I write a lot here about the fallacy of blaming health issues on body size. Today I want to talk about the tendency to credit weight loss for physical, psychological, and social benefits. For example, someone will (at least short term) lose weight and offer a testimonial about how much better they feel, how much more they are doing in the world etc. Or a study will determine that Health Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) has improved after weight loss.
Just like a weight-centric healthcare system (and world) tends to completely uncritically blame weight for health issues, it also completely uncritically credits weight loss for health, life, and HRQoL improvements. Today I want to take a critical look at this.
