„The Weight-Cycling Industry“

Linda Bacon, Autorin eines meiner liebsten Bücher zum Thema „Dick und gesund“, nämlich „Health at every Size“ schreibt in ihrem HAES-Blog über die Diätindustrie, die eigentlich eine Ab- und-Wieder-Zunehm-Industrie ist. Außerdem erwähnt sie einen Punkt, den viele Body-Acceptance-Blogger_innen auch schon entdeckt haben: Jemand, der versucht, sein abgenommenes Gewicht zu halten, schafft das in den allermeisten Fällen nur, indem er Methoden anwendet, die einer Essstörung gleichen. Und das soll gesünder sein als dick zu sein? Ich bezweifele es stark.

„Why do we call it the “weight loss industry” when what we really get for our time, sacrifice, and money is weight cycling? 19 times out of 20, what we are really purchasing is the experience of weight loss and regain. (…)

Of 100 people trying to lose weight, the vast majority of people will regain weight. Some significant group – perhaps a third – will gain more weight than they lost. Some tiny number (7? 5? 3?) will maintain their weight loss, and of that group, some number from 0-4 of them will be flirting with, developing, or fortifying an eating disorder. Yes, you read me right. (…) If you read the practices of the people quoted in the Weight Management Registry, a group of several thousand people who have lost at least 30 pounds for at least 1 year, you will see some of the same practices and preoccupations we diagnose in people with eating disorders, including daily weighing, immediate compensation on the occasion of weight gain, logging every bite of food, exercising more than 90 minutes/day, etc.“

Leslie von Two Whole Cakes hat die eingangs erwähnten Methoden in schöne Worte gefasst:

„Fat people are often supported in hating their bodies, in starving themselves, in engaging in unsafe exercise and in seeking out weight loss by any means necessary. A thin person who does these things is considered mentally ill. A fat person who does these things is redeemed by them.”