16/03/2020
initiatives and
Weight loss initiatives in (and out of) the workplace are not evidence-based practice and I would strongly encourage rethinking the use of this strategy to engage employees. Regardless if the program is labeled as a ‘lifestyle change’, ‘wellbeing program’ or ‘healthy eating’, if the objective is to encourage weight loss (usually by eating less, but can also come in the form of exercise to ‘burn calories’) it is still the same thing—undertaking behaviours for weight loss.
The evidence is very clear—dieting does not work in the long-term. 95% of people who attempt to lose weight will gain it back within 3-5 years, plus more.
Dieting is the number one risk factor for an eating disorder and the development or disordered eating. It also significantly increases the risk of depression and body dissatisfaction.
From a physiological point of view, dieting is the process of starving one's body of its energy needs. This can negatively impact productivity and psychological wellbeing. When the diet fails those employees involved in the weight loss initiative (that’s right, it’s not the people who fail the diet) and they start to gain the weight back because ultimately food restriction results in the pendulum swinging in the opposite direction—that is, bingeing—it can have adverse effects on their mental health as they feel a sense of shame, that they have ‘failed’ and are ‘not good enough’.
Workplace weight loss initiatives also collude with diet culture and represent a form of weight bias (whether intended or not). It implies to the people in bigger bodies that they are not good enough as they are and that they must try to conform to societies ‘thin ideal’. The internalization of this can have very damaging effects to one’s emotional health.
Finally, it’s important not to confuse weight with health. Our health behaviours are far more important for our health, and that’s what I would encourage any workplace health promotion strategy to focus on.
By Dan Lewin
