Weight Loss & Body Size
focused on good science, fitness, size acceptance, and health at every size.
Research and research-related
"The Fat Trap," Tara Parker-Pope, The New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/magazine/tara-parker-pope-fat-trap.html?pagewanted=all
Study cited in this article:
"Long-Term Persistence of Hormonal Adaptations to Weight Loss," http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1105816
"Losing weight? That may not mean you’re any healthier," Tom Jacobs, Pacific Standard / Salon
“We uncovered no clear relationship between weight loss and health outcomes related to hypertension, diabetes, or cholesterol,” they write, “calling into question whether weight change per se had any causal role in the few effects of the diets. Increased exercise, healthier eating, engagement with the health-care system, and social support may have played a role instead.”
http://www.salon.com/2013/12/06/losing_weight_that_doesnt_mean_youre_any_healthier_partner/
Study cited in this article:
"Long-term Effects of Dieting: Is Weight Loss Related to Health?," http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/spc3.12076/abstract
"...We evaluate whether weight loss improves health by reviewing health outcomes of long-term randomized controlled diet studies. We examine whether weight-loss diets lead to improved cholesterol, triglycerides, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and fasting blood glucose and test whether the amount of weight lost is predictive of these health outcomes. Across all studies, there were minimal improvements in these health outcomes, and none of these correlated with weight change."
"Why I Quit Dieting / Do I have to lose weight to be healthy?," Amber at Body Positive Yoga
Includes lots of resources and links to research
http://bodypositiveyoga.com/why-i-quit-dieting/
"For Fat Patients and Their Doctors," Ragen Chastain at Dances with Fat
(Includes links to research)
http://danceswithfat.wordpress.com/2012/04/21/for-fat-patients-and-their-doctors/
"What To Say at the Doctor's Office," Ragen Chastain at Dances with Fat
Cards to take with you to the doctor's office; includes links to research
http://danceswithfat.wordpress.com/2013/04/01/what-to-say-at-the-doctors-office/
Dr. Zetcetera's summary of her thesis research on obesity and health
http://doctorzetcetera.blogspot.com/2012/04/thesis-executive-summary.html
"Weight Science: Evaluating the Evidence for a Paradigm Shift," Linda Bacon and Lucy Amphramor, Nutrition Journal
'Current guidelines recommend that "overweight" and "obese" individuals lose weight through engaging in lifestyle modification involving diet, exercise and other behavior change. This approach reliably induces short term weight loss, but the majority of individuals are unable to maintain weight loss over the long term and do not achieve the putative benefits of improved morbidity and mortality. Concern has arisen that this weight focus is not only ineffective at producing thinner, healthier bodies, but may also have unintended consequences, contributing to food and body preoccupation, repeated cycles of weight loss and regain, distraction from other personal health goals and wider health determinants, reduced self-esteem, eating disorders, other health decrement, and weight stigmatization and discrimination. This concern has drawn increased attention to the ethical implications of recommending treatment that may be ineffective or damaging. A growing trans-disciplinary movement called Health at Every Size (HAES) challenges the value of promoting weight loss and dieting behavior and argues for a shift in focus to weight-neutral outcomes. Randomized controlled clinical trials indicate that a HAES approach is associated with statistically and clinically relevant improvements in physiological measures (e.g., blood pressure, blood lipids), health behaviors (e.g., eating and activity habits, dietary quality), and psychosocial outcomes (such as self-esteem and body image), and that HAES achieves these health outcomes more successfully than weight loss treatment and without the contraindications associated with a weight focus. This paper evaluates the evidence and rationale that justifies shifting the health care paradigm from a conventional weight focus to HAES.'
http://www.nutritionj.com/content/10/1/9
"Health at Every Size: The Surprising Truth About Your Weight," Linda Bacon
http://www.lindabacon.org/haesbook/
Size acceptance and intuitive eating improve health for obese, female chronic dieters, Bacon L, Stern JS, Van Loan MD, Keim NL, Journal of the American Dietetic Association
"The health at every size approach enabled participants to maintain long-term behavior change; the diet approach did not. Encouraging size acceptance, reduction in dieting behavior, and heightened awareness and response to body signals resulted in improved health risk indicators for obese women."
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15942543
Study on healthy lifestyle habits and the health of obese and overweight people:
Write-up about the study: http://danceswithfat.wordpress.com/2012/04/19/study-healthy-habits-make-healthy-fatties/
Original article about the study: http://www.jabfm.org/content/25/1/9.abstract?etoc
The effects of losing 25% of one's body mass over 6 months:
"They Starved So That Others Be Better Fed: Remembering Ancel Keys and the Minnesota Experiment," http://jn.nutrition.org/content/135/6/1347.full
"The Great Starvation Experiment, 1944-1945," http://www.madsciencemuseum.com/msm/pl/great_starvation_experiment
More Resources
"Fat and Bad Knees," The Fat Chick at The Fat Chick Sings
"Not all fat people have knee pain. Not all thin people are free from knee pain. But whatever your size, there are things you can do to protect your knees and help you cope with knee pain should it arise. Make sure you get the help you need, and don’t let anybody scare, threaten or intimidate you by diagnosing you with having knees while fat."
http://fatchicksings.com/2013/06/10/fat-and-bad-knees/
"Fat People and Our Knees," Ragen Chastain at Dances with Fat
https://danceswithfat.wordpress.com/2015/05/20/fat-people-and-our-knees/
Health At Every Size Community
Size Acceptance FAQs
http://danceswithfat.wordpress.com/2012/08/15/size-acceptance-faqs/
"Fat Civil Rights Simplified," Ragen Chastain, Dances with Fat
http://danceswithfat.wordpress.com/2013/05/30/fat-civil-rights-simplified/
"The Body's Battle with Weight Loss," The Fat Chick
http://fatchicksings.com/2013/05/14/the-bodys-battle-with-weight-loss/