What about if you need to lose weight for health reasons?

Alright, let's talk about one of the most common pushbacks I get whenever the topic of body acceptance comes up—people throwing the “health” card in my face.

- Written By Victoria Kleinsman

You know the type:

“How am I supposed to love this body that’s clearly too fat to be healthy?”

Or, the more aggressive version:

“Why are you pushing body acceptance when people are seriously overweight and unhealthy? Aren't you just promoting obesity?”

I hear it all the time. It’s almost like people think that hating their bodies will somehow motivate them into being “healthy.” But spoiler alert—it doesn’t work like that. If shaming yourself into thinness worked, there wouldn't be a multi-billion-dollar diet industry profiting off our insecurities. So, let’s break this down and get into the truth behind the whole “health” excuse.

The Truth About Hating Yourself “Healthy”

First things first: hating on yourself does not make you thinner. And even if it did, the real question is, at what cost? Self-judgment, shame, and guilt are toxic emotions that lead to self-sabotage, not self-care. In fact, research shows that self-criticism and body shame often lead to more weight gain because they drive us to comfort-eat, binge, or restrict and then binge even harder.

So, here's my first comeback to anyone who's convinced that hating their body is somehow a path to health: if that were true, wouldn't it have worked by now? If self-loathing could cure our health problems, none of us would be in this mess. But clearly, hating yourself doesn’t fix anything—it just makes things worse.

Why Is Poor Health a License for Shame?

Let me ask you this: In what world does being “unhealthy” give people the right to treat others (or themselves) like garbage? Where does it make sense to use poor health as an excuse for shame, judgment, and discrimination?