Kin and kilos

Meals may be shared, but so is scrutiny. With GLP-1s on the table, thinness remains the prized serving in many homes.

- By SARA HUSSAIN.

In desi families, there are few greater achievements than thinness. Degrees gather dust but compliments for weight loss never expire. Every gathering doubles as a body audit. The number on your scale is discussed over tea, measured against cousins. A single remark—“She’s put on”—is passed around the room like a side dish. What looks like small talk often becomes a pageant without prizes.

The obsession is older than us. Thinness is social currency, proof of discipline and desirability. Pragati Goyal, lead clinical psychologist at Lissun, calls out the conditioning; women who pass these comments were often shamed themselves. “When a child is constantly compared, she learns she is only good enough if she looks a certain way.” A belief that can hardcode your self-worth before you can fully develop your frontal lobe and question it.

Decades of research have spelt it out: The constant comparisons don’t always fade, they can often calcify into anxiety, eating disorders and lifelong unease with food. Goyal sees these scars in her own therapy room. “It shakes your idea of being loved by your parents,” she says. “That can cut deeper than pressure from friends or social media.”