Beyond the Scale: Rethinking Happy Weight Vs. Healthy Weight

April Williams reflects on her doctor's advice to reach a weight range of 140 to 150 pounds, a daunting prospect given her then 326-pound weight, her highest to date. Despite undergoing weight loss surgery, adhering to a meticulous diet, exercising daily, and resorting to obesity medication, it took nearly five years for Williams to achieve her lowest adult weight of 184 pounds. Her journey was far from linear, marked by frustrating plateaus and disheartening setbacks, leading to a recalibration of her relationship with her scale. Founder of BariNation, a patient-centric organization supporting individuals on their weight loss journey, Williams shifted her focus from a specific size or weight to metabolic well-being. Her goals transitioned towards tangible health markers, such as lowering cholesterol levels and improving HbA1c, a measure of blood sugar control over time.

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Happy Weight vs. Healthy Weight

The disparity between one's "happy" weight – often an idealized goal – and a genuinely healthy weight stems from various factors, notably society's preoccupation with numbers on the scale. Dr. Disha Narang, an endocrinologist and obesity medicine specialist, emphasizes the importance of metabolic health over arbitrary weight goals. A mere 5% reduction in weight can yield significant improvements in blood pressure, cholesterol levels, and overall cardiovascular health, irrespective of the starting point (1^✔ ✔Trusted Source
Losing Weight

Go to source).

Society's relentless pursuit of an ideal body image and fixation on numbers exacerbate the struggle for many embarking on a weight loss journey. Cultural norms and media representations perpetuate distorted body image perceptions, particularly among individuals with overweight or obese, often fueling self-stigma and dissatisfaction. Lisa Moskovitz, a registered dietitian, underscores the detrimental impact of unrealistic standards, advocating for sustainable habits over punitive measures.

The notion of a "happy" weight may lead individuals down a path of extreme restriction and deprivation, resulting in a cycle of punishment and compensation. In contrast, a healthy weight transcends a mere numerical value, embodying a balance of nourishing habits and self-compassion. Moskovitz emphasizes the importance of cultivating sustainable lifestyle choices that foster physical and emotional well-being, rather than fixating on an elusive number on the scale.

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What is a Healthy Weight?

The CDC and many health care groups focus on BMI, which is based on weight and height. But there’s not a single data point or number that governs whether you are healthy or not. BMI has many limitations, including the fact that this number says nothing about your body composition or where you’re carrying weight, which can affect your health (2^✔ ✔Trusted Source
The value and limitations of the body mass index (BMI) in the assessment of the health risks of overweight and obesity

Go to source).

So how do you know if a weight is healthy for you? Narang suggests doing two things:

• Track your lab tests:

  These include measures of your cholesterol, blood pressure, blood sugar, and waist circumference. Are these all in healthy ranges?

• Assess how you feel:

  Have you made positive habit changes, even if they didn’t lead to weight loss? Can you now go up the stairs without being short of breath? Do you have more energy throughout the day? Are you sleeping better? Your quality of life hugely matters in this conversation.

You don’t have to ignore the scale completely, although some people choose to do so, and that’s OK. At the very least, give it less weight in your psyche.

“The scale doesn’t tell you your body fat percentage and it doesn’t account for things that naturally cause weight fluctuations, such as menstruation, hormonal changes, eating lots of salt, not having a bowel movement, building muscle, or simply deviating from your daily routine,” Moskovitz says. Instead, you can use the scale to gauge your overall trajectory to understand where your weight is going and how your current habits affect that number.

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Five Stages of Edmonton Obesity Staging System

There is a tool that doctors can use that goes beyond your BMI. It’s called the Edmonton Obesity Staging System, and it has five stages that gauge your weight based on any conditions that you may have that are due to obesity. If your BMI is in the obesity range but you have no related conditions, that’s stage 0 on the Edmonton Obesity Staging System, and no medical treatment is needed. The scale goes up to stage 4, where someone has potentially life-threatening conditions related to obesity. In the end, though, your ideal weight and your healthy weight may diverge – unless you change how you think about it.

“Finding your happiest weight sometimes means giving up the idea of what your weight should be and ignoring advice from people about how much you should weigh,” Moskovitz says. “Only your body knows. Stop obsessing over numbers and charts and start thinking about healthy behaviors. These are way more important than a specific number.”

Even more reason to be optimistic: People who live a healthier lifestyle are more likely to report greater happiness and optimism as they age, according to a 2019 study published in Preventive Medicine. You may not need a specific number on the scale to reach a happy weight after all. For her part, Williams is proud of where she is now because her focus is aligned with her goals. “My weight may be more than someone else thinks it should be, but it’s no longer impacting my health,” she says.

Today, Williams is the healthiest she’s ever been, having kept up her lifestyle habits as well as her obesity medication. “I don’t take anti-diabetes medication anymore, my cholesterol has normalized, I no longer use my sleep apnea machine. When I look at my overall health, I’m a freaking rock star.”

References:

1. Losing Weight - (https://www.cdc.gov/healthyweight/losing_weight/index.html)
2. The value and limitations of the body mass index (BMI) in the assessment of the health risks of overweight and obesity - (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15615272/)

Source-Medindia