The message is everywhere: it comes at us from TV, newspapers, magazines, politicians, doctors and the diet industry. If you’re fat, you must lose weight to get healthy. If you don’t lose weight, you will die. You cannot be fat and healthy. You cannot be fat and fit.

But could the diet dogma be wrong? Lucy Aphramor thinks so. The co-founder, with Sharon Curtis, of Health At Every Size UK (HAES UK) is a dietician who’s turned her back on the belief that calorie reduction plus exercise will result in weight loss. Why? Because for the vast majority of people, dieting doesn’t work. The ‘common sense’ equation betrays everyone who puts the weight back on or finds no change in their weight. Until now, these people have been seen as failures. Aphramor, and others like her, say it’s not the dieters who’ve failed, it’s the diets.

In her myth-busting book, also called Health At Every Size, Linda Bacon contends that dieting ‘activates “thrifty genes” that induce weight gain, both by increasing your hunger drive and decreasing your metabolism’. She dismantles the dogma that weight-loss alone will improve health, showing how our belief that fat is unhealthy is based on skewed statistics and the influence of the diet industry – worth over $50 billion a year in the US. Bacon argues for the acceptance of all kinds of bodies and lays out an alternative plan: active living, sound nutrition and a healthy relationship with food.

Like Bacon, Aphramor believes it’s our behaviours that need to change, not our bodies: ‘The HAES philosophy holds that except for extremes – if the person is extremely lightweight or extremely heavyweight – the scales tell us nothing meaningful about somebody’s health.’ It is health behaviours – eating habits, activity levels and psychological wellbeing – that are significant.

In 2004, broadcaster and nightclub hostess Amy Lame took part in TV reality show, Celebrity Fit Club. ‘I joined Fit Club to get healthy and fit. I was not interested in losing weight to be skinny,’ says Amy. ‘I do believe that you can be healthy at whatever size you are. I know that, because even though I lost weight, I’m still chubby – but I’m so much healthier than I was.’

Amy seems to perfectly illustrate the HAES argument that while adopting healthy behaviours may result in weight-loss, as a rule, fat people are meant to be fat. That can be a hard message to swallow, say Bacon and Aphramor, especially for women who have invested huge amounts of time, money and energy in the pursuit of a thin body, believing that their lives will improve if they lose weight. It’s a notion that every dieter will recognise, but, ‘I hate all that stuff, like, “I lost four stone, now I’m a new person, now my real life can start,”’ notes Amy. ‘My real life has been happening all the time.’

But getting fit when you’re fat is easier said than done. Louise Mansfield of Canterbury Christ Church University, who has been researching women’s experience of gyms for 10 years, comments that the fitness industry is particularly hostile to fat people: ‘You don’t find many fat people in gyms; it’s become quite an exclusive environment. Gyms are intimidating places – you have to know how to use the equipment and so on. There’s a big emphasis on appearance and mirrors everywhere.’ Marketing their services specifically around the notion of ‘fat reduction’ or ‘burning fat’, gyms are seldom fat-friendly spaces, as Virgin Vie’s recent ad campaign illustrates all too well. ‘There’s a need to promote the HAES message in fitness gyms,’ adds Mansfield. ‘The distaste for fat keeps people away from gyms who might really enjoy and benefit from the range of activities on offer.’

During her time at Fit Club, Amy had the benefit of an expert army of nutritionists, fitness instructors and personal trainers. Since the programme ended, she’s been determined to maintain her fit lifestyle on her own, switching activities often to fend off boredom. This year she became a spokesperson for Cancer Research UK’s Race For Life.
‘They want to get women of all different shapes and sizes involved – you don’t have to be the typical image of a runner to run,’ explains Amy. ‘My first five kilometre run felt incredible. I always thought I couldn’t run; I’ve only just started in the last couple of months and it feels good. There’s always something around the corner to challenge yourself with. Fit Club made me think outside the box about what my body can do.’

In fact, HAES practitioners suggest, ordinary active living alone can improve fitness levels enough to make a measurable difference to health. Walk instead of driving. Take the stairs, not the lift. Above all, move for the sheer enjoyment of moving. And that goes for everyone – like many fit fatties, the belief that fat equals unhealthy while thin equals healthy, gets Amy exercised. ‘I know skinny people who sit on their asses all day, eat nothing but MacDonalds, chain-smoke, drink loads of coffee…’ she declares. ‘They might be skinny but are they healthy? No!’

healthateverysize.org.uk
lindabacon.org

AMY LAME’S TIPS FOR HEALTHY LIVING
Easy does it.
Make changes slowly. Don’t try to do everything at once.
Get fit with a friend.
Hook up with a buddy and try out different activities together. Have fun and encourage each other.
Avoid the diet industry’s rubbish.
It’s set up to make money out of people and actually keep you fat and keep you unhealthy. Branded ‘diet’ ready-meals are full of crap and don’t encourage you to change habits such as sweets and crisps.
Eat more lesbian food!
I live on chickpeas, tofu, quinoa, brown bread and home-made muesli that I knit myself. It’s nicer than it sounds.
Get your head around it.
Dealing with any underlying psychological issues around food is really important. You may need professional help. Don’t feel bad about getting it.