The FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) Movement is how I stumbled into the personal finance space. It’s how I landed on my career change and new path of entrepreneurism. It’s how I’ve made great friends around the country and around the world. All this to say that overall, the FIRE Movement has a lot of great things going for it in my book. I’m not sure I would say I’m on any sort of straightforward “FIRE” Path, but it has strongly influenced my thinking on money.
While the majority of the FIRE and Personal Finance Twittersphere is lovely, there is this concerning thread I’ve noticed popping up again and again. And it finally annoyed me enough that I decided to call it out. I see some people in the FIRE movement arguing some variation of this line: If fat people just applied the same discipline to their health as they did to their finances, they’d lose weight. Or: Until you’re a healthy weight, you shouldn’t waste time worrying about money. Or: They just need to try harder/track macros/do intermittent fasting and all of their problems would be solved. This general thread is all too similar to the “optimization” mindset that I’ve previously called bullshit on.
All of these threads are frustratingly out of line with the science on weight and weight-loss. They’re also dangerous and throw up more barriers for people who aren’t inferior–morally, intellectually, or with regard to willpower.
The Science
I know there are so many people out there who are like, I lost 70 pounds exercising and counting calories and now I’m healthy! I’m calling bullshit. The science just doesn’t pan out regarding diets and weight loss. The vast majority of people who go on a diet and lose weight end up regaining it all back…or more. And this is true whether or not they maintain their diet or exercise program. Because your body doesn’t understand that the weight loss was on purpose. Instead, it says, “oh shit, our calorie consumption has gone down–must be a famine!” and it starts automatically slowing metabolism and storing more energy in fat. Once more for the people in the back: Your 👏anecdotal 👏evidence 👏has 👏no 👏scientific 👏validity!
Did you know that of those who go on a diet and actually lose weight, 95% will regain that weight (or more) in 5 years? 95%!!! What’s more, chronic dieting, and yo-yoing weight, have major health impacts. Dieting encourages your body to store more energy…so many dieters will end up heavier than when they started.
This isn’t a willpower thing. And before you @ me, how about you read all of the science behind this research. I’ve been doing a deep dive into this topic lately (though I’ve only skimmed the surface). Here are some of the notable takeaways from Dr. Linda Bacon and Dr. Lucy Aphramor, who have written quite a bit of the seminal text on the topic. Emphases are my own.
“Current guidelines recommend that “overweight” and “obese” individuals lose weight through engaging in lifestyle modification involving diet, exercise and other behavior change. This approach reliably induces short term weight loss, but the majority of individuals are unable to maintain weight loss over the long term and do not achieve the putative benefits of improved morbidity and mortality. Concern has arisen that this weight focus is not only ineffective at producing thinner, healthier bodies, but may also have unintended consequences, contributing to food and body preoccupation, repeated cycles of weight loss and regain, distraction from other personal health goals and wider health determinants, reduced self-esteem, eating disorders, other health decrement, and weight stigmatization and discrimination…
While it is well established that obesity is associated with increased risk for many diseases, causation is less well-established. Epidemiological studies rarely acknowledge factors like fitness, activity, nutrient intake, weight cycling or socioeconomic status when considering connections between weight and disease. Yet all play a role in determining health risk. When studies do control for these factors, increased risk of disease disappears or is significantly reduced”
“Rather than being an indelible character trait or personal failure, post-diet compensatory eating comes as a direct consequence of dieting itself, our bodies’ nearly irresistible biological compensation triggered by weight loss. Accusations of personal failure ignore this science and are value judgments based on stereotypes or blame-ridden interpretations of behavioral counterreactions to starvation.”
“Several studies, including the largest health and nutrition study conducted by the U.S. government, the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, document that higher-weight people eat no more than lean people, despite the popular misconception. One review examined thirteen studies, and found the intake of heavier people to be less than or equal to thin people in twelve of them.”
There is so much more science on this topic. Here’s a great article from Slate that links to several key findings. I’m not a scientist, and this isn’t a science blog, so I’ll leave it there for now in terms of evidence.
My Story
After my accident, I gained 30 pounds in a year. And then I kept gaining. For a very long time, I beat myself up about this. Coping with that (VERY) traumatic experience with pints of Ben and Jerry’s was weak of me (went my inner dialogue). If I was strong, and if I was healthy, and if I made good decisions, it shouldn’t be hard to get back to that lower weight, which I always thought of as my baseline. And as I cycled through diets and subsequent weight gain, my body got even more screwed up and confused.
I almost died in that accident. If the truck had been going a little faster, it would have thrown me head-first into a parked car. And then I went through months of intense pain and recovery, which included multiple surgeries. I am not at all ashamed of how I handled that time–I was surviving. But it isn’t surprising that the weight stayed on even after I recovered and regained mobility. Especially since my stress levels have stayed pretty consistently high in the years since that weight gain. Do I wish I was back at my weight from sophomore year? Yes! Am I going to let that get in the way of enjoying my life, eating what my body wants, and moving in ways that feel good? Hell no. I can be healthy without losing that weight. And in fact, I’m better off not dieting to achieve that pipe dream because that comes with its own health side effects.
The Financial Angle
The weight-loss industry is a $72 billion behemoth. And they’re really good at messaging couched in science that sells more product. Fatphobia is good for their business. That’s billions of dollars each year that Americans (and the majority are women) are spending on weight loss. Money they aren’t investing (which is an insult to the injury of lower pay to start with). But more than that, this message affects people lives. There’s a stigma around owning your space and being the healthiest version of yourself–no matter your size.
Because of that very effective messaging, the general “truth” that obesity is the root of all health evils seems to be taken as scripture. However, when you read articles or studies where obesity is discussed, there is not necessarily any strong link to causation. In any of them. And anyone with even a small background in science or math can tell you that correlation DOES NOT imply causation.
Look, I’m not saying it’s cool to go out and eat a dozen Krispy Kremes every day. But I also wish we could move past this trend of fat-shaming (in a space where it isn’t even remotely relevant). And even when we are talking about health, that conversation should be on promoting good things rather than restriction and failure.
Because the science is complex, I’m sure this conversation will continue to evolve. But one of the things I love about the personal finance community is the support we give each other. And this is definitely an area where we seem to fall short. Let’s get better.
