Anonymous wrote:I would not put too much stock in Maintenance Phase. They did an episode on a topic on which I am a subject matter expert and the research was completely shoddy. They missed key publications. Their product is a product designed to generate buzz and likes, like everything else. Plus obviously she has an agenda to advance. Researchers need to be neutral.

Anonymous wrote:I have tears in my eyes. That article really spoke to me. The whole article captured how I feel, but especially these at the beginning and end:

"Growing up, my mother’s weight was the uncredited co-star of every family drama, the obvious, unspoken reason why she never got out of the car when she picked me up from school, why she disappeared from the family photo album for years at a time, why she spent hours making meatloaf then sat beside us eating a bowl of carrots."

"Her patients, she says, often live in the past or the future with their weight. They tell her they are waiting until they are smaller to go back to school or apply for a new job. They beg her to return them to their high school or wedding or first triathlon weight, the one that will bring back their former life."

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a "skinny" person and probably get some very small fraction of body shaming in people telling me I'm too thin, offering me cookies, etc. I eat healthy and I eat a lot, and I also want to be left alone. But bullies will bully you for whatever they can articulate, and there are a surprisingly high number of the.

While I really like the article, I really wish we would stop talking about bullies so much (who are unlikely to change after reading the article, no matter how factual it is) and start integrating healthy food and habits into society so they are accessible. It is very hard to choose healthy foods when they are either MUCH more expensive or MUCH more time consuming to prepare. It's also harder to walk or bike to work in most of the USA. Systemically removing sugar and processed foods from the food chain and building livable cities is nowhere in the policy conversation. We are adding bike lanes, which is great, but that's about the only real initiative I've seen in major American cities. I am surprised insurance companies aren't lobbying for these changes.

Your last paragraph is so on point.

I currently live in London and my default mode of getting around is on foot and bike and I have 15-20 minute walks and bikes at least 2x a day. I love it.

We are planning to move back to the US to a car centric city and my DH (who struggles to keep under the “morbidly obese” category) are already talking about how much harder it will be to manage our weights!in the US. Portion sizes, too many additives to processed foods. All of it.

Watching my DH has been extremely eye opening.

Anonymous wrote:I'm a "skinny" person and probably get some very small fraction of body shaming in people telling me I'm too thin, offering me cookies, etc. I eat healthy and I eat a lot, and I also want to be left alone. But bullies will bully you for whatever they can articulate, and there are a surprisingly high number of the.

While I really like the article, I really wish we would stop talking about bullies so much (who are unlikely to change after reading the article, no matter how factual it is) and start integrating healthy food and habits into society so they are accessible. It is very hard to choose healthy foods when they are either MUCH more expensive or MUCH more time consuming to prepare. It's also harder to walk or bike to work in most of the USA. Systemically removing sugar and processed foods from the food chain and building livable cities is nowhere in the policy conversation. We are adding bike lanes, which is great, but that's about the only real initiative I've seen in major American cities. I am surprised insurance companies aren't lobbying for these changes.

Anonymous wrote:In a nutshell: fat shaming does not help.