a doctor. And it will depend on what is right for them.
I spoke specifically to people who struggle every January with hearing how much everyone around them thinks fatness is bad and weight loss is good. Whether they have a diagnosed ED, have anxiety about their body, or just exist as a fat person in a world that will restrict your medical care, mock you for existing, and consistently tells you how bad your body is, there are folks this language is very toxic to. It is a helpful thing to be reminded that this is not everyone, and that regardless of societal pressures their goals and health can be their own to manage.
There are plenty of other voices in this thread and everywhere else advocating for IWL. I'm choosing not to be one of them. As I said, while I'm personally opposed to advocating for it, I only explicitly object to it being the response to this sort of post/comment.
Your perception, being neither mine nor the other person's, is not particularly relevant to the conversation. That's not a "nice" answer, but I find this incredibly unproductive as a response so this is me calling it as I see it.
I don't like conversations about IWL. My post is more of a PSA. Feel free to ignore it, and this, as you like.
Sure it is - this is a public forum and your overly hostile response to the mildest of polite disagreement is seemingly not in the spirit of Tildes. Asking for clarification is trying to understand what, if anything, I was missing.
Apparently the answer is that I was not missing anything - you simply are not interested in having a discussion with anyone who doesn’t share your opinion. That’s your prerogative, but it seems a bit strange to be upset that people might have the audacity to reply to your post on a discussion forum.
I wrote a reminder to folks that everything doesn't have to be about weight loss for them individually, specifically addressing people with mental health issues and consistent stigma around weight loss and that people who tell you to lose weight as if it's a new concept are not being helpful. Especially in January.
Replying with "but weight loss is good actually" (when I didn't even say more than "do what is right for you") doesn't respond to what I said, but ignores it. The people who my post was for, are actually harmed by that sort of comment.
That’s very sage advice, I’m glad you shared.
But I mis-parsed your last sentence and spent an unfortunate amount of time pondering how I might change my measures of success after each poop.
Edit: this comment meant for amusement purposes only
Edit2: apropoop https://www.sciencealert.com/pooping-before-you-exercise-has-an-incredible-effect-on-performance?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link&ICID=ref_fark
It's easy. Measure your weight in the evening, then measure your weight after pooping in the morning. Ezpz 1-2 kg weight loss every night!
Actual point being is weight should be measured and tracked over months, not days. Kinda like stock market gains/losses.
I reworded and dropped a clause, maybe that helps.
But if poop related measures are your vibe, I'm not the one who will tell you otherwise