Let's Talk

Maybe you haven’t noticed, but how we talk about weight has a lot to do with the way we think about weight. The words and phrases we choose to describe the experience of eating, dieting or dealing with being fat shape our cultural beliefs and attitudes in ways that are sometimes hard to see.

For example, when we talk about becoming more slender, we say we want to “lose weight.” In most instances, when we talk about loss, it’s not a good thing. Are you happy when you lose money? Does the thought of losing your mind appeal to you? Why should losing parts of your body be any different (jiggly though those parts may be)? Who really wants to be a loser? Even a Biggest Loser? What else might you lose along with the weight? Will you lose chocolate? Oh please, not chocolate! Maybe we scare people with words that imply they must lose something in order to slim down. Is it any wonder that most people “gain” it all back?

Oh yeah, let’s talk about “slim down.” That sounds a lot like fall down. Run down. What a downer. Don’t let me down. Who wants to be part of anything headed downhill? Slimming down sounds like something your stock portfolio does and that’s not a good thing. And besides, Americans are all about “up,” aren’t we? Instead of trying to slim down, maybe we should tone up. Health up. Skinny up. Up, up and away in my beautiful (and lighter) balloon!

At this time of year, you’ve certainly seen a particular phrase emblazoned on a multitude of magazine covers: “Drop ten pounds by summer!” As if it were possible to just “drop” extra pounds, simply toss them away like a used Kleenex. In my experience, those buggers hold on tight, their greedy little fingers dug in with a strength and tenacity stronger than Kryptonite. Unwanted fat cannot be “dropped.” It must be ripped away, cell by cell, and, if you’re not careful, it will reattach in a nanosecond, as if it were a magnet and your body was steel. Ignoring this fact is like trying to deny gravity – you can do it, but the impact is still gonna hurt. How about we replace the word “drop” with “dropkick”? Dropping ten pounds sounds easy, but dropkicking ten pounds, now that seems hard! Which it is, and maybe you won’t feel so bad if you’re trying to do something hard and it turns out to be… hard.

Among my favorites are diets that promise they will make excess fat “melt away.” This is similar to “dropping ten pounds,” but it makes it sound even easier, doesn’t it? I picture myself sitting in a beach chair on a sunny day, with a big aluminum foil tray under me to catch all the drippings. Just as excess weight cannot be dropped, it cannot be melted away either. A better analogy would be chiseling it away, one arduous hammer swing at a time, and eventually the David statue emerges from the lumpy chunk of granite.

Perhaps I’m being a bit pedantic, but I believe words matter. Maintaining a healthy weight is a very good thing, however, it’s not an easy thing. In fact, it’s an enormous struggle, yet a struggle worth fighting and also worth telling the truth about. Remember that the next time you decide to on a diet.

Oh, by the way, diet? Sounds a lot like dying. How about we go on a live-it?

 (Thanks to Jodi Smits Anderson for inspiring this topic.)