What is Health At Every Size (HAES®)?

It seems like every time you watch TV or go online, you get bombarded with advertisements for products related to weight loss. Whether it be the pioneer Weight Watchers, or the sketchy calorie-burning supplements, there is a giant business built on getting people to shed the pounds. Like me, you may be disheartened to see weight loss touted as the cornerstone of health and wellbeing. But what if health didn’t have to revolve around weight status?  

 This is where the HAES approach comes in. HAES stands for Health At Every Size, and it dismisses the notion that one size or one weight is synonymous with good health. Rather, physical and emotional wellbeing can occur at any size, and improving the quality of life begins with practicing healthy behaviors, not losing weight.  

 You may wonder, if HAES is a weight-neutral approach to good health, what are its guiding principles? According to the founders of the movement, there are three main components: Respect, Critical Awareness, and Compassionate Self-care. Respect involves celebrating body diversity, and appreciating differences in our attributes, like size, age, race, and gender. Critical Awareness relates to challenging scientific assumptions about people living with overweight and obesity and honoring personal experiences. Lastly, compassionate self-care is about finding joy in movement and eating according to what we need and what we like.  

Unlike dieting, the HAES approach is not meant to induce stress. Traditional weight loss methods are purely a numbers game, whether it be counting the calories you consumed that day or tracking the scale value each night. Not meeting these goals can lead to a sense of failure, which induces stress and undermines good health. Furthermore, it drives the faulty assumption that you cannot be healthy until you reach one size. Instead, the HAES approach values emotional wellbeing, encouraging people to celebrate who they are and to prioritize self-care over body size.  

Since HAES is a relatively new approach to health improvement, there aren’t any long-term studies that show its impact. However, several short-term studies suggest that the HAES approach has positive effects on behavior and appetite. For example, in one study, a group of 78 people using the HAES approach maintained their weight, while improving their energy expenditure and eating behaviors. Psychologically, groups members improved their self-esteem, body image, and depression. Even one year after the study, the HAES members were able to sustain the results, unlike the comparison diet group that initially lost weight but gained it back.  

Now that we understand what the HAES approach is, how do we incorporate its principles into our own lives? Some concrete actions include eating honoring hunger cues without limiting intake, incorporating walks into daily routines, or setting a defined sleep schedule every night. If you don’t know where to start, it’s always worth chatting with a local dietitian nutritionist. 

Intuitive Eating vs Mindful Eating: What’s the difference?

Emotional ups and downs. Restriction and deprivation. Anger at the scale. Anger at your body. Sound familiar? You may be a chronic dieter, and you’re probably fed up with frustrating diets that just leave you irritable and craving your favorite foods. That’s where Intuitive eating comes in. Intuitive eating allows you to make peace with food by focusing on your internal hunger and satiety cues instead of trying to force yourself to stick to overly rigid or restrictive diet rules. These kinds of depriving diets tend to backfire. They leave us feeling miserable and teach us to have a negative relationship with food and our bodies. Intuitive eating is about cultivating a sound and balanced approach to food and nutrition that isn't overly rigid or restrictive. Intuitive eating is about eating in a way that makes you feel your best both physically and mentally. 

If I was to sum up Intuitive eating in one sentence, it would be, “Eat when you’re hungry, stop when you’re full, and don't go into any extremes”. If you are hungry, eat. Listen to your hunger cues. When you are full, stop eating. If you are in the mood for pizza, eat pizza. If you are in the mood for a salad, eat a salad. Don’t let diet culture convince you that you have to cut out any major food group in order to be healthy. In a truly balanced and healthy diet, all foods fit. It seems simple, but years of dieting and battling with food and weight can make this simple nutrition advice difficult to follow or trust. 

Intuitive eating and mindful eating really go hand-in-hand. Mindful eating is a practice of being focused and present while eating. It means paying attention to what you are eating - the taste, the texture of the food- and what you are doing while eating. Often, when we are distracted while eating, we consume more than we intend to, and we eat past satiety simply because we aren’t focused on recognizing our satiety cues. Mindful eating is about bringing the focus back on the food and enjoying what we’re eating. 

 It takes time to really learn to recognize and respond to your internal hunger and satiety cues, especially if you’ve spent years dieting and ignoring them. But you can begin to work on eating mindfully and intuitively today. The next time you sit down to a meal, make an effort to really pay attention and tune in. Pay attention to the food you are eating, how it tastes, and how it makes you feel. By learning to eat mindfully and intuitively, you will take steps to improve your long-term health and your attitude towards food for good.