How Do You Stay So Thin?

I came across this on Instagram recently (click the image or caption credit to see the whole post):

Kids Eat in Colour

 

And oooooo baby! What a welcome addition to my ongoing quest to change my attitude towards my body!

If you don't want to click through, she answers the question "how do you stay so thin" with some science, and not the "calories in/calories out" version. It's 1) genetics, 2) growing up with food security (which is shown to change people's eating patterns), 3) less exposure to food advertising (less healthy foods are advertised at way higher rates to BIPOC communities), 4) listening to her body's hunger cues (aided by having access to food when she needs it), 5) not having a health condition or extreme economic stress (which impact eating patterns and how your body metabolizes food).

Her point? She has little to no control over any of these things, that are demonstrated by research to be the biggest contributing factors to body size.

 

From her caption:

Why is it so novel to think that our body size isn't entirely up to us? We've been fed the message that we individuals are responsible for our size...shape...health. We've swallowed those ideas whole, despite plenty of research to the contrary... I do have some control over my body. I'm fortunate to be able to have access and afford a variety of foods, and fortunate to have the capacity to make food and eat it (usually). And to move my body some too. Those things all affect my health.⁠ But my body size is largely the result of many factors outside of my control.⁠

I realize that for some people, hearing you don't have much control over your body size is disheartening. I think this ties back to the post from a few days ago, allowing the possibility that the *thing* we've been waiting for in our lives never happens, and nothing changes.

 

What if you knew your body would never change? What would you do then? Perhaps dress in clothes that fit well? Focus on movement and diet changes that feel good? Learn how to trust and listen to your body instead of desperately trying to restrict it? Stop pinning your happiness on your body changing? Why not do those things?

The most important thing here for me to remind myself is that recognizing I don't have a lot of control over the size of my body doesn't mean I give up on feeling good or taking care of myself. Just the opposite. It means I do things that actually feel good and that actually take care of myself, instead of things that I tell myself feel good but are really designed to keep my body a certain size.

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