Quick Guide: Will Weight Loss Improve/Cure This Health Condition?
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Often, after giving a talk about weight science, weight stigma, and healthcare, when the Q&A starts I’m greeted with multiple questions like “but doesn’t the research show that weight loss will improve [hypertension, fatty liver, type 2 diabetes, knee pain, etc.]
It’s not surprising that people (including healthcare providers) think this, and there certainly are studies whose conclusions suggest this, but given the myriad issues with weight science research and the weight loss industry’s use of it for profit, it’s critical to dig into that research.
I’ve written about this before in various ways, and I’ll link to some of that writing, but today I thought I would create a quick guide of questions that someone can ask themselves (or that you can ask someone who is asking these questions.)
In truth the question is basically moot since intentional weight loss fails the vast majority of the time, even if someone believes that weight loss would solve the issue, there’s still the pesky fact that most weight loss attempts end in total regain, with up to 66% of people regaining more than they lost.
Still, in examining this research, here are three quick questions to consider:
Does the research separate the impact of weight loss from behavior change?
Often what happens is that people make behavior changes, and then they experience health changes and some weight loss (typically a small amount of weight loss that is gained back within 2-5 years.) Even though the weight loss is small and simultaneous to the behavior changes, our weigh-obsessed culture credits the weight loss for the health changes, rather than crediting the behavior changes. (This is also despite the research that links health-supporting behaviors to health impacts, regardless of weight.) If someone is asking about what the research says, this limitation to the research is key to answering their question.
Does unintentional weight loss, or weight loss through other means result in this same health outcome?
If people lose weight unintentionally (without an increase in health-supporting behaviors,) or through liposuction etc., do they experience the same outcome? For example, in the study “Absence of an effect of liposuction on insulin action and risk factors for coronary heart disease,” Klein et al. found that “Abdominal liposuction does not significantly improve ob*sity*-associated metabolic abnormalities.” This is even though people are experiencing fat loss through these procedures. This, again, points to the idea that it’s not weight loss that is creating the health benefits.
Do thin people get this health issue?
If thin people get a health issue, then becoming thinner can neither be a sure preventative nor a sure cure. Moreover, if thin people get this health issue, then there are treatments that exist beyond trying to lose weight (especially using weight loss drugs and surgeries that risk fat people’s lives and quality of life.)
You can always check out the HAES Health Sheets for both diagnosis-specific, weight-neutral care guides and a resource and research bank.
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More Research
For a full bank of research, check out https://haeshealthsheets.com/resources/
*Note on language: I use “fat” as a neutral descriptor as used by the fat activist community, I use “ob*se” and “overw*ight” to acknowledge that these are terms that were created to medicalize and pathologize fat bodies, with roots in racism and specifically anti-Blackness. Please read Sabrina Strings: Fearing the Black Body – the Racial Origins of Fat Phobia and Da’Shaun Harrison: Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness for more on this.