Parents, don’t talk about weight and dieting with your kids

Many parents believe they can prevent their kids from gaining weight by talking about weight and dieting.

But weight is largely a function of genetic and environmental factors over which we have no control. And parents who teach their kids to fear weight gain and encourage dieting create conditions ripe for eating disorders. Living in a larger body is less deadly than we think it is. But weight stigma is serious, especially when it begins at home.

Lots of parents criticize weight in front of kids

Because of our culture, most parents engage in regular “fat talk” in front of children. This includes:

• 76% of parents speak negatively of their own weight in front of children
• 51.5% of parents speak negatively about “obesity” in front of children
• 43.6% of parents speak negatively about their child’s weight in front of the child

Source

This behavior should not be surprising. Our culture widely criticizes people in larger bodies. Many people believe it is their duty to inform larger-bodied people that they are endangering their health.

Generational fat talk

Fat talk doesn’t arise from nowhere. It’s everywhere in our culture. Most media outlets trumpet the perceived dangers of weight. Doctors regularly engage in clunky attempts to discuss weight. And many families engage in generational fat talk and fat shaming.

Over 40% of young women and 27% of young men said they received encouragement from their mothers to diet to stay slim. And about 20% of young females and 18% of young males said they’d gotten similar messages from their dads.

But parental pressure to get and stay thin is associated with poorer health in young adulthood. There seems to be a cumulative effect on adult behaviors centered on weight, weight-related behaviors and psychosocial well-being.

Parents who talk about fat negatively increase their child’s risk of mental health conditions. This includes eating disorders.

If you’re trying to avoid weight gain, don’t talk about weight control

Body weight is a complex topic. Our culture has mistakenly promoted it as a simple equation containing three incorrect concepts:

1. Fat is deadly (not true)
2. The way to avoid being/getting fat is to diet and “watch your weight” (not true)
3. People will avoid being/getting fat if they are afraid of being fat and/or shamed for weight gain (not true)

Many parents believe that they can save their kids from weight gain by teaching dieting and weight control. They think they can improve kids’ health by preventing weight gain. They teach their kids that weight gain is bad and that they should diet and control their weight.

But adolescents whose mothers or fathers had weight-focused conversations with them had higher BMI. In other words, parents who try to avoid weight gain by talking about weight control increase the chance of weight gain in their kids.

Remember, weight itself isn’t as much of a problem as we’ve been lead to believe. But parents who attempt to control kids’ weight actually create conditions that seem to increase weight.

Girls who are pressured to diet by their parents were 49% more likely to be larger adults than girls who hadn’t gotten parental pressure. Boys who had a similar experience were 13% more likely to be larger. These results take into account genetic and environmental conditions. Therefore, it appears that an anti-weight environment may increase weight.

This is because weight is more than just calories in/calories out. It’s a complex biological, environmental, social, and emotional equation. And parents who tell kids to control their weight or engage in dieting influence their kids’ natural weight trajectory.

Talking about weight control increases the chance of eating disorders

Not only do parents who urge their kids to diet boost their odds for obesity later in life. Parents who talk about dieting and weight also have kids who have an increased risk of eating disorders.

Disordered eating behaviors are associated with hearing hurtful weight-related comments from family members, for both females and males. Eating disorders, like weight, are complex. They are based on multiple factors including biological, environmental, social, and emotional. Parents are never to blame for eating disorders. But their behavior can make an impact.

Messages about dieting from parents are linked to higher odds for poor self-esteem, body satisfaction and depression in young adulthood.

Parents who pressure their kids to control their weight and fear weight gain are inadvertently promoting eating disorder behaviors. These behaviors, which include food restriction, binge eating, and purging, create significant health conditions.

Parental pressure to diet increased the risk of “extreme weight control behaviors” (i.e. eating disorders) by 29% for girls and 12% for boys. It is far healthier for parents to allow their kids’ weight to develop without criticism than to intervene. Parental interventions in their kids’ weight often backfire and create worse health.

But what about health?

The only thing parents are being asked to do here is to stop engaging in negative fat talk. And stop promoting unhealthy weight control and dieting. Parents who want healthy kids can still create conditions in which each child will thrive.

Parents can have a big impact on their kids’ health. Parent conversations focused on weight and size are associated with increased risk for higher weight and disordered eating behaviors. But conversations focused on healthful eating without a weight association are protective against disordered eating behaviors.

And every member of the family can benefit from Intuitive Eating. This is a healthy approach to food and movement with zero focus on the scale.

Parents can create an environment in which kids are healthy. But it has nothing to do with weight.

Tips for raising healthy kids:

1. Don’t discuss fat and obesity negatively. If you discuss weight, do so from a neutral standpoint. Respect each person’s unique biological, environmental, social, and emotional conditions. Don’t ever make assumptions about a person’s health or behaviors based on their weight.

2. Don’t criticize your child when they gain weight. Weight gain is a natural part of development. There will be periods during which your child’s body changes, sometimes significantly. Hold back from commenting on weight gain. It will not help and may cause harm.

3. Protect your child from negative weight talk. Outside of your home, your child may still be subject to negative weight talk. Help protect them by teaching them about weight stigma. Consider opting out of school weigh-ins and ask pediatricians not to talk about weight in front of your child.

4. Talk about health behaviors with no weight association. Bodies can be healthy in a wide range of weights. Rather than focusing on weight, focus on behaviors that are healthy. Help your child get enough sleep, exercise, human connection, and a wide variety of foods.

5. Approach food from a neutral standpoint. Parents who restrict and outlaw certain foods set their kids up for negative food behaviors and beliefs. Instead, pursue an all foods fit approach. Provide a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, grains and proteins. But don’t restrict other foods that are fun and delicious.

Overall, what parents do around weight and food matters more than what they say. Diet culture and eating disorders are strongly correlated with each other. Investigate your own relationship with food and weight. Explore Intuitive Eating and Health at Every Size® to gain more understanding of the concepts covered in this article.

See Our Parent’s Guide To Diet Culture And Eating Disorders