3 Reasons Why You Feel Better When You Lose Weight
How many times have you said or thought “I just feel better when I’m smaller,” or “when I lose weight I feel better!” It’s not uncommon, but it is misguided. There are many reasons you might feel better physically and mentally when you lose weight, but I encourage you to pause before giving a number on the scale that much credit. Let’s go over three reasons why you feel better when you lose weight.
1. you’re acting healthier
The reason I said you’re “acting” healthier rather than you “are” healthier is because being thin does not magically make you healthy. There's a good chance that you're engaging in increased health behaviors in the pursuit of weight loss. This might look like increasing movement, eating more nutrient-dense foods, etc. Performing these actions may lead to weight loss, which is why it has been “common knowledge” that weight loss leads to health. However, that couldn’t be further from the truth because there are plenty of people who perform health behaviors and don’t lose weight who still reap the benefits of health. There are also people who lose weight for reasons not having to do with health promoting behaviors and are not healthy.
It makes sense then if you’re practicing more health promoting behaviors in the pursuit of weight loss, that you would feel better physically, mentally, and maybe even emotionally. A question to ask yourself: Is there a way to implement some of those things in a way that feels good while not giving the actual weight loss so much credit?
2. thinness is a virtue in our society
If being smaller gives you benefits like being able to shop anywhere you want, proper medical care, easily fitting in airplane seats, and so much more, it makes sense why you’d feel better in a smaller body! The truth is, our society treats fat people like crap on a systemic level. A lot of folks pursue weight loss because it genuinely keeps them safe. That’s completely understandable as much as it is heartbreaking. The way fatphobia and weight stigma affect how we literally feel in our bodies at certain sizes is extraordinarily important to name and is often the thing we think the least about having a major influence on wanting to shrink ourselves.
If your safety is not threatened by existing in your non-weight-suppressed body, it can still feel good to strive towards a body type that our culture deems more “acceptable.” But at what cost to your wellbeing? How could you instead use that energy to change the stigma around body size in our culture?
3. you’re holding yourself back until you’re thinner
How many times have you said to yourself: “I’ll wear that when I’m Xlbs,” “I can’t go to that party I’m too self-conscious about my weight,” “I can’t go on that vacation until I look good in a swimsuit,” “I can’t date until I’m thinner,” etc.? If there are certain activities or types of clothing you’re reserving for when you’re at your “goal weight,” of course you’re going to feel miserable until then. To you, living in a smaller body means freedom. Thinness means confidence and independence. Sure, living in a larger body can absolutely have an effect on confidence, largely due to thinness being a virtue in our society. But waiting to live your life until you reach a certain size that may or may never come to be is only harming your one and precious life in the here-and-now. The next time you think to yourself that you need to be a certain size to do or wear something, I encourage you to ask yourself: “What would it be like to do/wear any of those things right now?” “Why wait?” You might be surprised by what joys open up for you.
Pursuing weight loss is an individual decision. Body autonomy is incredibly important, and, it’s also important to consider some of the “why’s” behind intentional weight loss. We know it doesn’t work long-term, and yet so many people still pursue it. One of the biggest reasons I hear is that people “feel better” when they lose weight. It’s important to unpack how it might not actually be the weight loss at all, but rather what we give it credit for as well as our society at large.