The 30-second article
• Body shaming, the practice of
insulting or judging how a person’s
body looks, has become ingrained in
our culture
• After being conditioned with this kind
of body judgement, weight-loss clients
can internalise it and self-bully
• Research suggest that chronic yo-yo
dieting and self-shaming is worse for
you than maintaining a stable weight
– even if it is a bit overweight – as
long as you are still active
• Many studies have proved that the
defining factor in lasting weight
transformation is self-compassion
• Ways of helping weight loss clients
without body shaming include
stopping weigh-ins, focusing on
behaviours rather than calories,
stopping labelling food as ‘good’ or
‘bad’, and teaching clients to celebrate
what their body can do as they get
fitter, not how it looks.
Self-shaming
The most damaging form of this practice is
self-shaming. After being conditioned with
this kind of body judgement, and beauty
ideals, your clients internalise it and become
their own bully. Silently calling themselves
names, berating themselves for being ‘fat’,
‘lazy’, ‘hideous’ and ‘ugly’. You will find
that many of your weight loss clients have
experienced some sort of bullying or trauma
in their lives that relates to their body-hate.
One off-hand remark about getting ‘chubby’
to a pubescent teenager can be all it takes to
begin a domino effect of self-shaming.
Slimmer is better?
Body shaming is built on the belief that
slimmer is better, and the opposite belief
that being fat is bad. As personal trainers
you probably believe that for most people
being slimmer mostly is better, and you
know that being overweight can lead to a
host of health related problems, such as
diabetes, cardiovascular disease, heart
disease and cancer. Not to mention the
boost of self-confidence that you get when
you know that you look good and are
happy with your body. However, there is
new science emerging that says that being
overweight is not necessarily as bad as we
all think it is, and that chronic yo-yo dieting
44 | NETWORK AUTUMN 2016
Guilt never leads to better choices. In fact the
opposite is true: when feeling guilty or shameful,
we are more likely to overeat and binge.
and self-shaming is actually worse for you
than maintaining a stable weight – even if it
is a bit overweight – as long as you are still
active. In my 11 years’ experience coaching
clients in weight loss mindset, and my own
30 kilogram weight loss, I have noticed a
paradox: most weight loss clients think they
will finally love themselves when they lose
weight, but what it actually takes to create
lasting transformation is for the person
to learn to love themselves with the extra
kilos, after which they begin to choose the
behaviours that make those kilos melt away.
Self-compassion is the key
Many studies have proved that the
key defining factor in lasting weight
transformation is self-compassion. It might
seem that self-kindness regardless of your
eating choices would lead to unrestrained
bingeing, but this is only ever short lived,
and eventually the person comes to a
homeostasis \