Can I pursue weight loss in ED recovery?

Can you? Yes - It’s your body, and you are in charge.

And…

you need to know that it’s super risky. Part of my job as a mental healthcare provider is to always provide you with informed consent - because is it truly consenting to something if you don’t have all the information when you decide? So here are a few key points you need to know about pursuing weight loss:

1. About 95% of weight loss efforts (aka “diets”) fail. While most diets cause some amount of weight loss in the first 6-12 months, within 5 years, 95% of people will have regained any weight they lost, and 67% will have gained back more than they lost in the first place. (Read more here)

2. This cycle of dieting, initial weight loss, and eventual weight gain is called “weight cycling.” Weight cycling is medically risky. I could give you many examples here, but one recent study showed that weight cycling significantly increased the risk for heart failure, obstructive sleep apnea, non-alcoholic liver disease, and type 2 diabetes (Swartz, et al., 2025). (Read more here)

3. Many of the health outcomes people are hoping for when they engage in weight loss efforts can actually be achieved without losing an ounce! We can all enjoy the benefits of health-promoting habits and activities, regardless of our size. (Gaesser & Angadi, 2021; Matheson, et al., 2012; O’Hara & Taylor, 2018)

4. In the same way that diets are a major risk factor for developing and eating disorder, they’re also a huge risk for triggering a relapse. In the words of a former client, “For me, choosing to diet is choosing to relapse.”

So with all of this in mind, here’s my question for you:

What does it feel like weight loss would give you? What’s the pot of gold at the end of that rainbow?

If you’re concerned about your health, then I hope you are encouraged by what I’ve already shared about the benefits of healthy habit regardless of weight. Why not pursue health directly, rather than trying to get at health through weight loss, which adds so much unneccessary risk?

Maybe it’s not about health for you.

Maybe you’re tired of all the stigma and barriers you face moving through our thin-obsessed society in a larger body. And if that’s you, my heart goes out to you. I’m right there with you.

And…

No matter what’s happening around me or what anyone else’s opinion is, my body will always be safe with me. I will not participate in my own oppression. Allowing my body to exist as is, without trying to contort or shrink it, is my own act of defiance and anti-oppression.

That doesn’t mean it’s not hard, and that I don’t get tired some days. But contorting and shrinking myself is hard too, and so this is the hard thing I choose. This is the hard thing I’m willing to do.

I’ll tell you what, though, I could never go it alone. So if this is what longing for weight loss is about for you, I hope you’ll find some like-minded connection and community, who share your values, and can support you when you’re feeling overwhelmed, exhausted, or defeated. Consider a support group, a therapy group, or a therapist, if you’re not sure where to start. Reach out, and we can connect for therapy or help you find a group.

References

Chastain, Ragen (2012). Study Says Health Habits Make Healthy Fatties. Retrieved from https://danceswithfat.org/2012/04/19/study-healthy-habits-make-healthy-fatties/

Chastain, Ragen (2012). Who Says Dieting Fails Most of the Time? Retrieved from: https://weightandhealthcare.substack.com/p/who-says-dieting-fails-the-majority

Chastain, Ragen (2026). New Study of Harms of Weight Cycling - Part 2 Discussion. Retieved from https://weightandhealthcare.substack.com/p/new-study-of-harms-of-weight-cycling

Gaesser, G.A. and Angadi, S.S. (2021). Obesity treatment: Weight loss versus increasing fitness and physical activity for reducing health risks. iScience 24, 102995, October 22, 2021.

O’Hara, L. and Taylor, J. (2018). What’s Wrong With the ‘War on Obesity?’ A Narrative Review of the Weight-Centered Health Paradigm and Development of the 3C Framework to Build Critical Competency for a Paradigm Shift. SAGE OpenVolume 8, Issue 2, April 2018.

Matheson, E.M., King, D.E., & Everett, C.J. (2012). Healthy Lifestyle Habits and Mortality in Overweight and Obese Individuals. The Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine January 2012, 25 (1) 9-15.

Swartz, A.Z., et al. (2025) Weight Trajectory Impacts Risk for 10 Distinct Cardiometabolic Diseases. The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 2026, 111, e49–e57.