The "Health At Every Size" (HAES) is a deeply flawed paradigm on many levels. However, this doesn't mean that it's necessarily 100% wrong about everything. I still find it useful to take a close look at positions I disagree with as sometimes they still offer a useful perspective. That is what this post about. In no particular order:
HAES stands against body shaming
I don't think that shaming other people is really a problem here, as we understand how easy it is to gain weight and hard it is to lose. I have however observed a lot of unproductive self-shame here, and by this I mean "I hate myself" kind of stuff. Not "I'm unhappy with the way I am and would like to change". Dissatisfaction and a desire to change should not descend into self-loathing. HAES takes it too far when they say any kind of intentional weight loss is inherently body shaming. But in general, the notion that even fat people are worthy of dignity and respect is sound - especially to yourself, even if you want to change.
HAES promotes health and wellness over weight loss per-se
This is a good way of looking at it. Everyone has motivations for losing weight - health, ability to be more active, aesthetics. It's important to remember that weight loss is a side effect of our goals, not necessarily the goal itself. The scale is a diagnostic tool on your journey. Some people get scale-obsessed, where their mood can swing wildy based around essentially random water weight fluctuations. It's important to keep an even keel as you go.
HAES promotes intuitive / mindful eating
Useful, with a huge number of caveats. Look, I don't think anyone wants to be counting calories forever. And in a pre-industrial world, hunter-gatherer tribes didn't count calories or get on treadmills, and they were lean and metabolically healthy. But they didn't deal with a culture saturated in cheap, abundant, hyper-palatable food. The way I see it, calorie counting is an important transition tool for modern humans in order to develop habits that look more like intuitive eating. Specifically, counting calories is important if:
- you just don't know what the right amount calories to maintain energy balance looks like
- your internal "off" switch has been desensitized, and you don't have an intuitive idea of "fullness"
- you eat for other emotional reasons, and putting a hard cap on what you can consume is a way to rationally overcome this
Combining intuitive/mindful eating practices with calorie counting is a pretty good idea. Being mindful can't hurt, and can only help. There is no reason a person can't do both, with eating only using our instincts as a goal. And hopefully we get there, but it's ok if we don't.
HAES is about sustainability
Although they give up on weight loss as a possibility, in general the approach they advocate is small, sustainable changes that work for you. The idea is to avoid unnecessary emotional stress, and create healthy habits that last a lifetime. Philosophically, I think this is sound. "crash diets" and massive lifestyle interventions can work, but it is true that the changes created by such interventions disappear when the interventions end. Slow and steady really does win the race.
I've hopefully stayed on task with what I think are some good aspects. Anyone have more?
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