#46 So, you've put on a little weight? Listen to this
Words of wisdom from a PT that got me thinking differently about my body...
A little while ago I had a conversation with a PT that made me see weight loss in a fresh light. Which is saying something, since there are few topics as fraught or fetishised. Particularly in January when, according to research, slimming down is the resolution of a whopping one-fifth of the UK population.
During my years on the health and wellness beat, there has been an unsatiated hunger for weight loss secrets. Of course, for a while it was kept hush-hush. Even when—publicly—body diversity was being celebrated and diet culture thrashed, I couldn’t help but notice that in private the internet remained ravenous for it. You could see it in the best-performing newspaper articles and most-engaged social media posts.
But the weight loss conversation in 2024 has left me scared. The topic of fat loss has become even more outwardly frenzied with the arrival of a generation of appetite-tweaking medications. When I became one of the first to write about my experience of Ozempic in The Times last year (in the name of journalism, I may add, after becoming curious at the growing A-list buzz), I was promptly invited onto two US talk shows as well as This Morning with Holly and Phil (throwback!).
As I mentioned on the Love Through It podcast last month, it heartbreakingly feels like a decade of healthy progress when it comes to how we approach fitness and nutrition—the casting off of the unsavoury size 0/ ‘heroin chic’ era—is being swiftly reversed. I told host and health coach Lianna Nielsen, who has been open about her own inspirational journey to rebuilding her relationship with her body, that turning to weight loss ‘quick fixes’—in the same way as tapping a screen to erase facial pores—is a dangerous trajectory.