How to stop wishing to be thin

Do you want to stop wishing to be thin and accept your body?

Never fear, I’ve got three facts to help you stop wishing to be thin!

These facts totally changed the way I viewed my ability to control my weight.

I hope they help you too.

Listen or read below:

The desire to be thin

When I start working with a client, she’s often struggling with the desire to be thin. While at the same time, she wants to accept her body.

Not surprisingly, many women still cling to the hope that they might achieve the thin ideal that we see in the media.

This ideal and the belief that it’s achievable if you only try hard enough is pervasive in our culture.

The multibillion-dollar diet industry wants you to believe this because they make money from women that hate their bodies.

To help clients stop wishing to be thin, I encourage them to educate themselves about weight and bodies – to turn to robust scientific evidence about what is possible when it comes to trying to control your weight.

3 reasons to stop wishing to be thin

Here are the three facts that helped me stop wishing to be thin and I hope they’ll help you too!

Fact #1: Body diversity is real

We aren’t all supposed to be the same size. Even if we ate the same foods and did the same amount of exercise, we’d never be the same weight!

The thin ideal that you see in the media represents around only 5% of the female population.

Body diversity is real. Each body is unique – that’s the way it’s meant to be.

Your body size is largely determined by your genes – something over which you have no control (some studies suggest that as much as 80% of your body size is determined by genetics).

There is no ‘diet’ in the world that is going to give you the ideal thin body if it’s not part of your biology.

Fact #2: Your body is wired to fight against food restriction

Your body has a predetermined weight range (over which you have no control) that it will work to keep you within. This is part of your body’s survival system, working to protect you from starvation. This is known as set point theory.

When you eat in a restrictive way, your body feels like it is experiencing famine, and will fight to stop you weight dropping below your set point.

Your set point weight can even increase as your body attempts to ward off starvation.

This is one reason why diets just don’t work, because they go against your natural biology.

Fact #3: Weight loss efforts consistently result in weight gain

Because your body is not designed for restriction (due to your natural set point), diets fail at least 95% of the time (and some studies estimate this as high as 98%).

As your body fights against restriction, yo-yo dieting can lead to an increase in set point, resulting in weight gain.

Even if you lose weight in the short term, long term intentional weight loss isn’t achievable for most people, with most gaining more weight than they lost.

If you’ve been dieting for years and wondering why your weight has been creeping up, the diets are the problem!

So, there you have it, three facts about weight that diet culture certainly doesn’t want you to know!

Additional resources to help you stop wishing to be thin

If you’d like to learn more, I highly recommend the books, ‘Body Respect’ and ‘Health at Every Size’ both by Lindo Bacon.

Intellectually understanding these facts can help you to stop wishing to be thin.

It may be a relief to know that diets are destined to fail and that it’s not your fault. Remember, the diets are failing you, not the other way around!

Your body isn’t a commodity that you can manipulate into a specific size or shape – your biology is far more complex than that!

But while it’s useful to understand these facts, healing your relationship with your body is more complex than just learning about ‘set point theory’ and ‘body diversity’.

To feel comfortable in your body, you need to peel back the layers of conditioning that have kept you stuck in body shame for so long.

I’d love to help you get unstuck from body shame, so you can free up your energy and head space to focus on what really lights you up.

If you’d like to take the first step towards a better relationship with your body, you can book one of my Body Confidence Break-Through Sessions.

It will help you identify the biggest block to body acceptance and how you can clear it.

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