Mental Health

Body Image

6.5

Body Image: Why losing weight often does not change how you see your body.

4 sections, about 8 minutes in total

1 in 5

1 in 5 adults felt shame about their body in the past year (Mental Health Foundation).

Social media

Social media and comparison teach you to judge your body. What is learned can be changed with practice.

Weight loss

Weight loss often does not change how you feel about your body. The judging habit is the problem, not the body.

Section 1 of 4:

Start with the signs

The signs of a bad relationship with your body.

These habits feel normal because they are common. Tap the signs you have to see why they happen.

Nothing you tap is stored. This is a mirror for you, not a form for us.

Section 2 of 4:

What the evidence says

What changes how you see your body, and what does not.

How you feel about your body comes from how you judge it, not from the body itself. Losing weight often does not change that. Checking less, changing your feed, and aiming for respect rather than love are what help.

The beliefI will feel better once I lose the weight.
What the evidence saysPeople who change their bodies a lot often report the same distress afterwards. The distress comes from the habit of judging the body, not from the body itself. Working on the judging habit is what changes how you feel.
The beliefIf I cannot love my body, I have failed.
What the evidence saysLoving your body is not the only healthy goal. Treating your body with respect without having to love how it looks, sometimes called body neutrality, is a valid aim and often an easier one to reach.
The beliefChecking the mirror keeps me in control.
What the evidence saysChecking feels like useful information, but each check strengthens the habit of judging. Stopping one checking habit for a couple of weeks is what weakens it.
The beliefMy feed does not really affect how I see myself.
What the evidence saysRepeated exposure to edited, idealised bodies measurably changes how people judge their own. Changing what your feed shows you is one of the fastest changes you can make.
The beliefSpending hours a day on how I look is just vanity.
What the evidence saysAppearance distress that takes hours a day, with rituals, has a name: body dysmorphic disorder. It is a clinical pattern with real treatment, not vanity.
Section 3 of 4:

Where it comes from

How you learned to see yourself.

How you judge your body is learned. Click through the four steps that build it.

Tap a step to open it. Each one carries the detail.

Where the cycle breaks

The two steps you control are the inputs and the checking. If you change what you see every day, using the feed audit below, and stop the checking rituals, the self-judgment softens over a period of weeks. The goal is not forced self-love. The goal is a body you respect and live in.

Section 4 of 4:

The habits that help

Six habits that change how you see your body.

None of these change your body. They change how you see it, and that is the goal. The feed audit is the fastest. Tap a habit to see what to do.

Tap a tab to open it. The detail lands here.

Keep going

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