Health at Every Size: Focus on Habits, Not Weight

Health at Every Size (HAES) is a weight-inclusive approach to health, nutrition, and well-being. Many people believe that weight loss is the key to better health, but HAES challenges this idea by focusing on healthy habits, intuitive eating and body diversity. Marcella Canelo, a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN) at Mosaic Community Health, explains how Health at Every Size promotes well-being for all body types and encourages sustainable, health-focused habits.

Principles of Health at Every Size (HAES) Explained

1. Weight Inclusivity: Bodies naturally come in all shapes and sizes and not everybody will fit into one specific body ideal. A smaller body does not automatically mean a healthier body.
2. Health Enhancement: It’s important to engage in personal practices that improve well-being, including attention to individual physical, economic, social, spiritual, emotional and other needs.
3. Respectful Care: Healthcare providers should all work to acknowledge our biases, and work to end weight discrimination, weight stigma and weight bias. We should provide information and services from an understanding that socio-economic status, race, gender, sexual orientation, age and other identities impact weight stigma, and support environments that address these inequities.
4. Eating for Well-being: Eating in an intuitive manner is more pleasurable, healthful and sustainable than a rigid “diet” focusing on controlling weight.
5. Life-Enhancing Movement: Movement should be accessible for all bodies and individuals can choose to what extend they engage in physical activity.

How to Apply Health at Every Size in Daily Life

• You can focus on your health without focusing on losing weight. Think about habits like adding vegetables, being more active, eating regular meals and eating fewer sweets. It’s possible to make these changes without focusing on weight loss as being the only good outcome. Does that mean that losing weight is a bad thing or that Health at Every Size is against weight loss? No! When someone adopts healthier habits, it’s very possible that their weight could change—but healthier habits will improve overall health regardless of whether the person loses weight or not.
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  Marcella Canelo, RDN

  Health at Every Size is centered around eating for well-being. This doesn’t mean that nutrition isn’t important. There is an idea that Health at Every Size promotes obesity but this simply isn’t true. It doesn’t promote unhealthy habits but rather focuses on adding healthy foods, nourishing your body and finding ways to make your meals more nutritious. It doesn’t promote dieting or restriction with the goal of losing weight, and there is no “good” or “bad” body type.

• Weight loss doesn’t always mean healthier and weight loss doesn’t always improve health. Healthier habits are important for people of all body sizes and research supports this.

Frequently Asked Questions About Health at Every Size

Is Health at Every Size backed by science?
Yes! Research shows that focusing on healthy behaviors rather than weight loss leads to improved long-term health outcomes.

Does HAES mean weight doesn’t matter?
No. Health at Every Size recognizes that weight can change with healthier habits, but the focus is on overall well-being rather than weight loss as the primary goal.

Can I still lose weight while following HAES?
Absolutely. HAES isn’t anti-weight loss—it simply shifts the focus to healthy, sustainable habits, allowing weight changes to occur naturally.

Interested in learning more about having a healthy body and shifting the focus away from weight? Make an appointment with one of our nutritionists or explore Health at Every Size principles from the Association for Size Diversity and Health.