In this episode of Thrive Beyond Size, Michelle gets refreshingly real about the things that drive her absolutely crazy in the diet culture and wellness industry — and yes, that includes some corners of the anti-diet world too.
Topics covered:
The Diet Industry’s Sacred Cows
- Why diets are designed to fail — and how companies like WW and Noom have built their entire business model around that failure
- The constantly moving target: low fat → low carb → keto → gluten free → GLP-1s. Why the industry keeps reinventing itself to keep you spending
- The dangerous myth that thin = healthy, and the very real consequences of that assumption (including missed diagnoses and the harms of weight cycling)
- How diet culture doesn’t just shrink women’s bodies — it shrinks their entire lives and sense of self-worth
- Shame-based marketing: from “guilt-free” packaging to Photoshopped advertising — and why it works
- How the industry hijacks and cherry-picks science, including the troubling practices around GLP-1 drug marketing
Problems in the Anti-Diet & Intuitive Eating Space Too
- The black-and-white misunderstanding of intuitive eating that keeps people away from it
- “Anti-diet” programs that… are still just diets
- The missing piece almost everyone overlooks: nervous system safety as the foundation for body trust work
- Why assuming everyone in a larger body has trauma is harmful and reductive
- The limits of the body positivity movement — and why “just love your body” can actually deepen shame
Michelle closes with a call to relax the conversations, welcome people with their whole selves (including the part still thinking about weight loss), and keep doing the work to dismantle these systems — inside and out.
Connect with Michelle: Social media: @WayzaHealth Email: michelle@wayzahealth.com
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