Frequently Asked Questions

What is the definition of a 'diet'? 

Dieting isn't just juice cleanses, laxative teas and diet pills. It’s also cutting out food groups or particular types of foods, where there is no religious or medical reason for doing so (like in the case of an allergy or intolerance). Dieting may involve counting calories, macros (fat, protein, carbs), Points, Syns etc. and restricting specific foods, groups or portion sizes.

Even if you don't feel ravenously hungry on the diet, there is still some kind of restriction going on. There has to be, because intentional short term weight loss requires a calorie deficit.

Even diets where the method is not directly linked to calorie counting, for example, Keto, Intermittent fasting, or Slimming World, it’s likely that where short term weight loss is achieved, it’s because calorie intake is reduced as an indirect result of following the diet plan’s rules.

What do you define as 'disordered eating’?

Disordered eating doesn't just mean eating disorders. It includes the binge and restrict cycle, the dieting cycle, restriction of amounts or times of food, overeating in the name of a cheat day and then fasting the next day. It also encompasses exercising with a view to burn off excess calories consumed. All of these patterns are frighteningly similar to eating disorders, but it may be that the behaviour isn't at the level required for clinical diagnosis. Be aware that this doesn't make the behaviour healthy!

Is calorie-counting considered to be disordered eating?

Aside from the inaccuracy of calorie counting (both in terms of the counts on food packages, and the variation in individual metabolism and digestion), the main issue with calorie counting from a psychological point of view, is that your cue to eat or stop comes from an external source, such as a calorie counting app, rather than your body's own innate hunger, fullness and satiety cues. 

Dieting overall can backfire by slowing down metabolism and the dieting industry sets up for failure by creating unrealistic expectations and encouraging us to go to drastic lengths to achieve our goals. Research into eating disorders also shows that many eating disorders begin with dieting. 

What is Intuitive Eating?

Put simply, Intuitive Eating is about listening to your body's cues for hunger, fullness, satiety, taste and emotional needs - i.e. your instincts. When you're eating according to your instincts, you're not adhering to external 'food rules' and instead, you're giving yourself unconditional permission to eat.  It's how we all would have eaten in the years BD (that's 'Before Diets').

Does ‘Health at Every Size’, mean all body weights and sizes are healthy?

‘Health At Every Size®’ is a social movement which addresses the harmful impact of weight stigma in health care. It encourages health professionals to shift their focus away from weight-centric approaches to health care and focus instead on promoting health-centred behaviours, such as gentle nutrition, joyful movement and mental health.

A quote from Body Respect by Linda Bacon and Lucy Aphramor (2014) sums the perspective up well;

“HAES does not claim that everyone is at a healthy weight. What is does do, is ask for respect and help people shift their focus away from changing their size, to enhancing their self-care behaviours - so they let weight fall where it may naturally. It also keeps the role of lifestyle as a risk factor for disease in perspective.”

What is Body Neutrality?

For many people, body confidence or even body acceptance, can feel unrealistic after years of hating their bodies.

For anyone who struggles with eating disorders, chronic illness, or disability, it can be a huge challenge to accept our bodies as they are, especially when they are a source of pain and frustration. We may even feel betrayed by them.

Body Neutrality is a good place to start for anyone who wishes to improve their body image, as the principal behind it is to shift your focus away from your physical appearance and onto the other parts of yourself. By doing this, we remove the pressure to ‘love our bodies’ and instead work towards finding love for ourselves.  

What is Body Acceptance / Body Respect /Body Kindness?

Body acceptance is having an objective view of your body and being OK with it. It’s about making peace with it for what it is, in that moment, and accepting that our bodies will naturally change throughout our lives. It's recognizing that our appearance has literally no bearing on ourselves, as people, because we're exactly that, people, we're not emotionless bodies walking around for ornamental purposes. Every single one of us is valuable and our weight and appearance doesn't alter that.  

We can take body acceptance one step further and embrace the parts of our bodies that we do like and emphasise these. We can also show appreciation for our bodies and all they do for us, via self-care.

What is Body Confidence?

When we feel confident about our bodies, we don’t let our appearance (or more accurately, the thoughts we have about our appearance) hold us back from enjoying the life we want.

This might look like wearing swim wear on a beach, wearing clothes because you like them and not because they hide your body, having sex with the lights on, or dancing with friends at a party.

Does Body Positivity Promote Obesity?

Short answer: no, it promotes radical self-acceptance over self-loathing. It promotes a kinder society over a culture rife with appearance-based bullying and body shaming and it promotes physical and psychological recovery from dieting and disordered eating.

Body Positivity is a social movement. The movement itself, started by Black women in the 1960s, originally stems from the fat acceptance movement and it is this which is the sticking point for its critics, who misconstrue the word ‘acceptance’, as meaning ‘promotion’. 

The fat acceptance movement campaigns for a society where we do not shame or bully people based on their weight or body size and where we do not treat people differently because of their weight.

It also ties in well with the Health At Every Size (HAES) approach, an anti-diet, health centred paradigm, whereby health is separated from weight loss and the focus is on improving lifestyle through self-care, intuitive eating, gentle nutrition and movement, instead of striving for weight loss via the traditional dieting paradigm.

What Does recovery from disordered eating look like?

Recovery can look like many things to many different people. It isn't always a final destination either, but instead more of a on going process. When we refer to 'recovery', we mean "making peace with food", "exercising for the joy of it“, "reaching a place of body acceptance“ and “prioritising health above the number on the scale”. The path to recovery in this context may look like leaving diet culture behind, healing from disordered eating or eating disorders, or addressing issues of body image. 

As always, I strongly advise that individuals consult with their own health professionals for personalised advice before taking on board any programme, course or book.