A Weight Neutral Approach to Health
Weight loss is often the most talked about topic when it comes to being healthier and diabetes management. While short term weight loss is possible, keeping weight off long term (3-5 years or more) is harder to achieve.
Regular dieting or weight cycling (losing and regaining weight) can lead to negative feelings toward our body, disordered eating and make it harder to lose weight in the long term. After following a strict diet, most people have a higher appetite and eat more. This can lead to gaining back the weight that was lost and sometimes more.
These are some of the reasons health professionals found a different approach in weight neutral care. This can be known as the Health at Every Size (HAES) or Non-Diet Approach.
What is weight neutral?
Weight neutral defines health by looking past body weight and being thin as
the main goal. Instead, the goal is to respect our body and learn how to create healthy habits.
Weight neutral care is a service or view where weight loss is not the goal. It takes away any conversation about:
- Dieting
- Weight loss
- Negativity toward larger bodies
- Recommending specific weight loss goals or talking about numbers on the scale
If a health professional is offering weight neutral care, they will be encouraging you to focus on what you have control over (your behaviours or habits) instead of the number on the scale (your weight).
This is different to weight centric care which is a service or view where weight change is the main goal and thought to be essential.
| A diet approach sounds like: | A non- diet approach sounds like: |
| Perfection seeking, shaming, guilt, punishing yourself, hating your body, struggling, hunger, rules, “good or bad” foods | Flexibility, accepting, welcoming all foods, freedom, supportive, comfort, variety, forgiving, nourishing, balanced, enjoyable, nurturing |
What if my BMI is above the healthy weight range?
Body Mass Index (BMI) is a measure of your weight divided by your height in metres squared (BMI = kg ÷ m2).
It does not consider the make-up of your body (body composition) or behaviours that improve health such as:
- The quality of your diet
- Physical activity level
- Whether or not you smoke
- Alcohol intake
These behaviours are stronger risk factors for disease than weight or BMI alone. When we make changes to one or all these behaviours, we may still lose weight. However, there is research to show that making healthy lifestyle changes e.g. eating more nutritious foods, moving more, quitting smoking and drinking less alcohol, can improve blood pressure, cholesterol and blood glucose levels even without losing any weight.
Eating for wellbeing rather than weight loss
You may worry that if you stop trying to lose weight your eating and health could suffer, but the main difference will be a change in focus. A weight neutral or non-diet approach focuses on eating for wellbeing and good health instead of eating to lose weight.
Eating for wellbeing encourages flexible eating based on your own hunger, fullness, nutritional needs and pleasure, rather than an eating plan which is strict and focused on weight loss as the main goal.
Diets that are created for weight loss are often low-calorie meal plans that don’t look at a person's individual needs. With this type of plan, short term success is common. However, these plans are harder to stick to in the long term and usually leave us feeling like we are missing out.
Making small and sustainable changes to your diet and lifestyle that are suited to you as an individual are more likely to lead to behaviour change and better health in the long term.
What next?
There is no “one size fits all” approach and not everyone will be interested in weight neutral care or a non-diet approach. It’s still helpful to know that this is an option. If you are interested in weight neutral care, start the conversation with your health care team. If you’re looking for someone new, a list of health professionals who offer weight-neutral care can be found here.
You could also speak to one of our expert diabetes dietitians working in the new Diabetes Victoria Clinic. To find out more or book an appointment call 1300 153 123 or visit the website for more information.
Sammie Lyne
accredited practising dietitian at Diabetes Victoria.
Sammie is an Accredited Practising Dietitian with a passion for connecting communities with simple and practical nutrition information. She currently runs group programs for people living with diabetes including CarbSMART and ShopSMART, writes nutrition articles and provides support over the NDSS Helpline.
In her spare time Sammie can be found running around her local neighbourhood or attending the AFL
