Navigating the world right now can feel like running into that aunt who comments on your weight at Thanksgiving every single day: When you open up Instagram, take public transit, watch TV, or scroll through TikTok, weight loss and diet discussion is nearly impossible to escape.
Marketing for weight loss-related products has become incessant, with spending for ads increasing by 7 percent just last year, according to the research firm EDO. Public figures like Oprah, Serena Williams, Meghan Trainor, and Amy Schumer have talked openly about using GLP-1s to lose weight. Meanwhile, a staggering number of celebrities have appeared on red carpets looking noticeably thinner or completely unrecognizable. It’s not clear whether they’re all using GLP-1s, or even purposely losing weight. But this collective portrait of shrinking bodies sends a clear message to a lot of us: we should all be getting skinnier.
The directive is loud enough that a lot of people are wondering whether the optimism of the “body positivity” movement is over, and we’re returning to the oppressive beauty standards of the ’90s and early aughts.
Still, experts say that society’s not totally doomed. If anything, the resounding backlash to the current moment makes it clear that most of us want to feel comfortable in our bodies, no matter what they look like.
While weight discrimination and anti-fat bias is a cultural and systemic problem that requires systemic solutions, there are ways to tune out the “thin is in” noise and actively resist the idea that your life would be better if you lost some weight. If you’re feeling hopeless or overwhelmed by the constant weight loss chatter, here’s some advice.
Understand that bodies are supposed to be different
Fitness and dieting advice is often based on the idea that we can all be thinner if we simply try hard enough. When attempts to lose weight fail (or when no attempts are made), it’s seen as an issue of self-discipline and commitment.
But that’s not how bodies work, according to Cheri Levinson, a professor in the department of psychological and brain sciences at the University of Louisville and the founder of the Louisville Center for Eating Disorders. She says the research field has started to thoroughly debunk the idea that weight-loss strategies and dieting work for everyone. For example, a study published in the British Medical Journal in 2020 looked at the effectiveness of 14 popular diet programs, such as Atkins and the Mediterranean diet, for overweight adults over the course of a year. While participants lost weight in the first six months, their weight loss had diminished at their 12-month follow-up.
“Body size is genetic,” Levinson says. “It’s not something that you’re able to change very much. It’s more unhealthy to try to change your body to something it shouldn’t be.”
“The metaphor that I always use when I’m giving talks is that I’ll show a picture of a bunch of different babies,” Levinson continues. “None of the babies are the same size, and nobody would expect them to be. That doesn’t change when you become an adult.”
The myth that everyone can lose weight and keep it off long-term if they just try hard enough feeds into another harmful belief: that smaller bodies are automatically healthier.
“Thinness does not equal health,” said Lauren Muhlheim, a therapist and the owner of Eating Disorder Therapy LA. “And there are many ways to improve health without focusing on weight loss. In fact, weight loss can drive eating disorders, which can be quite serious, even in people in bigger bodies.”
Surround yourself with people who feel good about their bodies
Our social environments play a huge role in how we view ourselves. For example, maybe you have a friend who brings up their daily carb intake whenever you go out to dinner, or casually uses fatphobic language when talking about other people. You don’t have to necessarily toss these people to the side, but Muhlheim says you should try to find companions who aren’t consumed by negative body image, or who are at least on the same journey of caring a lot less.
“It’s really important to find fat-positive communities as a buffer against the cultural anti-fatness,” Muhlheim says. “As a provider in weight-inclusive communities, I get to spend lots of time with like-minded people who have worked hard to challenge weight stigma. I can attest that it makes a big difference.”
If no friends immediately come to mind, you could try seeking out size-inclusive forums online, like the subreddit r/PlusSize or IRL communities and clubs, like New York City Plus. There are also workout classes that specifically bill themselves as welcoming to people with all body types, like Yoga for Everyone or Everybody Los Angeles.
You should also do what you can to make your social media feeds inclusive and free of diet talk. Platforms like Instagram and Facebook are packed with messaging that can take a toll on your self-esteem. TikTok is its own unique hellscape with users — many of whom are not medical professionals — sharing unsolicited weight loss advice and negative opinions about their own bodies.
Spend some time unfollowing people or accounts who make you feel bad about yourself, and follow people whose bodies look like yours or who don’t engage in weight loss talk. For example, Levinson says she follows fat activists and people in the fitness communities with larger bodies. You can also block certain hashtags on Instagram, so you might want to add #fitness, #bodygoals, and #weightloss to that list. Both TikTok and Instagram also have “not interested” functions to hide certain content on your feed. (On TikTok, the option is available after hitting the “Share” button. And on Instagram, you can find it by tapping the three dots in the top right corner when you’re looking at an ad or suggested content.
Levinson also thinks people should avoid engaging in social media discourse about body image and weight loss and have these discussions face to face instead.
“You should be having actual one-on-one conversations with your neighbors in person,” Levinson says. “You’re at least starting to talk and maybe show them another side of things. The problem is we get into these divided, good-and-bad arguments, and that doesn’t do any of us any good toward getting to actual solutions.”
Get involved in the fight for a size-inclusive world
Resisting current beauty standards and feeling comfortable in your body can feel like a personal battle. But it’s not something you feel like we should be fighting alone — or solely for your own well-being.
Fat activist Virgie Tovar, who wrote the book You Have the Right to Remain Fat, says that weight discrimination happens in every facet of life, including medicine, employment, fashion, and media representation. Like any other form of discrimination, it’s something we should all be mobilizing around. Tovar says the best way to be an advocate for equality in this realm is to start in your personal environments.
“Activism is more sustainable when it’s built around your life,” Tovar tells Vox. “Where do you have influence and can make changes?” Are you an employee or patient at a doctor’s office, where you can introduce concepts like body neutrality or health at every size?
“Do you work in PR, where you can help adapt language and campaign imagery to be more size-inclusive?” Tovar says. “Are you a parent, who can potentially impact how fatphobic bullying is handled at your kid’s school? Do you work in HR, where you can bring in a trainer on weight stigma?”
You could also look into volunteer or advocacy opportunities within eating organizations like F.E.A.S.T. (Families Empowered and Supporting Treatment of Eating Disorders), Project HEAL, and the National Alliance for Eating Disorders.
Remember that beauty standards are cyclical
Maybe the most important thing to remember when reflecting on our Ozempic-obsessed moment is that some people will always attempt to tell others — mainly women — what their bodies should look like, and these pressures are often tied to a larger social agenda. Naomi Wolf’s seminal 1990 book The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women posits that, historically, the more gains women made politically, “the heavier the ideals of beauty would bear down upon them, mostly in order to distract their energy and undermine their progress.”
Through that lens, it’s not surprising that under our current political conditions — with a president who routinely insults women’s appearances and an administration that promotes “traditional” gender roles — people’s bodies are being policed anew, and brands and individuals are taking advantage of this culture shift.
“It’s often when society is pushing back against progress that systems try even harder to control people,” says Levinson. “And obviously weight is a way to control women.”
Still, the fact that people are aware of how far we’ve fallen from the heyday of body-inclusive ads, plus-sized influencers, and a general moratorium on diet and weight loss talk should serve as a reminder that a better world is possible.
“I still think progress is still being made,” she says. “The fact that people are on Twitter talking about how they want the body positivity movement to come back is, in itself, a sign that it’s probably not doomed.”
