Five experts share practical steps toward a healthier life

HAES to Health

Rachel Tuchman, LMHC

Health at Every Size (HAES) — you’ve heard the term tossed around, your friend keeps quoting lines from the approach, but you’re still wondering: What is it?

HAES is a weight-neutral approach that shifts the focus from body size and weight to health, because no, weight and health are not the same thing. HAES supports improved healthy behaviors for people of all sizes, without using weight as a mediator.

Diet culture has made us believe that health is a body size and a way of eating but in reality, health is much more complex and multi-faceted; it can’t be defined by any one factor. Many factors that contribute to our overall health — genetics, socioeconomic status, and environment — have nothing to do with how we look, what we eat, and how much we exercise.

Health at every size does not mean that every size is healthy; it means that people can be healthy at any size. It challenges the value of dieting, or pursuing weight loss, for health. But for so many of us, health has been boiled down to weight. When you take away that focus, what’s left?

HAES encourages body acceptance instead of focusing on weight. It fosters self-compassion. True wellness includes social connections, meaningful work, fulfillment in our lives, and a sense of purpose.

And it works. The HAES approach is associated with improvements in physiological measures (like blood pressure and blood lipids), health behaviors (eating and activity habits, dietary quality) and psychosocial outcomes (such as mood, self-esteem, and body image). HAES achieves these health outcomes more successfully than dieting or weight loss interventions, and without the negative outcomes associated with a weight focus.

Research has shown that people with strong self-esteem are more likely to adopt positive health behaviors. When we learn to value our bodies, even if they don’t look exactly the way we want, we strengthen our ability to care for ourselves. Body respect, rather than body positivity, is a HAES concept. You don’t have to love the way your body looks, but it still deserves your care and respect.

HAES calls for weight inclusivity. This means accepting and respecting body diversity; bodies come in all shapes and sizes. We need to stop the idealizing and pathologizing certain sizes and weights. Thin isn’t necessarily healthy and fat isn’t automatically unhealthy. Using the BMI scale to measure health is flawed — it doesn’t take into account other factors such as body composition, distribution of fat, or muscle mass. Many thin people are being categorized as healthy based on their BMI when they could be engaging in more health-compromising behaviors than someone considered “obese.”

HAES also advocates for health enhancement, supporting health policies that improve and equalize access to information and services that improve well-being while taking into account individual physical, economic, social, spiritual, and other needs.