Ignore Before And After Photos

Here are mine. I promise they have little value.

Photos owned and submitted by the author.

It’s nearly impossible to talk about weight loss without showing before and after photos (look, it worked!).

Except, here’s the thing, I think they’re kind of bullshit.

I’ve felt pressure to display mine and resisted thus far. Almost a year into the launch of my company, I’m ready to say why.

At best, these photos are a smoke and mirror show, and at worst, a tool for body shaming. People hungrily look for before and afters as proof of efficacy but that’s not what you’re seeing.

Yes, my photos are real but that’s not enough information.

They aren’t retouched. I do look like that now (with makeup and a professional photographer), and I did look like that somewhere in my twenties. The problem is what they say in context and the information that’s conveniently left out.

What you don’t know about the before photo is that I gained and lost weight several times since that photo was taken. Until age 39, I was caught in a continuous pendulum of weight instability. The brief periods of loss were a direct result of how I lost weight, mostly deprivation and intense exercise. Two things almost no one can sustain.