Dieting is not a group project

I do not want a participation trophy for this project, please and thank you. How we go about about wellness at work (and in society), needs to be talked about more. It needs an overhaul.

I started rewatching The Office (the US version.) It’s one of my favorite go-to television shows for when I want to laugh but don’t want to start a new show because I sort of just want background noise. Anyone else like this? Well, if you also watched The Office, do you remember that one episode (season 5, episode 1 titled “Weight Loss”) when the characters of the show, who were employees of a branch of a paper company, challenged themselves to lose the most weight, as a group, against the other branches of that same company? One of the most memorable parts of that episode is when the character Kelly Kapoor (played by Mindy Kaling) said she ate a tapeworm. Yes, ate a tapeworm in order to lose weight.

Kelly Kapoor : [to the camera]  I swallowed a tapeworm last night. It's going to grow up to three feet inside of me and then it eats all my food so that I don't get fat. And then after three months, I take some medicine and then I pass it.

Kelly Kapoor from The Office

Now, this is supposed to be a comedy of course, so the delicacies of why this is inappropriate are lost within the intended humor of the show. What’s a comedy show without a little fatphobia? I say this sarcastically, of course. Unfortunately, characters in larger bodies were, and still are, used as punching bag humor. The character of Kevin Malone (played by Brian Baumgartner), who was portrayed as not smart and awkward on the show, was a prime example of this. The stigmatization of characters in the media has enough material to be its own separate newsletter topic; however, rewatching The Office and this weight loss episode came at an interesting time for me.

At my current 9-5 job, we are constantly bombarded with wellness emails. I am sure that many of you who work for large companies and corporations also receive these types of emails. They are often filled with tips and tricks to better your personal wellness, which doesn’t necessarily seem like such a bad thing. There is nothing wrong with wanting to improve oneself how an individual sees fit, but the ways of going about it can sometimes raise eyebrows. The invitations to partake in movement activities, such as exercise lunchbreaks and walking challenges, can be fun and a way to enjoy some light-hearted competitiveness and bonding with your coworkers, but on the opposite end of the spectrum, there are invitations to join Weight Watchers (WW) or other weight loss groups. There will be cooking demonstrations or meal ideas that teach you how to incorporate lesser-known vegetables or grains, but then there will also be different ways to burn calories.

In the hallways at work I cringe at all of the signage of how many calories we are burning by walking around the floor a few times or how many by taking the stairs instead of the elevator. Movement is great and encouraging it is welcome however intent doesn’t always equal the action. That’s because weight-loss challenges can be extremely triggering, both for people with a history of dieting or eating disorders as well as for folks who feel the sudden pressure of weight loss after seeing their peers and colleagues take it on. This can lead to potential problems, such as a preoccupation with food and restriction, as well as overexercising and under-fueling. Plus, these workplace challenges don’t actually accomplish the goal that the employers likely had in mind: bettering the wellness of their employees.

Now, don’t get me wrong, there are tons of ways an employer can improve an employee’s well-being. How about we discuss the obvious and the most important, which would be fair pay, sick leave, paid time off, family leave, and really comprehensive health care coverage? In fact, according to a survey by insurance company Unum, the top three non-insurance perks workers want from their employers are generous paid time off, flexible work options, and paid family leave. Zero surprise here, and quite understandable, to say the least.

However, if we are going to think about wellness programs or challenges as an added bonus to what I refer to the above as basic employee needs, then we need to rethink what we mean by wellness as a whole. In that same survey, fitness or “healthy lifestyle incentives” ranked fourth of what employees actually want. I want to make it clear that wellness programs can be a positive thing and promote happy and healthy employees. They can help create a supportive culture rather than a toxic one, but employers should keep a few things in mind. For starters, weight should not be viewed as a behavior.

In today’s society, the pursuit of “health” is so often really just the pursuit of thinness. However, weight loss is not and should not be synonymous with health or wellness. According to the Global Wellness Institute, wellness is “the active pursuit of activities, choices, and lifestyles that lead to a state of holistic health.” It’s an “active pursuit,” meaning you actively partake in activities that can enhance health. For example, taking Pilates classes or adding nutrient-dense foods to your plate would be considered “enhancing.” Weight loss, on the other hand, is more passive; you can’t really control it as fully as you can your behaviors. Those tactics (more movement and eating different foods) I just mentioned might lead to weight loss, but at the same time, they might not. Body diversity is, in fact, a very real thing, and we all have different genetic makeups. People in larger bodies partake in exercise and eat nutrient dense foods as well. Enter in the social determinants of health in addition to our genetics, weight loss (like health) isn’t truly in our control, but the behaviors we do can be.

Weight loss challenges incorrectly assume that dropping a few pounds automatically leads to better health and, thus, better wellness overall. But the research just isn’t there. In fact, long-term weight loss is not clearly associated with improvements in lab values such as blood pressure, blood glucose, cholesterol, or triglycerides, nor is it reliably linked to reductions in premature death. What it is linked to? Increases in yo-yo dieting and weight cycling, which research has found does play a role in premature mortality.