Many of us in our weight loss journeys have likely heard someone say it. Maybe it was a family member trying to help us feel better about being fat, maybe it was someone online or in a Fat Acceptance organization where it is asserted as a fact, given the fact that obese people without other underlying health conditions exist, which I think is probably the most common way of hearing this phrase. Here's the thing, I've been thinking about this phrase as it's pertained to my weight loss journey so far, and the psychology of weight loss, and here's my take as a non medical professional with a mathematics background.
Before I was serious about losing weight, I was maintaining a weight at 310-340 lbs with my old habits. Roughly 4,500-6,000 calories/day, not exactly sedentary but also not exercising enough, binge eating weekly, drinking too many craft beers, I think a lot of us can relate. I had no underlying health conditions, but I was NOT being healthy at this weight. This weight, if sustained and no course correction is made, will take off years, if not decades from my projected lifespan.
Being healthy at a weight that is too high and substantially increases your risk for other health conditions introduces a math concept from calculus: understanding your rate of change at any given time. Being healthy at a particular weight that is a too high BMI, means that when taking a snapshot when you are at this weight, your weight is declining, meaning that your rate of change is negative, or if you're a math nerd like me, you must have a negative first derivative of the function of best fit at the weight you're at now ;).
As soon as I went from 4,500+ calories/day to a 1,750 average (range 1200-2500) and increased my exercise, I started being healthy at these high weights. But as a condition of being healthy at these weights, the pounds started falling off, because my rate of change in weight, the snapshot at any given time of where my weight is heading, was a downward trajectory closer to a normal BMI. I came to this realization when I thought, "man, being at 270,260,250... on the way DOWN, feels WAY BETTER than being at these weights on the way UP, and it's true. I feel WAY BETTER than I did while gaining at these weights." That's when I realized, this is what being "healthy at any weight" means. Those of us who previously had poor eating habits can still change and begin to change them. It's not easy, it's F*****g hard sometimes, but we can still be healthy. Changing your eating habits won't work immediately, it's a long process towards a lifestyle change, but once your work starts paying dividends, you realize what a difference it is between being at a weight you were before, but still losing and still going strong, and you feel way better, because you are LIVING HEALTHIER. Being healthy at a high BMI has as a necessary condition, that you will not be at this weight for long, you are on a downward trajectory, and will keep losing as your body adjusts to your new healthy lifestyle.
I still have work to do, but keeping in touch with the psychology surrounding weight loss has helped keep me motivated, and I thought I'd share my thoughts on a different take of this phrase that many of us with lots of weight to lose at high BMI's have likely heard, and may have formed poor eating habits off of as a result. Good luck to you all, come with me and CRUSH THOSE GOALS.
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