‘What Happens Next?’: Should We Change How We Think About Fat?
Last week on Monash University’s What Happens Next? podcast, the show’s guest experts served up some unappetising truths about weight loss. Ultimately, our body types are not necessarily dictated by the foods we eat or the amount of exercise we do.
As in the case of being short or tall, our genetic makeup plays an enormous role in whether or not we are fat or thin. We can certainly make behavioural changes and be mindful of our health, the science shows that we don’t have much of a choice in how much weight we carry. And once we begin to put on weight, getting it off again in a permanent way is almost impossible.
Listen: Why Is It So Hard to Lose Weight?
While it can be frustrating to learn that trying to lose or gain weight is an attempt to control the almost uncontrollable, it may also be a relief.
In last week’s episode, Dr Michael Cowley, founding director of the Monash Obesity and Diabetes Institute, emphasised that weight loss is much, much harder than supplement salespeople and workout gurus claim. What’s more, bariatric surgeon Mr Ahmad Aly made it clear that a failure to lose weight is not a result of laziness or a lack of willpower.
In part two of this series, host Dr Susan Carland continues the conversation by asking the things you’ve always wanted to know about weight but have been too afraid to ask. Is there power in using the word ‘fat’? Is it possible to be healthy at any size, or is that merely a social media-driven pipe dream? Is real weight loss achievable at all, or are we expecting the impossible of our own bodies?
This week’s guests are Dr Cowley, Mr Aly, psychologist and psychoanalyst Dr Hilary Offman, and The Biggest Loser’s personal trainer Michelle Bridges.
“I choose to use the word ‘fat’ because... it's a bit of activism, a taking back of the word, a reclaiming of it as something that can be said, like a descriptor, like ‘tall’ or ‘short’. There's something about speaking to something as it is, and forcing people to meet you right there instead of sliding away from the implications of the word.”
Dr Hilary Offman
What Happens Next? will return next week with part one of a new topic.
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