I believe the best recovery is a journey. And one of the most challenging paths in that journey is maintaining a healthy weight.
First, I must keep in mind that the conversation around weight is a complex one. For example, although weight may be a contributor or by-product of metabolic problems, experts now realize that this is not the only reason to consider it. As I’ve touched before, only 12% of Americans are metabolically healthy, which means the majority of the population is unhealthy – even those who are not considered overweight. In fact, 20% of people who are thought to be “lean” are still metabolically unhealthy. That said, if you don’t have a healthy weight for your body, you can feel it.
We need to have a serious conversation about weight, though: According to the CDC, about 74% of Americans are overweight and 42.4% are obese. Considering that the COVID-19 results were disproportionately poor for these groups – obesity alone nearly tripled the risk of death, according to a survey analyzing data from 15,529 Covid patients – we should not be ashamed to discuss the problem.
Of course, I sincerely believe in the concept of body positivity – that in order for our bodies to feel good, we each have our own definition of “healthy weight”. No one should be ashamed of being overweight, full stop. At the same time, it is important to reflect on how it can affect overall health.