How I Reversed My Fatty Liver Disease Without Dieting

So often weight loss is prescribed to improve or reduce the risk for illness or to help manage existing health conditions. Unless you have a Health At Every Size (HAES) aligned physician or have had the "no weight loss" talk with your medical practitioner, weight loss is often hailed as the cure-all for it all.

In January 2018 when I had some intermittent pain in my lower back, my nurse practitioner (NP) sent me for an abdominal ultrasound. Thankfully, all looked mostly okay so they attributed the pain to a pulled muscle. However, one thing the report did show was that I had nonalcoholic non-fatty liver disease (NAFLD).

While I was told I had a mild case, I was also told that if I didn’t make some serious changes, it could lead to more dire issues later like cirrhosis of the liver. I was told and also read that I am not the typical body person who’s diagnosed with this disease (meaning I’m not in a larger body and I eat a fairly balanced diet) but nonetheless, I had it.

Despite my "mild" case, I was still quite upset and was determined to find a way to either reverse the condition or at the very least reduce the risk of it getting worse.

In addition to some tweaks to diet, all the research I read cited weight loss as the “solution” to cure this condition. As a HAES advocate and Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor, I know that intentional weight loss often does more harm than good, so I remained rooted in the HAES research studies that encourage implementing (or adding) more engaging health-promoting behaviors.

I also consulted with a fellow HAES practitioner and she confirmed that the changes I planned to make would very likely help to improve my condition.

My plan included the following:

• Gaining a deeper understanding of the gentle nutrition guidelines (IE, Principle 10) and how to more effectively integrate them into my diet, especially my fiber intake

• Cultivating a meditation and mindful self-compassion practice to help manage stress

• Practicing yoga more regularly

• Increasing my joyful movement endeavors to include more intuitive cardio

My NP followed up with annual blood work and agreed that I wouldn't have to do anything else unless some irregularity surfaced there.

Well, fast forward to April 2021 when I needed to have another abdominal ultrasound for something unrelated. That report was unremarkable, and the report also showed NO sign of liver disease at all. It appears I was able to reverse my NAFLD. The best part was that I was able to do this by following the principles of HAES and intuitive eating (IE) NOT by intentionally pursuing weight loss.

While I realize that not everyone may be able to reverse a condition by following the HAES/IE principles, copious amounts of research show that intentional weight loss is not the answer because it often leads to increased binge eating, rebound weight gain, and poor mental health.

Instead, focusing on consistent self-care, managing stress, and practicing the principles of intuitive movement/HAES is often very effective in helping to heal our bodies and restore metabolic health (i.e. blood pressure, cholesterol, glucose) and mental health, etc.

While I'm thrilled that my NAFLD reversed itself and thank God for this, I'm equally as happy to share my testimony so you can see that it is possible to heal from a medical condition where weight loss is typically recommended by following the HAES/IE principles.

Since the research is so overwhelmingly clear that intentional weight loss (which is approximately ~97% ineffective) or dieting often leads to rebound weight gain, I never recommend it to my clients or anyone else who’s trying to restore metabolic health, reverse or decrease the risk of contracting a long-term illness.

There is another way and it's never dieting. Of course, you may still have your doubts and, honestly, I would expect that because this is not a mainstream practice. However, please keep in mind that most physicians don’t know about HAES or don’t believe in HAES so they are usually pro-weight loss. This can lead to stigmatizing medical care which has many potentially harmful effects. I’d also encourage you to learn more about size inclusivity in health by visiting the Association for Size Diversity and Health (ASDAH) website.

Watch my LIVE video about this in the No Diet Sisterhood!

Need support with this?

Been diagnosed with a medical condition and your practitioner has advised you to lose weight or want to start a joyful movement program but cannot get started? I bet some support would help! Schedule a free 20-minute connection session to discover how coaching can help.

With love and compassion, I'll meet you wherever you are in your journey.

Can intentional weight loss and intuitive eating co-exist?

Q: Is it possible to intentionally work towards losing weight while intuitively eating?

A: Isn't this the million-dollar question?

One of my followers was being stigmatized by her doctor to lose weight for "medical" reasons asked me this question in the No Diet Sisterhood. In truth, I get this question a lot and read it often on social media.

You've probably guessed it, but the answer is NO, and here's why.

Based on my extensive and ongoing (let's hear it for life-long learners!) professional training as a Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor and body image coach and from my decades-long battle with food, I can say with certainty that intentional weight loss clouds judgment and prevents people from eating according to their body's cues because they fear it will affect their weight.

When intentional weight loss is the goal, choices are made based on caloric/macro/micro content, etc., and not on the body's cues. Since intuitive eating is all about giving ourselves full permission to eat so that we can discern what foods feel best in our bodies, etc. making intentional weight loss a part of this process is not intuitive. If weight loss happens naturally as a result of listening to the body, that's entirely different.

While a foundational goal of intuitive eating is to become more flexible with eating, another is also to do so in accordance with one's hunger/fullness cues, satisfaction, digestion, etc. The principles can seem fundamental to the naked eye, but when it comes to actually integrating them into everyday life, they can get quite emotionally complex. This is why so many fall back into diet mentality and don't even realize it. This is especially true when people are stigmatized and told to lose weight for "medical" reasons.

The belief that you need to lose weight to be healthy isn't valid and the Health At Every Size (HAES) movement is based on this research. Whenever intentional weight loss is the goal there is restriction. Bingeing and eating for comfort (aka "emotional" eating) often increases when there is even the slightest detection of restriction. So whether there is emotional restriction (guilt, worry, shame, rules, etc.) or physical restriction (counting, "forbidden" food, etc.) disordered behaviors around food will continue. There is just no way around and if you're like most of us who have struggled with food for some time, your history reflects this.

While higher weights may be correlated with certain illnesses, they are not necessarily the cause of them. Fat activist Ragen Chastain breaks down the research on this often in her blog Dances with Fat.

Beware. There are many who are trying to co-opt intuitive eating and turn it into another weight loss plan or "lifestyle". If you are following any intuitive eating professional who is even hinting that you will lose weight with intuitive eating or is saying that [X] type of exercise will change your body shape/size, or giving specific instructions about "healthy" vs. "unhealthy" foods, unfollow them as they will do more harm than good for you.

Intuitive eating (and HAES) is not and never will be about weight loss. True intuitive eating is about healing a relationship with food, body image and rediscovering movement that's not tied to weight loss. Period.

Struggling with this? I bet coaching can help! Let's connect for a FREE connection call so you can get the support you need and stop struggling so much.

Is 'fat but fit' a myth?

Last week, in one of the professional groups where I belong, someone posted an article about fitness and fat, specifically as it relates to heart disease.

Even though this article had a very definitive bottom line,

"What we see is that the risk factor burden increases by weight category. Obese people have the highest burden of associated risk factors. That remains true according to the activity level,"

I was able to discern that the research was lacking important parameters that very likely would have changed its overall findings.

The article does say this, "This is a cross sectional study -- all we can talk about is associations, we cannot talk about causality," This is very important because this is verifying that they cannot prove with certainty that the associated parameters like BMI (Body Mass Index) category (i.e, "ob*se and "over*eight") was the cause of the cardiovascular disease. As a reminder, BMI was never intended to be used to measure health, but I will mention it throughout as it pertains to the study.

I won't pretend that I'm a research expert, but I do know from my professional training that articles like this are weight-biased and detrimental to our health.

It's weight-biased because the research is missing critical key parameters. For example, it doesn't mention a person's genetic predisposition to heart disease (or other conditions like diabetes, etc.) their previous dieting history, mental health history, or exposure to weight stigma (which often leads to increased binge eating, higher mortality rates, depression, anxiety, addiction, etc.). All of these factors may influence a person's overall well-being and that matters significantly. Without this information, this study is biased.

However, what bothers me most of all is this biased study could easily frighten someone who is in a higher BMI category to start dieting again because they believe that it is the 'responsible' thing to do to reduce their risk of heart disease, etc. This is something I hear all the time from my clients and what I wrote about in last weeks message.

My clients, and women I support in my No Diet Sisterhood, often send me similar articles asking me what I think, etc. because they feel scared after reading articles like this. After carefully reading the articles, to date, my answer has always been the same: the article is weight-biased and dieting isn't the answer to achieving good 'health'.

Using scare tactics as a means to encourage people to exercise (or do anything else) is ineffective and often moves people further away from their goals because they feel hopeless. This hopelessness often causes inaction and may lead to depression and other negative health outcomes.

The Health at Every Size (HAES)/intuitive eating approach to movement is more compassionate and more effective. Instead of stigmatizing and fear-mongering people who are in higher BMI categories to engage in movement because it's "healthy", they encourage cultivating sustainable self-care practices and habits that are realistic and individualized. This way they will likely feel better, improve their metabolic health, and live more joyful lives. In fact, research shows that non-stigmatizing interventions are much more effective for altering health outcomes than anything else.

Studies like this, the crushing judgments and rigidity of diet culture, perfectionism, guilt-tripping, and not understanding that movement is a self-care practice all keep people away from movement. Most think it's a time management issue or that they're "too lazy". But, when we dig a little deeper, they discover that what they really fear is that they won’t be able to cultivate a healthy relationship with movement because they cannot cut through the emotional barriers needed to get there. This is definitely what the alumni members in my Joyful Movement at Last! program have discovered.

For anyone who struggles with articles like this that make them second-guess the path they're on with intuitive eating, you don't need to anymore. Now that you've been introduced to these concepts, you'll more easily recognize that many articles like this are weight-biased and use ineffective scare tactics. Be sure to question "research" and don't allow it to change your course of action, especially if your course of action is moving you closer to the freedom you deserve.

The bottom line...

If you want to feel better and make movement a priority in your life but are feeling 'stuck', I encourage you to take my new FREE quiz What's Getting in Your Way of Exercising with Ease? to find out what's really holding you back. I promise you, it's likely not what you think.

Helping women to cultivate more compassionate, self-care focused habits like giving themselves full permission to eat without the emotional restriction (guilt, worry, etc.), integrating gentle nutrition into your daily life, and rediscovering movement without slipping back into diet mentality is my jam.

Schedule some time with me so we can have a conversation around this so you can finally stop worrying! You don't have to do this alone. Getting this sorted out will make a difference in your life.

Does a Lack of Self-Love and "Ob*sity" Cause Disease? - A Love Letter to Jillian Michaels

As usual, it's January and the dieting industry is in full swing promoting their diets, "lifestyles", detoxes and whatever else they call their intentional weight loss crap. Remember, research indicates that intentional weight loss, regardless of what your weight, is not sustainable long-term. 

Today, I want to talk about the concept that self-love can help us control our weight and possibly prevent illness.

I'll admit that years ago I used to believe that BS too because that's all I ever heard so, naturally, I believed it. I no longer feel shameful about this though because as I continue to grow as an anti-diet professional, I now understand and acknowledge that weight is a very complex science. I've also learned that all the "self-love" in the world isn't going to make someone who isn't supposed to weigh ______ (insert low weight here) remain at that weight long-term (3-5 years or more) unless they are likely going to extreme measures (like disordered eating or other disordered behaviors and/or engaging in compulsive exercise, etc.) to maintain it. (You can read more about that in my blog Have You Ever Tried a Self-Love Diet?.)

What got me so fired up about this topic again was reading the recent article Jillian Michaels is Being Criticized For Body-Shaming Lizzo where Jillian Michaels talked about self-love as it relates to our health. She says, 

“As I’ve stated repeatedly, we are all beautiful, worthy, and equally deserving. I also feel strongly that we love ourselves enough to acknowledge there are serious health consequences that come with ob*sity - heart disease, diabetes, cancer to name only a few," Michaels wrote. 'I would never wish these for ANYONE and I would hope we prioritize our health because we LOVE ourselves and our bodies.'"

Her words could easily throw someone into a downward spiral of shame and blame and that's never productive, especially for healing. What people struggling with illness need is affordable and accessible medical care (including educational services and resources), compassion, and support, NOT shame or blame. 

Also, to imply that a lack of self-love is what drives illness due to a lack of acknowledgment that it could cause illness is also shaming. I believe what she's saying is that if someone loved themselves enough to acknowledge that fat is what's causing these illnesses, they would lose weight.

I know first-hand how damaging words like these can have on a person in a larger body because many of my clients blame their ailments (from sleep apnea, weak knees, GERD, autoimmune diseases, etc.) on their weight when in fact, all of these ailments can also be found in people at lower weights. Words like this can also be counter-productive because they often scare people back into the never-ending diet-binge cycle which often cause more weight gain.

It also makes the assumption that weight can be controlled and that even if someone is at a higher weight, there is something inherently wrong with that when there isn’t. And, even if weight was the cause for illness, dieting to become thinner has its own potential physical and emotional health risks. Her words are not based on the truth which indicates that weight science is complex.

Many factors including the role of genetics, socioeconomic conditions, previous dieting history, environmental factors, medications, and fat stigma, etc. are all part of these complexities. Sadly, there was no mention of any of these important factors which isn’t surprising, but nonetheless disappointing and fatphobic.

To illustrate this point, remember that her partner from the Biggest Loser show Bob Harper, nearly died from a heart attack in 2017 even though he was extremely fit, appeared to be “healthy”, and maintained a lean body. After his heart attack, he told CNN this, 

"Genetics does play a part in this. I'm a guy who lives a very healthy lifestyle, works out all the time, but there were things going on inside my body that I needed to be more aware of." 

It's also concerning because she's assuming that "ob*sity" (* used because the “O” word is a BMI term and BMI was not intended to measure a person's health) causes these illnesses. Based on the causation vs. correlation theory, illness cannot be directly caused by a person's weight. Lindo Bacon, Ph.D. says it best in the article Fat Is Not the Problem—Fat Stigma Is, 

"It is true that many diseases are more commonly found in heavier people. However, that doesn’t mean that weight itself causes disease. Blaming fatness for heart disease is similar to blaming yellow teeth for lung cancer, rather than considering that smoking might play a role in both." 

The point she and many other diet-promoting, fear-mongering gurus are missing is that people of all weights, shapes, and sizes may fall victim to illness despite what diet culture propagates to us 24/7. None of us need to hear anymore short-sighted, weight stigmatizing "experts" shaming and blaming and offering their one-size-fits-all weight loss and/or “lifestyle” plans. After all, isn’t that what’s been preached for decades with dismal outcomes?

What we do need is a paradigm shift from weight-focused approaches to more sustainable self-care practices that will help people improve their physical, emotional and psychological health without weight cycling, shame, blame, and assumptions.

If you're blaming yourself for a health condition or feeling conflicted because you love the idea of intuitive eating but believe you need to lose weight for "health reasons" (or based on a practitioners medical advice or other fat-shaming), please reach out to me for a complimentary connection call. I can help you by providing support, mindset tips, resources, and helping you to develop individualized and sustainable self-care practices that will likely improve your overall health so you can feel better and live your life joyfully instead of living in fear.

Some journaling prompts to explore:

1. Do you worry that you may contract an illness because of your weight? 

2. Do you blame yourself for any chronic illness you may already have? 

3. If you do blame yourself, how could that be affecting your physical, psychological and emotional health?

4. Where can you soften the edges with self-compassionate so you can focus more on self-care habits instead of self-blame? 

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If you're tired of battling with your weight, fed up with the cycle of yo-yo dieting, and yearning to be free from your obsessive thinking about food and your body, schedule your complimentary Embrace Anti-Diet Living Connection Session.

We’ll get clear on where you are now, what you want instead, and what might be getting in the way of your success.

I’ll also share some powerful recommendations and resources to get you started on creating a peaceful relationship with your body and food.