As the saying goes, “it’s déjà vu all over again.” During my lifetime, most of societal focus has been on losing weight rather than engaging in regulated eating. That is, shedding weight was always the prize and eating was about finding a winning strategy. Then came the intuitive eating movement which focused on improving eating skills and specifically not on losing weight. But here we are back again at everyone talking about the weight they’ve lost on GLP-1 drugs and only secondarily about how good it feels to be eating in more attunement with their bodies.

There’s not one client I have on weight-loss drugs who doesn’t spend more time talking about the weight they lost than how they’re now eating from appetite cues and enjoying being a more “normal” eater. Granted, much of their talk is about being able to be more physically active and feeling less self-conscious at a lower weight which enables them to enjoy socializing more. And I’m happy for them. I really am.

They do describe feeling relief they’re not obsessed about food and how wonderful it feels to leave food on their plates or even forget to eat. But an eating focus still seems to be shoved aside by chronicling pounds lost. That hasn’t changed from the diet days. Clients come in telling me they gained or lost five pounds or three or even half a pound. I don’t know if that’s because we call GLP-1s “weight-loss” drugs or not. Perhaps another name would help, for example calling them “regulated eating” drugs or some kind of catchy name to that effect. 

I wonder why it’s so hard to shed our weight focus. Is it because of a societal/cultural obsession or is it hard-wired into our brains to look like other people to be accepted in a group to survive? I doubt it’s the latter because even as our society has grown heavier, the desire to be thinner hasn’t shrunk. When suddenly there were more higher-weight people than normal weight ones, we still didn’t want to be like them.

All of us do best when we focus on what, how and how much we eat. Yes, it’s true that some folks metabolize food differently and need to eat fewer calories than others to maintain a comfortable weight. It’s also true that how, what, and how much we eat is crucial to our well-being. As I’ve said before, eating, not weight, is the locomotive for the train. Where the locomotive goes, the caboose follows. Focus on the rules of “normal” eating—whether or not you’re on weight-loss drugs. Just practice intuitive eating and enjoy how grand it feels to feel comfortable around food and with your relationship to it.

Best,

Karen