I’m a Non-Diet, Weight-Inclusive Dietitian: Here’s What That Means
If you’ve been around my corner of the internet for any amount of time, you’ve likely seen me using phrases like non-diet, weight-inclusive, and intuitive eating to describe how I approach my work as a registered dietitian.
I realize, though, that these words can seem ambiguous. Social media and real-life conversations both have highlighted for me that not everyone interprets these words the way I do (and the way I intend when I use them).
Folks hear “non-diet,” and they think I mean anti-health or anti-nutrition or anti-dieter. I don’t mean any of those things.
Or they hear “weight-inclusive,” and they think I mean people can’t or shouldn’t want to lose weight. Or that weight has no bearing on health. Or that I’m “glorifying ob*sity.” But nope, weight inclusivity isn’t any of these interpretations, either.
And when I talk about Intuitive Eating, sometimes people think I mean surviving on cookies and potato chips and never eating a vegetable again. In case it’s not obvious yet, I don’t.
Now, I’m not suggesting that you, reader, think all or any of those things. But it’s possible someone in your life does! In which case, this might be a helpful clarifying resource for them.
However, it’s also possible that, although you know I don’t mean any of the extremes I just described, you aren’t quite sure how to describe what these words mean either.
So, let’s clear that up!
This post will provide some clarity around what the words “non-diet” and “weight-inclusive” mean. (I’ll pay a little lip service to Intuitive Eating, too, but I have a whole post dedicated to describing that, as well!)
More specifically: I’ll clarify what I mean when I use them.
It’ll also give you some language in the event you are trying to explain to someone what it means or looks like to work with a non-diet, weight-inclusive registered dietitian.
But first, I want to share some background for context.
How I became a non-diet & weight-inclusive dietitian
I didn’t always practice this way.
I started my career as a registered dietitian endorsing, encouraging, and supporting the pursuit of intentional weight loss.
It’s how I was trained. It seemed so straight-forward. Formulaic. Assign calorie and macro goals, set up food tracker, discuss ways to “shave off” a few calories from meals and snacks, share tips and “tricks” for limiting or eliminating higher calorie foods.
I thought I was helping.
But, after a couple of years it became very clear that I was not.
Not only was it clear that it didn’t work, it was (I was) actively causing harm.
I watched clients do exactly as they were told. They met their calorie and exercise goals, they logged everything they put in their mouth, they substituted fruit for ice cream and carrot sticks for potato chips. They lost weight.
Until they didn’t.
Eventually the weight loss slowed down. Then stopped. Then weight started to increase again. Until they were back where they started.
Despite their working really hard to make that not happen.
All along the way, their preoccupation with food, their guilt and shame for eating something “bad,” their cravings for what wasn’t allowed, their hunger, grew.
I saw it over and over again. And I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know how to help.
My clients felt like they were failing their diets. I felt like I was failing my clients.
Even within the weight loss industry, weight loss maintenance was always the mystery. How do we get people to maintain the weight they had lost when their body seems to resist it at all costs? Never questioning, maybe the problem was that we were so focused on weight loss to begin with.
This is about the time I discovered the Intuitive Eating framework, Health at Every Size®, weight inclusivity, and body liberation. It kind of rocked my world.
I started to understand non-diet approaches to nutrition care. And I immersed myself in weight science.
What I learned from research & real life
Here’s what I came to understand about pursuits of intentional weight loss:
We have far less control over our body size than we’re led to believe.
Genetics play a huge role in determining the weight at which our body wants to be at any given time. Our unique environment, physiology, stressors, and more also play a role. Turns out, our weight is about a lot more than what we eat and how much we move.
It's not as simple as calories in and calories out.
We do not have a safe, effective, and sustainable method for long-term weight loss that works for the majority of people.
Diets may lead to short-term weight loss, but research consistently shows the vast majority of people regain the weight within 2–5 years—and many gain back more than they lost.
Our body perceives weight loss via reduced calorie intake as a threat to survival. And because our bodies are very much interested in keeping us alive, they work really hard to adapt to conserve weight and encourage increased intake during times of not enough ultimately leading to weight regain.
Yup, biology is pretty powerful.
Pursuits of intentional weight loss often cause harm.
We know that dieting is a primary predictor of disordered eating and eating disorder development. The more invested we become in shrinking our bodies the more preoccupied by food we feel, the more guilt and shame we experience when we do eat it, the more dissatisfied with our bodies we become.
All the while, the less mental and emotional space we have to meaningfully engage in our lives in other ways. Because thoughts about what, when, how much, and how we are going to control what we are eating become all consuming.
I just couldn’t continue to endorse the pursuit of intentional weight loss while knowing all of the above to be true. I knew that practicing as a non-diet, weight-inclusive dietitian was the only option for me.
What does “non-diet” actually mean?
When I call myself a non-diet dietitian, I’m not saying that nutrition doesn’t matter. I’m not telling people to throw structure out the window and eat with abandon. And I’m certainly not pretending that food isn’t at all related to health.
What I am saying is that I do not prescribe rigid or restrictive eating plans for people to follow and I do not center weight loss as the primary objective of our work.
Rather, I work with folks to help them figure out how they can nourish themselves well, in a way that is supportive of their food preferences and health goals, and in a way that is flexible, enjoyable and, as a result, sustainable for the long-term.
We focus on whole health (i.e., not just physical health) and wellbeing. And we recognize that “eating well” does look just one way.
Ultimately, we focus on building back body trust so that folks feel empowered to be their own authority on their food decisions rather than being beholden to some set of rigid, shame-inducing, food rules.
A non-diet approach to care helps folks cultivate a liberated and health-supportive relationship to food and body, unique to their individual needs, and nourishes their whole being—body, mind, and spirit.
And for those who are burned out from years (or decades) of dieting, it’s often a huge relief to hear: it’s not your fault and you don’t have to do that anymore.
What it means to be weight-inclusive
A weight-inclusive approach to care is grounded in the belief that we can pursue behaviors to improve or enhance health and well-being independent of body size, or the pursuit of intentional weight loss, when we can access non-biased and non-stigmatizing healthcare.
It rejects the belief that body size is a helpful or accurate indicator of health, that “health” can be uniformly defined, and that having health is a moral virtue.
Those who provide weight inclusive care believe that everyone deserves access to high quality, respectful, and unbiased healthcare, as a human right. Regardless of weight or health status, or the reasons why their weight or health status are what they are.
This looks like making sure the furniture (e.g. waiting room chairs) and equipment (e.g., blood pressure cuffs) in physical care spaces can accommodate bodies of varying sizes, that weight loss isn’t the default recommendation for folks presenting in larger bodies, that patients are listened to, their concerns taken seriously, and all intervention options are explored, and that they aren’t denied services on the basis of their body size.
In a nutrition setting, weight inclusive interventions place emphasis on behaviors which are within our control (unlike weight, which is neither a behavior, nor within our direct control).
It also means that we don’t assume certain behaviors based on body size (e.g., that a person does or doesn’t exercise, does or doesn’t eat vegetables, etc.).
We ask our clients about their eating and lifestyle behaviors, and we also believe them when they give us an answer.
Seeking or receiving weight-inclusive care doesn’t mean that individual human beings are not allowed to desire weight loss. It doesn’t even mean that they aren’t allowed to pursue weight loss.
In a world rife with anti-fat bias, it would be totally unrealistic to expect folks not to hold that desire. It just means that, as their provider, I’m also not going to prescribe it or use it as a metric of “progress.”
Where Intuitive Eating fits in
If non-diet and weight-inclusive are the “what” and “why” of my work, intuitive eating is a big part of the “how.”
Intuitive eating is a flexible and compassionate framework for nourishment.
It helps folks reconnect and rebuild trust with their bodies, recognize and respond to hunger, fullness, and satisfaction cues, eat with more joy and less guilt, and become their own authority over their food decisions again.
It recognizes and honors that food is more than the sum of its nutrients, that it serves many roles in our lives. Food is community, connection, comfort, culture, and so much more.
It is an excellent framework for a non-diet and weight-inclusive approach to nutrition care because it centers building a healthy relationship with food and body, cultivating satisfying and sustainable eating patterns that support whole health and well-being, and never positions weight as a metric for progress or success.
If you’re curious to learn more, I talk a lot more about Intuitive Eating in my What is Intuitive Eating, Really? post.
Bringing it all together
So, when I say, I am a non-diet and weight-inclusive registered dietitian, I mean:
I work to create safe, accessible, shame-free spaces for people in all bodies.
I believe all bodies are worthy of respect, dignity, and unbiased care.
I help people learn how to nourish themselves in ways that are flexible, satisfying, and sustainable.
I encourage people to rebuild trust with their bodies and reclaim autonomy over their food choices.
I recognize that weight-based goals often interfere with our ability to make meaningful, lasting health behavior change.
I want all humans who enter my orbit to know that here: all bodies are welcome, no bodies will ever be blamed or shamed for their size or health status, size does not equal health, health does not equal worth, and we can build health-supportive behaviors without positioning your body as the problem.
Final thoughts
If you're a human reading this who is tired of the cycle of losing and regaining weight, of feeling in control then out of control with food, of constant food worry and obsession, of food cravings and guilt, of allowing the scale to determine if you are OK or not…please know that your relationship to food can look and feel different.
This does not need to be your norm.
Here are 3 books I love, and highly recommend, to help get you started:
Intuitive Eating, by Evelyn Tribole & Elyse Resch
The Body is Not an Apology, by Sonya Renee Taylor
What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About Fat, by Aubrey Gordon
If you’re a health professional reading this, feeling called to work from a more non-diet and weight-inclusive lens but totally unsure how while operating within a very weight-centric system, I SO FEEL YOU. It’s not easy. However, I so strongly believe that, collectively, we can change the system. And that we owe it to our clients, patients, colleagues, and all fellow humans to try.
Here are some resources for information and support:
Ragen Chastain’s Weight & Healthcare Substack
My (free!) monthly office hours for professionals!
I know my non-diet and weight-inclusive approach to care is still not the norm in our weight-centric healthcare system. I’ll be over here, forging ahead, until someday it is.
Honestly, when I break down what these phrases mean, I can’t help but to think that it just doesn’t seem that radical.
After all, we are helping professionals.
Seeing and treating the whole human being
…with dignity and respect
…with attention to their unique needs, goals, and circumstances
…without judgment or making assumptions
I don’t know, seems pretty basic to me!