If it weren’t for a recommendation that I read in the comments section of an article on Medium, I might never have heard of the podcast Maintenance Phase.
I liked the sound of it, gave it a chance and now I’m an avid fan!
Maintenance Phase is a podcast that debunks the myths surrounding the diet and weight industry, created by Aubrey Gordon and Michael Hobbs.
I sound like I’m being paid to describe it, but I promise you that I’m not! I am just a fan who’d like to spread the word.
So, why do I like the podcast so much?
Well, because they make the effort to delve deeper into the diet fads that promise miracles. Because they advocate for institutional change instead of individual responsibility.
Because they look beyond the shiny numbers for the truth.
And what’s the truth about dieting?
According to the research they’ve studied, it doesn’t work for 90% of people.
In many cases, crash diets and fad diets can lead to negative changes in the body’s metabolic systems, causing weight gain over the long term after some short term weight loss.
If you’ve ever been on a diet, you’ve probably experienced this. The problem with diets is that they are usually unsustainable, restrictive and ultimately futile.
And the other big truth?
Being thin does not necessarily equate to being healthy.
They do a whole episode on the BMI, which essentially boils down to being a set of made up numbers which have been used to dictate our understanding of what terms like “overweight”, “obsese” and “morbidly obese” represent. Whilst there may be some correlation between BMI and health issues, there is no evidence for direct causation. What does that mean? That a person with a high BMI might have high blood pressure, but it can’t be proven that the high BMI is causing high blood pressure.
Why is this important to me?
My whole life, my mum (and society, too) has pressured me to lose weight.
In a recent therapy session, I counted that I had tried 28 different diets over the years, sometimes losing weight, only to gain it back later.
In reality, my overall weight hasn’t really changed in the last 10–15 years and I got to a point where I realised — maybe this just IS my weight.
Throughout my teenage years and early twenties, my mum’s comments about my weight always focused on her desire for me to be “healthy” — without her ever questioning deeply about whether or not I was unhealthy at my weight.
In the last few years I have had a lot of tests and all of my numbers — cholesterol, blood pressure, hormone levels, blood sugar levels etc are in the normal range.
I can walk up a hill without getting out of breath. I can swim 40 lengths in the pool without pausing. I wake up in the mornings with energy. I hardly ever get ill.
So I think I’m healthy even without having the desired level of thinness my mum wants for me.
Now, when she makes her pointed comments, I will be armed with my defence — thanks to Maintenance Phase.
Now I can tell her that there is no relation between weight and health, and that an overweight person can be healthy, just a thin person can be unhealthy. I’m ready to ask her what her issue really is — and it’s a superficial one. She thinks I could (and should) look thinner.
I should say that Maintenance Phase is not trying to promote being fat, or being unhealthy.
From my perspective, what it is trying to do is create awareness that being fat is not just related to what people eat.
It can be related to physical limitations, medications, health conditions, social conditions, and most often, to economic conditions. Let’s be honest — eating well can be expensive and time consuming.
They are trying to create awareness about the fatism that exists in our society and how individuals are often blamed, taunted and discriminated against for being fat, when there are so many other factors at play. And finally, they are trying to debunk the myth that being fat equals being unhealthy.
So, give it a shot. Listen to it. I recommend the very first episode that gives a context for the show, and in particular the episode on BMI and their most recent episode called “Doctors Have A New Plan For Fat Kids”.
Let me know what you think!
