Three women with different body Types Posing In workout clothes with a Brown Background. Health At Every Size and Body Positivity.

What is HAES? Understanding Health At Every Size

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Health At Every Size is a relatively new take on health that overlooks a person’s weight. It’s becoming more well-known, and it’s making people—including healthcare workers—question what they always thought about health in general. In this post, I’ll explain the Health At Every Size movement and what it means for you.

What is Health At Every Size?

Health At Every Size, or HAES, is a way of looking at health from a new perspective. The objective of HAES is to get rid of weight as a health indicator, as well as remove the stigma larger people face. Instead, HAES claims that beliefs surrounding beauty and health have a negative impact on our mental and physical wellness, especially for overweight people.

The idea of Health At Every Size has been around since the 1960s but has been gaining more traction over the past 10-15 years. It works against the diet industry, which says you need to be thin to be happy and healthy. Instead, HAES encourages people to eat healthily, get active, and not worry about whatever size they are.

HAES is also about respecting your body and allowing it to thrive at whatever weight it wants to be. It teaches people that health comes in all shapes and sizes, and body types vary based on many factors such as race, gender, and geographical location. The movement celebrates our differences and is all-inclusive.

"Real beauty is to be true to oneself. That's what makes me feel good." – Laetitia Casta Click To Tweet

Is HAES a Bad Thing?

It’s commonly believed that HAES promotes obesity and causes people to become overweight and worsen their health. However, HAES isn’t telling people to be obese. It encourages people to accept their bodies as they are while focusing on healthy habits and total wellbeing. Even if giving up dieting causes them to gain weight.

HAES states that fitness and proper nutrition can be obtained at any size. That the worst health factor larger-bodied people face is discrimination, which can lead to mental illness, self-hate, and stress. Overweight people have a hard time getting proper healthcare as well, with symptoms being blamed on obesity. This can cause underlying illnesses to go undiagnosed.

The HAES movement also insists obesity has been wrongly made a villain by people in the healthcare industry. That being overweight was never as big a health problem as it’s made out to be, and many studies are biased. HAES challenges many of the beliefs people have about weight loss and argues with the idea that obesity is a burden on healthcare systems.

How to Live Healthy at Any Size

Health At Every Size encourages you to take your mind off your weight so you can do more meaningful things with your life. It tells you to free yourself from the manipulation of diet culture. You can give up wasting money on supplements or weird body-shaping products and focus on what makes you happy instead.

HAES inspires you to be comfortable in your body and respect it rather than fight with it. It says to get active in ways you love, instead of working out to look a certain way or because you think you need to.

It also promotes intuitive eating, which involves listening to the hunger cues your body is giving you. Intuitive eating is a form of self-care, where you eat to satisfy your cravings and try to get good nutrition. If you learn to eat intuitively, you’ll never overeat or undereat. A good relationship with food makes you healthier mentally, physically, and socially as well.

Lastly, HAES allows you to reject the mentality people have around someone in a larger body. You’ll understand being overweight is not always because of food or activity level. You’ll stop thinking of larger-bodied people as unhealthy or lazy. Health At Every Size teaches you to be compassionate to others.

Health At Every Size vs. Ideal Body Weight

The Health At Every Size debate doesn’t discriminate against people considered the “ideal body weight.” Instead, it disagrees with the idea that there’s an ideal weight at all. Judging by the damage people can do trying to lose weight or stay at a weight that’s too low, the argument is valid.

Of course, this wouldn’t be a problem if it weren’t for the diet industry. Ads promoting quick weight loss and fad diets don’t help anyone but the advertiser. Dieting never works in the long run and can harm your body, lead to weight cycling, or even weight gain in the end.

On the other hand, obesity isn’t something you should take lightly. Being obese is proven to worsen many health problems, such as diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and infertility. For me personally, being obese brought on tiredness, worsened depression, and made it harder to do my job. But I also know losing weight isn’t the reason I’m happier now. Tackling my binge eating and self-hate is.

Whether you decide to stay at your current weight or aim for a more “ideal” body weight, you should keep in mind what matters most: your happiness. If dropping that extra 10 pounds to be in the healthy BMI range is making you miserable, it’s not worth it. Do what you need to in order to live a life you enjoy.

Two African American Ladies Holding Hands. Different Bodies. Health At Every Size

Learn More About HAES

If you’re looking to learn more about HAES and have a good relationship with eating again, I have the perfect recommendation! Anti-Diet by Christy Harrison is a book that shows readers how they can take back their power from diet culture. It teaches you how to master intuitive eating so you can stop binging and dieting for good.

If you haven’t read Anti-Diet yet, I wholly recommend it. This book helped me finally stop the binge/restrict cycle and move on with my life. Christy herself reads the audiobook, which puts genuine emotion into the words you’re hearing. If you’d like more information on the book, I wrote an in-depth and honest review here.

Below are quick links to the book on Amazon!

Health At Every Size: In Summary

Health At Every Size is a way to focus on being healthy without worrying about your body size. It involves eating nutritiously while enjoying the foods you crave and getting active in ways that bring you joy. HAES promotes total wellness by removing the stigma that heavier people face and allowing everyone to live without obsessing over their weight.

What are your thoughts on HAES? Do you agree with it? Let me know in the comments!

That’s it for now everyone. If you’ve found some value in this post, please share it to inspire others too! Thanks!

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16 thoughts on “What is HAES? Understanding Health At Every Size”

  1. Yessss. This is so important. As long as you are healthy – your weight shouldn’t be something to obsess over. I’ve seen so many plus sized influncers get called out for encouraging unhealthy bodies and that culture really needs to stop of judging people on their weight. Love the post. ❤️

    1. It’s best to just be healthy and let your weight fall where it wants. That’s what I’ve been doing 😊. Thanks girl!

  2. Ang, good post. I think we need to strive to be best version of ourselves. Magazines and social media tell us how we are supposed to look, when only a small percentage can look like that. Barbie, as a doll, set an impossible goal for young women with her unrealistic dimensions. With that said, it does help if we can be a healthy version of ourselves. As a country, the US is the most obese country in the world – too much supersizing, sugar infected products, and fried foods. We are train wrecks waiting to happen as we age. So, we need not look like a supermodel, but we should not be morbidly obese either. Keith

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  4. Sometimes, it is hard to love yourself, to love your body, all the time. This article has made me realize that regardless of my weight, of my size, I am perfectly fine just the way that I am. It should not matter what others say about a person’s size or weight, not everyone can be skinny. Being ‘skinny’ for some people, it may come naturally to them, while others, if they become ‘skinny’, they may be considered anorexic, which can be very unhealthy. I have always been big, and sometimes my medication(s) (past, present, possible future) has been playing a role in my weight, as well as stress and health conditions. I don’t care what you look like, what you believe in, or what your health situations are, you are you for a reason, you deserve to be loved like everyone else, and I accept you for you.

  5. Yes Yes Yes! I tell this to my clients all the time. Health is not just about size. Some of my clients re small and appear to be in ideal heath but that could not be further from the truth.

  6. Pingback: Diet Culture: What It Is And How To Ignore It - Lose Weight With Ang

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