Body Positivity Worsens Binge-Eating

Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash

Body positivity was supposed to save us from ourselves, but it might be doing the opposite.

You can’t look anywhere without ads selling you a dream body. It’s inescapable! After being confined to our homes for over a year, ads selling tummy teas, diets, exercise mirrors, and spandex will bombard us just in time for summer.

To fight this multi-billion-dollar obsession with weight loss, body positivity has sprung to save us from ourselves. Or so I thought.

The Body Positivity Problem

While body positivity has good intentions, cultivating a positive body image, this movement may cause more harm than good. There’s been critique about body positivity, that it’s not “one size fits all.” When it comes to binge-eating disorder (BED), focusing on body image or body shape can make achieving wellness an uphill battle.

A significant part of BED is the overvaluation of shape and weight, influencing body shape, and evaluating ourselves. This overvaluation of body shape or image may bring up painful memories and feelings. Studies show that people with BED were often teased growing up, which is when body dissatisfaction developed.

Over time, there is implied psychological stress that grows. As adults, when difficult mood states arise — like anxiety, distress, depression, or anger — food becomes the primary strategy to regulate mood. Some theorists think of BED as a mood intolerance condition.

Eating is a behavior that decreases awareness of the triggering mood state. In this way, they do not effectively deal with the mood state but engage in behaviors such as binge eating to change how they feel.

As such, emotional eating is a significant factor in BED. Focusing on body image does not tackle the difficulty with emotional eating but instead reinforces the idea we should be paying attention to how we look.

Of course, the logical response may be to engage in body positivity to “undo” body dissatisfaction. However, this strategy may have the opposite effect.

Body positivity still makes the conversation on wellness about body shape or body image. By having an increased focus on body image, body positivity reinforces the idea that body shape and body image are more important. This is the literal definition of overvaluation of shape and weight.

There was a study that examined the factors impacting BED remission. 57% of individuals who didn’t have an overvaluation of body shape or weight were likely to achieve remission, compared to 29% of people who overvalued body shape.

The Solution Isn’t About Body Image

Instead of focusing on body positivity or body shape in general, what if we instead focused on self-care, health, and wellness?

Can the conversation shift from our looks to our body’s functioning?

Reframing wellness from body image to self-care and wellness can shift how we take care of ourselves. Having a positive body image doesn’t necessarily equate to having health—our body shape changes over time, morphing with age, gravity, and experiences.

I’ve seen too many body-positive influencers become discouraged or upset when they gain weight or their bodies change. Even when practicing body positivity, the overvaluing of body image doesn’t protect us from the susceptibility of feeling discouraged when our bodies change.

If instead, we focused on self-care, health, and longevity, we can build lasting skills that improve our mood and prevent health problems. If body positivity is difficult for you, instead think about what can help your body function. For example, many people exercise not because of how they look but also to make sure their hearts and respiratory system function well. By focusing on your body’s health, you can assess energy levels, manage stress and tension, and take care of nagging aches and pains.

Listen to your body’s needs:

One study used a weekly yoga intervention in a group of women with binge eating. The yoga program emphasized physical awareness through movement and stillness, meditation, and breath awareness.

Here’s the kicker — there was no advice on weight loss or dieting. Instead, during meals, they were encouraged to:

• Remove distractions from meals.

• Notice how much food was in their mouth.

• Notice how the food tasted.

• Not to take another bite before swallowing the last.

The women began to notice how disconnected they were from themselves. This disconnect previously fueled feeling out of control. By listening to their bodies, they became more connected and noticed what their bodies needed.

Connecting and listening to the body is why binge-eating interventions target impulsivity. People who binge eat often have a lack of inhibitory control —controlling impulses using attention and reasoning. This lack of inhibitory control isn’t food-specific in people who binge eat. Impulsivity may show up in other parts of their lives. By targeting impulsivity rather than body image, people learn to listen to and be in touch with their bodies in a deeper way. There’s not relying on surface-level concerns like body shape.

Wellness goes beyond body image, and by prioritizing how we view our bodies, we may be feeding into the multibillion-dollar diet culture that plagues us all.

By focusing on health, wellness, and self-care, let’s dismantle diet culture.