F*ck the Nutrisystem

Source: Pinterest

Why are we so worried about the after photo?

Because capitalist society has stopped almost everyone from being comfortable in their bodies; and this is especially true for fat people.

The diet industry is an incredible example of this. Dieting programs and television series capitalize on the objectification of people's bodies from a position of power with no real intention of breaking the cycle. Based on a standardized attractiveness (having everything to do with looks) enmeshed in systematic oppression (capitalism, patriarchy, racism, etc..) fatphobia has taken hold as an industry in of itself.

Worrying about fat stems from the medicalization of the term despite that, based on those systematic positions, it is really more of a political term. Healthism becomes a proxy for talking about fat. BMI is how we speak medically about fat even though many findings point to its inaccuracy. For example, diseases found to be associated with higher BMI also are found among lower BMI. Additionally, studies between higher BMI causing ill health do not consider other factors that have huge impacts on this relationship including physical activity, nutrition, sleep, access to care, etc (Burgard 2009). I will use myself as an example. By simply inputting my height and weight, and clicking compute, I am labeled as overweight. I would typically not identify in this way, but a system I am taught to have my best interest in mind does it for me. As someone exposed to fat activism and weight-based stigma I am enraged that the voice of those with real oppressive experiences are silenced by a population forced to claim a title unfit for them. Thankfully I know I can refuse these titles, but for those of whom feel they cannot because of the way society strips value from their bodies in space, capitalization continues.

These ingrained ideologies allows for the exploitation of fat bodies to be a successful (albeit problematic) business model. When it comes to unhappiness, consumers will buy it, so therefore companies sell it. The NBC hit “The Biggest Loser” and Nutrisystems “Five Day Weight Loss Kit” do an incredible job of defining health as the outcome of lower weight in the moment rather than by the daily life one lives to achieve a sustainable quality of life. In a clip titled “The Autopsy Room Wake-Up Call” the doctor individually calls out the contestants and shames them for the choices they have decided to make. Rather than acknowledge big business and capitalism create a system where it is easier to access sugar-laden food and drink than healthy options, these people are left thinking, quote, “I am leading myself down a dark road that could self-destruct.” These systems place all the blame on the individual and offer no constructive way to escape it. Nutrisystem, on the other hand, claims to give you the way out. “Lose up to 7 pounds in two weeks” or have a fast fix with the five day weight loss kit. What could be more unsustainable than a five-day-fix that will do nothing but result in feelings of ineffectiveness as a cycle of loss, gain, shaming and disappointment are perpetuated?

Source: Nutrisystem, Inc.

The fact that health is much more holistic is lost when one equates fat bodies to unhealthy and thinner ones to healthy. Health includes mental, social, spiritual, as well as physical well being and all of those can look different for different people. That is the glory of individuality. A campaign, “Health at Every Size”, gets away from the ideology that weight loss automatically has to do with enhancing one's health. It de-emphasizes weight with the goal of making healthy practices a lifelong investment so people of every size can learn to value their bodies and prevent body neglect and abuse (Burgard 2009).

Perpetuating the ideologies of fatphobia through relentless weight loss programs and television series just continues to keep fat individuals from being in the world. It reduces their purpose for living in this society to 1- being consumers for a multi-billion dollar industry more worried about keeping its followers unsuccessful and therefore involved and 2- objects of entertainment for a sad audience avoiding their own decision to sit on a couch and pity or mock fat people based solely on the fact that their bodies do not look like that. Two scenarios that sound much more toxic and unhealthy to me than some body fat.

Rather than worry about what we could be, or what we “should” be, lets celebrate living now. Because as Bugard (2009) says, “people take better care of the body that they accept and love now than one that they are punishing for being the source of their ill treatment at the hands of other people.”

References
Burgard, D. (2009). What is “health at every size”. The fat studies reader, 42-53.