I hosted two free masterclasses yesterday about how to love your body and I saw that there was an increased amount of anxiety around health and being fat....which is 100% to be expected because of the increased amount of fatphobia due to our global pandemic.

Listen, even science showed us that a higher BMI is a risk factor for covid-19 there is nothing we can do to make our bodies smaller and "protect ourselves" from this increased risk (which doesn't exist). There hasn't been ANY reliable science to show that BMI is a risk factor.

Also, what do you think dieting right now will do to your mental and physical health? Numerous studies have shown that dieting negatively impacts them both. So, if being "as healthy as possible" could help us around covid-19 then I don't think dieting is going to get you there, in fact, the opposite.

We also know that fatphobia (aka weight stigma) actively harms the health of humans.

So let's break this down really simply:

⭕ BMI being a risk factor for covid-19: Not proven with science.

⭕ Putting your body on a diet: Science shows it harms our physical and mental health and makes us fatter (not that being fatter is bad). Not one study in history shows ANY weight-loss method works.

⭕ Weight stigma (aka all the fatphobic rhetoric around covid-19): Leads to poorer health outcomes.

So, what's the solution?

Well for me, the solution is to:

1️⃣ Protect my physical health: Follow the recommendations to social distance, wash my hands, don't make out with random strangers at the grocery store 😜 etc.

2️⃣ Remind myself that even if BMI was a risk factor there is literally nothing I can do about it.

3️⃣ Remind myself that there is ZERO good science showing BMI is a risk factor.

4️⃣ Protect my mental health: Unfollowing and calling out anyone who is spreading misinformation around this. Taking time off social media/consuming the news/the family WhatsApp group chat where aunt Susan is saying this is the end of the world etc. Reading what thought leaders have to say on this topic (@chr1styharrison and @drjoshuawolrich to name just 2).

5️⃣ Engaging in self-care and watching cool shit on Netflix 💯