I have mentioned in a few of my posts about HAES, but I haven’t gone into detail about what HAES is. HAES is an acronym for Health At Every Size (and is sometimes referred to as Health At Any Size.) HAES had been at the core of the Size (Fat) Acceptance movement for many years and is endorsed by major fat advocacy groups such as NAAFA.

HAES is not a diet plan, but a lifestyle plan. It doesn’t focus on calories, carbohydrates or points, but it focuses on listening to the body’s natural needs for food. Eat when you are hungry. It also provides for enjoyable activities and exercise versus a regimented exercise plan.

Depending on where you look, there are between 3 and 5 tenets of HAES. They all involve the following:

1. Accepting and respecting the diversity of body shapes and sizes.
2. Recognizing that health and well-being are multi-dimensional and that they include physical, social, spiritual, occupational, emotional, and intellectual aspects.
3. Promoting all aspects of health and well-being for people of all sizes.
4. Promoting eating in a manner which balances individual nutritional needs, hunger, satiety, appetite, and pleasure.
5. Promoting individually appropriate, enjoyable, life-enhancing physical activity, rather than exercise that is focused on a goal of weight loss.

This was developed because dieting got literally shoved down our throats as the only way to get to the size we “needed to be” and that we needed to be thin to be healthy.

HAES recognizes that fat people can be healthy. I, myself as a super, super morbidly obese person at 650+lbs (295+kgs) had medical test results that would make Jack LaLanne envious. Blood Pressure of 110/80, A1C of 5.7, Cholesterol of 125, normal EKGs. My issues were mostly mobility and of course my Lymphoedema, which I have mentioned several times. Even though I was as big as I was, I still made mostly healthy choices. I admit there were some bad ones mixed in, for example, my drink of choice was Mountain Dew (especially the orange flavor.) But I mixed it in with salads; I avoided salt, white bread and ate lots of fruit and vegetables. I just could not incorporate the activity part of HAES—heck, I was following the other tenets and not even realizing it.

I chose to get the lap-band procedure. But I follow HAES more than ever. It just makes sense. My health and you health are different, so I cater my health plans towards my individual needs, and I have a doctor (well, a few doctors) that recognize that and encourage me on that path.

Not everyone is so lucky. And that’s part of why HAES was developed. Dieting doesn’t work. Berating a fat person is not a way to achieve results.

Encouragement and good choices is what works. And not just food and exercise, but the people in our lives. The medical professionals we entrust our health to. Our families and our significant others. These all play a role in our overall well being.

One of the pioneers of HAES is a professor, researcher, author and consultant by the name of Dr. Linda Bacon. She has several scholarly articles regarding HAES and has several websites dedicated to it. Her site LindaBacon.org provides a great overview of HAES. And then she has a specific HAES site where you can pledge your commitment to it and can even get listed on the HAES friendly registry.

So if you are someone who has been up and down the weight loss roller coaster, I ask you to try HAES. If you are a medical or health professional, I implore you to integrate HAES into your practices. And I invite you to pledge your commitment by clicking here.